Latest news with #workingholiday
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Yahoo
We moved in with a couple in their 50s when we were in our 20s. Despite the age difference, we became lifelong friends.
When my partner and I were in our 20s, we moved in with Billy and Fern, a couple in their 50s. It was a great living situation, and we became close during our time renting a room from them. Though we've since moved on, we've remained lifelong friends. When we were in our 20s, my partner Sam and I decided to do a working holiday in Banff, Canada. Initially, we rented a room in a three-bedroom share house with two other couples who were close in age to us. It was loads of fun, but nobody did much cleaning, and there was a fair amount of drinking and partying. Sam got a job with the town of Banff and soon he befriended this Canadian guy named Billy. Billy is one of those larger-than-life personalities; he's high energy and extremely likeable. Everyone in town knows him, and he's affectionately known as "Billy Banff." One day, Billy mentioned that he and his wife had a room available in their cozy two-bedroom property. After chatting with me about it, Sam told Billy we'd love to take it. I'll never forget the day we moved in. I met Billy's wife, Fern, who's a wonderfully warm, very calm, grounded person. She's the yin to Billy's yang in a lot of ways, and the pair complements each other beautifully. As we talked through the finer details of the rental arrangement, I asked her if I could have a set of keys for the property. "Oh, honey, we don't even know where they are," she said, smiling. "We never bother locking the house!" That's the kind of trusting, beautiful people Billy and Fern are. Their house is always open and full of loved ones. When they showed us our room, they'd left a bottle of Yellow Tail merlot from Australia on the dresser for us, as a nod to our home. We felt so welcome. At that point, Billy and Fern were in their 50s, while Sam and I were 29 and 26. Despite the age difference, the living arrangement worked really well. Fern and Bill were fun and young at heart, but also very caring and nurturing. We all helped out with cleaning and often shared meals together. I used to love coming home after a waitressing shift to find Fern on the veranda, relaxing and taking in nature. We'd have deep conversations about love, life, and everything in between. Sometimes, if Billy was home, we'd crank "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 and dance around the living room like kids. I also played "A Horse With No Name" by America over and over; it had been featured by our favorite TV show at the time, "Breaking Bad," and Billy and I often sang it together. It became a bit of a theme song for that chapter of my life. When we eventually decided it was time to move on from Banff, the feeling was bittersweet. It was springtime when we left. The deer were out in full force and the sun was still shining at 9 p.m. As a final farewell, Fern made an amazing feast for us and we sat around the fire drinking wine. It really felt like home. After we left Banff, we moved to London for a year and then returned to Australia. As fate would have it, Fern and Billy's daughter Penny lives on the Gold Coast, where my family is based, so we've been lucky enough to catch up with them over the years. In 2019, we even took our kids to Canada to show them Banff, which still feels like our "happy place." On our most recent catch-up on the Gold Coast earlier this year, I was walking through a beachside park when I heard someone singing a familiar tune with a thick Canadian accent. "I've been through the desert on a horse with no name. It felt good to be out of the rain," they sang. I could not wipe the grin off my face as I turned and saw Billy standing nearby, his arms outstretched and ready for a bear hug. Whenever we get together with Fern and Billy, it's always like old times. They're more than lifelong friends. To us, they're family and always will be. Read the original article on Business Insider
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I moved to Australia to follow my dream.. but here is why being a Brit down under is NOT what it is cracked up to be
With the promise of endless sunny days on the beach it's no wonder young Brits are ditching home for life down under. But Helen Humphrey-Taylor, 21, says the reality of living on the other side of the world is not all its cracked up to be. After finishing her A-Levels Helen travelled to Melbourne to embark on a six-week tour of the east coast. She told MailOnline: 'At the end of the trip so many people that I met were planning on staying and they all had these visas that I had no idea about, a working holiday visa. 'And I was just on a tourist visa but I thought I have no money now because I've spent everything and I really did not like the idea of coming back to the UK with no money. 'I thought I don't even know what I'm going to do when I get back and I've met all these amazing people that are staying and working and I found out about the wages and I thought I'd be crazy to come home.' Once she was able to obtain the visa, Helen decided to move to Melbourne because she had heard it was 'cool' and 'livable'. 'I decided, I'm just gonna go and just chance my luck,' she added. As fate would have it after aimlessly walking around the city with her CV and living in a hostel she was able to secure a job. Helen said: 'I found a little coffee shop with one man working there and I said "Do you need anyone to help you", I was so desperate. 'I asked if he wanted to see my CV and he said "no why would I want to see your CV, just make a coffee". 'I was thrown in the deep end, I had minimal skills. 'I just made a coffee and he said I could start on Tuesday.' She loved working in the shop and found a great apartment in the heart of Melbourne. Helen earned $500 a week and rented her flat for $300 a week and was enjoying her new life. But she was forced to leave because of the unusual visa requirements. People aged between 18 and 30 can apply for three Working Holiday visas for each additional year they want to live and work in Australia. The First Working Holiday visa lasts a year and is dependent on having a passport from an eligible country or jurisdiction. However, the Second Working Holiday visa, which Helen applied for, so she could live in the country for a second year, requires three months of work in regional Australia. She completed the work and returned to the UK for the summer but was eager to return to Australia as soon as possible. 'I thought I really haven't finished what I was doing, I felt it was cut so short and I still didn't know what I wanted to do,' she explained. 'I though university wasn't right, so in September that year I booked a ticket back to Melbourne and went back. 'But I was back to square one having to find a job, find accommodation. 'At this point I had learnt so much about living in Australia, I decided I wanted to try something new and live in Sydney. 'And it was a big mistake for me.' Helen explained that after spending a week struggling to find accommodation in Sydney, she decided to return to her comfort zone in Melbourne. She secured a job in a shopping centre through the connections she had already made and decided she wanted to live on her own. 'I got accepted for an apartment to rent, which was a one bed on my own in my favourite area in Melbourne.' Helen was feeling settled and living her dream - but it all went downhill from there. The excitement and adventure aspect of her time in Australia began to fade away. She said: 'After about six months of living there, living alone, it started to get cold and it was starting to feel lonely. 'It felt like the real life had started, I wasn't travelling anymore, I wasn't living on an island. 'My routine had just become this one place in Melbourne and I felt like why am I living half way around the world doing this when I could be at home with my family? 'I started to lose the purpose. I started asking myself why am I paying so much to live on my own, I'm not exactly building my career here, so what's the point?' She also began to notice the culture gap between herself and the locals. 'A lot of the people that I met in Australia lived with their families. I didn't meet many people that I can relate to. 'There was a cultural gap. It's really difficult to see these people as long-term friends.' What also surprised Helen was the harsh and cold conditions that hit the country during the winter. 'I would come back to my apartment and I would be cold from work and I'd walk in the apartment and it would be colder inside than it was outside because the houses and apartments are built for warm weather. 'It was not nice to live in.' After spending every day waiting for her parents to wake up and become available to speak to her, Helen made the decision to return to her home in Sevenoaks. 'There was no purpose anymore,' she said.
