LKC Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 Just a quick update for the few people who've been following our journey. After months and months of decision making, research, finishing renovations on our house, selling that and OH's business and organising our move back to the UK, we finally moved back two weeks ago! So far, so good. OH's parents met us at Edinburgh airport and had booked a holiday cottage for us all to rent for the first few days which was a MASSIVE help. We spent a few days sorting out bank accounts, driving licenses, orientating ourselves, getting over the jet-lag (and a vomiting bug for some of us) and buying odd bits of furniture and other things to replace things we hadn't shipped. We had managed to arrange a rental from Australia, thanks to OH's mum and his new boss, who very kindly looked around the house for us and gave it the okay. We have now moved into the rental house and are starting to get settled. We are in a fairly rural part of central Scotland. We aren't from here originally (we lived in Suffolk before we moved to Sydney) but OH was offered a job in a town a bit north of Edinburgh, so here is where we are. It is absolutely stunningly beautiful, the village we are in is really lovely and everyone we've met so far has been super friendly. The kids started at school yesterday, it is a much smaller school than they are used to in Australia, with only 25 kids in youngest kid's year and 10 kids in eldest kid's year! They have already been asked to go on playdates, and the mums at the school gates have been really lovely, with phone numbers exchanged and an invite to an evening at the pub for me already! It seems to be a really lovely family-friendly area, hopefully we can make some friends here and become part of the community, something which we never really managed in Australia. OH is due to start his new job on Monday. He went into work today to meet everyone, and is really pleased with how things went. It is a really good opportunity for him long-term, so he is pleased we made the move. I will go back to work at some point, but we've agreed that I'll stay at home until the kids are settled in school and will spend the next few months getting us organised with a house purchase/move and thinking about my next step. I haven't worked in my profession for 10 years (I couldn't do it in Australia without re-sitting my professional exams, and since the kids were tiny when we moved I never bothered), so I've got to decide whether to go back to that (after some training) or whether to take on a new challenge. So that's where we're at. We are all pretty happy so far, although I am aware that firstly we probably have our 'honeymoon' glasses on, and secondly we haven't done a winter here yet, but hopefully this is somewhere we can call home for a while at least! 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tea4too Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 What a lovely update, so pleased things are slotting into place for you all. Good luck with the next chapter of your family’s story – exciting times! T x 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERYSTORMY Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 Great to hear all is good and you are settling in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LKC Posted September 19, 2017 Author Share Posted September 19, 2017 I forgot to say, we shipped our four cats over at great expense. They arrived in fairly good spirits, if slightly crumpled and fairly smelly from the flight. We left them alone in the rental house for the first few days, just popping in to feed them/check on them/change the litter/have a cuddle twice a day, to let them settle. It seemed to work well, the two cats that didn't get along so well now can be found sleeping cuddled up together fairly often! They have settled into a good routine, and seem happy enough, although they are shedding lots of hair, presumably because they now live in a centrally-heated house rather than an unheated one! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristolman Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 Fantastic, great to hear the move went well. Very similar to us, kids went to a little village school, very friendly and welcoming. Well done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deryans Posted September 19, 2017 Share Posted September 19, 2017 Wonderful update, sounds super, I can understand the animal shipping cost!, we brought our dog over on emirates - all worth it as she is my daughters familiar and I took our dog to our local pub last friday afternoon where she was very popular! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 I was wondering how your move had gone so good to hear that things have slotted into place for you! Welcome home!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinbjulieb Posted September 20, 2017 Share Posted September 20, 2017 Welcome home LKC. Now you have your internet up and running I will reply to your email!! ? J 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 Glad the move went well and you're feeling settled. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil & Vikki Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 It is great to hear that all is going well and going to plan. So nice to hear that you have found a nice little village that you have been welcomed into and where you can hopefully have a positive impact in. That is one thing that we find about living in Sydney, there is nothing like that and to the most you are on your own. We have found it hard to make new friends and have any kind of social life. Hopefully, you will enjoy it there and fit in. It is inspiring to hear that the move for you has gone so well. We are looking at moving back late next year and to hear good positive updates like this is great. