lancslass

I feel for you, it is everyone's fear that something dreadful will happen to a friend or family member and your thousands of miles away unable to help or give support. It eventually broke us and a few months ago after 6 years of living in Oz we all moved back to the UK, it was the right thing to do as what we had always feared happened and we had a family member suddenly diagnosed with cancer, being here to help has really taken away that guilt we would have felt if still in Oz BUT and this is a huge BUT... by thinking of everyone else we stopped thinking about what was best for us and believe me the UK is not what is best for us anymore, there are very few opportunities here and coming back in our early 40's trying to start over with children is financial suicide. Being here feels right for everyone else, it makes it easy for them that we are here but we are struggling to settle. There is very little work most is contract or temping with very few benefits, most of the minimum wage jobs have been replaced with apprentiships or East European workers and many people are struggling financially. Many, many towns are very deprived and the amount of poverty is beyond anything I could ever remember. Schools are just not challenging enough for my children compared to the schooling they had in Oz, they achieved so much over there and here they are bored. Sport at school is a joke, they are not even allowed to compete at sports day now! It has to all be team events, if teachers give a negative to a child they have to follow it with a positive and we have just had a letter to say they have stopped grading students and instead of As, Bs and Cs etc they are measured as above, expected and below expected age level. The weather is far worse than I remember, but we did arrive in winter. The cold, wet dark mornings are very bleak and you forget how beautiful the blue sky is there and how healthier you feel, the beaches, the vast open parks and many free community events, the weather there allows you to have a better lifestyle and I think we had started to take it for granted. This period of grief will pass and life will get back to normal, what Australia offers for now and the future is far more than (in my opinion) what the UK has to offer anymore, it really has and is changing beyond recognition. I know it's hard but I wished I'd forgot about my feelings for everybody else and what might happen and concentrated on our little family and their future. Sounds harsh but if you have a good life, your daughters are happy and you are enjoying Australia it could easily be very different if you came back. EVERYBODY tells us we are crazy for coming back and at first we used to get really defensive and angry now I can see their point.

I really feel for you. Our 10 year old son is also very homesick and has been for the 6 years we have been here, our other 2 don't feel it at all. He misses the UK so much and on a trip back last year he was so happy to be there he cried when we had to return. Everybody is different it really doesn't matter what age you are if you feel a connection to somewhere that connection is hard to break, I suppose it's like a sense of belonging. He plays rugby, swims, lives for football and loves school so much. He has so many friends and we are always out and about doing things but he will always tell me how much he misses home and his family. I think the missing family is the hardest part for him, he was so close to his Grandparents and to be honest nothing can replace the love that Grandparents can give to their Grandkids. He only every has us and sometimes I think he would just love to be surrounded by his cousins, Aunties, Uncles etc, especially on his Birthday and at Christmas. I hope you both feel better soon, it is the hardest part of emigrating...the homesickness.

It can get very chilly in the winter months but mainly in the evening and early morning. During the day it is generally pleasant if the sun is out, but don't be fooled..it does rain here and when it does it seems to come down very heavy with lots of flooding on the roads. I think it rained nearly every day last September, think it was a record for Perth. As houses here don't have central heating, double glazing or insulation it does get very, very cold once the sun goes in and in fact some days it is warmer outside than inside! We have reverse cycle heating but to be honest it is too expense to have on all year and I would rather feel cool in summer and wrap up in winter. It is lovely though to see dew on the grass in a morning and we have even had the odd frost, it can get to zero.

Hi JoJo, I feel for you. That was us 5 years ago, we went through emotions we didn't even know existed. Leaving was the hardest thing I have ever had to do and I completely under-estimated the enormity of the whole experience, the look on my Mums face when we said goodbye will never leave me. I have never felt so selfish and at the same time so selfless. Selfish for leaving but selfless for giving everything up for a better future for our children. However, 5 years on and I would not change what we have gained and the amazing experiences we have had for anything. I can't begin to tell you how rewarding the move can be...I don't mean financially because for a lot it is just far too expensive even if you earn good money, house prices will eat away at a huge portion of your wage. I think I just mean people make the most of their spare time here, beach, walks, wine tours, boat trips, cycling, fishing, concerts, lots of free events and movies in the parks. Things are very relaxed if you want them to be but the City offers more if you want it and of course the weather makes it all possible. I would say just go for it! Life is so short and I'm sure your parents would rather you be happy than you living a life in the UK with regret and being miserable. It won't be easy but nothing in life worth having is easy. I would say though I think it would help if you don't say it's forever, give yourself a timescale of maybe 2 years. You may decide at that point it is home for you or you may have got everything out of Perth that it can offer you and decide to move on but what a fabulous experience you will have had and you will have memories most people can only dream of. Skype, phone calls, facebook etc. all help keep those important connections with the UK. But you do need family that are happy to use them, and you do need family that are happy to come and visit..give you their blessing so to speak. It makes ALL the difference if they support you once you are here, for us our family don't come out and my Mum won't use facebook or Skype she can't even say Australia without crying so after 5 years we are moving back. We want the children to have time with their family before they forget them, plus she has cancer..although it is being managed. Whilst we have had a fantastic time here and have really embraced the Australian life we are looking at going back as just something we have to do, the right thing for us at the moment. We may stay forever or we may come back after a couple of years, who knows what the future has in store for any of us? Good luck with your move, you will be fine and you will get a lot of support once you arrive from many, many people who have gone through the move and are very happy to help. Maybe write a diary of your experiences..it may help.

