What was your motivation for coming to Adelaide?

[freesia]

Pleased to see some great reasons for coming to Adelaide, which is why I posted question. To make big changes to a life you were unhappy with. Was starting to form the impression a lot of people have simply come for over to live in the sun, in some kind of english speaking Costa del Sol nightmare. Have been suprised at how many seem to head back to UK having given it 'A GO' after a very short time. Read a post the other day where a lady had done just that, 'been here 3 months, given it a go, going back to UK, miss everyone too much'. We all miss people, but at 3 months she's had a long holiday.

Also having read that 50% of Poms head home eventually, was interested in peoples motivations.

Having said that as I type this 479 people have read this thread, and only 19 replies, so please add thread, curious minds need to know.

 

this is an interesting thread for me- have visited Sydney & surrounds several times..& love it- but in terms of thinking long-term where to move to it's great to have first-hand opinions.....we have closer family ties in Sydney which is why that's been the first choice- (free accommodation helps greatly too!!) would love to see Adelaide though & weigh up which is better for a boy about to enter his teens.. any opinions??

[malkitek]

Hi,

Didn't hate our life in Scotland but as a couple without kids, we were just working and living for our holidays! We were always outdoors in Scotland but jeez its much better without the biting rain! I had also fallen in love with Australia on a working holiday a lifetime ago!

So I suppose the weather, a new country to explore, and as a nurse, much better working conditions! I think I slightly ran away from our fertility problems which was daft as they came too!

Hubbie has always worked all over the world, strangely since coming here his jobs are in the UK.

Oh and the cat loves it!

Gill

[emmie]

I did it for love (my husband is an Aussie).

 

I haven't forgiven him yet...

 

Seriously, I do like it here although Adelaide can be a tad boring. It took a little over 2 years until I felt I belonged here but now it is home.

Edited May 6, 2012 by emmie

[Guest Barney Rubble]

Just to add I don't HATE the UK at all. We haven't come over because we had ****e lives in London, in fact just the opposite. We came because we could. Simple as that really. May well go back one day or move somewhere else. There are a lot of positives to living in both countries. We do love the climate here though - that's not a bad thing.

 

Good words, i agree and often say to people the same thing.

 

The best way is to listen to the words of a song by Paul Young in the 80's. . . . . "Where-ever i lay my hat (that's my home)"

 

 

I feel that Diane's words are also very accurate too.

 

Need to remember why we came here and start smelling the roses.

 

On that note i had best get down the the garden shop and start to plant some or i'll be long gone before they bloom

[keldaz]

As the OP, have noticed the word 'hate' mentioned in conjunction with the UK. I wouldn't say that we hate the UK, we still have plenty of friends and family who like living there. Hate is too strong a word, but we did hate watching the country of our birth self destruct.

 

On a lighter note I was very pleased to hear malkitek's cat has settled in. I now have a vision of a Scottish cat trying to drag a half eaten kangeroo, into the house through the cat flap ' so you thought you'd get the better of me, did ya laddie' lol.

[Guest miraclebabycaw]

1. Future for my 2 kids

2. Tired of being stressed and worried all the time about the crime (I'm in South Africa not the UK)

3. Soooo tired of racial issues and prejudices....you get ahead because of what you know, not who you know or what colour your skin is.

4. Life for my kids is like my life growing up in the 80's...they have freedome

5. my kids

6. my kids

7. my kids

LOL. No really we live such a stressed out life and no avenue for letting go of that stress over here in SA. My kids can't ride their bikes in the streets on their own without me standing outside all the time watching them, they can't walk/ride to school even though it's just down the road etc etc. They have NO future if they want to be a doctor/vet/electrician/plumber/tradesman as they are the wrong colour, and the standard of education is just going downhill very fast. Tired of making my house my life, want to make the outside my life.

[Guest ali]

miraclebabycaw so after all South Africa's been through you still have racial prejudices over there? Its very sad indeed as South Africa is one beautiful country.

 

Hope Adelaide makes a difference for you and your children.

 

Best of luck,

 

Ali

[keldaz]

miraclebabycaw, sounds like your living in a nightmare I have only seen on TV. Love the repeated mention of your kids future, and by the sounds of it safety. Sounds like you have motivation enough and added truckloads, wish you and your family the very best of futures.

[Guest miraclebabycaw]

@Ali, yes unfortunately it is still a big issue, and it is so sad because South Africa and indeed the whole of Africa is the most stunning place to live. They say Africa gets in your blood, and you can never quite forget it. A lot of it is underlying simmering tension on both sides and I'm so tired of it. My child's best friend is a black girl, we are white. Why must it be an issue. They are 2 little girls who have common interests and don't see the colour of each others skin, but so many others do. 18 years on after the "death of aparteid" it's still being used as an excuse for everything that goes wrong no matter what. Both sides are to blame. The main issues here though is the crime. We know crime is all over but not the senseless extreme violent crime that goes on here. Just yesterday a man was shot in the chest in the street one away from me because they tried to hijack his car and he didn't move quick enough for the highjackers. A friend of a friend lost his father in a break in. It was his mom and dad and his wheel chair bound brother. They tied the father up and then put gags right over his mouth and nose. In his 70s and he suffocated. It's senseless, meaningless violence and nothing much is being done about it. Again it's affecting all people, black and white and the police force does nothing and is a joke. Until they can do something about this, South Africa is never going to get any better, and it's not a nice place to want to bring up your kids. I can't even leave my 12 year old daughter in the car while I run into the local shop to grab milk (5min) because she is terrified they might steal the car with her in it. Sounds silly but that is the reality she lives with because she hears about it all the time. My best friend son got held up at knife point for his cellphone on the way from school to the local bus stop. He's 14. And we all turn around and say, "at least he wasn't hurt". Not the life I want anymore for my kids.

 

Thanks for all the wishes. Can't wait till we get there.

[Guest ali]

See ya down under

[wireworks]

We moved here about 18 months ago. Being older (late 50's/early 60's) we weren't looking for a better life for the children (we've left them back in the UK with their own loves and lives) we were looking for a new adventure. We had planned for a long time to live in another country after selling our business, but didn't know where.

 

We first visited Australia when our younger daughter was studying in Melbourne as part of her degree. We just came for a holiday, but felt at home and very comfortable in the country. Returning to the UK we came across a magazine about living in Australia, and the first issue we read had an article about older migrants, so we started to look into it, initially for fun, then became more serious.....

 

We had made a list of 'requirements' for the country we would eventually move to - drive on the same side of the road and speak a form of english (we are hopeless at languages and you can't intergrate easily if you can't communicate) being the main requirements! Australia fitted the bill, so we came back for another visit to see how things were without seeing a daughter for the first time in 6 months. We loved it, we arrived in Melbourne again as that was where we had started before, drove the Great Ocean road (for the second time) to Adelaide stopping off in Port Fairy, Mount Gambier, Robe and Strathalbyn along the way, ending up in Adelaide itself for the last few days. This was to give us a view on the size/range of a small part of the country. Our research had pinpointed Adelaide area as being the most comfortable climatically for the European psyche, and we agree. After this visit we appointed an agent and started the process, 18 months later we got our visa and here we are!

 

Obviously we miss our children, but neither of them plan to stay in the UK. One is in the process of moving to France, and the other plans to move to the US once she graduates. Skype is a wonderful way of keeping in touch, the world is shrinking and a visit to family is only a 30 hour trip.