Still here and still feel the pull

[Toots]

5 minutes ago, Loopylu said:

I’m not back in the UK permanently but on a 3 month stay as my Dad died in February. I am lucky in that I can work remotely from here. I return to Qld in early May. I am looking forward to seeing my husband and kids again. I will have had my UK fix for a while and so can cope with life on prison island again…. At least I’ve missed the worst of the incessant La Niña rain and it will be cooler. 

They've had a shocking time of it on large areas of the east coast.  A friend who lives in Lismore was flooded out so she has been staying with her daughter in Sydney for the time being.  It has been raining in Sydney for most of the summer too.

My next door neighbours are heading off to Qld next month until September as they do most years.  Surely by then the weather will be much improved.  

I'm sure you will enjoy the remainder of your time with your Mum.  It will hard to leave her.

[Chortlepuss]

On 12/04/2022 at 15:53, Loopylu said:

I’m not back in the UK permanently but on a 3 month stay as my Dad died in February. I am lucky in that I can work remotely from here. I return to Qld in early May. I am looking forward to seeing my husband and kids again. I will have had my UK fix for a while and so can cope with life on prison island again…. At least I’ve missed the worst of the incessant La Niña rain and it will be cooler. 

I have found that if I can get back home it fills up the tank and I too can tolerate ‘prison island’. Not that I ever celebrate on the flight home. My husband loves it here, my kids are here. I’m stuck & sadly one of those ones contemplating a lonely funeral on Australian soil. I think I’ll put it into my will to have my ashes scattered on the South Downs!. I own a small house in SE UK which is tenanted. I will probably do some dubious number crunching to see if I can convert it to a pied a Terre now I’m approaching retirement. Perhaps I should see if homesick Brits want to rent it for a stay - it’s in a lovely spot

[Loopylu]

4 hours ago, Chortlepuss said:

I have found that if I can get back home it fills up the tank and I too can tolerate ‘prison island’. Not that I ever celebrate on the flight home. My husband loves it here, my kids are here. I’m stuck & sadly one of those ones contemplating a lonely funeral on Australian soil. I think I’ll put it into my will to have my ashes scattered on the South Downs!. I own a small house in SE UK which is tenanted. I will probably do some dubious number crunching to see if I can convert it to a pied a Terre now I’m approaching retirement. Perhaps I should see if homesick Brits want to rent it for a stay - it’s in a lovely spot

I have often read your posts and thought we were singing from the same or a very similar hymn sheet.  You are lucky to have some property here in the UK that you could potentially use as a home for part of the year and split your time between both places.  I'm currently away for a week with my Mum in very rural Worcestershire. We are right by a mill pond in a beautiful barn conversion.  The sun is shining and all is well with the world when you can sit outside (with no flies or mozzies) and eat some lovely grub from the local Waitrose in Droitwich....

[beketamun]

10 hours ago, Loopylu said:

I have often read your posts and thought we were singing from the same or a very similar hymn sheet.  You are lucky to have some property here in the UK that you could potentially use as a home for part of the year and split your time between both places.  I'm currently away for a week with my Mum in very rural Worcestershire. We are right by a mill pond in a beautiful barn conversion.  The sun is shining and all is well with the world when you can sit outside (with no flies or mozzies) and eat some lovely grub from the local Waitrose in Droitwich....

It was an enjoyable thing to nip off the M40 at Banbury in January for me to fill my dad's fridge up with decent Waitrose food !  If only the whole country was like that.  He's currently got a CT scan booked in with a pre-scan blood test required.  He can't book a blood test appointment on the NHS website until 5th May, 2 weeks after his scan....that is, to make a pun...scandalous, when you can walk into any number of places here and get one in 20 minutes.  I'm originally from Worcestershire and I will go back for summer holidays...but it's not a good comparable place to live your life out.  You'd be better off qualitywise and healthwise over the border in North Wales, or somewhere like Inverness in Scotland..if it weren't for the weather.

