bencrom81

mine took 6 months door-to-door. why the rush to leave over the matter of a few months? you will always regret it if you don't get the passport, it'll be june before you know it.

Bloody hell ...those last few paragraphs hit home .

Sometimes its bloody hard and lonely ,putting it on the line for parents in the u.k .

I was there for my dad ....and will be there for my mom at the end .

Your words give me some comfort

it means a great deal that they did provide you with comfort. seeing my dad in pain isn't very nice but its my duty to be here for him and take him for a pint/s tonight. being a dad doesn't look easy and he did his best, so to me that's more important than instagramming on bondi beach. ive done all that. don't be hard on yourself for being a good bloke and supporting your family.

jesus, I took that a bit deep didn't I! sorry all.

I thought Sydney was awful, a pretty low quality of life for most, and Adelaide was dull.

 

Perth was dull, but Adelaide really takes the biscuit.

fully agree, I was there 7 years. when LAFHA was available I was in a modern apartment overlooking the harbour and it was mega. but anywhere outside the city or eastern suburbs, isn't anywhere youd choose to live. unless youre loaded, you wont live any place even near to your preconceptions. that's why its great for young, single people to rip into the eastern subs and enjoy a carefree lifestyle and party existence.. but maybe middle aged with children.. unless youre willing to move to northern beaches which I find soulless and generic, then I wouldn't recommend it.

never got to perth as people said it was dull so wasn't worth the trip. Adelaide is so dull. Its a big retirement village. Always struck me as somewhere people ended up that couldn't make it in syd/melb. sounds harsh but just my assumption. better for families I guess as cheaper and Henley beach is nice, but is it worth emigrating for?

From someone who works in all those places REGULARLY ....not on holiday ...but real life .

In the main Coventry Is a shithole ....sorry

Northampton is not much better ....i saw police on horseback keeping order one new years eve ...massive influx of eastern Europeans ....still great shoes though

 

Nottingham and Leicester are a much better option .

Nottingham is probably my favourite midlands city .

Most urban areas in the u.k are ****ed up ....BUT ...outside of these large urban areas are some fantastic places to live ...with everything ....thousands of little towns and villages

I can leave Coventry and within 20 minutes be in quality surroundings ...same goes for all of the above ,even stoke on Trent ( which has improved )

would agree with that. im further up north in Manchester, which is surrounded by small town dumps. however there are amazing pockets between it all away from the scumbags.

having said that, anywhere outside of the city/eastern subs/parts of northern beaches in Sydney were depressing sh1tholes too.

blue mountains full of weirdo drunks, northern beaches so painfully generic it had zero soul (like Adelaide) and worked down south in Wollongong for a year which was teeming with unemployment, drug addicts and undesirables.

nowhere is utopia, especially where large numbers of people gather!

its just like splitting up with a girlfriend and then noticing she had a cracking arse and then you start remembering the good times, not the times where you dreaded seeing her or where she was snoring or stealing the covers..

if you've been spouting on here for the last year or so complaining about oz, don't then come on and say, oh we had a lovely weekend in cairns. of course you did! I had a cracking weekend in rome before Christmas, its because I didn't have to go to work, do my commute or the rest of everyday life. the people that cant distinguish between a holiday and a working day really need to consider these fundamental differences or they will go completely crackers.

I miss the beach, sunshine, some Sydney pals and regular places id eat and drink but that's all in the past now and it was part of an adventure. it wasn't always great. im back now and am grateful I have family and pals here. the adventure feels like its stopped and ive had to adjust but I don't miss being so far away and things like being able to say goodbye to my nan who passed away last week and then support my dad means its all worth it. for the time being!

