Jealousy of friend emigrating

[Bookridden]

A friend is emigrating to Sydney, Australia in January. I'm pretty envious of her chance for a fresh start, life on the beach, apparently amazing standard of living etc etc. I really want to give my head a wobble and stop feeling jealous. Please point out some reasons why life in the UK might be better. (Should say that I hate the heat, am fat and menopausal, love culture and city life so probably am better suited to UK life. Aren't I? AREN'T I???)

Hit me with your best tips for any of the following:
Loving life in the UK
Not thinking life in Oz is perfect
Not feeling really dull in comparison with her jetsetter lifestyle

Thank you.

@Aussiegirl123456 @SnowAndFrostOutside @Yarrawonga
I stand corrected on the Jaffa cake front! But I swear I couldn't find them anywhere when I lived in Sydney 2010-12, not in Coles or Woolworths anyway but maybe I wasn't looking in the right place. I developed an addiction to Arnott's mint slices instead.

Now I feel sad everyone is bashing Australia! I have chosen to leave and live in the UK but I still love both places 😥 Can we talk about good things about the UK instead? There is so much doom and gloom in the news I'd love to hear some positive things. What leaps to mind for me:
Long walks followed by a pub lunch
Short flights to Europe
Castles and historic buildings
Proper seasons, especially autumn leaves
There's so much green!
The number 1 Christmas song is a real thing and not just in love actually (need a separate thread to discuss how bad LadBaby is)

Would love to hear everyone else's thoughts!

I've lived in Australia since 2013, and honestly don't recognize some of the stuff posted about it on here! Have to say I did laugh at someone saying Aussies don't swear! I'm not a huge fan of Sydney, much prefer Perth. But it's horses for courses, your friend might love it, or she might not. Personally, my only regret is that I didn't emigrate earlier, I bloody love it here and have a fantastic quality of life compared with my life before in the UK and Ireland. It's going to be 32 degrees today, so after I grab the last few Xmas bits we are having cocktails by the pool. I know some friends miss a UK Xmas a lot, but I prefer the Aussie version!

I wondered how long it would be before we added the mandatory MN US bashing lol.

The “sun damage/age” thing will get some cross and defensive comments, but…. Sorry, but it is really is true. I live in East Asia where we have plenty of white immigrants/foreign residents from various parts of the world including quite a lot from Oz. I’ve learned to subtract quite a lot of years when mentally assuming someone’s age if they have an Australian accent. I’m genuinely not trying to be bitchy and I love Oz and Australians very much, but it is actually quite true that that lovely sun makes for old-looking skin pretty early on.

She needs to tone down her excitement but I’m afraid Australia is superior to the Uk in so many ways.
We love it here. It’s hard being away from family though.

God no, the most sexist country I've spent time in. God awful backwards men.

Hmm. Your friend is, of course, excited to move countries. Her idealisation of Australia might be annoying, but it might also be her way of talking herself into moving halfway across the globe. I hope for her sake, that's all it is because Australia, like everywhere else, has its good and bad points, many already mentioned here - and it's a long way to go to discover that.

If I were you, I'd be inclined to be a bit more curious about my own response to her endeavour. Envy can be a useful feeling. It can plug us into our own dissatisfaction and unconscious wishes and spur us on to do something about it.

The most important thing to remember is that comparing an idealised version of someone else's (currently) theoretical life with the messy innards of your own will not bring you joy.

No she doesn’t need to tone down her excitement, she has every right to be excited for the move. OP needs to manage her jealousy better rather than creating a thread to bash Australia in the hope it will make her feel better.

We Brit’s have a habit of bashing other countries to make ourselves feel better and it’s a repulsive habit which we are seeing more of with the current cost of living crisis.

Sat in Sydney now- it may be sunny now but in generally rains a lot and if there's not rain there's bush fires. It gets cold and no-one has heating
The outdoor life- fine if you like it but there's very little else to do- limited theatre options even in sydney- books are ridiculously expensive-no historical houses or sites no varied european culture on your doorstep
If you don't like sport/beaches... well you sort of have to..
and the general cost of living is high - my house rent costs twice that of the home counties. its very class ridden- lots of private schools- very divided. Its very isolated - even between different states- and definitely from the rest of the world
you feel very cut off. Its very cliquely- lots of syndey siders are still friends with their school friends and people find it hard to break in

Sydney housing is awful. Incredibly expensive. It's quite insular and feels very transient; hard to make friends. The beaches are beautiful but the water is COLD so I never found it great for swimming!
The summers are so hot, and if you don't have a car public transport can make it really difficult to get out and about in the summer. I was once left stranded at a bus stop for 40 minutes in 38° heat with a newborn because 2 busses didn't arrive. After that I started avoiding certain places as I couldn't face it happening again.

We did 2.5 years and I'm so glad we're back in London!

