Home time?

[Guest Mattinoz]

Well at the risk of getting shot down by people I thought I would put it as it is for me, hopefully so that other people can make an informed opinion if they are thinking of coming over to Oz. My partner and I have been here for 2.5 years, we moved from London to Brisbane initially and lasted 6 months there before we moved to Sydney, after the euphoria of living back in an international city the shine has worn off. Firstly although getting a job over here has been easy as we both work in hospitals we have found that our careers have taken a nosedive. We have had to pay at great expense for additional training that would be provided by the NHS. The health system seems pretty good here and I think the NHS ethos would be better changed to charge a small fee for services. We have tried to buy a house after selling one in England but have got frustrated with the bad quality of housing considering the cost. We pay extortionate rent for a sub-standard house where the landlord refuses to do anything but we have moved too many times so are a bit too fatigued by the idea of moving again. The house also has just about every infestation you could hope for, cockroaches, mosquitos and ants. We havn't made many friends, not for want of trying but have not found people to be as amiable as the stereotype of Aussies would have you believe. And to cap it all off everything is seriously expensive, food is more and not as high quality as we had been lead to believe. We spent a lot of money buying as much homeware etc as we could in an attempt to make ourselves feel at home. We are slowly chucking the stuff out as it has been very bad quality considering the price. And as for the Internet....dont get me started. We have had running battles with Optus for the whole time we have been here, we just about get essence of internet from them, yet again cost versus service is an extremely poor ratio. I have to admit I have been disappointed when friends from the U.K have come here and said its nice but they couldn't live here, I had hoped for a better response when showing them places that I thought would wow them, and secretly hoped we could persuade people to either emigrate or come out again. I came here as a backpacker 10 years ago and thought it was paradise, I now think that was situational with no worries in the world. The weather can be better but then the extreme heat is not pleasant.

Having said all of that I wish England would get its act together regarding asylum having read the BBC today I see they are letting people stay in the country that threaten England with terrorism. I am all for immigration but like here it should be based on merit.

I know you can look at forums like this and see the point of view that you want to and easily ignore everything else but I have been speaking to a lot of people recently who tell the story of maybe 25 years over here before it clicks that it is home, everyones different but I dont feel anywhere near that moment yet. Seems a long while to me when you miss the support of family and friends and the familiarity of simple things like good telly.

Sorry if it is a bit negative, We do love the beaches but if we go back to England, and there is an odds on favourite chance that might happen then we will enjoy OZ as a holiday destination.

[Guest chris955]

Firstly don't apologise for being negative, if your experiences are negative then that is the only way you can express yourself. I sympathise to a large extent. I was only 18 months old when we came here and have lived here the majority of my life but also spent around 15 years in the UK in a few spells.

MY opinion is that my friends in the UK cannot be beaten and would quite literally do anything for us, we haven't met the equivalent here. I loved our life in the UK but at the time couldn't get onto the housing ladder so we came here and immediately bought a place for $115,000 which is now worth around $400,000. It's ironic I could sell it and buy a lovely place in the UK outright.

We had some friends visit last year, they loved everywhere we took them but found it to be expensive, limited in choices and wouldn't want to live here.

I think what it all shows is that nowhere is for everyone.

[Guest MSTO]

We were backpackers too 11 years ago....loved it. It was an easy way of life. We spent 6 months living and working in Sydney (Coogee). Then spent 6 months travelling the rest of Aus with a bit of SE Asia...awesome really good times in our lives....We got back to the UK, got married bought a house together and life was pretty damn good. But DH really did not want to be on his death bed knowing he had never really lived in Australia, as his wife I would have hated to have him living life of regrets and to me Australia was awesome back in 1998/9. We came back in 2005 and are now returning in 2010. As much as Australia is a wonderful country it is not for us long term especially since having two children out here..lovely nice weather, beaches etc but not enough for us to be away from our family and friends.....5 weeks and counting till we return..

 

Good luck I think you know deep down where you want to be:hug:

[Guest chloew]

Have to agree with your post. We too backpacked round Oz, loved it and decided to move over to experience life down under. We didn't want to look back and say if only...........

We've found it hard to make friends and as you say the people are very friendly but it's hard to go deeper than that. Not sure if it's because we're "poms" or just new in town. We were shocked at how expensive homeware is, and why is bedding called Manchester?

The internet is awful and customer service for gas, electricity etc is the same as the UK. Now we've scratched the surface and seen past the nice beaches it's not home for us. I can understand how for some Australia is a great destination but for us it hasn't worked out. We can at least say we have given it a go - for over two years - and go home after a great adventure.

[heyyu]

[ bought a place for $115,000 which is now worth around $400,000]. thats cheap you had acreage in one of your previous posts,400000,sounds like a house in Logan City

[Guest guest30038]

[ bought a place for $115,000 which is now worth around $400,000]. thats cheap you had acreage in one of your previous posts,400000,sounds like a house in Logan City

 

An upmarket one at that price :wink: :biglaugh:

 

kev

[Guest chris955]

What are you talking about ? I've never had acreage, I suppose it is a waste of time asking you to find this post isn't it ? :laugh:

 

[ bought a place for $115,000 which is now worth around $400,000]. thats cheap you had acreage in one of your previous posts,400000,sounds like a house in Logan City