We haven't 100% decided to move back to the UK, but we are certainly seriously thinking about it so I'll give our reasons. Firstly, I would like to say that we have been very happy here in Sydney. We've been here for almost eight years, and came when our girls were 1 and 2 and easily transplantable. They hadn't formed any friendships or particular connections with family members because they were little, and so it was easy to bring them here. Australia has been good to us in the main. OH loves his job, the kids are in a fantastic school, and I am happy that they have had such a great primary education, with emphasis on producing well-rounded individuals, rather than on creating kids who are under stress from taking so many tests and things. We've travelled a little bit around NSW (the south coast and Blue Mountain areas mainly, which are beautiful), and also to Tasmania which is absolutely breathtaking. We live in a lovely area, and I have a couple of close friends who I will be heartbroken to leave. Having said that, I would also like to tell you that we had a great life in the UK. We lived in the countryside, OH loved his job, and we certainly weren't pushed from the UK by being discontented with our lives. We just had the opportunity to give it a go, and decided that we'd be stupid to turn the offer down, particularly since the kids were easily moved. We've both always craved something 'different' in our lives, and couldn't imagine a life living in the next street to our parents. Our relocation to Australia gave us something 'different' and we've enjoyed the experience.

 

Our reasons for thinking about relocating back to the UK are many, but of course the pull of family and friends is the main one. My mil had a breast cancer scare earlier this year which I think brought it home that we are all getting older. It made us feel that we would like to spend more time with family and also, rather morbidly, made us think about what would happen if one of us were to die and leave the other over here to cope with two kids on their own. Having said that, we like our independence, and probably wouldn't consider moving to the areas where our family are (I doubt we could afford to since they are in the south-east), but even if we were in the wilds of Scotland, it would be easier to see people than it is from here. And less expensive, which brings me on to my second point.

 

For us, as a family of four to go back to visit family, it costs $8000 on flights alone. We then have to factor in car hire, holiday accommodation when we visit those relatives who can't put us up, and all the other incidental costs of an expensive overseas holiday. Our holiday in September (we spent a month in the UK) pretty much knocked out our savings account, just as our last visit did three years ago. As a consequence, we don't have the time or the funds to be able to explore Australia as we thought we would be able to. Add to this the increasing cost of living here (it has risen dramatically in the eight years we've been in Sydney), and it just isn't sustainable long-term. I also worry about the future for our kids. If we were to move back the the UK, specifically Scotland, we could afford to purchase a home to live in outright and also one or two small investment properties (with a small mortgage perhaps) as a nest-egg for the kids. We could never afford to do that here.

 

Other reasons include the fact that neither OH or I can see ourselves living here full time in our old age. I don't want to live here for another five years and find that the UK ship has sailed for us, because by that time our eldest will be in the throes of HSC and university choices. She is year five now, and is due to start high school in Aus in 2018, or in the UK next summer. I feel that that is a deadline somehow, that we should aim to get her settled into high school and not move her until she is done - she is autistic, which complicates things somewhat. Additionally, I've not felt settled here for about three years. In fact the more time that passes, the less I feel like I belong, which is opposite to how you would think it should be. I have a couple of very close friends (both of whom are immigrants themselves, although not from the UK), but aside from that I've found it very difficult to find friends who I have any connection with. I don't have a deep connection with anyone else, even if I've known them for the whole time I've been here, it all feels so shallow and superficial somehow. I had lots of friends in the UK, but I just can't seem to get my foot in the door here, other than with other migrants. OH finds the same, and hasn't really made any friends at all. The people at work work for him, so he doesn't have work colleagues as such, and the couple of Aussie blokes who he has got to know he just doesn't connect with somehow. There is just too much of a cultural difference for him. Again, in the UK he had lots of friends who he'd just pop to the pub for a pint with, but he just hasn't been able to find that kind of friendhip here.

 

I think as I'm getting older my tolerance of the things that irritate me here is waning. I can't stand the heat and humidity of the summer here. Some days I feel like I am suffocating. One of the posters above said that they want to do more with less clothes on, but there are only so many clothes you can remove! I would far rather put on a coat, hat and gloves to go for a hike (which I love to do) than strip off to shorts and t-shirt and still feel like I am dying of heat stroke. I am sick of sunscreen and insect repellent. I react really badly to insect bites, so my legs and arms are covered in scars. I've already had a pre-cancerous lesion removed, and I worry about my kids who both have very fair skin. Of course these things were a consideration before we came over, but I think I'm just tired of it all.

