Cheery Thistle

I can’t afford to live in Sydney or London and I don’t want to either. I literally can’t stand London. It’s OK to visit for a day or 2 but I can’t wait to leave. The way that everyone ‘accelerates’ immediately when you get off the plane and goes into London gear. I mean, nothing is important enough to shove folk out of the way, surely? The dirt, the mix of people all so close together, the lack of connection. One thing I would say is that, with the exception of housing, I didn’t find London materially that much more expensive than Edinburgh or even Glasgow last time I was down (end of November). Hubby is worse than me, he would happily never go back! I thought Newcastle was worth a look - big enough population to have amenities and jobs, coastal, environment looks good, growing and attracting investment. Close enough to Sydney for flights and travel not to be too difficult. Should be less traffic and congestion than Brisbane. We have never really lived in a big city and I’m slightly concerned that we might not like it. We are townies though, no 2 ways about that. Not into rural/remote. It’s only really 4 nights in Sydney which I didn’t think was excessive as we don’t arrive until evening on 25th. Then possibly one day/night catching up with cousins (if we and they can). Will spend the first day chilling and recovering, want to do the bridge climb, the harbour, Taronga. Will easily fill the time in each location I’m sure!

Well they do and they don’t. We can see from the figures that the MAJORITY of attendees at those to universities come from state and grammar schools. Grammar schools are a whole other can of worms!! However we can also see that there is still a disproportionately high percentage of entrants from private schools. This is probably reflected across other ‘top’ universities but I unfortunately don’t have time to look into it. Maybe there is a semi-retired member on here with more time/inclination?? It certainly felt like most of my fellow students at Edinburgh were private schoolers but that was a while ago, times have changed and maybe it was my course choice as well. Perhaps the more science/engineering based courses were more egalitarian. Anyway, I fear we are veering far from the original purpose of this thread and as much as I enjoy debate I don’t have unlimited time to spend on it.

Newcastle to Brisbane will only save us one day really - we’re going Newcastle-Byron for one night, then Brisbane.

Great thanks. Will give that some thought. 3 nights not long enough in SC but something has to give! Trying to cram a lot in. Eek. Daughter is 10. We are almost discounting SC as an option for living in, mostly due to the lack of job opportunities really. So it’s more of a fun visit than a reccie. But you never know.

Ok so a bit of Google digging shows that Oxbridge take approx 68% of their students from state and (importantly I think) grammar schools. This sounds GREAT. However when you consider that only 6% of gen pop attend a private school then the context changes significantly. I am not suggesting for a moment that students at these institutions don’t work hard. But let’s not try and pretend that the playing field is level. That’s helluva naive. Re: Tall Poppy, I thought that was people trying to make out they were something better than they are? Or bigging themselves up? Rather than a working class chip on shoulder? Lol.

So are we really saying that most Oxford and Cambridge graduates aren’t from privileged backgrounds and private schools? It’s fairly easy for me to dig out figures to back this one up I’m afraid…..

Thanks! I was looking at staying in Manly but couldn’t find anything I liked in budget. So, Coogee it is. Would love to see Manly whilst we’re there. We don’t have a huge to-do list so hopefully we’ll make it.

So, flights are booked and have been for ages, fly in to Sydney 25th Feb and back again 16th March via Doha. Starting in Sydney and driving up to Brisbane/Sunny Coast. Rough itinerary: 25th Feb - 2nd March - Sydney. Have booked Coogee as we prefer it more chilled and want to recover from jet lag etc. Plan on doing Taronga, the bridge climb and just chilling and recovering from travel. Also allows a day or 2 to catch up with hubby’s cousins. 2nd March - 5th March - Newcastle. Want to rule this in or out as a potential destination for living in. Feel it’s an itch we need to scratch! 5th - 6th March - Byron? Need To break up the journey to Brisbane. 6 - 11th March - Brisbane 12th - 15th March Sunny Coast (Caloundra?) 15th - internal flight back to Sydney, stay in city centre for last night before flying back on 16th. Sydney is not on the list of possible places to settle but we’ve never been before and conscious that we will be jet lagged so need to chill a bit before the driving. Any glaring disasters in there or anything we have really missed? Not staying in GC but will likely day trip it to one of the theme parks whilst in Brisbane.

It mostly is though and I think it’s unrealistic to deny that. You know better than most, having gone through it. My God, doing an arts degree at Edinburgh in the late 90’s being from a local state school was absolute torture haha! Surrounded by the ‘yas’ as we used to call them. Ya dahling, ya, ya….. Well done for managing it, seriously. I’m not disagreeing with you either, but I’m saying it’s not typical, it’s not the norm, it’s in no way ‘normal’. Most of my contemporaries have decent degrees from decent universities. Mine is an honours from Edinburgh plus my PG from Glasgow. These are not polytechnics! Only two earn over £100k a year and we are in our 40’s now. We are talking aerospace engineers, senior HR managers, research scientists, nurses, OT’s, pharmacists, optometrists etc. the two bigger earners are in finance and software (company director). I suppose it depends what you want out of life too. I know the price you pay for the big salary and bonus - it’s hours and hours chained to a desk, often missing out on milestones. You’re always someone’s b*tch. My friend’s husband literally pulls a 14 hour shift every day. He’s just turned 40 and looks older than my hubby who is 51 and works 3 days a week! My dad used to say the more money you earn the bigger your problems are and as I get older I do wonder if he might have been right. So far my daughter has been at state school and doing well. Not sure what Aus might bring, we’ll see. We’re not particularly pushy or ambitious as parents (I think that might sound bad), but I know deep down that she’ll do ok. She’s kind of more sporty and artistic/creative and that’s ok with me. Here’s hoping the OP secures a position that rewards their experience and expertise.