[Loopylu]

7 hours ago, beketamun said:

It was an enjoyable thing to nip off the M40 at Banbury in January for me to fill my dad's fridge up with decent Waitrose food !  If only the whole country was like that.  He's currently got a CT scan booked in with a pre-scan blood test required.  He can't book a blood test appointment on the NHS website until 5th May, 2 weeks after his scan....that is, to make a pun...scandalous, when you can walk into any number of places here and get one in 20 minutes.  I'm originally from Worcestershire and I will go back for summer holidays...but it's not a good comparable place to live your life out.  You'd be better off qualitywise and healthwise over the border in North Wales, or somewhere like Inverness in Scotland..if it weren't for the weather.

Healthcare in Worcestershire has been dire for a long time. I grew up in Kidderminster and we lost our fantastic A&E and maternity (reports showed it was well run and kept within budget) so they could pump more money into the terrible Worcester PFI and Redditch hospitals. 

 I would not recommend North Wales healthcare either as the health authority there has been in special measures….

My Mum lives in Carmarthenshire and they get excellent healthcare there (Hywel Dda).  My Dad had terminal pancreatic cancer and every area of care (GP, district nurses, Marie Curie, Macmillan, oncology and palliative) was second to none. My friend’s husband had terminal cancer at the same time in Brisbane and she was amazed at how much more support was available in that very rural part of Wales. She had major issues and wrote a 15 page report on the terrible care her husband got at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. It is now being investigated by the Department of Health. My family’s experience of the RBH has also been bad. Qld Health is failing too. 

Yes - scans are easy to come by in Australia but in my view a lot of Medicare funds are wasted on just in case scans by GPs who are afraid of being sued which could be spent on more beds for elective surgery.  Australian healthcare is great if you can afford private healthcare and live close to a city but places like Doomadgee where young Aboriginal people die of easily preventable rheumatic heart disease due to institutional racism in healthcare are terrible. Also that young white lad who died of an in growing toenail in SA shocked me.

I hope your Dad is OK and has the test results he needs to get the best treatment.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Loopylu

[beketamun]

51 minutes ago, Loopylu said:

Healthcare in Worcestershire has been dire for a long time. I grew up in Kidderminster and we lost our fantastic A&E and maternity (reports showed it was well run and kept within budget) so they could pump more money into the terrible Worcester PFI and Redditch hospitals. 

 I would not recommend North Wales healthcare either as the health authority there has been in special measures….

My Mum lives in Carmarthenshire and they get excellent healthcare there (Hywel Dda).  My Dad had terminal pancreatic cancer and every area of care (GP, district nurses, Marie Curie, Macmillan, oncology and palliative) was second to none. My friend’s husband had terminal cancer at the same time in Brisbane and she was amazed at how much more support was available in that very rural part of Wales. She had major issues and wrote a 15 page report on the terrible care her husband got at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. It is now being investigated by the Department of Health. My family’s experience of the RBH has also been bad. Qld Health is failing too. 

Yes - scans are easy to come by in Australia but in my view a lot of Medicare funds are wasted on just in case scans by GPs who are afraid of being sued which could be spent on more beds for elective surgery.  Australian healthcare is great if you can afford private healthcare and live close to a city but places like Doomadgee where young Aboriginal people die of easily preventable rheumatic heart disease due to institutional racism in healthcare are terrible. Also that young white lad who died of an in growing toenail in SA shocked me.

I hope your Dad is OK and has the test results he needs to get the best treatment.

Kiddy A&E was excellent, first choice for everything.

[Cup Final 1973]

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.

[Toots]

13 minutes ago, Cup Final 1973 said:

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 do the same.  Thank goodness and touch wood neither of us need to see the GP often.  I see a cardiologist in Launceston once a year now.  Used to be twice a year.

