jbirdmoose

i lived in Braunton and worked in Croyde for YEARS. After that Mid-Devon became my home, Exeter is my favourite city in the world, and Devon countryside just can't be beaten. I wish with all my heart that my life takes me back there one day

We'll be moving to Okehampton. Looking forward to seeing Dartmoor again and spending time out rambling.

We have been back in the UK now for nearly a year and what a year it has been. We finally sold out house in Devon, bought a barn conversion in Somerset (yay), husband started new job (yay) I have been offered a full time job in local private school (yay) and then ... our darling son has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, he is 15 years old and we are gutted. This post isn't to talk about the diagnosis but to applaud the wonderful NHS system, it may be overstretched as the media reports but it came up trumps 2 weeks ago for our family. I called 111, he was seen later that day with the out of hours GP, diagnosed immediately and admitted to the local children's ward within an hour. All done calmly, professionally and with such kindness. Two days in hospital and he did so well in understanding the injections and other medical stuff he was allowed home. Follow up calls every day from the specialist diabetic team, they are going to come to our home to talk to all the extended family as to how to look after Matthew, dietician coming next week for further education for me, follow up appointment in a couple of weeks for Matthew. I know it's early days but this whole experience was made less stressful not having to think about how much all this would cost.

 

I wonder if the stress of moving back was too much for him and somehow 'caused' this but have been told no one knows what causes type 1 diabetes. Then I wonder what would have happened to us if we had stayed in Oz and he was diagnosed anyway, how much money would it cost for the prescriptions alone. We always said that Australia was a very expensive country to be ill in.

Sorry to hear this @blondie. It's a horrible disease. As a diabetic myself I can tell you it's not cheap here in Oz and yet another reason we are moving back to the UK. I am on two difference types of insulin and 2 different tablets so that's 4 prescriptions. Current cost of scripts is $38.30 but of course the meds all run out at different times, some within the month, some after 2-3 months. The needles are free with my card but have to pay for test strips - yes it's a reduced cost at approx $16.50 for 100 but if I tested the recommended 6+ times a day those 100 strips only last 16 days...... So the costs mounts up. If I thought about how much money I don't have today because I've had to pay for all these the for past 7 years... well I don't want to say what I would want to do.

Some point to note: In the UK your son will not have to worry about the cost of prescriptions at any point, ever.

Firstly

You do not have to pay for prescriptions if you:• are under 16 years old;• are 16, 17 or 18 in full-time education; • have a valid medical exemption certificate...

People with certain medical conditions

If you have one of the following medicalconditions, you can apply for an NHS medicalexemption certificate that will entitle you toreceive NHS prescriptions free of charge: • Diabetes insipidus and other forms ofhypopituitarism (where the body does not produceenough of one or more pituitary hormones); • Diabetes mellitus, except where treatment is bydiet alone.

You have my sympathy and I completely understand where you're at, do think about where you come back to in the UK as some places are still suffering work wise and it feels like some of them are in terminal decline whilst others are really go ahead.

Thanks. We don't have a choice where to go do to having no money left. When my father passed away his house in Devon went to me and my brother. That's where I'll be living - 3rd generation to live in that house. My brother is happy and settled in USA with his own home, a wife, daughter and pets. We have our beagle but we're renting in Oz so for the last 4½years we have been breaking our lease agreement. I'm looking forward to not have that stress. If I want another pet I'll get one, no worries about how we'll hide it, will the neighbours dob us in, will it cause us to be evicted. Nope we'll be free to do what we want. I'm really not fussed about work. After 2 years of struggling without a job here and not being able to get any help at least I'll have a roof over my head with name on it!

That's what I can't get my head around. Why does Immigration dish out visas when they must realise work is scarce. Just beyond me. We came when jobs were easy to fall into. In fact if you didn't like your job, you left it and would have another one lined up to start in a couple of days. These days are long gone.

Well my husband has/had a very specific skill-set so it seems and scored very high on the points system. And although companies here were crying out from him before we arrived they wouldn't touch him once we got here as he wasn't a citizen... Permanent resident but not a citizen. He is a jack of all trades having taught himself to do, well, pretty much whatever he wanted/needed to do in his hobbies. Weld, solder, electronics etc... but without that magical piece of TAFE paper nobody would touch him. He is highly intelligent (Sheldon-esk I would say) so when he applied for jobs with lower skill requirements nobody would hire him - over qualified concerned he'd be bored and leave quickly. We applied to Senator Chris Evans (Minister of Immigration at the time) and had his citizenship push through 5 months early... when he went back to the same employers who were crying out for his skills their reply was "well you've been out of the industry too long" or many job applications were just never answered, ever.