 

I feel like a square peg in a round hole. I think it was Quoll who said this first, but this is how I feel - like at first the round hole was big enough to accommodate me and my square edges, just with the occasional bump. However, as time goes on I feel like the hole is getting smaller and smaller, and I feel like I am really struggling to fit. My corners feel battered and bruised, and I don't know if I could live like this indefinitely. My OH feels the same way luckily, so we have given ourselves a couple of months to think about things before we make any sort of decision. Having said that I think we will end up relocating back to the UK, having had a wonderful adventure and with great memories of Australia, but with something new to look forwards to.

 

Sorry that was so long, and please understand that this is MY personal opinion and I wouldn't want people to think I was anti-Australia in any way, because we really have been happy here. It is just time to move on.

I understand all this reasoning as recently moved back to the UK after 7.5 years in Sydney. I, like you, would have lived those years in Sydney as it broadened my horizons a touch and gave me a taste of a different country.

once I got past the honeymoon phase of 3-4 years, you do take stock, look around and wonder if the place is for you, especially with mates and family all back at home.

Few things that wore me down to finally deciding to leave were:

- stifling heat of the summer - I hate summer. I had a permanent film of perspiration on my body, found it draining and drowsy, getting on trains like saunas and taking 2 hours at my desk to cool down after the commute is not missed. some people love it. ive decided I like getting rugged up and into the cold. appreciate im in the tiny minority here!

- I'd done what I wanted to do - like george70, I'd felt id done Sydney. id been to all the beaches, eaten at all the cafes, drank at all the pubs.. done weekends in southern highlands, jervis bay, palm beach, blue mountains.. my breaks were starting to get repetitive, which is fine as these are wonderful places. but repetition isn't an adventure and it signalled mine was over really. almost embarrassed to say I was growing bored of the place.

not a lot around Sydney - Melbourne/Brisbane are just average cities to be honest. Adelaide I wouldn't recommend. whitsundays beautiful, Tasmania very nice to visit.. NZ and Fiji and bali all nice.. can these places compare to their European equivalents? no.

- variety - the harbour is wonderful, circular quay and the opera house areas are touristy but I never grew tired of them. around the harbour, its just a normal city..the inner/west is to be avoided.

culture - admittedly, I found Australians (in Sydney) to be cliquey and lacking a similar sense of humour and personality that English have. I could never get over not saying hello to people in lifts/corridors until 5 years in. as ive said before, I found bondi/eastern subs to have a false sense of optimism and positivity that I dare say wasn't entirely true..

cost - housing, cars, living - all very expensive, too much for my average wage of 130k. in my thirties now and would have to be settling away from eastern subs and the north/central.. which isn't really Sydney anyway, so that decision was made.

overrated - aussies, which could be seen as an admirable trait, view their country as the best and are extremely patriotic. therefore they see their city/country as the 'best'. Australians think their country is better than is actually is, brits see theirs as worse than it is. all comes down to sense of humour in a way!

content - I feel content now ive 'done' my stint in oz. I never expected it to be easy, therefore when it went wrong at times, I hung in there and knew things would work out. too many people think its an easy relocate, it isn't, but it has its rewards.

Funny that, I told my folks that I wanted to move back, Mum was chuffed, Dad told me I was an idiot.

I think that's generally because English people are self depreciating and read too much daily mail. Aussies have it drummed into them that they are 'the lucky country' and their's is 'the best country in the world mate'.

how does a country become the best in the world? ive no idea what that even means! usually spouted by bogans whove never been outside of Australia.

English people view Australia as non stop sunshine, lazing on beaches with koalas all day, high fiving kangaroos as you head home for a dip in your pool after a BBQ.

Its just normal life, only generally with warmer weather, worse drivers and expensive beer. you still pay taxes, work most of the time and encounter not so nice people.

people get disappointed when they go to oz as their expectations were too high.