‘Many top graduates’, how many people are we talking about here though? And you also need to think about the price of entry into that elite club, be it through private schools, tuition, university fees etc etc. And how do you define ‘top graduate’? It’s a teeny tiny tranche of the population. I think the fact that almost 40% of people in Scotland don’t earn enough to pay tax is truly shocking, honestly.

Probably best to focus on the skills she has in her job and look at options that she could do with them. It’s all a bit daunting!

Unfortunately not. £6 a pint of Moretti. £5.50 bottle of Moretti. Supermarkets are cheap - can get 10 bottles for £10, I always ask myself why they need to keep us anaesthetised with cheap alcohol lol. Hubby went for a curry with mates in a local byob Indian restaurant £35 a head for a starter and main course, one soft drink each, no alcohol. That’s just how much things are now. It’s the one thing we have cut back a lot is going out. We still want to go on holiday so the going out had to go, what with the increase in other costs.

Can’t say I’ve come across too many Americans in Glasgow. In fact, on the Edinburgh - Glasgow train during the festival we were sitting opposite 2 American ladies whose accommodation was in Airdrie (random!). They were a wee bit out of place on the rowdy late night train!

I think it’s easier to see the positives when you’re not there, which is probably universal! When you’re living here you really see the lack of investment, things closing down etc. We live in West Lothian but we do own property in Edinburgh. We have a good life here. We don’t go kayaking at the weekends or live an idyllic life as you have described your friends do. Usually I have my washing and housework to catch up on at weekends, or I’m catching up with friends - kayaking and similar hobbies probably take up too much time, plus the one thing you did forget to mention was the weather which is not often conducive to that kind of thing. We have had one of the wettest summers on record and I swear to God only about 3 dry days since October! Lol. Our 10 year old does swimming (4hrs a week), gymnastics, piano so she is out all the time. And yes we do have holidays/trips abroad (5 in 2023). I think it’s understandable that your friends go away more often than you do, given the distances involved. In all honestly, general expenses in Edinburgh are not hugely more expensive than everywhere else any more. It’s £5.50 a bottle of peroni in our local. Property remains the thing that makes it more expensive. Would you move back?

Edinburgh is OK. Have you been since Covid? It’s not what it was either. Princes St is not great. Trams are an unpopular expensive turkey. I think Edinburgh is great for tourists and visitors. It’s just as expensive as London. As I have famously quoted on this forum previously £13 for a glass of rosé! Seriously I will always live Edinburgh as it’s my ‘home’ city, I just don’t get the same thrill from it as I used to.

I feel for you, I had to parachute out in 2018. With 13 years experience I was acting HoD for 2 years, managing 7 staff including 2 probationer teachers. I had a full teaching load myself comprising of 3 languages, RE and PSE. I was earning £40k per year. I had just had enough. I’ve been working in L and D for a few years and although it is nowhere near as meaningful as teaching I am far less stressed, have time for my daughter and I actually have a life. I wish you all the best with the move.

Wee bit of a reality check as to what the ‘average’ salary is in the UK I think. This is nabbed from my LinkedIn and is only about Scotland but gives a good snapshot on the tax take and brackets (which reflects earnings). £57k is almost double the national average salary.

Truth. Mwahahahahaha.

Hmm yeah I don’t really want to get into it but I’m not really ‘feeling’ any politicians at the moment. As you age you start to realise that none of them seem to have made things much better for the average person. SNP are making a huge mess just now. It’s definitely a case of choose your poison at the moment! I can’t quite put into words how bad Glasgow has got, especially if (like me) you remember how it was 20 years ago. It’s not just the shops, it’s the social problems too. They may have always been there, just more diluted but I do think that has also got worse. I can’t really see how it will recover, but I hope it does.

Thought I would spread some end of year cheer by sharing this article. I am always saying how depressing I find Glasgow on my regular commutes to the city. The place has fared really badly since Covid. It’s so sad to see. Edinburgh is certainly not what it was, but there seem to be just enough resources to insulate it from a major downward spiral. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24015008.glasgows-sauchiehall-street-went-wrong/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR3K_qpKJVmLlkhiilRL4VH8qEprlmK5JbAGRfDpfED3riTze9lVJfcDPK0_aem_ATPG11ddehUAdMr0Ndcs6mRgAUOxFIxMpnbweEU18eW_WfOT2HgYbQcLXmV9L9OytsA

Snow never came to anything (here at least) thank goodness. Was worse to the west.

Snowing now!

Just stop getting on the sad step!

I do get that and I’ve thought about it for my wee girl. Bottom line is only really one close friend and my Dad are really interested. The rest of our siblings all do their own thing, not sure if it’s because we’re both the youngest by quite some margin. Hopefully we will make some pals but who knows. It sounds like Wattsy gave it a really good go and at least they have citizenship if they ever want to go back.

A Scot in Southampton though.