The crate has arrived and Biscuit seems happy enough to relax in it.... all evening!

That's a good point you make there about moving to Australia late in your career.

 

If you have an established stable career in UK, it's a lot to throw away just to satisfy an itch for "beaches and a nice house".

 

If you are over 40 it becomes a much bigger risk.

 

Do proper research or make a special groundwork trip to Aus on a tourist visa, just to find out what work you can get first and what your chances really are.

 

Not fully assessing all the cost/risks involved and hoping that it will just "all work out in the end" is a very stupid thing to do.

 

Last thing you want to do is move somewhere with a shrinking economy and tightening job market to be facing the real risk of unemployment and losing chunks of your savings which you will never get back.

 

We had many months of unemployment when we arrived, and we paid dearly for it.

We were both in our early 30's when we moved here and both had 2 years of unemployment. We lived off the money from the sale of our home in UK believing things would improve... until that ran out then we borrowed from family. Luckily I got a job but only after I got citizenship. Since then we've been mostly a single income household trying to survive paying rent & bills and saving what we can for the move back. It sounds awful but only after my Dad died and I completed 4 years of probate (I kid you not) do I finally have the funds to move back.

I know "boohoo - poor me...." I have said before it does work out for many and hats off to them.

Family- illness. Ageing. never enough time. long periods of time without being able to do simple things with them.

Homesickness- literally real, physical, in bed for 2 weeks kinda stuff that seemed to get worse as the years went on. In no way did i live like that on a daily basis, but when it hit, it hit. like grief.

Feelings of displacement- felt like i was on a some weird, surreal long holiday that was never over. Not everyone gets this. A lot do.

Weather- heat can be as limiting as cold. Hated the sun in the end- it was an enemy to be faced with military precision- clothing to be worn, sunscreen, water, mossie repellant. It aged me and i had 2 pre cancerous things removed.....

Overall sense of not belonging- i gave it a good shot at 9 years. it either works or it doesn't.

could not see myself there forever. took it for what it was, and made the best of it towards the end.

 

Ultimately, it's people. Back in the bosom of family and close friends. Learned the hard way that when people get sick and die and you are there, it's pretty fking terrible really. And watching my child with these people, that's priceless.

 

Also, i'm not a beach person. i tried to embrace it, but ultimately, i like books, theatre, museums, country walks (without worrying about wildlife), history and pubs. That's just me. it's what i like. i'm almost 40 and i'll never be a surfer.

 

good luck!!!

Yep I agree with a lot of this.

We are currently packing to move back to UK after 8 years in Australia.

With no family here and very little family there I haven't got those kind of ties however my family is on the East coast USA and travel for them is much easier and cheaper to UK than here.

In the 8 years here my Mum has visited once (2years after we arrived) OH's Mum visited once (also 2 years after we arrived)...... and that's it.

Until about a month ago when my cousin and her family dropped in for the day we have seen no-one. None of the friends who made endless promises of holidays to the sun have ever visited. The odd school friend gets in touch to say they're heading down-under for a holiday and want to catch up, have us show them around, go mysteriously silent until after their trip.

I totally get the "Feelings of displacement" - that was a big one for us. What we thought would feel familiar feels very alien.

Also the weather - we have discovered we hate the sun. When our back yard hit 49.6'C a few years back we could not believe we had willing signed up for that! Looking forward to some cold weather.

Strangely one thing we both missed very quickly was proper lush green grass. The kinda grass you can take your shoes off and walk around on without fear of sharp stabby blades of grass or bites from poisonous tiny creatures or random blood-sucking leeches.

And, like you @thinker78, we are not beach people. I get sick of sand very quickly and neither hubby nor I will ever, ever go in the sea here. Ever!

One other thing I've found, since getting here unfortunately my health took a turn for the worse within 18 months and has never recovered. Yes Australia has Medicare but we were not aware you have to pay. Weird system of pay everything upfront then Medicare will pay you back but not all of it, just a percentage... so being sick became very expensive, very quickly. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it come to the past 8 years.

