Moving to Australia is now looking unlikely. Help me look on the bright side?

[Heatherbell1978]

It’s now looking highly unlikely that DH will get invited to apply for a visa (Skilled 189) before he turns 40, at which point he doesn’t have enough points and we’re out of the game. There aren’t any other visas we could apply for. In hindsight we left it too late to apply but we stupidly wanted to wait until DD was born incase we got an invite too soon and before we were ready to leave. DD is now 7 months and DS is 3. We assumed we’d migrate next year. Our plan was Perth where we have friends and we’ve visited a few times.
In one way we’re slightly relieved as there are numerous reasons to stay here (we have quite a comfortable life) but we’ve been daydreaming about this for 5 years and always said we’d go after we got married and kids were born in the UK. Now we have to prepare not to go and especially coming into winter in Scotland it’s going to play on my mind when the days are cold and dark.

I guess I’m just looking for some light hearted banter on why this is a good thing that we probably can’t go?!

I should add that we’ve been in the queue for a year now with 65 points and they’re only really processing people with 70+ points in DHs profession...and we’re on a ticking clock until his 40th...

I find this discussion fascinating. I have lived in both the UK and Australia. My reasons for return to the UK were about professional opportunities and a recognition that my day to day life in Australia were more dominated by the bad aspects of normal life...expensive housing; crowded city; poor transport links to the more affordable suburbs; surprisingly expensive living costs; friends living significant distances away so lots of driving on crowded roads. Even the pollution levels where I was were much higher than my bit of the UK

I worked long hours in an office so all the fun stuff (stunning countryside, beaches, good weather, lots of sport, really interesting art etc) passed me by. I so much love Australia but now see it as a fabulous holiday location.

My friends in Australia were and are the more arty, lefty, diverse types I mix with in the UK. They report much more homophobia and racism by otherwise nice white Australians than my similar friends in the UK (the same sex debate has been quite unpleasant) but I expect that my friends in the UK stick to their urban bubbles and dont venture out to racists/gay bashing hot spots as much.

I recall my Japanese female friend in Australia being the recipient of some regular and wearysome sexist/racist assumptions about Asian women and continued fault of the Japanese in WW11 (despite her grandparents being too young for the War). Seemingly otherwise nice middle class people said casually "well all Abos are all lazy drunks" when I mentioned about a party with some Indigenous academics and musicians. It was the casualness and unremarkable nature of the comments that jarred, which I still dont see in the UK, even with Brexit.

The UK is full of different and equally annoying hassles (as is another EU country which I have also lived in). You have to look at issues like family connections, day to day life (especially the drudge stuff), and whether the reasons you are going would be rectified by living differently where you currently are. Every country has its pluses and minuses and many people emigrate, thinking it will change their longstanding habits- it does not - it just relocates them into a less familiar surroundings and with you having less safety nets and cultural capital to draw on

ReinettePompadour: (A loaf of bread is $7 at my Nans local store in Australia so no sandwiches for her anymore).
Does your Nan's local store only sell hand kneaded artisan bread made using spelt and a variety of other ancient grains which are organic and grown on-site?

This is a genuine question, asked as I eat my sandwich made with a loaf of 9-grain bread which cost $2.50 at my local Coles.

CappuccinoCake: To be fair to the above poster $4.50 is £2.70 over here. Basic supermarket bread is £1 so that's still more than double the price just for a basic staple.

You piqued my interest, so I looked on Coles’ web site. At the moment, home brand basic white toast or sandwich bread is $1/loaf, and both wholegrain or multigrain are $1.50/loaf. So, no, not double.

I have no idea of the quality, but then that is always going to be a matter of opinion, as has been seen previously by the differing views of coffee.

It’s so blinkin difficult to become a citizen, and so many rules impacting your life up until that point. But, if you’re both from the UK then maybe that wouldn’t impact so much because you’d be in it for the long run. A family member is going through it all at the moment, and then once she has citizenship they’ll have to start the whole process again but in reverse for her DH, because the UK’s rules are just as difficult. I think the general public reckon that just because you’ve married that this means your spouse is welcomed with open arms ‘come on in!’ Not so.

My flat mate spent 6 weeks in Perth as a student. She loved it (but still lives happily in Scotland)

CactusJelly00 Your post is a perfect example of why one should read the full thread. Sorry for repeating several of your points.

But, I completely agree with you about buying locally grown and in season, especially for the assurance of quality. Yes, I have seen bananas for $12/kilo after storms in Qld. But this week, I paid $1.99.

Glad to see that Flossy1978 posts have been deleted. I also see she didn't reply to my post about Aborigines. Not surprised tbh.