s713

Yes I am, and enjoying every minute. Been for a nice walk at Dunham Massey today, would have liked to have done the lights but have something else on tonight. Hope you're well.

@Bulya you always make it sound like, if only we'd moved down the road. I lived in Perth, worked in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, not interested in living there. Canberra? Even Aussies think it's crap. You know, let it go, some people want to move back to something different. Oz is OK, Uk is OK, the crusade you are on is baseless.

It's good to revisit this thread after a year or so, see where it's at. We lived in Perth for 12 years and live back in NW England now, some will think it deprived. Our life is a million times better here in the UK. Honestly. where life takes you is so personal, there's no text book. I hated Perth, my wife didn't. Neither of us were escaping the UK, her family moved to Perth. We did, I enjoyed it for 3 or 4 years. Through work, I spent time in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, no aspirations to live in those places. We were in Shropshire last week, it's miles better than what WA has to offer. And it takes me an hour and a half. Used to take me that to get to Mandurah, which is lame. Honest to God, been to Northumberland, East Yorks, West Yorks, Lancs, Shrops, Lincs, everywhere, unbelievable, takes a couple of hours. Ask yourself before you move to Oz what type of person you are. These places in the UK are well better than what you will get. But, it will be 30-odd degrees in Oz if that's what you want. The hot weather is overrated, we moved to Oz to be with her family and most of them sat in the back garden drinking. Nice place Oz, nice place the UK, think about what you like. x

Is Perth a dangerous city? Have a look at the police figures https://www.police.wa.gov.au/Crime/CrimeStatistics#/ YTD 3,400 sexual offences, 17,500 assaults, 3,000+ cases threatening behaviour, 14,000 drug offences....... it goes on.

If we’re just talking Manchester City Centre, there are multiple museums, multiple galleries, multiple theatres, multiple libraries (inc. Gothic), football tours, a cultural quarter, Cathedral, Salford Quays, Albert Square, multiple gardens, a myriad of pubs, breweries, cafes and restaurants (casual to Michelin star). If you want to drive for half an hour, you can do the Peak District National Park, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the countryside Cheshire and South Manchester offers, Chester, Liverpool, Derbyshire. The list goes on. But, you’re right, there’s no man-made beach with novelty shops. Sorry about that.

You're effectively arguing that Hillarys (a man-made beach, few cafes, overpriced pub, novelty shops) is better than ANYTHING in the UK. You must realise that's mental?

To be fair, the only issue like that I recall is a fight that happened after an England WC game in either 2010 or 2014. I couldn't stand Joondalup but it wasn't for the reasons you've stated.

Whereas that all sounds brilliant

The cases are 2.5k a day but that's not the main issue, the main issue is keeping people out of hospital and keeping the death rate down. The vaccination program has achieved that. The testing rates are also very high at the moment so that is supposedly keeping the infection rate up.

Despite every member of the general public clamouring for it, the Govt didn't act quickly enough. AGAIN. But hey, we're used to it now.

The discussion was about someone 'being stuck' in Australia and then a 'when in Rome' comment was thrown in. You then weighed in with the muslim angle, which some people always seem to do with these types of discussion. No bother, I'm not really that interested.

But we're talking about Australia.

You see, I've never been able to work out that attitude. Why aren't you entitled to live your life however you want, wherever you live?

We lived there to be with family. So, all the research in the world wouldn't have taken us anywhere else.

Yeah, these are just my experiences, for some people it's completely different. That's what makes the world go around.

We lived in Joondalup (unfortunately). When we moved there, it was advertised as the new satellite town to Perth that was going to bring jobs and attractions. Nothing of the sort transpired. We moved to Perth as the wife's family had moved over piecemeal before us, so there were more in Perth than left in the UK. Wife missed them so we moved, other than that I had never had thoughts of emigrating. I enjoyed it for 2 or 3 years, was very meh about it for 2 or 3 then spent 4 years hating it. Eventually the wife did as well so we moved back. Joondalup is a horrible ghost town of a place. There's a couple of things to do like wall-climbing and stuff but other than the beach, people seem to head to Hillarys. The pubs and restaurants are mid-low quality, there are some OK walks within driving distance but other that I struggled. Swan Valley and The Hills was OK now and then. It wasn't just the kids in the family that were stuck. By the time we left, my Mum and Dad had been 6 times and were in no hurry to come back. For such an expensive holiday it had started to become far too samey, a rotation of beach, Mandurah, Swan Valley, Hills, Freo, City, Busselton etc. It's great for a couple of years but after that???

Hillarys was Perth in a microcosm for me, bit sanitized and manufactured, not much atmos, suited to age groups 0-13 and 60+, and very samey. I thought it novel at first but after a while, I avoided it completely. I think we overdid it due to lack of options, same with the Aquarium which is great but not when you're forced to do it regularly because the kids can't think of anything else.

Hillarys was one of the (many) other places that used to do this to me. I had to say to the wife, I can't physically go to Hillarys anymore. Apart from the beach, it was the only thing near us and, after about 6 or 7 visits, I was done.

Not really, Manchester every day of the week. Mandurah's one of those place where you go, think it's great, take a load of pictures.. then you go again, think it's OK, take the same pictures...then you go again and think, mmm, where else is there round here?

We drove up to Monkey Mia once from Perth, for me it was a one-off, I didn't see anything going north that I'd be in a rush to do again (granted, I didn't go as far as you have mentioned but 10 hours drive is enough). Down South is good for a few jaunts.

You live in Canberra don't you? I'd expect you'd be glued to the telly

Australian TV is considerably worse than TV in the UK. Considerably worse. We can call that right now.

Googling a couple of home-building type sites says to expect to pay $800-$1200 per sqm for double glazing. Our old house in WA had 55 sqms of glass!!! Most of the whole back of the house was glass, would have cost me $50k-$60k!!!

I wasn't comparing job prospects, I was referring to IT in general.

But that article, if correct, isn't just about flight availability, its about Australia deciding whether or not to let its own citizens back in. Which they've decided they're not going to. No offence to anyone but, that's bad. Bet they didn't mention that at the citizenship ceremony.