Our first few Christmas days here felt amazing. We loved that it was hot and we could just relax and do what we liked without having to rush around and visit family or watch the traditional Bond movie and Queens speech. There is no huge build up here and the schools don't really seem to get into the Christmas spirit with the kids, it's more end of term excitement it all seemed very chilled with not really any tradition. Now, years later, we so miss Christmas in the UK. Really miss the atmosphere that is so lacking here and more than anything we miss spending Christmas day visiting family and friends and the kids feeling that it isn't just another day in summer. We miss 15 of us around the table all on different size chairs! Watching the kids play with their cousins and the men all sneaking out to have a quick traditional Christmas drink in the local country pub, shaking hands with everyone they pass in the street and wishing them Merry Christmas. Christmas is good here but very, very different.

Where is the chippy? We have been looking for it for the past few weeks. May give it a go instead of our usual Friday night curry, always phone the order through and end up stood waiting 25 minutes for it anyway!

We went to that one, really wanted to watch a panto with the kids before they are too old to enjoy them. Your right, it was very small but better than I expected. Considering how popular they are in the UK and the huge number of British expats living in Perth with young children there is no reason why they wouldn't be equally as successful.

Christmas! It just isn't the same here for the kids (or us), there is no big build up and the day is a little flat without family to share the day with. The kids do miss out on that family feeling of getting together with grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins, etc. Grandads jokes, silly presents, the men all sneaking off to the village pub for a drink whilst dinner is cooking. Just that content feeling of everyone being together, good food (M&S) and wine and a right old laugh with the people who you really care about. Miss a good pantomine, midnight mass (never did it but really wished we had) and late night Christmas shopping with Christmas songs playing in all the shops and walking around with a starbucks hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Why Dome? In my opinion Perth is a place that people love to drink coffee (me included) but it really doesn't matter if it is Dome or an independant coffee shop, people spend lots of money on coffee and eating out. The brand is not what is important, providing exceptional customer service and good quality food/beverages is what will make you successful and earn you a great reputation. Customer service is very poor here so if you offer good service and something a little different you will do very well. Find something unique to offer within your store that nobody else offers, look at the Burns Beach cafe..they offer a dog menu now and it is packed all the time. Things are very basic here and I know people are desparate for more choice and something a little better than what is on offer. There is a Dome about to open in Currambine as well as plans for one in Burns Beach on the foreshore. Considering the amount of families living in the Northern suburbs I think family friendly cafes with separate kids corners would do very well; disney channel on for younger kids and xbox for older kids, colouring and giant jenga, connect 4 etc. funky kids menu with more choice than nuggets or burgers. I hope it works out for you, you have the right attitude to be successful.

No..your right, people just don't have the huge amounts of equity in their property at the moment due to house prices falling. Some are even into negative equity. It must be heartbreaking especially after saving hard for a deposit in the first place. We made the decision to sell our house not only to free up the money but also get the stress of selling out of the way, didn't want that stress on top of the drama of applying for the visa. We knew we could book flights, container, holiday let etc. without any worry about a house sale going through or not. We knew it was the right decision because the house had fallen through twice, imagine if we'd booked flights, sent our furniture and then the house fell through a few days before departure...nightmare.

It probably cost us around 30k stirling, if not more. Visa costs, skills assessment, agent fees, medicals, police checks, flights, container, holiday let (4 weeks over Christmas..not cheap), hire car, furniture (not much but you would be surprised how much you need to buy especially if your furniture doesn't turn up until 6 weeks after you arrive), car, driving licences, insurance, car rego (tax), rental bond and first 2 weeks rent, new school uniforms, shoes and text books/stationery. We arrived in December so had at least 8 weeks with no income coming in so had to cover Christmas presents, birthdays, rent, food, bills etc. It is really not cheap to move here but it is worth it but you need to be prepared for all the costs involved. We sold our house, applied for the visa and moved into a rental in the UK for 12 months, the visa took about 9 months. We couldn't have funded any of it without selling our property. Good luck it is a great place to bring up young kids and a great experience if not a little expensive.