I am truly happy for those it works out for... Just a shame I wasn't one of them!

Biscuit beagle dog super truffle hog

Hey

 

we are renting near Penrith (hate the bloody place)

Hubby and I are also renting near Penrith and I HEAR YA!! Don't get me wrong it has everything you need: buses, trains, shopping centre, schools, hospital.... all of them out-dated but still livable.... We're within walking distance of all.

But it's the people! The "westie" mentality.

I lived in the UK 20+ years and never had any contact with the police, never needed to. Here we've been robbed twice, I've been at court as a witness of violent crime, I am nervous on the train at any time of day....

The one close friend I have is Australian but lived overseas for half their life. Others I have met here are acquaintances at best, they have lots & lots of "mates" but no close friends.

Not bothered about moving him back here as long ago decided the next international move will be my last.

Haha Never say never. I thought the move to Oz would be my last international move... my last country... But not to be.

Hey VS. I'm just going through all of this right now. The rabies shot has to be administered a least 22 days prior to flying ( I believe it lasts for 3 years ). I'm still trying to clarify if blood tests after the shot are required, I was told YES if the dog is returning to Australia within 2 yrs: NO if it's a permanent move. Also the rabies vaccine can only be administered by AQIS cert Vets, general practice vets don't normally have licences to give them... however given my location in western Syndey JETPETS can send an AQIS vet to my place to give the vaccine (all included in the overall cost of moving the dog) :smile:

Hope this helps.

Jetpets vs Dogtainers internationally

 

I am looking to take my two dogs from Brisbane to London and not sure who to use.

 

Who is better, from personal opinion, Jetpets or Dogtainerspets?

​

 

In the past few days I have tried getting quotes to move my Beagle from Sydney to UK. I called Dogtainers and spoke to a woman who couldn't help me, she took my number and told me the person who deals with quotes would call me back. I waited, I emailed but I've yet to hear from them other than the automated email response.

I emailed Jetpets last night and called them this morning. I was put through to the person who had been allocated to my request. She was very pleasant and explained everything fully, taking the time to answer all my stupid, repetitive questions (my brain doesn't work too good sometimes, this is something I am aware of). She emailed me a quote which was broken down explaining the process and everything that was included. Seems like it's the full package. Vet actually comes out to us to do the rabies shot and everything - Very impressed. And much cheaper than we had been quoted by another company.

Also I have friends who have moved pets back & forth from the USA and they could not speak more highly of Jetpets and their service.

Well I've just had a very informative chat with a company called Jetpets. Very friendly and super helpful.... And much cheaper than others we've received quotes from.

• They offer to sell you a crate and regardless of when you fly they will deliver the crate within a week of payment so your dog can get used to it and so the pet handler can meet your fur-baby.
  
• They have a vet come to your home (complimentary) and administer the rabies vaccination (paid for in overall cost). From AUS to UK this has to be done no less than 22 days before the flight - at this point in time I'm unsure if a confirmation blood test is required prior to flying (I was told as the dog will not be returning to AUS it's not necessary).
  
• They collect your dog and board them overnight prior to flight
  
• They also administer the worm treatment prior to departure and complete all paperwork
  

I'm very impressed with a cost under $4000 for everything.

I'll keep you informed of our progress :cute:

At this stage we are planning on a may move but my oh's British passport expires in July. Are we better off renewing it before we leave? Finding the banking aspect annoying as our bank has said we can only cancel our accounts in person so at this stage we are going with just a travel card & cash which seems a problem as we want to hire a car at first.

Just to clarify, your Australian bank accounts must be cancelled in person?

Inam probably going to post something in that section. Fortunately prices are by size of dog and he is about as small as it gets.

I also have a dog I'm looking to take with me so any advise in this would help. (which section?)

Hi All. I'm completely new to this and by this I mean forums in general.

Joined the forum after I can across this thread. I moved to AUS in 2007 and am currently packing to return to the UK. Things have not gone well for us in the "lucky Country" to say the least and we're looking forward to going 'home' finally.

I have always kept my bank account in the UK going and will be moving to a house I partly share ownership of. Any / all guidance welcome.

Sounds like we aren't alone in are struggles.