Cup Final 1973

I think he’s being rude about Wrexham. I left Sunderland in 1973 but they’ll always be my team. The shock of going from Premiership to Division 1 in consecutive seasons was tough but you don’t get to choose your team do you? I remember the Aussie wife of a English Liverpool supporter who was moaning about his team asking him why he didn’t just support a different one!

My brother still lives in Sunderland. He said the atmosphere in the city was electric with thousands on the streets even with nearly 50000 away in London. You’d think we’d won the World Cup!

IKNWC but…..after 4 seasons in the wilderness, Sunderland have won promotion to the Championship! Wembley was a sea of 47 000 red and white supporters.️

We went to watch day 3 of the Ashes at the MCG in December 2006, three months after migrating to Australia. The train was a little late so we were still outside when we heard the massive shout signalling an Aussie batsman out. We were full of hope ….but spent the whole day watching Mathew Hayden and Andrew Symonds piling on the runs. I think both scored over 150 and England lost . Symonds seemed to lose favour though and I don’t remember him featuring a great deal afterwards.

It must have been very late indeed ….. chance has 6 letters!

A very common word from my native north-east but still took me until the fifth row.

Seriously?

Enid Blyton also wrote St Clare’s, another series about a boarding school but Mallory Towers was my favourite. In my first year at secondary school (not a boarding school I hasten to add) we had to keep a diary of our reading books and my English teacher wrote very disparagingly of my fondness for Mallory Towers.

Sorry Ruth. Completely missed the NHS bit!

If you have not yet reached pension age your pension amount has not yet been calculated! It will depend on how many years you’ve contributed and the rules do change. Once you start receiving your UK pension it is frozen at that rate while you are in Australia. Each time you go back to the UK or certain other countries the rate is updated to the current rate for the time you are in that country but reverts to the frozen rate once back in Oz. You have to declare it when you do your yearly tax return in Oz and you are taxed on it.

I loved all the Enid Blyton school stories and thought midnight feasts of ginger beer and anchovy sandwiches sounded so exotic. Years later I tasted my first anchovy - revolting!

I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make. It’s true there haven’t been new towns created in the UK but my existing town, founded in 71AD, is having new houses built at the rate of almost 1000 a year.

That’s a rather sweeping generalisation about the UK.

Together with the bluebells we have masses of these plants in our wood, white flowers in full bloom pink yet to come. Are they rhododendron bushes?

I love bluebells!

We don’t book a blood test on the NHS website here. We ring the GP surgery and the receptionist books one for the next day.

We were very happy with the service we got from Send last year. The rate was good, no fee and the transfer arrived in our UK bank the same day. I still have some funds remaining in my Australian bank and am thinking of transferring them soon as the exchange rate is very favourable at the moment.

I’m so sorry you feel you shouldn’t have moved to Australia in the first place but if you want to leave don’t believe all the horror stories you hear about life in the UK. I’ve already queried one comment about electricity bills going up from £100 to £400 a month. As for the NHS, we can’t fault the treatment we’ve received in the 11 months since we’ve been back. House prices vary enormously depending on the area.

Seriously? My electricity tariff has gone from 19.89 pence to 27.35 pence per unit and the standing charge has increased by 22 pence per day. Not great, but it certainly won’t quadruple my bill.

Does everyone get a comment when they finish Wordle? It made me laugh to see “phew” when it took me the full 6 attempts to get the correct answer!

Hi Jo, we had a lovely 15 years in Oz and made lots of good friends. One daughter followed us to Bendigo and the other stayed in Yorkshire and produced grandsons! So the move back to Yorkshire was a mixture of family and a longing for some history! We went on a long trip to Scandinavia, UK and France in 2019 and just felt something was missing when we got back to Oz. There are things I miss from Australia just as I missed things from England when we were there. We certainly don’t regret having gone - and we were mid 50s when we arrived - but I agree with others that have posted, it’s not to be undertaken lightly.

We came back to England last year after 15 years in Victoria. We lived in Bendigo but used to go to Torquay and Anglesea quite often, both in summer and winter - great to visit but personally I think Geelong gives you better options.

Can’t give any help on the schools but just curious as to why you want to live in Torquay? House prices are very high, it’s horrendous in summer with tourists flocking and dead in winter!

Snow flurries the last two days in Yorkshire but sunny today and the first bluebell!

I got Wordle in two this morning for the first time. My first reaction was shock ….and then disappointment. I feel rather cheated