Source : Perth Now news
British expat Annie Symonds returned to the UK after seven years in Sydney, but within six months she was back in Australia.
Symonds met her Australian husband, Steve Moylan, in the Indian Himalayas in 2011 before relocating to Sydney the following year on a working holiday visa. But frequent trips back to the UK and feeling increasingly drawn to English life, as well as friends and family, after seven years in Sydney the couple returned to Brighton with the intention of making the move permanent.
Symonds wrote on her blog that after moving to Brighton, a seaside city about 75km south of London, she was struck by the lack of cleanliness on the streets and what she saw as less healthy eating and drinking habits compared with Sydney.
“I’ve found the streets in Brighton especially are so dirty it’s crazy. Chewing gum, alcohol, probably wee, the list goes on is what is filled on the streets in Brighton,” she said.
“In England, it’s pretty hard right now to stay healthy when everyone wants to go to the pub all the time, the mandatory Sunday Roasts at a classic English pub and of course, who would pass up a cream tea in a quintessential English village?”
However it was not just the environmental factors that caused Symonds to question her decision, she also highlighted the difference between socialising with friends and family on a visit to Britain compared to when she was there full time.
“Coming back full time is definitely different because it’s not a holiday. I realised all of my friends I have missed terribly have moved on, just as I have too, but I realised fast that I won’t see them all the time like I hoped I would have,” she said.
Symonds told Nine.com.au that the lengthy commute to London and the high cost of everyday living came as the biggest shock.
“I was living in Brighton and commuting to London . . . and it was a horrendous commute . . . it can take three hours to get to London. I was spending £1000 ($1873) per month on commuting,” she said.
“I remember just thinking, like, how is everyone affording this?”
After just six months in Brighton, Symonds decided that she would be happiest back in Sydney and emigrated back Down Under.
“You want to make the right decision even if you end up becoming a ping-pong-pom (you move to Australia, end up moving back to England and then return back to Australia not that long afterwards once you’ve realised what you actually missed about England wasn’t quite worth it!),” she said.
While the house prices in Sydney were un-affordable, a move to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast allowed them to buy their first home which has helped Symonds feel fully settled in Aussie life.
“When I first moved (to Australia) Sydney was the dream, I mean the beaches, the harbour, that feeling of being on the other side of the world and I just loved it. But after moving back to England and then coming back to Australia again, like something had totally changed,” Symonds said on social media.
“It slowly became super clear we wanted a lighter, slower life with space that was quiet . . . but we had to rebuild, it took us six years to finally buy a home in a quiet area, which is funny because I grew up in the countryside in England and somehow I’ve ended up just completely going full circle.
“In some ways it’s the same as the English countryside with blue skies, wallabies and the coast is down the road. And maybe that is what I was looking for all along.”
