Sometimes a problem shared is a problem halved and I know many of the STW massive have done similar so here goes…

I’m living in Christchurch, NZ with my parter E. Life is ace. We go biking at weekends and evenings when it’s dry and go skiing at the weekend in winter (although the snow has been rubbish this winter so have onky ski’d half the available days so far).

Do we stay?

E’s a doctor and needs to contiue her trainig. In the UK that means going in to Core Medical Training next rotation for two years, then begin speciality training. In 7 years she’ll be a Consultant of some sort, or so we hope. Or in NZ there isn’t so much or a structured training porgramme but it’ll be a smimlar 7 year stretch to get qualified. It would be very very difficult to swap between NZ and UK without having to re-start the training programme.

So do we stay? It’s a long stretch to consider going back to the UK for 7 years when life is a big playground here. Not that the UK can’t a playground per se, but we are really enjoying what NZ offers us.

It’s a long long way from family. E has a brother and sister-in-law in ChCh (though they’re off to Canada for a while) and her parents are able to visit relatively often. But my family are much less able to travel and I won’t see so much of them.

I also left behind a rather ace riding crew in Hexham and the NE *waves* 🙂 which I haven’t come close to replacing. I reckon they could be tempted (back) to NZ 😉

Also the best friends I’ve made have either gone back to the UK or will be going back.

If it was another year or two we’d stay but the easy option is to come back to the UK and be closer to family and friends than we can be here. Then do more travel/work abroad afterwards or take another gap in training.

So er, yeah.

Would we stay here forever? Unlikely. There’s a lot more world out there to explore and live in. I also don’t think we’d start a family so far away from our parents and siblings.

Medical training in uk is not great in some ways and nhs is getting a less satisfying place to work. I would also consider that in decision making!

I’ve been in Spain for over 17 years, there’s a slight possibility I might return to the UK for work reasons, but that’s about the only motivation I can think of. Family is close enough, after 17 years my social life is unsurprisingly centred on Madrid, not London, and wherever I live I’ll have to work, pay a mortgage, etc…

Given you’re not heading home (or away) as a form of escape (which is IMO a poor reason to move), but have a solid reason (work+family) I’d say the time has come to head back to the UK for a while.

Edit: given what jet26 says, I’m assuming that the training is of similar standard and with similar future prospects – if that’s not the case then the situation is of course different!

Medical training in uk is not great in some ways and nhs is getting a less satisfying place to work. I would also consider that in decision making!

Training definitely seems better for E in NZ – she’s less of a role being pushed through a system and more of a person being trained. Part of the reason for doing some work in NZ was that the system is a lot friendlier and she’d have the opportunity to do some different jobs and gain some experience before deciding on what path to take.

Also the destruction of the NHS…

I’ve also found good fun engineering work. The work balance is definitely slightly in favour of NZ…

The work balance is definitely slightly in favour of NZ…

Then I’d say it depends on how old your family are, and how important that is to you. I’m quite happy to use Skype, and yearly visits to the UK to see my grandmother. My parents come here slightly more often.

I wouldn’t be too concerned about the friends, you can always make more. Just make sure they’re not all expats, too!

I left the UK in my late 20’s, lived in Hong Kong for twenty years, and just a few months ago got Australian residency.

I don’t want to get into an argument about whether this country or that is a better place to live (it depends), but I will say this…

After you’ve left one country behind its a difficult transition to go back. You’ve changed and your friends and family back ‘home’ haven’t – you will feel like an outsider. Also, you have an unrealistically ‘rose tinted’ memory of what it was like living there which will never be realised.

Life is a one way street – move on is my advice…

Not going back. Too many people in UK want to get hold of me for various reasons 8)

Cam to Oz in 2009 on a 457. Came back in 2011. Went back to Oz 2012 on another 457 after seeing if we could make it work back in Blighty. We couldn’t. Pay, family life, work and living conditions so much better. Family come over for weeks at a time. Everyone’s happy.

Currently in the process of doing my employer sponsored 186 permy residency. Love it here.

Life is a one way street – move on is my advice…

Thankfully , it’s not!

I have gone and come back again … twice!
two 4 year stints in CH. The company I worked with becoming more like a trip into Hades each day. The promises of career progression never happens and the politics changed …

So , I miss the Alps ( I really miss them – great on a bikes, a motorbike or a snowboard). I don’t miss the Swiss. Like anywhere , obviously there is a mix, in our village they were small minded, petty and insuralr. And xenophobic boarding on racist.
I miss being in the middle of Europe.

However, my wife hated it. That was the decision – job or her. She gave it two tries.

And despite all the knockers, Britian isn’t that bad. It is one of the great traits of the Brits to pull their homeland to pieces. However, if you live outside of it, to real;ise the good bits and the bad bits. They are easy to compartmentalise …

The economic woes are no worse that France, the outlook a lot better than Spain, Italy, Portugal etc.

All that said , I am now working in Germany and have been for 18 months – but I move back (in the same position) in 3 months time ! 😀

5x post 😳
😕

To the OP – only you can make that decision. Work out , if you move back, what will you regret?