I know three people currently having cancer treatment.  Two for breast cancer and one for bowel cancer.  The all have their treatment at the cancer centre in the north west regional hospital in Burnie.  I also have a neighbour who had her cancer treatment during Covid.  I don't think anyone missed their treatment here in the north in 2020 and 2021.

[Quoll]

4 hours ago, Cup Final 1973 said:

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.

That's what I used to do with my parents.  The NHS service they and my elderly aunt and uncle received was second to none.  My dad was in hospital being seen by a urologist within 2 weeks of me phoning to say he had an issue.  He had an op about 6 weeks later and Christmas was in the middle of that.  At the same time we were back in Canberra where the Canberra times had its front page news that the waiting time to see a (public) urologist in Canberra was 5 years!!!!  I guess everyone has a different story!  I had to wait 3 weeks to see MY doctor recently (non urgent and I am sure I would have been slotted in to see someone, anyone a lot quicker than that!) 

[BeachBabe2022]

On 07/04/2022 at 23:02, Lucia said:

My husband's parents moved out here 4 years ago too. I'm still not sure how I feel about that one as in all my previous bouts of severe homesickness, it was my MIL talking us into staying - telling us how bad the UK was etc. I feel now there was an ulterior motive.

 

Well there could have been an ulterior motive....... I suppose you will never know for sure

But you know, it could just be the absolute truth too

Previously when I made a comment to family and friends in the UK, about maybe returning for a few years, each and everyone of them have said the same thing.

They say the UK has changed so much for the worse, and how bad it is now. 

My sister and a couple of friends, have said it noticeably started to go downhill about 20 years ago, but has got rapidly worse in the past 10 years. 

It is not even one area. I know people who live all over the country, from Cornwall to Glasgow, and everywhere in between,.....and they all say the same thing.

I think my problem would be, remembering the good times of my youth, and then being disappointed that things were not the same as I remembered. I know nowhere stays the same forever, but apparently things are now so bad, I would not recognize the place at all (or so they tell me)

I have never had a pull to return, so I am not really fussed either way, if I did go back or not.

But I can totally understand how you feel - as I did have a pull to get back to Australia last time I was in the UK.

It is a distressing feeling to be longing to be elsewhere

Hope you find some peace in your heart and soul soon

[Guest]

On 07/04/2022 at 21:02, Lucia said:

Hi All,

This is my first post in around 8 or 9 years. The last time I posted, I said we'd made the decision to return to the UK. I see my 'sticky' at the bottom says we'd return to the UK in 'Easter 2014' - I can't believe I'm still in Perth, in the same house and it's 8 years later.

Life has peddled on by. My daughter is now 10 and my son is 8. We've obviously since been through the process of primary school, sports, clubs etc. We made a few more friends through school etc, my husband was hugely promoted and I began at a new school last year. Life has been pretty good on the whole. We started going to Bali and on caravan holidays down to Busselton. My husband's parents moved out here 4 years ago too. I'm still not sure how I feel about that one as in all my previous bouts of severe homesickness, it was my MIL talking us into staying - telling us how bad the UK was etc. I feel now there was an ulterior motive. It was inevitable really as my husband's only sibling lives here with his wife and kids too.

We were only ever supposed to be in Aus a year and I think my issues stem from this. If my husband had said back in 2008 that we should move for good, I would have refused. I obsessed over this site, watched all episodes of Wanted Down Under and couldnt bear to watch the family messages part. I only agreed to come to Aus on the basis that it was for one year. That one year has just rolled on the the next and the next as life has chugged on by. I realise I occupy my mind with obsessing over things...first it was wedding forums, then getting pregnant forums, new baby forums, this forum when down, buying and decorating a house, getting fit, cake decorating, quitting alcohol. Don't get me wrong - I still have a life. I have friends, go for weekends away etc, but I can see a pattern in my behaviours and I think it's all a coping mechanism. I've been 'coping' for almost 14 years and now I feel too much time has passed. Great jobs, excellent salaries, good school for kids, a lovely house on which we are way ahead on the mortgage and a whole lot of other things. Is it all materialistic or is it realistic? I still can't shake the fear of growing old or even dying here. I cannot handle that my parents don't really know my kids. I've stolen that part of their lives from them. I cannot handle my mum becoming too old to fly here. I cannot handle that I've missed weddings, births, funerals. As always, I bury it.

