Back in November 2007, my lovely wife of 3 months (Mary) and myself (Sean) made the decision to have an Australian Adventure. The purpose of this blog is to record the key events for ourselves and others to read.
Our intention is to 'semigrate'. That is to say that we are leaving England to work abroad rather than holiday. After we have spent a year or so abroad we will decide where to live. Our choices at the moment include UK, Ireland, and Australia.
So where to begin? A bit about us I suppose. I'm 34 years old, male, living in Manchester (UK). I'm pleased to report that my wife is 30 years old, female, and also living in Manchester. We have no children. We do however have many good friends and are close to our family - both in Ireland and England. Mary is a university graduate (Mental Health) while I have studied at the 'school of life'. I am qualified as an electrician though, and have been owner of a small business since 2006 (renewable energy - solar). Mary works in our local NHS hospital.
So why go to Oz? There are a multitude of reasons. Some positive and some negative. To keep a long story short, I'm fairly well travelled and Mary is less so. Mary always wanted to have a 'gap year' or similar but the constraints of being a student without much cash have ruled this out until now. For me, I've seen a fair bit of the world and want to see more. So we are both agreed - let's go somewhere!
We thought about Canada a couple of years ago and decided that it was cool but cold. Europe? It costs less than a ten mile taxi into Manchester city centre to fly to Europe. Hardly an adventure these days - although we've had some great times in 'proper' Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, and others. USA? Mary said no. Africa or Middle East? Not a good time to go. Far East / Asia? Tricky weather and language barrier. South or Central America? I've been to Cuba, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico. Loved it but my experiences would detract from our joint adventure. There are others, but it's Australia for us.
So why are we off to Australia? 3 primary reasons aside from those mentioned earlier...
1. We know (as in know well) about 8 people who have been to Australia in recent years. These are well travelled types and they can be divided into two distinct groups; those who stayed and those who returned to UK to sell up or save up and are planning to move to Australia. This speaks volumes, especially when you consider that the UK is one of the wealthiest countries on earth.
2. Australians. By all reports your typical Aussie has a 'can do' attitude. One great (if sad) example of this can be found in this weeks news (mid Jan 08). In the UK, about 5 miles from my house, a man called Gary Newlove went outside his house to challenge a group of scallies who had smashed up his wifes car. He seemingly threw no punches but the feral youths kicked him to death in front of one of his young daughters. Neighbours did nothing according to reports. In Melbourne this week, a man looked out of his window in St. Kilda to see a woman being attacked from behind by a man. He ran down, pinned the bloke to the floor, saved the damsel. He asked others to hold the guy down and rang the police, before going back to his flat 'for a cigarette'. Despite calls for him to come forward and claim his hero status, he remains silent.
Still on point 2, I compared my experiences of New Year in UK to those of a good mate of mine in Sydney. He spent about 12 hours from 3pm 31st Dec until 3am 1st Jan on some sort of grassy plateau overlooking the harbour, watching the fireworks and getting fairly drunk with a picnic and some friends. There were about one million people at this free open public party, on the ground around his group were Mancunians, French, Italians, Germans and the odd Australian. There were about 90 arrests, one person got stabbed (not fatally wounded I'm told). Compare this with your average UK town or city, the news story on BBC on new years day spoke of some place (sorry can't remember which place - see google) with a population of about 200,000 - about 850 arrests and a sprinkling of knives and guns.
3. The UK is in steep decline. If anyone thinks I am about to rattle on about immigration then they should think again. Please permit this brief view. The Asian (particularly Pakistani) community in this country cops a lot of grief. A bit of it is deserved - but not all. I worked with and knew well a lot of young Pakistani men in Oldham for a couple of years just before the race riots. They were all moderates, and shared my view that the tiny enclave of Glodwick (scene of said riots) was an an embarrassment. This decline is due to corruption, greed, big business being more powerful than democracy. The police contain corrupt elements (also true in Melbourne). The law protects the wealthy. Shareholder value is increasingly put before the needs of the poulation. The NHS is being systematically ripped off by unaccountable entities. The most valued members of our society (in my opinion) are the least rewarded - at least in financial terms. Meanwhile the directors of the failed and mis-managed 'Northern Rock' bank are being paid telephone numbers. A football manager can earn a million a year. About 10 times as much as a Prime Minister or very hard working GP or school head.
Ok, it's turning into a rant so enough for now! Next post is about our application to Oz...
No comments:
Post a Comment