I regret nothing – great experience, taught me about myself and the lies big orgs use to control people..
And if I want the Alps its 1.5 hours away on Easyjet

It’s Ok, I heard you the first time 😆

yeah – dunno how that happened!! 😳

Admin !!!

I didn’t do nuffink, honest !

18 months in to Oz, some Kiwi friends over here said you need at least 2 years to start making the friends you left behind when you moved. Feels about right.

In terms of stay or go you can do a lot by setting targets and goals for staying, not sure how I got 18 months in so quickly.

Not planning on heading home yet, maybe in 5 or 10 years. Not saying life is better in either place just a bit different.

I am the opposite as I was supposed to end up in NZ many years ago but instead I ended in GeordieLand. NZ considers me thick …

Well, if you are from the GeordieLand then you are going to miss the large lasses here … errmm … but then the lasses in NZ are rather large too. Saw many lasses wearing very tiny tight dress at the Quayside yesterday … Whooaaaaa!

Anyway, if you come back you will be unemployed to be frank, then you can live off your partner after she is trained to her hilt at NHS which eventually will result in no time for boom boom. The stress will build up and one day … BANG! You are in the arms of a large lass at the Quayside.

Personally, you can come back anytime so what’s the hurry? I google map my mates house in NZ and I must say I love it very much (plenty of land to build house) but with such a small population I really need to have several Benelli M4 mates with me because nobody will come to your aid for a while. They are rather violent people those NZ.

Stay there and ride out the economy storm and enjoy the slow pace of life while you can but come back if you think you want large Geordie lasses or if you think you prefer the constantly looking behind your back kind of working life. There are more zombies here by the way.

Family and friends … nahhh … they will not be with you all the time as they have their own families to look after. You are better off coming back for a month or two in a year.

p/s: the only thing very scary in the GeordieLand are those large lassess … they can knock me out cold easily … very scary them.

Hi, nothing useful to add so sorry to be slightly OT, but I’m mid-way through a medical degree myself and thinking about working abroad at some point, so I hope you don’t mind me asking a few questions?
How does your partner find the work itself (as opposed to the training) out there? I assume she had just done F2 when you went? If so which specialty(ies?) has she been working in? How easy was it to arrange work over there?
Feel free to email (in my profile) if you don’t want to derail your thread! Thanks!!

chewkw – Member

Dude, are you high?

Dude, are you high?

No, most of his posts are like that. He hasn’t mentioned the Dear Leader this time, but apart from that…

No maggots either?

been in Finland for 2.5 years now, and whilst it features highly on various top10 lists for standard of life, it’s a place devoid of happiness! In terms of my career, it would be good to continue afterwards, however I can find work easily elsewhere in the world.

I’ll probably move on for a bit and live somewhere asian with the finnish gf. After that, we’ll probably come back to Finland and i’ll give it another shot. I’m not that tempted to come back to the UK, i prefer the adventure of being abroad.

If you want to feel like home head up too Rotorua on a weekend, heard more brits there than I have in a long while 🙂

Im over in Oz (Perth) at the moment. My quality of life from a monetary point of view is awesome however from a social life / quality of life point of view, life sucks and it’s that factor that makes me want to move back to the uk.

I have a solid group of friends and a big group of riders I trust with my life back in the UK who I miss riding with. In oz 90% of the people I know have all just moved to Canada so I’m back to square one.

If it wasn’t for the very limited job options and terrible pay in my industry in the UK I would have forgone the weather and ability to shuttle all the trails to head home.

Maybe in a couple of years when I’ve saved some money up…

I’m not that tempted to come back to the UK, i prefer the adventure of being abroad.

Thing is, unless you keep moving it gradually stops being an adventure, and just becomes “life”. Particularly when/if you have kids…

Been living in Slovakia for 11 months now, will need to return to the UK to study soon, but dreading it..

There are always pros and cons with any country and culture, but aside from money,( i earn a third of what i did in the UK) its better in many ways. The people are lovely, and very genuine. And i love the climate and the very diverse wildlife here like Bears,Wolves, Eagles, Lynx….etc

Oh and the important bit..the riding is great, the country has an extensive trail network, very well signed although some of the so called family routes could very well be classed as red or even black grade in the UK..! The Slovaks really do have a wicked sense of humour!

gears_suck – Member

chewkw – Member

Dude, are you high?

No, dude … just lack of sleep from shift. Also as an expat for the last 2 decades plus I think I see things from different perspective. You cannot see real people until you are living amongst them for a while … a long while. Bear in mind, I am still slowly building up my experience from the time of Henry VIII …

mogrim – Member

Dude, are you high?

No, most of his posts are like that. He hasn’t mentioned the Dear Leader this time, but apart from that…

Just being frank and having a bit of fun.

deadlydarcy – Member

No maggots either?

😆 Chill man. Chiillllll.

A 11 poster?!?! I thought that only existed in the movies!

Well done, mrmoofo!