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LKC Posted September 28, 2017 Author Share Posted September 28, 2017 7 hours ago, Phil & Vikki said: It is great to hear that all is going well and going to plan. So nice to hear that you have found a nice little village that you have been welcomed into and where you can hopefully have a positive impact in. That is one thing that we find about living in Sydney, there is nothing like that and to the most you are on your own. We have found it hard to make new friends and have any kind of social life. Hopefully, you will enjoy it there and fit in. It is inspiring to hear that the move for you has gone so well. We are looking at moving back late next year and to hear good positive updates like this is great. I'm not saying that our experience in Australia was typical, but certainly for us we had a similar experience to you and found it incredibly difficult to make friends. Indeed, the two good friends that I did have were migrants themselves. We do seem to have ended up in a lovely place. I was invited over for coffee by one of the school mums yesterday and spent three hours at her house just chit-chatting. She had also gone and fetched a whole heap of leaflets for me about local amenities and things to do/places to visit! In our almost nine years in Sydney I can count on two hands the number of times I was invited over for coffee by the people I met! Not through lack of trying, either. I would invite people over to mine but have them make excuses as to why they couldn't come or have them cancel on me last minute. As I was huffing down the road after my morning walk/run this morning, a lovely elderly chap stopped to talk to me and told me who he was, where he lived, told me about the people whose house we're renting, told me about the horse he looks after, and just generally had a chat about the village. When I got back from picking the kids up yesterday afternoon, the lady from a few doors up came out to see how we were settling in and ask if we needed anything. The difference is startling. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramot Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 24 minutes ago, LKC said: I'm not saying that our experience in Australia was typical, but certainly for us we had a similar experience to you and found it incredibly difficult to make friends. Indeed, the two good friends that I did have were migrants themselves. We do seem to have ended up in a lovely place. I was invited over for coffee by one of the school mums yesterday and spent three hours at her house just chit-chatting. She had also gone and fetched a whole heap of leaflets for me about local amenities and things to do/places to visit! In our almost nine years in Sydney I can count on two hands the number of times I was invited over for coffee by the people I met! Not through lack of trying, either. I would invite people over to mine but have them make excuses as to why they couldn't come or have them cancel on me last minute. As I was huffing down the road after my morning walk/run this morning, a lovely elderly chap stopped to talk to me and told me who he was, where he lived, told me about the people whose house we're renting, told me about the horse he looks after, and just generally had a chat about the village. When I got back from picking the kids up yesterday afternoon, the lady from a few doors up came out to see how we were settling in and ask if we needed anything. The difference is startling. So pleased to hear you have settled back,, and sound so happy, but I don't think you can compare village life to Sydney, or any other city. One of the things I was looking for when we were moving to Oz, was a village environment, as we had lived in a large village when we last lived in UK, but I do relate to your experience in Sydney as we had a house in London We moved close to Buderim on the Sunshine Coast, and there is a great sense of community here, our neighbours had us in for coffee on our first morning here. We find people really support each other. Our small close has a Christmas street party every year, and although we don't socialise much with each other, we are always there for each other, eg. taking in the mail and checking the house if anyone is away, In other words the usual neighbourly things. We have made really good friends here, which we might have thought would be difficult as we retired here with no family or friends in the area, but we were made so welcome. It's absolutely not my intention to start one of those stupid comparison arguments that have a habit of happening on Poms, I'm really pleased to hear so many posters happy with their move back to UK, just wanted to point out that there are equally friendly places in Oz. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toots Posted September 29, 2017 Share Posted September 29, 2017 15 hours ago, LKC said: I'm not saying that our experience in Australia was typical, but certainly for us we had a similar experience to you and found it incredibly difficult to make friends. Indeed, the two good friends that I did have were migrants themselves. We do seem to have ended up in a lovely place. I was invited over for coffee by one of the school mums yesterday and spent three hours at her house just chit-chatting. She had also gone and fetched a whole heap of leaflets for me about local amenities and things to do/places to visit! In our almost nine years in Sydney I can count on two hands the number of times I was invited over for coffee by the people I met! Not through lack of trying, either. I would invite people over to mine but have them make excuses as to why they couldn't come or have them cancel on me last minute. As I was huffing down the road after my morning walk/run this morning, a lovely elderly chap stopped to talk to me and told me who he was, where he lived, told me about the people whose house we're renting, told me about the horse he looks after, and just generally had a chat about the village. When I got back from picking the kids up yesterday afternoon, the lady from a few doors up came out to see how we were settling in and ask if we needed anything. The difference is startling. Good to hear you are settling in LKC. So much for some folk's opinions on Scots being dour. I've always found them to be very welcoming and friendly - and that's not being biased as I'm a Scot. Even here, the Scots I've met are (on the whole) cheerful, happy souls. