Hi everyone!

Hi there!

My name is Greg. I am not a Pom, technically speaking! I was born in France, spent most of my life in Belgium and came to Adelaide with my wife in 2009. We became citizens but then decided that it was too hard not to see our friends and family at all (only our mothers would come to see us once in a while). So we decided to move back to Belgium last August (2016).

...and we have been miserable since then!

Well, miserable does not start to describe how we feel right now. Although I am trying really hard to think about what we did not as a mistake, but as something to learn from, bottom line is I cannot help but think of it as the stupidest thing I have done so far.

I guess that now that we have gone full circle we can have rational thoughts about all this: I was not expecting to have become so Australian (and English is not even my mother tongue!), neither to have lost sight of everything that made me Belgian! We feel so out of place now...

We miss the sun, the sea, the skies, the beach, our escapades to Port Elliott, KI, McLaren Vale, Willunga, Stirling, Brighton, Sydney, our holidays in Robe, in Port Douglas, walking barefoot, the streets of Adelaide, the smiles, the positive attitude, the Fringe, our friends there, Chris Lilley, cafes and coffee (OMG... it actually might be what we regret the most ), the energy, the fact that whatever happens to you, it is still kind of ok...

I feel that Belgium has become an awful dump. Everything and everyone is grey here. Sad people, complaining all the time. Customer service wise: WOW...: medieval! Technology? People are freaking out because contactless payment is being phased in. It feels like living in the seventies when you need to pay for something in the shops. Politics? I won't even start. Administration? ***beep***

I could go on for hours but I will not! I need to put my energy in something else:

We now had time to thoroughly think about it and we have made our minds up: we will have to live with the pain of not seeing our family any more, but we are coming back! We have no money left (we spent it on the removal and re-settling here), we probably will rent for the rest of our lives as a consequence, but we just do not care!

It is going to take us a while before we have saved just enough to come back but hopefully no more than another year now.

As I said, I think we did not realize how much we had changed; it only hit us (hard) once here. I want to hug people again, I want to be smiled back at when I smile at people, I want to be asked how I feel, I do not want that social pressure on my shoulders...

I suppose I could say that I still call Australia home, more than ever!

Apologies for this post : it was actually a bit more than a presentation, but I needed that!

If there are people who have gone through the same kind of stuff I would be more than happy to hear from them and share our thoughts.

Greg

Welcome to the forum. Many of us have ping ponged. It is an expensive pastime!

What sort of work will you be looking for? Can you go back to your old jobs?

Thank you for the reply! It's comforting to know we're not the only ones having done that! I don't think I could go back to my old job; as for my wife the company no longer exists!

We'll get there...!

Hello and welcome!

I have had plenty of experiences with ping pong guests and also with family who have left and returned!

I hope that it all works out for you...

Hi there!

 

My name is Greg. I am not a Pom, technically speaking! I was born in France, spent most of my life in Belgium and came to Adelaide with my wife in 2009. We became citizens but then decided that it was too hard not to see our friends and family at all (only our mothers would come to see us once in a while). So we decided to move back to Belgium last August (2016).

 

...and we have been miserable since then!

Well, miserable does not start to describe how we feel right now. Although I am trying really hard to think about what we did not as a mistake, but as something to learn from, bottom line is I cannot help but think of it as the stupidest thing I have done so far.

 

I guess that now that we have gone full circle we can have rational thoughts about all this: I was not expecting to have become so Australian (and English is not even my mother tongue!), neither to have lost sight of everything that made me Belgian! We feel so out of place now...

 

We miss the sun, the sea, the skies, the beach, our escapades to Port Elliott, KI, McLaren Vale, Willunga, Stirling, Brighton, Sydney, our holidays in Robe, in Port Douglas, walking barefoot, the streets of Adelaide, the smiles, the positive attitude, the Fringe, our friends there, Chris Lilley, cafes and coffee (OMG... it actually might be what we regret the most ), the energy, the fact that whatever happens to you, it is still kind of ok...

 

I feel that Belgium has become an awful dump. Everything and everyone is grey here. Sad people, complaining all the time. Customer service wise: WOW...: medieval! Technology? People are freaking out because contactless payment is being phased in. It feels like living in the seventies when you need to pay for something in the shops. Politics? I won't even start. Administration? ***beep***

I could go on for hours but I will not! I need to put my energy in something else:

 

We now had time to thoroughly think about it and we have made our minds up: we will have to live with the pain of not seeing our family any more, but we are coming back! We have no money left (we spent it on the removal and re-settling here), we probably will rent for the rest of our lives as a consequence, but we just do not care!

It is going to take us a while before we have saved just enough to come back but hopefully no more than another year now.

 

As I said, I think we did not realize how much we had changed; it only hit us (hard) once here. I want to hug people again, I want to be smiled back at when I smile at people, I want to be asked how I feel, I do not want that social pressure on my shoulders...

 

I suppose I could say that I still call Australia home, more than ever!

 

Apologies for this post : it was actually a bit more than a presentation, but I needed that!

If there are people who have gone through the same kind of stuff I would be more than happy to hear from them and share our thoughts.

 

Greg

Welcome Greg you are not alone and I can relate to where you are coming from. I wasn't in Australia as long as you were,only a year.Since returning in 2010 I have mostly regretted returning to the UK and always thought I would go back at some point.

I now have an opportunity to return to South Australia but I don't think my wife feels the same

Welcome Greg you are not alone and I can relate to where you are coming from. I wasn't in Australia as long as you were,only a year.Since returning in 2010 I have mostly regretted returning to the UK and always thought I would go back at some point.

I now have an opportunity to return to South Australia but I don't think my wife feels the same

It's always so difficult when there's a difference of views in a household. Good friends of mine returned to the UK a couple of years ago after their eldest daughter didn't settle. There are still regrets. I have a close member of my family who still wants to leave after almost 10 years but for the rest of the household it would be a terrible decision. They have ping ponged twice and despite being settled, secure financially etc there are still factors that pull them sideways! Issues like food, house construction, religion and so forth. I was in the UK last year...first time for 15 years and to be honest there were aspects of UK life that were better / different to here...I think that there will always be aspects of what you leave behind that you will miss but whether the greener grass can offer an all round better life is maybe the issue. The same is true with where you settle here. There are cities and states that don't appeal to me but honestly there are other parts of Australia where I would be very happy to settle.