How Long before you realised that Australia was or was not the place that you wanted to spend the rest of your days ?

[MARYROSE02]

7 hours ago, Marisawright said:

There's one important difference between you and bug family.  Like I said, you are adaptable - you liked Perth, you liked Adelaide, you liked Sydney, you like Surfers, you like Penrith, you like various places in the UK - you're the ideal migrant, able to settle in a wide variety of places.

Bug family feels a yearning for England. It's not rational, it's not based on whether a place is nice to live or not, it's a deep-seated need to be in the land where he belongs.  Australia could be a paradise and it would make no difference.  He could go back to England and discover it's a s*** heap and he would still be happy as a pig in mud. You may not have that strong attachment to a place, but an awful lot of people do.

I do have strong attachments to places! It's why I still have not sold my house in the UK despite not having been back for a dozen years. It's the same with my flat in Sydney which my brothers are pushing me to sell now that i am settled in Surfers Paradise. I'm thinking that my parents helped me to buy that place in 1987 and I feel like I'm throwing them away if I sell it.

Perhaps what makes me the way I am is being a dual citizen of both Australia and the UK and feeling an affinity for both countries. But I also think that it's the people, especially family that make a country special. Sure you can watch Midsommer Murders and think how beautiful England is but now that my parents have passed away there is nothing there for me. I can't talk to a 500 year old manor house or an 11th century church in England any more than I can talk to a tower block built in 2000 in Surfers Paradise but my brother is in that tower block with me.

 

[Bulya]

3 hours ago, Quoll said:

Ah you haven’t lived!!! 

Can’t stand the fatty oily taste of full fat milk in tea/covfefe, so as much as I love cream it wouldn’t work for me 

[AliQ]

16 hours ago, bug family said:

for example you mention village pubs in one of your earlier posts, that feeling that you get when you discover a little village and its pub that you have never been to before....compared to.....discovering another coles in a generic shopping centre

I get it bug family. Agree.

[Bulya]

17 hours ago, bug family said:

Mmmmm let me think Maryrose   ....some things are tangible and you can definitely make the comparison, but others not so much, therefore it is hard to be specific, that is because everyone feels different about where they live and what they experience here and have experienced elsewhere in their lives......for example in my opinion, here the suburbs are all very nice and clean and the houses look shiny on the outside, but its a facade, as on the inside they are all pretty much the same boxy soulless layout and quite dark and depressing and life here, for me at least seems to be the same ......its a choice of beach, bbq, aussie football, v8 holdens, with a bit of alcohol, sunburn, mosquitoes and endless outback...and not much else ...oooo but we have got a tour of freemantle prison that you can go on for the sixteenth time ..... for example you mention village pubs in one of your earlier posts, that feeling that you get when you discover a little village and its pub that you have never been to before....compared to.....discovering another coles in a generic shopping centre set in the middle of a bunch of houses all built on a large sand pit.....just not the same is it.....It is unfair I suppose to compare historical items as yes Britain has a massive amount of culture and historical places and I am not going to get into making a comparison list as i would be obviously biased in what I would list,  I simply tend to agree on what red rose commented that underneath the shiny exterior here it is not very shiny at all .....in fact its very dull

I can jump in the car and head off into the country and discover new pubs etc in rural towns/villages without a problem.  Why can’t you do the same?

[Toots]

9 hours ago, Quoll said:

It is great isn’t it?! My granddaughter loves it and wants to go and live in England!!!

That part of the UK is one of my favourite  places.  I have a very good friend who lives on a farm in the Dales near Northallerton.  Alf Wright (James Heriot) was the local vet back in the day.

[Marisawright]

19 hours ago, Quoll said:

There are probably better places for coffee but so very few of them serve it with cream 

Where did you pick up that habit?

I remember loving coffee with cream back in the 70's, in Carwardine's in Bristol.   But  the cream was served separately, you poured it carefully over the back of a spoon and if you did it right, it floated on top of the coffee and you drank the coffee through the cream.  If you got it wrong and the cream mixed with the coffee, it tasted completely different (and horrible). 

[MARYROSE02]

21 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

Where did you pick up that habit?

I remember loving coffee with cream back in the 70's, in Carwardine's in Bristol.   But  the cream was served separately, you poured it carefully over the back of a spoon and if you did it right, it floated on top of the coffee and you drank the coffee through the cream.  If you got it wrong and the cream mixed with the coffee, it tasted completely different (and horrible). 

My brother is on a low sugar diet and he has iced coffee with a separate cup of cream - whipped heavy cream he just told me. Each morning he has steak with a slice of cheese and salad. I had poached eggs, bacon, tomato, mushroom and a slice of toast. I was going to try going without the toast. If I have muesli he berates me for my sugar addiction. I'll give him his due. He's lost a heap of weight and given up alcohol.

We shall go down to the Coffee Club again at 1 and he will repeat his iced coffee with cream on the side and I'll have a flat white. He'll eat bacon for lunch then meat and salad for dinner with soda water whilst I will have often the same meal but with chips or spud, beer or wine, and lashings of guilt.