Coming up to my husbands 7th summer here bricklaying and I can honestly say he has never worked as hard in his life as he has here. He comes home physically exhausted and often with heatstroke in January/February even though he is so careful and drinks so much water and covers up. You see bricklayers here who look 10 years older than they are with the sun damage. Working outside here is not something anyone should do for a long time, it is really not healthy. If you talk to any brickie that has worked here for a few years they want out of it. Bricklayers get treated very poor here, no protection at all and often get finished without any warning when work dries up, which it does. Lots of drugs on sites, my husband caught someone one day doing drugs and had to finish him. Drinking is also a huge problem, again he has had lads work for him that have had an eskie full of beer and then drive home. Expect to earn around $300 a day at the moment but you have to cover tax, gst, holiday pay, sick pay, super and insurances out of that. Also, most advertisers ask for WA experience and often put the phone down on you if they hear you are British...had months of it when we first got here. If you set up a team the pay is better but you will have to take out workers compensation cover which was around $800 a month when we had it, loads don't have it but it is just not worth the risk and the huge fines if you have a subcontractor who is injured on site because they will claim. To be honest he loves his job and could never think of doing anything else other than building but we are thinking of going back to the UK so he can go back to extensions, loft conversions etc. no satisfaction in just building houses and loads of backpackers doing it now who aren't qualified. He has never been out of work as much as here. Bit of a kick in the teeth when you spent years on a YTS wage to learn the trade and have qualifications but they all seem to stand for nothing here. He has just got out of it and doing something a little different until we head back to the UK, he actually doesn't fall asleep at 8pm now!

This will be coming up to our 7th summer here, husband is a bricklayer and I can honestly say it has been the hardest years of his life. I have never seen him work as hard or look as physically drained and exhausted at the end of each day. I have lost count the number of times he has had heat stroke and he is so careful to drink plenty of water and cover up. Nothing can prepare you for the extreme heat of the long Perth summers let alone having to lay bricks for 9/10 hours 5/6 days a week with the sun beating on your back and no shade. Money is very hard to earn, there is a lot of work at the moment but no consistency and out of the $300 a day as a subbie you have to cover your own pension, holidays, sick leave, tax, gst, insurances. There are many backpackers here that are keen to do bricklaying and they will work for a lot less. He ran his own gang for a while but most lads turn up stoned or drunk or just wouldn't turn up, trying to get jobs finished to get your money in was sometimes impossible. He has caught lads doing drugs on site or having a 6 pack in their esky!!! Then there are the building supervisors that ask for WA experience only, how rude! A lot of supervisors will just put the phone down on you when they hear your British accent. Every bricklayer we know here wants out of it, it is not healthy working in these extremes for long, you need to set a limit on it or it will wear you down. Also be prepared to travel, the sites are spread out over a vast area..could be in Butler one week and Success another. My husband is doing something a bit different now thankfully, it has taken him a couple of years to try and get something else though.

I can't believe some of the previous posts find it so hard to believe it can be that much for electricity over winter and it's the same in summer. We have a new build 4x2 and there are 5 of us of which 3 are teenagers that love their gadgets! Lots of washes for sports clothes, towels, uniform, work clothes etc. We have a very busy household with kids on laptops (homework), xbox, phones charging and I do a lot of work from home on the laptop. Reverse cycle heating/cooling and no other form of heating. It is the heating and cooling that cost's so much, in spring and summer the bills drop to more like $200. I know people that have had electric bills over $600 in summer with the cost of running the pool pumps and air con. Every household is different, it really is not unheard of to pay a lot for electricity depending on your usage and number of occupants, trust me I am always walking around turning off appliances and lights and unplug everything at night. It is common sense really, of course we are going to pay a lot more than a household of just 2 occupants.

It's not really the food shopping that is the problem, shopping around, farmers markets, bulk buying etc. seems to keep costs down here. I find meat quite reasonable to be honest and we tend to cook much more and freeze leftovers. It is all the other costs that make Perth expensive and I read the other week it is now more expensive to live here than Sydney. Now if you factor in rent or a mortgage and compare the costs with hourly wages you will see a huge cost difference. More and more doctors surgery's are now charging $70 to see the doctor, you do get a little back on medicare but there are loads of people not going to the doctors now because of the cost and if you get referred to a specialist then they are at least $150+ a time on top of scan costs, biopsies etc. Health care is very, very expensive and you have to pay for kids prescriptions! Car tax is around $600 per year, we just had our electric bill for 64 days and it was $475. If you don't have private health insurance with hospital cover you get taxed anyway at the end of the year so that's another $300 a month for the cover, that's a family policy though. We have kids and have to pay for items on a booklist at the start of the school year which is around $300 each child more at high school with all the text books they need. Not trying to put you off but we really do struggle with all that you don't budget for and don't think our kids would ever stand a chance of owning a home here until they hit 40! They wouldn't earn enough to borrow the amount needed to buy something here. Petrol is cheap though, but you need to drive so much more to get anywhere.