@MermaidMummy06
Look, your jealousy's not about Australia so stop bashing it. These comments are appallingly inaccurate, offensive and rasict.

She could be going anywhere & you'd feel the same. It's about your friend being bold, taking the leap off on a new adventure, while you feel like your left behind.

This 100%.

@Aussiegirl123456
Visiting a GP is free unless you opt to go private.

It many areas it can be very hard to find a GP that bulk bills - and those that do, only bulk bill those on pensions, health care card, or under 16 years of age.

@Weatherwax13
Interest rates are shooting up
They are still quite low.

I'm not sure that Australia is any more racist than the UK these days?

This ranking has Australia at #10 in racial equity rankings, and the UK at #17.
worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/least-racist-countries

Are all the posters calling Australians racists picturing white Australians of British descent - because that is pretty racist in itself. Many of my Australian friends are non-white.

No, Australia is full of rabid racists, and the UK is a bastion of racial harmony - so much so, that they are lecturing everyone else on how racist those people are, and how superior they, the British are.

🙄 x a million.

Also I'm not sure that Australia is any more sexist than the UK? Certainly not going by all the useless husband threads on here.

I feel that some posters have a very particular (relatively rare and dying out) type of Australian in mind with the sexist & racist comments. And that feels pretty racist.

I can assure you that employers can make you work 12 months before leave; my last employer (large listed company) required it.

I can assure you they can’t - check out the govt Fair Work site. I manage people and I can’t withhold leave for 12mths!

Some of what people have written is true- Sydney is expensive. Eye wateringly expensive. Really expensive. To be near the beach you need a lot of money. To have a decent lifestyle you need a lot of money. If you have a lot of money, then you will be fine, if not you won’t.

As for most of the rest ……

We don’t swear? Fucking oath we do.

We need to pay a lot for healthcare. Nope, you can pay $0 and get it for free in which case you are pretty much getting the NHS experience. If you want better than that you pay privately and get seen quicker, don’t have the same restrictions etc. Pretty much the same as what a lot of people in the UK are now starting to do but we have had this a long time and it’s ‘standard’ for us now. A&E is free (same shit experience as NHS though as I have worked both), and you generally go through the free public tertiary system for complex matters.

Hot? Yes, it’s warm in summer and cold in winter as we are not set up for cold weather but it’s not that bad. The people talking extreme heat are over egging it somewhat, and yes I live here so I do know the weather/temperature.

Same for killer wildlife, people exaggerate. Yep, we have snakes and decent spiders but they don’t impact everyday life.

As for culture, as well as an old indigenous culture, we have world class theatre, plays etc. I would see maybe four major theatre productions that have come from the US/UK a year, plus local theatre/plays so probably average one a month. That’s really only possible for Sydney and Melbourne though, if in other states you would need to fly in but people do. All decent but all very exxy to be honest. I think a lot of ‘non locals’ just don’t know where/how to access ‘culture’ apart from the big ticket theatre productions that come in from o/s, that’s my experience with people anyway.

Rupert no longer lives in Australia and his influence is felt in the UK, US, and Australia. He’s probably the most poisonous on your list, though.

Yep. Both countries have a lot to offer.

It's not that great- and Sydney is a ridiculously expensive sort, with a huge rental crisis at the moment, on top of the cost of living one.

Hmm, interesting.

I lived in Melbourne for a year in the late 2000's and honestly couldn't praise it enough.

I have to say that the lack of green bothered me after a while.

I lived in Australia for a year and never saw a snake or a spider. Or a Croc.

I would have tried to move permanently but I moved to Canada instead.

Go have a look on realestate.com.au

If you'd have that kind of money in the UK you'd have a better house. They look lovely but too many are made from weather board and they're really bad at insulating there.

I love in Sydney and love it.

However I don't think slagging off a place just to make you feel better is a particularly good or helpful thing. Am sure lots of others will oblige with the usual Aus stereotypes though. That's usually how these threads go.

I live between Sydney and Auckland and you are right to be jealous. The UK is an utter, shithole full of little Englanders (as can be witnessed on this thread).

• delusions of grandeur
• awful weather.
• dreadful little towns populated by asbo kids on bikes
• terrible food
• major racism problem - Brexit!
• the NHS has been driven to its knees so you cant get an ambulance or GP appointment
• they love the Tories so the government is always awful
• cheap housing but all dreary terraces or horrible identikit new builds where you can hear your neighbours fart.
• landscape is boring - just fields
• it's cold and dark for 9 months of the year so most people sit at home in front of the fire that costs you £50 a day to run and watch dreary soap operas

There. We can all do it.

@HoppingPavlova it's quite funny isn't it how people can 'assure you' of something that is totally wrong!

I mentioned Fairwork to this poster earlier. I also work in HR and know you definitely can't withhold leave.