I know its from the Daily Fail...but for those of us planning a return to the UK thought I would share some stunning autumn pictures for motivation. Makes me miss the UK even more, can't beat a brisk walk on a cold frosty morning with the dogs.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3896678/Winter-coming-gritters-Arctic-air-brings-crisp-autumn-morning-temperatures-low-27F.html

youre not wrong. something magical about autumn into winter - amazing colours everywhere. love getting my coat and scarf on and a coffee and heading out.. had a bit of a shock on the way to work this morning when a huge red fox burst out of a mound of leaves and scarpered past me.

its all very nice when its not raining and thankfully its been relatively dry recently. I do not miss the stifling drowsy heat in Sydney one bit and being looked at like an alien if I didn't say it was amazing.

Family love and friends are everything. .

 

A small house filled with happiness and love from family is far much nicer than a big fancy house without them.

 

If you are sure you wont be going back, why bother to wait for citizenship.

Agreed. not sure about wattsy but I 'stuck it out' for my citizenship because:

a- I have a habit of taking the easy way out of things and it is proof that I can hang in there when times get a bit hard.

b- if I didn't get it, id want it. now I have it, I barely think about it.

I, for one am much happier now Im home. as a northerner, the relentless fake sincerity and upbeat positivity of the place wore heavily on me. it was uplifting to encounter a sour misery and realism back home and engage in prolonged moaning. I feel the eastern suburbs was full of false optimism and I couldn't handle any more!

No amount of financial security or sun makes up for missing family and friends in the UK, IMHO.

 

If you have that nagging feeling that life is 'nice' and you are financially ok but there's still a big, black gaping hole that you can't explain away then it's your heart, your emotions and the lack of deep connections you have in Oz that's causing it. Waiting won't help. Go back.

 

I've done 11 years here and I'm done (not helped by a horrible divorce situation in 2014 and two kids involved). My ex has agreed that we will all go back to the UK to live in June next year. I love Sydney in many respects, I really do, but it's just not enough.

pretty much sums up the reasons why people head back. ive been back for a few months now and get asked by friends, friends of friends, barbers, colleagues, strangers, why I would leave utopia to come back to the cold?

and to them its hard to comprehend why you would swap sunshine and insatgram photos of the opera house for home - they cant because they've never had to comprehend homesickness, missing weddings, funerals, birthdays, going through tough times by yourself on the other side of the world.

the queasy tension I felt for so long whilst in Sydney, which I tried to pretend wasn't there, has gone since ive been back.

I'm completely with you on Adelaide, absolutely no appeal for me whatsoever and parts of it will die once Holden goes.

a good mate of mine lives there (from UK). To be harshly upfront, its full of people who couldn't get sorted in Sydney or Melbourne. everything looks like it was built on the cheap in 1992. its Milton Keynes with a beach. I have absolutely no idea why people would relocate to Adelaide unless you fancied your final years in a bit of sun. I went once then told him I wasn't visiting again, it made my soul cry. happy Friday everyone.

Dundee was exactly like this when I had to go there once

no offence but I'd rather live with fire breathing T-Rex's than Adelaide. the worlds first outdoor retirement village where everyones lawn has the same length grass! more culture in my yoghurt I had this morning..

yes brexit has caused chaos back at home. every UK born citizen must share their bed with a refugee (towels optional but encouraged). there are only 85 jobs left in England and these are mainly paper rounds, with sharp inclines on the routes. all women now have moustaches and rationed lunch consists HP sauce sandwiches or a mouldy apple. Added to this, there are herds of fire breathing T-Rex wandering the country attacking anything they see and mainly eating cute kittens and old people. I hope Farage is happy.

Nah, nothing has changed. stop panicking and crack on.