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simmo Posted September 30, 2017 Share Posted September 30, 2017 On 9/29/2017 at 04:08, Toots said: Good to hear you are settling in LKC. So much for some folk's opinions on Scots being dour. I've always found them to be very welcoming and friendly - and that's not being biased as I'm a Scot. Even here, the Scots I've met are (on the whole) cheerful, happy souls. I've always found the Scots to be well balanced They have a chip on both shoulders. boom boom. (just kidding) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toots Posted September 30, 2017 Share Posted September 30, 2017 1 minute ago, simmo said: I've always found the Scots to be well balanced They have a chip on both shoulders. boom boom. (just kidding) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bristolman Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 On 28/09/2017 at 12:38, LKC said: I'm not saying that our experience in Australia was typical, but certainly for us we had a similar experience to you and found it incredibly difficult to make friends. Indeed, the two good friends that I did have were migrants themselves. We do seem to have ended up in a lovely place. I was invited over for coffee by one of the school mums yesterday and spent three hours at her house just chit-chatting. She had also gone and fetched a whole heap of leaflets for me about local amenities and things to do/places to visit! In our almost nine years in Sydney I can count on two hands the number of times I was invited over for coffee by the people I met! Not through lack of trying, either. I would invite people over to mine but have them make excuses as to why they couldn't come or have them cancel on me last minute. As I was huffing down the road after my morning walk/run this morning, a lovely elderly chap stopped to talk to me and told me who he was, where he lived, told me about the people whose house we're renting, told me about the horse he looks after, and just generally had a chat about the village. When I got back from picking the kids up yesterday afternoon, the lady from a few doors up came out to see how we were settling in and ask if we needed anything. The difference is startling. We found similar to you, we had a few good friends in Brisbane but like you the best we made were themselves migrants. Many others seemed to keep themselves at arms length. We have really fallen our feet where we live, a typical small friendly English village. When we first moved in I found it hard to get anything done outside because of people wanting to stop and chat, a nice problem to have lol I agree, the difference is startling. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Home and Happy Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 On 01/10/2017 at 15:27, bristolman said: the difference is startling. Yep...chalk & cheese. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 Sounds very racist. Be happy where you live but no need to insult all Australians while you go about it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perthbum Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 8 minutes ago, Parley said: Sounds very racist. Be happy where you live but no need to insult all Australians while you go about it. You are british parley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 Whether you think I'm British is not relevant to someone insulting all Australians as unfriendly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 How about we don't take the thread off into bickering or point scoring on each other. Its about LKC's move back. Lets not spoil it for her or others reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toots Posted October 6, 2017 Share Posted October 6, 2017 40 minutes ago, snifter said: How about we don't take the thread off into bickering or point scoring on each other. Its about LKC's move back. Lets not spoil it for her or others reading. I for one am looking forward to more of LKC's posts about her life in Scotland. I was planning on staying with my sister in Edinburgh some time next year but she is coming here again before Christmas and then she, my two sons and their partners, my sister in law and niece are going to NZ to stay in my nephews house in Queenstown for Christmas and New Year. A real family get together. Will probably put off the Edinburgh holiday until the year after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 Yes me to @Toots can we please have some photos @LKC once you are settled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LKC Posted October 7, 2017 Author Share Posted October 7, 2017 Here are a few! The three horse ones are the Kelpies in Falkirk. The one with the cats is the view out of our kitchen/dining room window. The one after that I took today in the Cairngorms and the last one with the sheep is the Ochil hills near where we live. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERYSTORMY Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 We love the Kelpies. Stunning and a wonderful place to walk. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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