Anyway, I've just recently been back after 4 years of being trapped here. I desperately wanted to return to see my Dad whose health was deteriorating, but I was too late. Unfortunately, he passed away suddenly at the end of Feb. Because of Covid, I hadn't seen him in such a long time.

As always, I didn't want to get back on the plane to return to Perth. Of course, I wanted to get back to my husband and kids, but I felt I could have happily stayed and built a new life back in the place I still call home. It's so strange that after 13.5 years, UK is 'home' and Perth is 'back' or 'over there' or 'Australia.'

My homesickness is constantly buried deep down and rears its head every time I go home, or every time my Mum visits. It was so bad back in 2019 that I started seeing a psychologist and I only stopped my sessions because of Covid. I started seeing someone else just this week and I made it very clear in the first session that I would have been sitting in front of her whether my dad had recently passed away or not.

I've spoken to my husband about it, and although he will discuss it, deep down I don't think he wants to leave what we have here. Why would he? His parents are now here. His brother and family are now here. He has an excellent job and salary.

I suppose what I'm hoping for is to either make the decision to move back before the kids are too old, or to be able to put the homesickness to bed. Is it actually possible? I've seen many posts on here advising psychological help, but has it ever worked for anyone? Can a psychologist help me to bury the homesickness even deeper? It would be easier for everyone else if I could.

I feel I'm rambling now and things aren't making sense.

Thank you for reading if you have managed to get this far. I'd better go and change my 'sticky' in the footnote  

I feel your pain Lucia, I've posted my own experiences about Perth on the following forum...

https://www.pomsinoz.com/topic/211800-how-long-before-you-realised-that-australia-was-or-was-not-the-place-that-you-wanted-to-spend-the-rest-of-your-days/?page=16&tab=comments#comment-2606464

Sadly, as one poster replied, I'm afraid once the children are settled and your partner and etended family are rooted in Perth, it becomes almost impossible to move back for fear of causing family turmoil, losing your marriage or worse, losing your children. I have had to resign myself to those facts after 11 years of life here. If you're not earning mining salaries or you're supporting an adult in higher education (as I am), going back every year or two to visit is impossible. I am left with utter hopelessness of returning to my beloved Gloucestershire. It's the most terrible personal situation and I can only offer my condolences and thoughts as you attempt to navigate this period in your life. I'm burying it... for possibly the next twenty years until our youngest child is through high school and out the other side. From my very limited experience I suggest you try this option and remain strong until things become easier to cope with. It's true, that the most remote city on the planet can also be the most lonely. Good luck, god bless.

[Lucia]

Thank you for your responses. I'm so sorry that others feel trapped too - it's truly awful.

I've now had four sessions with the psychologist and she is great. She can't give me the answers but she's telling me I need to take note of my body and my heart - I'm all head really as I keep saying - house, money, mortgage, superannuation etc. She's told me that I need to soothe rather than bury the feelings, but I'm unsure of what I've been doing these years. How do I know I was burying rather than soothing before? I've thrown myself into everything whether it's making new friends, work, exercise, camping holidays etc, but the thought of my kids having such a limited existence in Perth makes me feel sick. Perhaps it's rose tinted glasses, but I want them to have the opportunity to go away for uni - halls of residence etc. I want them to go up and down the country for music festivals and nip over to Europe for a weekend etc. What the hell can they do here? Marry their childhood sweetheart who they met in Year 11? Go to uni and live in the family home? Go to Rottnest or Busselton for the weekend...then where? I'm just bloody bored of it all. I find Perth so limiting

[Toots]

54 minutes ago, Lucia said:

Thank you for your responses. I'm so sorry that others feel trapped too - it's truly awful.