After you’ve left one country behind its a difficult transition to go back

I think this is an essential truth of moving abroad. The reasons that made you want to leave will still remain. If it’s simply a desire to see the world, then that’s still going to be there (but manageable); if it’s something deeper, it may take a while to resurface when you get back to the UK, but it will resurface. I have various friends who’ve lived abroad (Oz, Canada etc), gone back to the UK, and just want to move abroad again.

That said, career path is an important one, and family are perhaps the one thing that can invalidate all of the above, especially if any family members are getting on/ are invalid etc.

Ultimately IMHO, you kinda ‘know’, deep down, which is the path you want to take. And you don’t want to be anywhere wishing you’d gone the other way. In this day and age, nothing is permanent, even a medical career, it’s just some things can take a bit more work than others to get out of/ work around etc etc.

A 11 poster?!?! I thought that only existed in the movies!

Well done, mrmoofo!

Each time I tried to delete one, another appeared !! 😳 😳 😳

Which team do you support in the world cup? And do you feel gleeful when England is knocked out?

Where is home?

Is the BBC just foreign propaganda?

In which edition of Hola can you recognise the most stars, the English one or your local one?

Which national anthem do you feel most comfortable singing?

Do you drive a locally built car, wear locally made clothes and ride locally made/branded bikes?

Which language is used to discuss your children’s school reports?

Where do you get flamed most for inadvertently saying something politically incorrect, STW or your local forum?

And most important: are you an expat or an immigrant?

I’m a doctor, currently UK resident but previously in NZ.

I wouldn’t come back to the UK for CMT / medical career unless you’re pretty sure you’re going to stay in the UK.

I’d also say that UK medical training is now a production line where there is very limited opportunity to take time out to do interesting stuff that gives you great experience and improves your skills. This means you’re qualified quicker, but (depending on speciality) you’re going to come off the production line with a glut of others and little to distinguish yourself from them- in that sort of tough jobs market an extra 2 years in NZ now may not be the end of the world, especially since those appointing will have come through on the older system. One note of caution – unless things have changed, you’ve got to be a bit careful about being too experienced to get the CMT jobs (> a certain amount of experience used to disqualify you from applying but this may have changed).

Apologies if I’m teaching granny to suck eggs, just my 2p worth!

Good luck.

why dont we swap for a bit so you can see how it works out. i have a mate in hr in the loacl nhs, to get you up and running, a 3 bed house overlooking the bristol channel,(pretty views) gower is walking distance, very close to all the trail centres at afan…..
you have to get me a job on a building site (multi trade with experience in restoration management) and lend me your house.

………oh yeah and pay for my flights since its all your idea anyway 😉

deal? 😯

Thanks for all the replies, I’ll take time to reply to you all when I have got home for the day and had time to read them all.

Hexham is shit.

I’ve been over in Perth for only a few months and see no reason to go back. My quality of life and pace of work feel so much more natural!

Unlike the OP I don’t have any ties to job or career back to. Although I’ll have to sort out my house that I put in storage at some point! I imagine it would be harder to make that big a decision, OP I feel for you….

It is tough being an expat though, making friends and having that ability to go out for a beer with mates is hard, especially when the GF has mates from home over here that has instantly replaced her social group at home.

one_happy_hippy, aphex_2k we should try and sort out STW (Perth edition) drinks at some point?

Sounds good. Perhaps a few ales at Little Creatures / Sail and Anchor / Mad Monk? I’m in Rockingham but moving back up to Freo when our lease runs out in Oct. I *really* love Fremantle.

I also left behind a rather ace riding crew in Hexham and the NE *waves* which I haven’t come close to replacing.

I’ve been in NE England for the last ten years. Made some great mates (mostly bikey) but spend all my time planning how to move back to Scotland. It’s all relative…

Sounds like Canada is the place to be!

aphex_2k: I’ll get you on your e-mail in your profile……

Aphex_2k, neville, sounds good I’ll be up for an ‘ale’ or two. (pfft they call it ale! bloody slightly less fizzy slightly hoppy lager mutter mutter etc). Anyway I digress email in profile.

I’m in the ridiculous situation of being in Vancouver with a gorgeous girl and still pining for Edinburgh!

Injuries haven’t helped, I’ll spare the world another moan but I haven’t really been able to go on any mad adventures the way I’d hoped. I’ve got a good job to come back to though and since I left some of the guys in the office has gotten suspiciously fast on their bikes so I’ll have plenty to keep me occupied.

My girlfriend warns me of tartan tinted glasses though, she’s come and gone a couple of times and doesn’t miss it, but she didn’t cycle or hike so Scotland probably has less appeal.

Just in case I move back and realise I’ve made an awful mistake, I’m planning two or three more ‘big holidays, Norway, Nepal etc. which will hopefully soften the blow if I start to regret my decision.

Aphex_2k, one_happy_hippy……cool, I’ll email when I get home later.

In my opinion – The UK’s not as bad as we all like moan about and there are some spots which are in fantastic locations (Edinburgh for me). We find the family and friend support base that the UK offers the critical selling point hence we have settled back home