I'm not bothered by the winter really, the 'bad bit' only really lasts a couple of months. Today is going to be 15 degrees and it's nearly November. We are lucky in this country that our climate is temerate, no real extremes.

im the same. love winter. winter was my favourite month in Sydney (fresh, bright, quieter, could walk 200m without looking like id run 1km).. same here. love getting my coat and scarf on and finding solace in a cup of coffee, a cup of tea whilst the rain lashes at the window or a nice pint by a roaring fire..

give me those things any day over working in an office whilst its 40degrees in the city, riding a packed train home with sweat beading down me or lying on a beach frying myself when I never enjoyed that anyway.

depends whether youre a cold weather person or not I guess.

Let me answer that for you

 

I'm earning £38,000 a year in Australia- the salary I left in the U.K. was £24,000 and it's what I'll be going back to. Not to mention a crap pound thanks to the Brexit genii.

In South Australia we talk about how hot the summer will be, not wonder if we'll even have one.

People are more open and friendly in Australia

I couldn't believe the litter and dirty streets when I went back for a visit to the UK in July compared to South Australia

I find Australia, far more family friendly than the UK

Australia offers a better outdoors life than the UK does

 

I would suggest that Australia would offer most people a better life in a lot of ways, particularly if you have a family.

 

 

There are many ways in which I prefer the UK, my civil rights being a big one. However, my main reasons are family and the opportunity to reimmerse myself in European culture.

 

As always, to each their own. What works for one - will not work for another and that's as it should be. Life would be dull if we were all the same.

 

Happy decisons and travels people

People more friendly in Australia than the UK! sorry, just fell off my chair. I love a stereotype but this is generalising to biblical proportions! try the eastern suburbs of Sydney and find me a friendly person. very private school cliquey and materialistic, it is not a fosters advert..i found the vast majority of Australians bereft of sense of humour, in fact its a common joke with ex pats there..

and of course they have progressive ideas on harmonious race relations! do me a favour.

I used to get in a lift with people in Sydney and say hello, nothing back. people go out of their way in Manchester to say hello.

Litter and dirty streets? Sydney is filthy! maybe Adelaide is clean, but maybe a bit of litter would give it some character.. p.s. Adelaide has more homeless/drug addicts than any other Australian city.. maybe they don't live on clean streets?

define better outdoor life? getting melanomas on a busy beach whilst swatting flies? if people like staying indoors and watching telly, it doesn't matter where you are. I was golfing up at turnberry last week - freezing, windy.. but amazing! depends what you like..

I'm typing this from my sunny office in Adelaide . I'm on my way back to the UK in January. I've all but given up getting a job in advance (though I won't stop trying). Your post is very reassuring and a lovely way to finish my week. All the things you describe are what I miss, so it's nice to hear someone else mentioning them. I'm also looking at Manchester work wise but it'll probably have to wait until I get back to Blighty now.

 

Good to hear your thoughts - would be interested in future updates too

indeed, its only since ive arrived back home that I realised how disillusioned and unhappy I was in Australia. I cracked on with things as the citizenship was a target to aim for and kept me going.

Australia seems to have a wonderful image/façade, for instance Bondi itself, but look a bit closer and its sunshine glossing over cheap shops, shabby buildings, narcissistic people and lack of substance. And late 20's ex-pats getting drunk & sunburned all weekend & living in a shoebox, spouting to anyone that will listen about the 'amazing lifestyle'.

Admittedly its not for everyone and I needed the time away from home to appreciate the U.K. again. The adventure had ended for me a couple years before I got my passport and was seeing the bad things about the place (clearly) and not the good.

it became pretty obvious saying farewell to my teary eyed parents in the airport earlier this year that it just wasn't worth doing that to them again and my mind was pretty much made up.

good luck with the move and enjoy your last aussie summer!

I recently went back to the uk for a family funeral and have since returned to Brissie, right now I have the biggest home sickness/ loneliness I have ever felt since being out here.