I've now had four sessions with the psychologist and she is great. She can't give me the answers but she's telling me I need to take note of my body and my heart - I'm all head really as I keep saying - house, money, mortgage, superannuation etc. She's told me that I need to soothe rather than bury the feelings, but I'm unsure of what I've been doing these years. How do I know I was burying rather than soothing before? I've thrown myself into everything whether it's making new friends, work, exercise, camping holidays etc, but the thought of my kids having such a limited existence in Perth makes me feel sick. Perhaps it's rose tinted glasses, but I want them to have the opportunity to go away for uni - halls of residence etc. I want them to go up and down the country for music festivals and nip over to Europe for a weekend etc. What the hell can they do here? Marry their childhood sweetheart who they met in Year 11? Go to uni and live in the family home? Go to Rottnest or Busselton for the weekend...then where? I'm just bloody bored of it all. I find Perth so limiting

I don't think you should worry about your children.  My siblings and I were brought up on a hill sheep farm in Scotland with no prospects of employment there unless you went into farming, forestry or fishing.  All of us left the area after school (me) and uni (my siblings).  Between us we worked in many different countries.  My sons born and brought up in Australia have been working and living  overseas for the past few years.  If your children have a sense of adventure they will do the same.  The world is their oyster.

[beketamun]

On 21/04/2022 at 11:22, BeachBabe2022 said:

Well there could have been an ulterior motive....... I suppose you will never know for sure

But you know, it could just be the absolute truth too

Previously when I made a comment to family and friends in the UK, about maybe returning for a few years, each and everyone of them have said the same thing.

They say the UK has changed so much for the worse, and how bad it is now. 

My sister and a couple of friends, have said it noticeably started to go downhill about 20 years ago, but has got rapidly worse in the past 10 years. 

It is not even one area. I know people who live all over the country, from Cornwall to Glasgow, and everywhere in between,.....and they all say the same thing.

I think my problem would be, remembering the good times of my youth, and then being disappointed that things were not the same as I remembered. I know nowhere stays the same forever, but apparently things are now so bad, I would not recognize the place at all (or so they tell me)

I have never had a pull to return, so I am not really fussed either way, if I did go back or not.

But I can totally understand how you feel - as I did have a pull to get back to Australia last time I was in the UK.

It is a distressing feeling to be longing to be elsewhere

Hope you find some peace in your heart and soul soon

 

Also, your friends would have moved on with their lives  I really enjoyed a recent trip back but the novelty wore off quickly this time.   Apart from family things, I'd only go back in summertime now, I'd tour round, and I think i'd enjoy it a lot more knowing i'd never have to live and work there again.

[beketamun]

On 17/04/2022 at 18:33, Cup Final 1973 said:

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.

His GP surgery is the pitz, a new supercentre that doesn't answer the phones, doesn't have online booking, made their staff sign non-disclosures so they couldn't talk about how bad it is, and they're constanting churning staff.  Everyone's just waiting for them to sell themselves off, the GP partners pocket the cash and they disappear into the sunset.

There was a recent judicial review which was dismissed into a similar case, and that could open the floodgates. 

https://www.brownejacobson.com/health/training-and-resources/legal-updates/2022/03/judicial-review-outcome-london-gp-practices-to-be-taken-over-by-operose-health

Here i have a docket for an annual blood test.  When i get the results they just write you one out for next time, then you choose which place to drop into.  Never had to wait more than 20 minutes in 10 years.

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by beketamun

[tea4too]

On 21/04/2022 at 02:22, BeachBabe2022 said:

 

Well there could have been an ulterior motive....... I suppose you will never know for sure

 

But you know, it could just be the absolute truth too

 

Previously when I made a comment to family and friends in the UK, about maybe returning for a few years, each and everyone of them have said the same thing.

