Hi,

Just wanted to say we are going home, and a thanks to all for advice and support.

We have been here 6 months and I am sure people will say that we have not tried hard enough but you know when something is not right, so why prolong the agony any longer.

We are signing a contract on the house at 12.30pm and are due to complete in 3 weeks and also fly out straight away. We had two viewings on tues and the house only went on market the friday before christmas and the first two viewings both offered, one being a cash buyer and also a conveyancer so happy days!

We have had some good times and meet some nice people but the bad most deffinately outweigh the good.

My husband has struggled with work, unlike in the UK where he had work all the time and knew where he was from week to week.

But the homesickness got to us in the end, I dont think I even thought about how much I would miss people and how much they would miss us, I feel guilty daily about what the children are missing out on with the family back home and that can never be replaced, I think of all the time the family would be there and all they have here is us.

I also miss so much more about the UK then I ever thought I would, I miss the shops, quality items, great choice of everything and also being in europe and popping over the spain regulary to parents villa and not costing us harldy anything.

I am pleased that I have come and experienced Australia as it has shown me that the grass is never greener!

Good luck to everyone who is either here or on there way!

I'm outta here :yeehah:

:(

Lauren

So, so sorry that it has not worked out well for you and the family. Things haven't been the easiest for you over these 6 months. But hold your head high - you gave it a go and have experienced life on the other side of the world.

It must be a good sign that your house sold so quickly. Sincerely hope that everything else falls into place for you and you enjoy your last few weeks here in SA.

Good Luck

Love

Heather
x x

PS will you please come back for our girlies night out next Christmas???? It won't be the same without you!

Just like to wish you & your family all the very best, it's been a tough ride for you but you can say been there, done that & got the t-shirt, all the very best & please pop in & let us know how your getting on :D

Awww Lauren, I'm so disappointed that you are not staying but your happiness is whats most important. Wishing you all the best - at least you gave it a go. Hopefully we can keep in touch and meet up again when I next go back for a visit. :)

Good luck. :sign03:

Hi Lauren

just wanted to say good luck with your move. I understand what your saying about you know what you know.

best of luck

regards

lolly

Hey deffo up for the girls night out, what a laugh! those memories I will treasure forever - I still have the maracus (cant spell) hehe!

Is Jenny coming tomorow? would be great to say goodbye - but dont laugh as I have made the cake!

I am very pleased we came and gave it a go as we would have still be in UK thinking about Oz but now we will be in UK enjoying our time with family and friends!

happy days!

ps contract all signed with no subject too's! :bouncy:

Hi
just to support you we too have been here since Oct and we too are going home in Feb.
My OH was just saying today about the grass being greener. so know exactly where you are coming from. I wish you all the luck in your return.
Whilst Oz has much to offer we did not realise how much we were settled in the UK.
OH did cope well with his job and discovered he has a reptile phobia which is beyond belief.
Good luck to everyone coming out here. Oz has alot to offer.

Good luck.
At least you gave it a try .Alot of people in life would not take this risk.Hope all goes well in uk.

Hey, good luck with your move! pm if you wanna chat Lauren

Good luck Lauren, Helen and families.

I think above all else the homesickness and missing your families in UK is the hardest thing to come to terms with when you move so far away.

It's a shame it didn't work out but, hey! you've had a great adventure and I'm sure you'll come back with some wonderful memories.

Above all - you gave it a try and you really needed to do that - good luck with the future and may all your dreams come true.

Anne XXX

Lauren

Best wishes for your move back to the UK.


Dawn

Lauren

Hope all goes smoothly on your return. :)

Like everyone says at least you tried it rather than spending your life wondering 'what if?'

Good Luck in the future and to your next adventure!

Lea

Hi Helen & Family and Lauren & Family

So sorry to hear things haven't worked out for you guys. You've given it a try though and had an adventure and I'm sure lots of good memories to take home with you. You know whether things are right for you or not.

Good luck to both families on your journey back home and I wish you lots of success and happiness back home in the UK

Carol x

Best of luck to both families going back to the UK. At least in your hearts you will know you tried and it was not for you rather than a life time of wondering what if.

I hope you find everything you want from life upon your return and wish you all the best for the future.

Lisa :D

It will be interesting to see how you feel after being back in gud ol' blighty for a couple of weeks. Please come back to the site and add some comments on this, and please be honest about how you feel being back home!!!


Paul :ph43r:

Of course I will Lauren

I think i takes a lot to decide its time to move back, hats off to you.

May i ask what trade your O/H has?

Cheers

Mik

Yes, he is a bricklayer Lauren

Sorry to see you are going home but I'm glad you have made a decision.

You will have to work hard at settling back in the UK.

Better to have tried though.