 

I came out on my own around 2 yrs ago and all my family are back home, I've never felt like this before and right now all I can think of is heading back to the uk back to family and friends, I've got friends over here and an active lifestyle but I can't shake the feeling of not belonging here, also when I think of the future I.e marriage,kids etc I cant even think of having them here and being so far away from my family, it's a struggle at the moment just trying to cope with the reality that I'm a long way from home. It's weird because I've never felt this before as when I left before it was all exciting a new adventure etc, but now it's just an empty feeling that I've got.

 

has anyone else felt like this?

Hi Paul - I was in oz for 7 years and frequently had those feelings. The way I dealt with it was treating my whole time there as an adventure and once I felt the time was right, to leave.

I could never see myself having a family there, although im a person that takes the easy way out of a lot of things and must admit, sticking through the tough times and loneliness actually did me good. as soon as I got PR, I could see the finish line and decided to stay. this made things a whole lot easier, as I had approx. 18 months to see and do everything I wanted before I got the passport.

I came home a few months back and feel content and at home - I may not have sunshine, beaches and the harbour but I have other things and crucially, no regrets.

I cant help but feel if you head home after 2 years, you will feel like you still had more adventure left in you.

p.s. steer clear of aussie women if you do stay as I did this a couple of times and the thought of having no option but to stay made me freak out a wee bit!

Look, do what you gotta do, as I keep saying, once you have the means (cash / visa status) you can live anywhere.

 

Australia might be suitable for a while, back to the UK for a while back to Australia.

 

It's this notion that anyone in Australia has moved to the Moon that gets me.

 

It's a day in a plane...

 

If you want to go to UK, go to UK, if you want Australia, it's there for you.

 

B

how long have you lived in Australia for?

with respect, its not just a day on a plane. its thousands of in airfares and most of your annual 20-day leave standard in aus.

for the most, it may aswell be on the moon.

It does my head in to be honest, it shouldn't I know but at times I am just left scratching my head wondering where it is they are talking about. I am accused of being anti Australian and overly positive about the UK but there are a couple who are absolutely the exact opposite but it is never questioned. One in particular if I said I paid the equivalent of $5 for something you can be guaranteed they paid $4.99 just yesterday.

Don't get me wrong I go totally OTT about this country but that is mostly because I feel so passionately about it. My bother scanning through Google to try and disprove something that is my opinion ? It makes no sense.

if everyone spouted generic middle of the road politically correct answers on here, there would be no website. opinions are the things that drive it and its clear people prefer one place or the other. the clue is in the website title.

from my brief 7 yr experience, I believe people return to the UK to fill a void that can only be filled by a feeling of belonging, family, old friends and the individual beauty of the UK and the adjacency of Europe.

Some people are willing to sacrifice these things for sunshine and beaches which is their prerogative. That's fine. Then I suspect there are a number who are anchored to Australia without their desire and are now trying to fill the void by pretending their life in the southern hemisphere is better.

When really, Im not entirely sure that's the case. Im glad I experienced the place and returned. But that's just me. There just isn't sufficient there to sacrifice the isolation.

golf courses in perth better than Scotland.. St Andrews, Royal Troon, Carnoustie, Turnberry, Muirfield, Gullane, Loch Lomond, Prestwick, Gleneagles. Probably the finest cluster of golfing acreage on the planet. This disturbs me.

no idea what 'opportunities' lie in Germany that aren't in the UK. Maybe youre comparing Berlin with Scarborough here. Im in Manchester and the city is buzzing.

I am still bemused by the anti UK stances of British people on here generally. I think ultimately peoples reasoning revolves around the need to be in permanent sunshine. when that doesn't occur in Australia anyway.

Didn’t think my post would generate so much interest and debate.

 

I think Perth’s isolation is a key issue. I’m from Manchester and love it but if you ripped Manchester from the UK and plonked it on a desert island that was an expensive 5-hour flight from anywhere else, I’m sure after 2 or 3 years I would be moaning about Manchester being boring. But, and this is the key, that’s not an issue in the UK; the UK has plenty of ‘Perths’ or better and so does Europe which is a spit away.