 

They say the UK has changed so much for the worse, and how bad it is now. 

 

My sister and a couple of friends, have said it noticeably started to go downhill about 20 years ago, but has got rapidly worse in the past 10 years. 

 

It is not even one area. I know people who live all over the country, from Cornwall to Glasgow, and everywhere in between,.....and they all say the same thing.

 

I think my problem would be, remembering the good times of my youth, and then being disappointed that things were not the same as I remembered. I know nowhere stays the same forever, but apparently things are now so bad, I would not recognize the place at all (or so they tell me)

 

I have never had a pull to return, so I am not really fussed either way, if I did go back or not.

 

But I can totally understand how you feel - as I did have a pull to get back to Australia last time I was in the UK.

 

It is a distressing feeling to be longing to be elsewhere

 

Hope you find some peace in your heart and soul soon

 

I've been a forum member for more than a decade and throughout that time have consistently read posts about how awful life is in the UK, from the weather to general lawlessness and loads in between. And it's true that life has changed over the years, particularly since the Global Financial Crash of 2008 followed by the subsequent governments austerity agenda. More recent world events continue to take a serious toll on the economy and I think it's fair to say that most people worry about the steep rise in living costs that is already starting to have an impact.

However, 68million people live here and they are not all desperate to leave. We moved to Wales many years ago and are happy to call it home, the country has a culture, language and beauty that is easy to embrace and would be difficult to walk away from. But my point is this  - family and friends assume you have a better life in Australia, it's the message provided by most tv shows and magazines, so it is easy to look at the negatives of life in the UK and compare them unfavourably with the positives of Aus. But in reality they are both first world countries. It is still possible to have a decent life, raise well adjusted well educated children, and have a nice home in both countries. Location matters and your priorities matter, but that's the case irrespective of whether you live in Australia or the UK. T x

[BeachBabe2022]

Just now, tea4too said:

 

However, 68million people live here and they are not all desperate to leave.

Err

Whatever dear.........

I am simply talking from MY experiences and the feedback I have personally been given by family and friends still living in the UK.

If you have experienced different, well that is YOUR experience isn't it.

Doesn't make mine less ......does it.

???

 

[tea4too]

50 minutes ago, BeachBabe2022 said:

Err

Whatever dear.........

I am simply talking from MY experiences and the feedback I have personally been given by family and friends still living in the UK.

If you have experienced different, well that is YOUR experience isn't it.

Doesn't make mine less ......does it.

???

 

Not sure why you have taken my reply as a personal criticism. It wasn't intended as such and was simply my own, general/ personal response, to some of the issues you raised, which is the reason I quoted your post. Tbf it can be difficult to navigate the intention of posts without the benefit of body language or a tone of voice, but I would have been happy to clarify as It's unnecessary and too easy for threads to disintegrate when people trade slights back and forth. T x

[BeachBabe2022]

Just now, tea4too said:

Not sure why you have taken my reply as a personal criticism.

Because that is exactly how it came across

[tea4too]

1 minute ago, BeachBabe2022 said:

Because that is exactly how it came across

I'm sorry you read it that way but I have already clarified that was not the intention. In a public forum views are shared, challenged, queried and bandied about.... and my reply was not so much 'to you', as in response to some of the issues you raised. But I will leave it at that as I have nothing further to add, and do want the OP's thread derailed unnecessarily . Tx

[Toots]

1 hour ago, beketamun said:

His GP surgery is the pitz, a new supercentre that doesn't answer the phones, doesn't have online booking, made their staff sign non-disclosures so they couldn't talk about how bad it is, and they're constanting churning staff.  Everyone's just waiting for them to sell themselves off, the GP partners pocket the cash and they disappear into the sunset.

There was a recent judicial review which was dismissed into a similar case, and that could open the floodgates. 

https://www.brownejacobson.com/health/training-and-resources/legal-updates/2022/03/judicial-review-outcome-london-gp-practices-to-be-taken-over-by-operose-health

Here i have a docket for an annual blood test.  When i get the results they just write you one out for next time, then you choose which place to drop into.  Never had to wait more than 20 minutes in 10 years.