[MARYROSE02]

6 hours ago, Bulya said:

I can jump in the car and head off into the country and discover new pubs etc in rural towns/villages without a problem.  Why can’t you do the same?

I was just thinking, reading your post, about the trip I did from Perth to Albany. I stopped or atayed at a number of country towns - Northam, York, Quairiding (Bet I mispselt that one - I drove from York and back), Beverley, Albany, Bridgetown, Donnybrook, and a couple of other towns I can't remember the names though I overnighted i both of them. One was ?Walpole? maybe. I did the Valley of the Giants - Absolutely brilliant too and the other was an aboriginal name inevitably ending in 'Up' (meeting place I believe??)

The point is that I went into pubs in every one of those towns, often buying stubby holders which I love to do. In my experience, country towns usually have them but city pubs don't.  All the pubs are different, some straight pubs or taverns, others the 'proper' hotels with the big verandahs and doing accomodation. They often support the local footie or cricket teams so there's interesting photographs and memorabilia to look at. The towns themselves are interesting too.

[Bulya]

27 minutes ago, MARYROSE02 said:

I was just thinking, reading your post, about the trip I did from Perth to Albany. I stopped or atayed at a number of country towns - Northam, York, Quairiding (Bet I mispselt that one - I drove from York and back), Beverley, Albany, Bridgetown, Donnybrook, and a couple of other towns I can't remember the names though I overnighted i both of them. One was ?Walpole? maybe. I did the Valley of the Giants - Absolutely brilliant too and the other was an aboriginal name inevitably ending in 'Up' (meeting place I believe??)

The point is that I went into pubs in every one of those towns, often buying stubby holders which I love to do. In my experience, country towns usually have them but city pubs don't.  All the pubs are different, some straight pubs or taverns, others the 'proper' hotels with the big verandahs and doing accomodation. They often support the local footie or cricket teams so there's interesting photographs and memorabilia to look at. The towns themselves are interesting too.

Here in the Capital Region it just happens to include the Southern Highlands, like England but often greener.  Centuries old pubs/taverns hiding where you least expect.  Also the booming country towns like Yass, Goulburn, Crookwell etc.  Highlands standouts are Berrima, Moss Vale, Exeter, Robertson, Fitzroy Falls, Bundannon, and Bowral.  Bowral alone is worthy of a day trip...

[NickyNook]

I only drink coffee with cream, too. If you’re on a low-carb diet then milky coffees are a no-no (milk contains lactose, cream does not).

In the old days (40 years ago) all Aussie coffee shops had ‘Vienna’ coffee on their menu which was coffee with cream. They also had cappuccino, long black, short black, mocha etc. Nowadays you only get the Italian names, plus the ubiquitous Flat White, of course. And rarely is coffee with cream mentioned, unfortunately.

[Marisawright]

17 minutes ago, NickyNook said:

In the old days (40 years ago) all Aussie coffee shops had ‘Vienna’ coffee on their menu which was coffee with cream

I only drink coffee with cream, too. If you’re on a low-carb diet then milky coffees are a no-no (milk contains lactose, cream does not).

I remember Vienna coffee, but I thought it was just whipped cream sitting on top?  Like an Irish Coffee without the liqueur.  I remember drinking Irish coffee in Swaziland in the early 80's.  We had just arrived (my oh had a job there) and we were put up in a hotel for a couple of weeks.  Meals were provided but not alcohol.  We discovered that the hotel counted Irish Coffee as "coffee" not "alcohol", so we ended up having an Irish Coffee every night after dinner! 

I've never understood the idea of not having milk on a low-carb diet.   I read one keto blog which said, "milk has 12g of carbs whereas cream has only 0.4g" - but they're comparing a large serving of milk to one tablespoon of cream!    Comparing fluid ounce to fluid ounce, the difference is nowhere near that, so you could just as easily have a splash of milk as a spoonful of cream - and of course, cream has several times the calories.

Edited November 4, 2020 by Marisawright

[Quoll]

23 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

I remember Vienna coffee, but I thought it was just whipped cream sitting on top?  Like an Irish Coffee without the liqueur.  I remember drinking Irish coffee in Swaziland in the early 80's.  We had just arrived (my oh had a job there) and we were put up in a hotel for a couple of weeks.  Meals were provided but not alcohol.  We discovered that the hotel counted Irish Coffee as "coffee" not "alcohol", so we ended up having an Irish Coffee every night after dinner! 

I've never understood the idea of not having milk on a low-carb diet.   I read one keto blog which said, "milk has 12g of carbs whereas cream has only 0.4g" - but they're comparing a large serving of milk to one tablespoon of cream!    Comparing fluid ounce to fluid ounce, the difference is nowhere near that, so you could just as easily have a splash of milk as a spoonful of cream - and of course, cream has several times the calories.

