Latest reports on this state that the story has ben taken totally out of context. It was from the London Daily Mail and the reason they came back is that they were homesick and missed all their friends and rello's too much. The 'cost of living retort was just a 'throwaway' line which the reporter seized on to make a story. They don't come from Hull either, they are from Durham.
Surely they must have considered that? They don't seem to know themselves very well. I moved to London from Hull when I was 21. We spent a week in a cheap hotel in London. The first day my girlfriend was crying her eyes out. Last I heard she lived in Switzerland and is a lot happier - maybe because she's not with me!
Probably underestimated the cost of living in Hull and moved to Durham because his missus saw a nice TV show where it was briefly mentioned.
People underestimate the power of homesickness, some people suffer it straight away, some it takes awhile before it really hits you. I can see what happened here, they didnt realise how hard it is to leave friends, family and familiar surroundings, the Robinson drink and cost of living where just small things that maybe tipped the balance, no matter how much research you do on where you are going, it doesn't matter if you get hit with homesickness and cannot cope with it. Its a very brave thing to sell up and move across the world, its just as brave to realise you have made a mistake and have to go back, tail tucked between your legs!
After arriving in Australia in 1968 my husband considered jobs offers for a couple of months and after interviews in Sydney,Melbourne,Brisbane and Adelaide selected one in Adelaide. We lasted there 6 weeks before deciding we had made a huge mistake and he returned to a previously offered job at ICI in Sydney. On the way to the Adelaide job from Sydney we travelled by taxi to Sydney airport and at the terminal the driver asked where we were heading. We said Adelaide and asked if he had been there. He said he had and found it a nice quiet,well laid out city. As we headed off he wound down his window and said " Enjoy the well laid out city -it's been dead for 200 years!"