 

There are 5 GP surgeries in Devonport and a person I met the other day (new to town) who tried in vain to make an appointment with a GP in all 5 was informed they are not taking any new patients.  She managed to find a GP in Ulverston which is about a 15 minute drive from here.  There are quite a few incomers to this town and it would appear the GP surgeries have their hands full with current patients.  

[Marisawright]

1 hour ago, BeachBabe2022 said:

I am simply talking from feedback I have personally been given by family and friends still living in the UK.

 

 

Yes, you've been personally given that feedback, but talk to most Aussies and they'll say that life has gone downhill in the last 20 or 30 years too.  It's a global phenomenon.  If both have gone downhill, which has gone downhill worse?  It's a question of comparison and as @tea4too points out, your family and friends are imagining you living in a Home & Away paradise.  Which maybe you are, because you're a single person renting in a nice part of Sydney, which you could never afford if you were part of a family and needed to buy a home, so I'm not sure you have a realistic view of life in Australia for the average family either.

[newjez]

39 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

Yes, you've been personally given that feedback, but talk to most Aussies and they'll say that life has gone downhill in the last 20 or 30 years too.  It's a global phenomenon.  If both have gone downhill, which has gone downhill worse?  It's a question of comparison and as @tea4too points out, your family and friends are imagining you living in a Home & Away paradise.  Which maybe you are, because you're a single person renting in a nice part of Sydney, which you could never afford if you were part of a family and needed to buy a home, so I'm not sure you have a realistic view of life in Australia for the average family either.

I don't think anything has changed in the UK over the last twenty odd years other than there being a few more houses. I walk and cycle and it is still a very beautiful place. We often walk cuckmere haven, and for some reason we never took the trails up the downs. We did the other day and it is breathtakingly beautiful.

Possibly people's attitudes have changed? When I arrived in the UK in 95, we had a tired old Tory party that seemed to have run out of ideas, and the only answer they had was to sell off utilities cheap.

Then new labour burst onto the scene. Things could only get better. Peace in northern Ireland. Brit pop. The UK had a place in the world where Australia never had, and it was quite exciting, and there was a real feeling of hope, and a feeling that the government was on your side.

Sadly that didn't end well. The Iraq war, overpriced property, and a GFC. We changed to the Tories who only offered austerity. Then the bitter division of Brexit, and then covid which reunited us briefly before tearing us apart again. And now a bitter war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear destruction. Not saying this threat is realistic, but it's just another thing.

We now have two/three political parties that have the inspiration of a damp piece of toast. There's no vision. I don't think I could vote for anyone and feel that the country would be in a better place in ten years time.

It just feels a bit tired. Still beautiful. Still has the countryside and the lovely village pubs and all of that. But Britain seems to have lost its purpose. At least that's how I feel. Understandably I guess considering what we have been through, and I imagine other countries are the same. It worries me that France may lurch to the right this weekend. I don't think that is the solution. But what is the solution?

Despite the beauty of the UK, and everything it has to offer. I can't see any hope on the horizon, and I'm contemplating a retirement in Australia. True, it also has its problems, but at least it's warm there.

[Bulya]

1 hour ago, BeachBabe2022 said:

Because that is exactly how it came across

Agree.  

[Bulya]

1 hour ago, Toots said:

There are 5 GP surgeries in Devonport and a person I met the other day (new to town) who tried in vain to make an appointment with a GP in all 5 was informed they are not taking any new patients.  She managed to find a GP in Ulverston which is about a 15 minute drive from here.  There are quite a few incomers to this town and it would appear the GP surgeries have their hands full with current patients.  

Another medical practise has recently opened here, also walking distance and 200m from another, and they’re advertising for patients.  Sounds like a Tassie problem.