A British woman who spent seven years building a life in Sydney packed up and moved back to England with her Australian husband — only to find herself on a plane back to Australia less than six months later. Annie Symonds, who first arrived in Sydney in 2012 on a working holiday visa, says the reality of returning to Britain full-time was nothing like the version she had imagined from the other side of the world.
From the Himalayas to Sydney — and Back to Brighton
Symonds first crossed paths with her future husband, Steve Moylan, while travelling in the Indian Himalayas in 2011. The couple relocated to Sydney the following year, and for seven years made a life there. But regular visits home to England and a growing pull toward familiar faces, family, and the rhythms of English life eventually convinced the couple to make the move back to Brighton, the seaside city roughly 75 kilometres south of London, with the intention of staying permanently.
What greeted Symonds was not quite what she had expected. Writing on her blog, she described being immediately struck by how dirty Brighton's streets were compared with Sydney. "Chewing gum, alcohol, probably wee — the list goes on," she wrote of what she found on the footpaths. She also noted how much harder it was to maintain a healthy lifestyle in England, where social life tends to revolve around the pub, Sunday roasts and cream teas in village tearooms.
The Gap Between Visiting and Actually Living There
Beyond the environment, Symonds found the social landscape far more challenging than anticipated. Years of frequent holidays back to the UK had given her a particular picture of life there — one that dissolved quickly once she was back for good.
"Coming back full time is definitely different because it's not a holiday," she said. "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."
The financial reality also hit hard. Symonds was commuting from Brighton into London for work — a journey she described as "horrendous" and one that could stretch to three hours each way. The monthly commuting bill came to £1,000 (approximately $1,873 Australian dollars). "I remember just thinking, like, how is everyone affording this?" she said.
The 'Ping-Pong-Pom' Decision to Return to Australia
After just six months in Brighton, Symonds made the call to head back to Australia. She has since coined the experience using the term "ping-pong-pom" — a phrase she uses to describe Britons who move to Australia, return to England, and then realise what they actually had Down Under was worth more than what they went back for.
"You want to make the right decision even if you end up becoming a ping-pong-pom," she said, noting that what she thought she missed about England "wasn't quite worth it" once she was living it again.
A Quieter Life on the Sunshine Coast
Returning to Australia brought its own challenges. Sydney's property market proved out of reach, and after six years of working toward home ownership, the couple ultimately bought their first home on Queensland's Sunshine Coast — a move that Symonds says has allowed her to feel genuinely settled for the first time.
She and Moylan married in 2022, and Symonds says the slower, quieter pace of the Sunshine Coast feels surprisingly familiar. "In some ways it's the same as the English countryside — with blue skies, wallabies and the coast," she said. Having grown up in the English countryside, she describes the journey as coming "full circle" — just with better weather and a very different horizon.