 

I don’t like to bad-mouth Perth; we have (in the main) enjoyed our time here. The CBD has improved a lot for eats & drinks in the 8 years we have been here. And we really like Freo. To be fair, if you haven’t lived here for 10 years, you’re not really qualified to comment. Man City used to be shite 10 years ago but they’re not now are they? As I mentioned initially, if you have a young family, Perth is great, they’ll enjoy parks and pools and beaches galore. But there must be a reason why London is full of young Aussie adults, cheap ale, 10 million pubs, a general atmos of youth, there is none of that here; not as far as I can see anyway, kids don't have the money to do it here.

 

Perth’s suburbia is a bit samey, monotonous and boring. We live in Joondalup and it’s not great in terms of facilities and things to do, NOR isn’t full stop. We were constrained in terms of where to settle here due to relatives already being here, time over I would head for the likes of Maylands, Mt Lawley, Freo, those areas are fairly cool.

George you cant compare a cultural desert like perth to mighty Manchester! ive come back to mcr from Sydney and the place has really impressed me. the place seems to be thriving - new buildings flying up everywhere, an expanding tram system, the new spinningfields area is better than anything I saw in Sydney. good luck with the move back

hello all, just thought id pass my experience over from my recent move back to england. I moved back from Sydney to Manchester 6 weeks ago after approx. 7 yrs in NSW. I got my passport prior to departing, and am so happy I made the choice. it feels like home, something a beach or a 35 degree day or a good coffee can replace.

Have already done a trip to Ireland (galway/Dublin), trip to the Lakes, Harrogate, seen grandparents, parents, cousins, old mates. its a comforting feeling being back.

There's nothing ill miss, in fact the thought of returning to Oz makes me recoil. The fact I can return has taken the 'what if' out of proceedings, and the fact I gave it a good run and got it all out of my system means I have absolutely no regrets or pining for Australia. all the facebook posts from Bondi beach in the sunshine are lovely from mates there. do I miss it? no, ive swam there umpteen times and theres better beaches in Europe which I aim to get stuck into next summer.

Manchester is fantastic, has changed so much in the last 7 years. its a really modern looking city, great restaurants, cafes, old pubs, beautiful old buildings. been to old Trafford (not so great I admit) with the lads, had some amazing indian food (was craving this massively!) and just had plenty of family time.

im in construction and got a job at the first interview and there is plenty of work in the North west.

for the remainder of the year, im looking forward to the colder months - a cold Christmas and off skiing to france in December.

despite this being a pro UK post, its reassurance to people who have that nagging 20% doubt moving back. just do it, its worth it. Will

Would you get a job in Ireland? If not then there's not much point moving until you've got one. Mind you the thought of living in a paid for house is an aspiration for many!

 

My husband did those sorts of hours all his working life, you get used to it. I know not everyone does but I always have a chuckle at the "better work /life balance" meme that is trotted out, that certainly hasn't been our family's experience. His father was the same and our son is going the same way!

 

However if your wife is not happy and one of your kids would leave in a heartbeat now is probably as good a time as any - you won't want to wait very much longer or your kids will get their education screwed up with a move.

depends what you want though hey quoll. I work 50 hours a week max, do my job well, but only pull $130k in Sydney. not a great deal, but have sufficient time and dosh to enjoy the city. I just don't have the drive to push for more money, responsibility or stress. pretty content but that's just me. most people in Sydney aren't happy until theyre so burnt out they need to wrap themselves in yoga courses and therapy! ha

Gone through the citizenship process recently, it was exactly 18 months from receiving my PR approval to attending my ceremony. that's probably quite good timing too, having seen some recent caper with the process on here. but once you have PR, its pretty pointless not getting the passport as PR is the major hurdle, process and cost wise.

18 hour days? i'd expect 7 figures for those. not a very healthy way to live, your kids don't see you now and in all honesty, may not see too much of you in the future if you carry on. it all catches up to you, physically and mentally.

thankyou marisa. looking at the few quotes ive received thus far, this seems by far the cheapest and most legit. ill be using them for sure. cheers