Best of luck :-)

Very best wishes Helen , Lauren & families. My worst fear is my husband not finding work & the emotional bond as my husband is both a tradesmen (painter & decorator) & hes an only child :sigh:

Grandpa will miss his son & only 2 grandchildren more than words can say :love29: :love29: but we have to give it go :rolleyes: otherwise we will always think ' what if................'

At least you have all done that & now you know its time to go home.

Home is always where the heart is.

Good luck
Angela :)

Good luck to you all!

I got this quote from a christmas cracker:-

"No one has looked back sadly on a life full of experiences, but many look back wishing they had had the courage to do more."

At least you had the courage to come to Oz and also to go back again!

Just wondering, where are you from in the UK?

All the best Cheryl

That's a great quote, Cheryl, and so very true!

All the best to those going back home. I hope it is everything you are expecting it to be, and be proud of the fact that you gave it a try. Just look on it as yet another experience!

Jen

Oh ibet you feel like a big wieght has lifted!

We moved back to uk October 05, after a real rollercoaster of emotions.
I can honestly say I havent missed australia at all since being back, although i have missed the friends we met. We still keep in touch, and i do sometimes feel envious that they are happy there, and wished i could have been happier and settled, but you really cant dictate to your heart. My hubby would go back tomorrow if i just said the word, but i couldnt put our families through it all again even if i wanted to. I asked the kids a few weeks ago if they are glad we came back and they both said they were happier in th uk with the family. They even said they like the cold weather!
We have all settled back into the uk life. Maybe one day we will re visit.
I was chatting to someone the other day about how hard it was to cope with the homesickness and even got upset thinking about how upsetting it was and this is now 15 months on.
Good luck with your move back and enjoy whats left of your time in Oz as a holiday.

Lisa

Here here, the homesickness really bothers me as I don't think you can know whether it will effect you until it's too late :(
Good luck and I hope you settle well back into the U.K lifestyle, put your socks AND shoes back on!!
Claire

I think it's a very brave decision to return and I'm sorry it hasn't worked out for you. I'm certain it won't be one or two reasons for you going back, it will be a million.
Grass of course can be greener the other side of the fence, it does work out for many, but you don't know until many months down the line after arriving. Besides, sometimes things conspire to overtake your original plans and the whole picture can change almost overnight.
As a family, we returned to the UK once before from an ex-pat life. I don't regret that for one minute, it was something we needed to do at the time. But I will say one thing - Having been away once, it was a relatively short time before we got itchy feet again!

Anyway, the main thing is, don't feel ashamed at all about your return. The eyes of your friends and family are sure to be on you when you arrive back in Blighty, but you have every right to go back with your head held high because you had a go at something 99% of the population don't even have the guts to try. :happy03:

Your true friends will understand without the need to say a word and they will be there for you when you get back. Very best of luck for the future!

I'm sorry to hear that you are going home but I'm not surprised really.

Good luck with your life back in the UK(I'm a little bit jealous). Like other have said it will be nice to hear your thoughts when you've settled back down to normal life there.

All the best.

Jo

Jo why do you say you're not surprised? (Just curious)

Chris

You have every right to go back with your head held high because you had a go at something that 99% of the population don't have the courage to try.

:love29:

tumkin

Only because I've been following Lauren's threads and I know they've been finding it a bit tough.

Jo

Too true, how many people when you are going through with the visa application say they wish they had the guts?!!!! You did it
and are brave enough to admit it wasn't for you...Well done
Claire

Hi all,

Don't shoot me, but I think both posters are quitting too soon.

Less than 12 months!!!!!!!!!! It's simply not long enough!!!!!!!!!

I've had plenty of moves in my life and I've suffered through plenty of misery moments along the way. Time settles them all and i've only ever regretted one action, which was going back.
I'm sorry if this doesn't sound sympathetic, but i'm struggling to find it with such impulsive actions. None of us can really call migrating an impulse action now, as it takes us nearly a year to complete, if we're lucky.

At least give the new place as much of a go as it took to get there in the first place.

Graham

Brave words.... and I must say I agree :ph43r: but I suppose it depends on how torturous you find life down under.
It took me around 2 years to feel at home in Lincolnshire and before that thought I'd go straight back down to Wiltshire if we found we could afford as nice house down there, but now I wouldn't go back, we are settled and happy - well, appart from wanting to move to Adelaide now ;) .
Graham - keep up the honesty - we need all views on subjects - don't be scared!!

Still, to those returning to the uk 'good luck' - it's another brave decision you've made and I hope you are very happy having returned. Please keep us updated :cool shake: All stories told are so valuable.

I just want to say in my opinion the decision to go home is just as hard as the original one to go!!!