Milk in coffee tastes disgusting though.  If I really really cant find cream then I get black but coffee here is so damned strong it needs to be like quarter strength or something 

[Quoll]

7 hours ago, Toots said:

That part of the UK is one of my favourite  places.  I have a very good friend who lives on a farm in the Dales near Northallerton.  Alf Wright (James Heriot) was the local vet back in the day.

That's where my genes come from so I think that is why it appeals to me so much.

[Marisawright]

20 minutes ago, Quoll said:

Milk in coffee tastes disgusting though.  If I really really cant find cream then I get black but coffee here is so damned strong it needs to be like quarter strength or something 

See, I think cream mixed into coffee tastes disgusting. And when we were back in 2015, I found coffee in the UK tasted like water with a splash of coffee.  Thank heaven for Caffe Nero!  It's what you're used to, I suppose.    

Here, you can ask for a long black, single shot with hot water on the side. 

[Quoll]

47 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

See, I think cream mixed into coffee tastes disgusting. And when we were back in 2015, I found coffee in the UK tasted like water with a splash of coffee.  Thank heaven for Caffe Nero!  It's what you're used to, I suppose.    

Here, you can ask for a long black, single shot with hot water on the side. 

LOL, I do!!!!

[ramot]

I felt at home almost as soon as I arrived, no idea why, it just felt right.

Now Nearly 18 years later I finally became an Australian citizen today, this really is my home, I’m here to stay, I’m feeling quite emotional.

 

[bug family]

31 minutes ago, ramot said:

I finally became an Australian citizen today, this really is my home, I’m here to stay, I’m feeling quite emotional

Congratulations Ramot, I am glad you have found home

[Bulya]

32 minutes ago, ramot said:

I felt at home almost as soon as I arrived, no idea why, it just felt right.

Now Nearly 18 years later I finally became an Australian citizen today, this really is my home, I’m here to stay, I’m feeling quite emotional.

 

Took quite a few years but I got there.  Those who think they’ll feel ‘settled’ in 3 months or a year or two always make me laugh...

[bug family]

19 hours ago, MARYROSE02 said:

I can't talk to a 500 year old manor house or an 11th century church in England

oh I can trust me ........I even bore people about how you can smell and taste the history back home in the UK

We are opposite in a number of ways i suppose Maryrose02, in that its not generally the people that I miss back home (apart from obviously my mum and sister and brother etc and some close friends) but more the place itself and that has not changed , as in the mountains, lakes, beaches, hills, castles, churches, little towns and villages you get the idea.........

[ramot]

14 minutes ago, bug family said:

Congratulations Ramot, I am glad you have found home

Lived in several countries over the years, so it’s nice to feel settled.

[MARYROSE02]

3 hours ago, bug family said:

oh I can trust me ........I even bore people about how you can smell and taste the history back home in the UK

We are opposite in a number of ways i suppose Maryrose02, in that its not generally the people that I miss back home (apart from obviously my mum and sister and brother etc and some close friends) but more the place itself and that has not changed , as in the mountains, lakes, beaches, hills, castles, churches, little towns and villages you get the idea.........

So, when you see a house that someone like Charles Dickens or Jane Austen lived in, you are contemptuous of it because it is not real history being in the 19th century and hardly being worthwhile of considered to be 'real' history, because real history started before 1788, before Trafalgar, before Waterloo?

[MARYROSE02]

10 hours ago, Bulya said:

Here in the Capital Region it just happens to include the Southern Highlands, like England but often greener.  Centuries old pubs/taverns hiding where you least expect.  Also the booming country towns like Yass, Goulburn, Crookwell etc.  Highlands standouts are Berrima, Moss Vale, Exeter, Robertson, Fitzroy Falls, Bundannon, and Bowral.  Bowral alone is worthy of a day trip...

That sounds wonderful and I know i have been to some of those places. My niece got married in Bowral - still not been to the Bradnam museum, but for all that, here i am in Surfers Paradise where every building is younger than me but I still love it!

[Bulya]

5 hours ago, ramot said:

Lived in several countries over the years, so it’s nice to feel settled.

Same here.  Looked at the visa stamps in my parents passports and still can’t work out which countries I’ve been too.  Every page is full and some...

[ramot]

6 hours ago, Bulya said:

Same here.  Looked at the visa stamps in my parents passports and still can’t work out which countries I’ve been too.  Every page is full and some...

You me both, sometimes someone asks me if I’ve been somewhere and I honestly don’t always know the answer. 

[bug family]

15 hours ago, MARYROSE02 said:

So, when you see a house that someone like Charles Dickens or Jane Austen lived in, you are contemptuous of it because it is not real history being in the 19th century and hardly being worthwhile of considered to be 'real' history, because real history started before 1788, before Trafalgar, before Waterloo?

I am sorry Maryrose but i have absolutely no idea what you are talking about...I miss the place ...as in Great Britain and all that comes with it, where am i contemptuous? and how do I not consider charles dickens or Jane Austin as not being part of the history of great Britain?....you have totally lost me there