We came home after 7 months and have never regretted it once. It was something we decided to do together ...me hubbie and a 17 and 19 year old.

I think you know within yourself whether it was a right or wrong move within a short space of time (and I am not talking homesickness and missing the familiy) well not in our case anyway.

Although it is funny when you have been home 17 months and someone double takes you in a pub and says....I Thought you were in Oz, or when a drunken friend says to you every month since you returned....It's great that you're back!!

Whatever you decide Good Luck, and at least you won't die wondering What If?????

Hi, for me I am afraid less then 12 months is long enough. The final straw was for me at christmas when it was so quite and not what we always had every year. People droppping in and out, loads round the table for dinner, lots of laughs and lots of memories!

I know that I could have stayed here and in time that would have passed and eased but when I acctually thought about it I realised that I did not want it to ease, that I wanted to be at home with my family and friends sharing in all the wonderfull times and sad times and being part of the big family that I have back in uk!

I think you either know somewhere is suited to you or its not and why prolong the agony any longer if it is not right.

And I can honestly say that the idea of coming here was an impulse, we decide just after we got married that we would come, it was probably a stupid time to think of such a move as we were on a bit of a downer after all the organising of the wedding, plus my aunt had been over from Adelaide and told us of this wonderfull place and we thought hell why not, lets try it! I was also pregnant with my daughter whilst the application was going through so half the time I was not thinking about it, when they contacted us and asked for something we sent off but that was about as much thought that went into it!

Oh god I wish I could turn back the time!

From the day we decided to come home everything has just fallen into place, the house sold within 2 days, the car within 3 hours, organising the flights and shippers all far too easy! all a huge sign for me that we are doing the right thing!

Thanks to everyone for their kind words. Yes it is more than one reason we are going back, infact its propbaly more like a million.
But I have my job back, OH has his job, our daughter has been offered a new job on our return, only my 16 yr old who needs a part time job which he will sort once home.
The only thing is now I find it really frustrating trying to find a house to rent on our return, we keep emailing and some reply others dont. You would think you were the other side of the world! But I think it will be sorted before we return. We will look for holiday let if not.
But I certainly dont regret doing this we have learnt alot and I have some wonderful memories.
All the best to everyone.

Hi to both families and may i just say IM SO ENVIOUS of both of you.

Ive been homesick since we took off from Newcastle airport!
When we landed in Adelaide i thought 'God what the hell have we done"
Since then its been such an emotional time , unbearable sometimes.
The kids cant get their heads around the fact that no Ozzy kids play out.Back home my kids were never home always playing out or at their friends houses.

We had a family discussion after my 2 youngest kids got really upset and said they really wished we'd never came and wanted to go home, even though they knew we'd have to start all over again etc.

The bombshell........ Mark (hubbie) says he wont go home (hes a true blue ozzy now).
No way will he go.

He said he'd sort our flights and stuff out for us???? and make sure we had plenty of money back home but he wouldnt come.

My oldest son(and me) is heartbroken that his dad would choose Oz over us and hasnt spoke to Mark for a week now. Life in the Jamieson household sure isnt Rosey at the minute!

We ( the kids and me) have decided to see what the next 6 months bring if nothings changed by then , we're off home...wether it be minus Mark or not!

Oh Happy Days!

Good luck to everyone whos had the guts to try it wether they stay or go.

JO :(

I'll be honest,i have heard of a case where this has happened....the mum & kids went home and hubby stayed here....

But looking at your time-line you haven't been here for very long at all.....believe me, we all have rough times.......we arrived november 2005 and i would say our worst patch was during january 2006, a number of reasons including matthew being very sick and in hospital, hannah struggling etc...but we got through it.

We still have bad times.....we often say 'same old s :sign53: t,different country', normal life is like that......

I hope it all works out for you

lorraine

Jo. My partner went home to the UK for a 10 day holiday in December 2004 and she didn't came back, and I stayed in Adelaide, and things still haven't improved for either of us. It has been more than two years since I found anything to chuckle about. I really hope you don't end up in the situation that we have ended up in. Once one person makes the decision to abandon the other it is very difficult to find a reconciliation.



:)

tumkin

I want to say how I thoroughly sympathise with and understand how Jo feels. We arrived about the same time (Sept 2006) and I am feeling pretty fed up here. It could be because my OH hasn't a job yet and my job doesn't start till the end of the month, so hopefully I will feel more positive when we get into some sort of "normal" life; but I am really missing UK at the moment. I am even missing the miserable weather and miserable people!! I have to ask myself whether the hot weather here really compensates for missing family and good friends?

Amanda

There seems to be plenty still about on here !!!
Lock away all the sharp knives and scissors... I cant take anymore !!! :happy45: