I Must be English? n/b

[TheBoatman]

I have just returned from a business trip to Italy. I love the place, the people, the food but I have to admit that I still loved the feeling more of landing at Stansted, sleeping in my own bed, basically I'm always glad to get back home despite wind & rain, speed cameras, taxes. There's just something different about the British Isles and by that I mean Scotland, Ireland which is my second home, I can't put my finger on it but it's just DIFFERENT.

Discuss?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[jimi]

Its home .. its yer ain wee bit! Feel the same myself, love travelling but love getting back to the auld familiar haunts even more

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[boatmike]

Yep! have the same meself. Lasts until I get up the next morning and it's dark, peeing with rain and blowing a hoolie. Within a week I have a cold, me old joints start to creak and I feel meself reverting to Victor Meldrew mode..... Time to be off again.....

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Evadne]

Yup, there's no place like home. I think it's something to do with shades of green and the colour of the soil. I spent three years in South Africa as a lad, and until I got back I'd never realised how beautiful the British countryside, even around Basildon, could appear in the winter! It's even better once you get out on the water, of course.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[AJW]

Hmm, I've worked in Basildon for best part of 13 years and agree the winter sunlight can catch the burned out cars in the laybys just so and for a brief moment all appears beautiful!

I agree about the feeling of coming home but I think thats more about being home with family, familiar stuff, friends etc rather than neccessarily being in England. However I will be shortly putting this to the test when I emigrate to Canada next month!

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Evadne]

I must admit I left Essex for the last time in 1985, and haven't looked back. Basildon is a much maligned dorp, but is no worse than a lot of other places that I wouldn't want to live in either, even in a posh county like Hampshire or Surrey. The best bit as a kid was moving to Burnham-on-Crouch and joining the sailing club at school.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[mikewilkes]

Re: Sorry got to disagree n/b

I am English because I was born there. For preference when I do go back to G.B. I stay in the North of Scotland.
I have been going / living / working overseas since 1964 - I know I am a silly old fart ( as my daughter ) would call me.
The times I do return , once per year, I am saddened at the state of the country. If you enter through LHR or LGW then you do really wonder why people want to go to G.B. These are possiblely the main entry points, for the legals that is , and they are absolutely disgusting. ( If by any chance they have been cleaned and decorated in the last 15 months then I retract that.)
I must be perfectly honest and say that Great ( as it used to be) Britain has nothing to offer me. Before I get flamed for " Well you dont put anything into it" I did serve in HM Forces and have paid taxes for a number of years.
You asked for discussion and sorry but I for one have got to disagree with the sentiments already expressed.
Judging by the number of requests for information on prices etc overseas that one sees on these forums, then an awful lot of folk must be thinking the same thing.
BTW it is not always sun over here cos last night it was "precipitating profusely" for quite a few hours.


<hr width=100% size=1>Mike
Ready for going back home to my mistress and SWMBO of course !!!

 

[TheBoatman]

Re: Sorry got to disagree n/b

Mike
I don't know whether to agree or disagree with you. It's a complicated question which I can't answer. I emigrated to Aussie when I was young (back in the 60's) I didn't like it and came back, maybe now that was a wrong decision. but I look at what successive governments have done to my beloved Kent and wonder. Then I watch TV progs of people that have emigrated to the sun and can't hack it. I suppose it's what you know and love that counts, I was born in Kent and now live in it, I'm happy to be here but there's always that bit of me that says the grass is greener etc? As of yet I have not found a place that I would wish to retire to with the exception of Ireland!

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[mikewilkes]

Re: Sorry got to disagree n/b

Peter,
Living the way I do and where is certainly not the ideal for every body. There is a lady called Violetta who would disagree with me for one. She and obviously you are happy with where you are - and long may it continue for both of you.
But for me it just did not work. I dont know whether its because I have been to too many different places - very lucky in some respects - but it has made me aware of many countries I am DEFINATELY not going back to at all.
You are happy with your surroundings and I am with mine. It is after all just a discussion as to where people are contented.
Mind you after the list at the start of this does make you wonder ???
Just get on and enjoy. Remember the grass is always greener when you are only looking over the fence. You have to go over the fence to test it. As long as you dont padlock the gate to stop you going back if that becomes your wish.



<hr width=100% size=1>Mike
Ready for going back home to my mistress and SWMBO of course !!!

 

[Becky]

I am looking forward to leaving the UK, but I will keep a home here all the while I am away. Apart from the nostalgia, my children are here, my colleagues and friends are here. There are also the unquantifiable advantages of NHS care when I am old, the comfort of knowing the customs, the language (except in NHS hospitals where all the staff seem to be foreign), where to get help from friendly policemen, (my youngest son has just joined) and so on. But some of you will notice as you get older that little things like your rheumatism will be better in warm climates.
Mind you, I could emigrate to Scotland and learn to understand what on earth Jimi, Claymore ( and presumably Dear Heart) were actually saying. Scotland is definitely foreign, isn't it?

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[mikewilkes]

Becky,

<Just get on and enjoy. Remember the grass is always greener when you are only looking over the fence. You have to go over the fence to test it. As long as you dont padlock the gate to stop you going back if that becomes your wish>

Depending where you go you may find that health care is just as good. I am "slightly" biased to being overseas because I also work in the sun. The cold weather has got into my bones now with my avanced years. This comes from somebody who used to spend all his free time Skiing and Snow and Ice Climbing !
Go ahead and try it but " dont padlock the gate".


<hr width=100% size=1>Mike
Ready for going back home to my mistress and SWMBO of course !!!

 

[Sybarite]

I have lived abroad now for over 30 years and am currently considering where I want to settle. The advent of Ryanair ( the s*d*) and Easyjet have opened up the possibilities because getting home no longer costs an arm and a leg (unless like Ryanair who let you travel one way on ID papers but not to return on them......). I always thought I would retire to Ireland but my kids are in France and let's face it, I prefer things 5-10° warmer. Also French medical care is second to none with no long waiting lists.

Therefore the proposed plan is :

Win the lottery,
Château (modest) in Southern Brittany,
Pied à terre in Paris,
Châlet in the Alps
Cottage in Ireland
Diamond D42 twin diesel plane to visit them all..
Super Maramu for the seas.

Nothing too flashy.

John


<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Becky]

HWMBO and I are fitting out our recently bought boat with the express intention of 'going for it', to warm climes, hopefully calm seas and as much self-sufficiency as we can arrange. But we are taking the long view in that we want a shake-down of a season to make sure everything works. Seen too many sailors leaving while still finishing off their boats. I doubt that I will miss England much, the country as it is now isn't the one I grew up in. Once you looked up to politicians (anyone else remember those days?), teachers taught children without covering them in protective clothing, and the NHS worked quite well. Oh, and taxes weren't too awful, either. You see, I will still have my memories, it is just that present reality won't destroy them.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[TheBoatman]

Re: Sorry got to disagree n/b

Mike
I suppose what I'm trying to say is that in my "later years" I'm running into a conflict. On the one hand I've travelled the world, been all the way round by the time I was 17, during my working life I have travelled by road, rail and air and I am always pleased to get back home, but with the current political climate, what the polititions are doing to the UK I'm now having second thoughts.
Maybe I'll retire to Ireland, who knows? It's a feeling of disalusionment that the country I was born in and love is being sold down the river by beaurocrats.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Evadne]

I wonder if I find Britain to be such a nice place to live because I don't read the newspapers? If I believed all that was written about Ireland, for example, I'd assume it was becoming a sort of cross between California and communist East Germany: embracing the Euro, no smoking in pubs, nobody allowed on a boat without a lifejacket on, what next? The reality is, I suspect very different. The same goes for France. If you read the papers and watch big brother then you would have a very low opinion of Britain, but papers (and the BBC) don't tell the truth, they call their news items "stories". Stories are what I read my neice at bedtime, and those ones contain just as much truth as the average newspaper article or Eastenders plot.
I like where I live, work and sail. The streets are safe (I spent a few years in 1970's South Africa to know what it's like not to be able to trust a policeman) and if you're ill, there are hospitals to go to. Nothing's perfect, but when I look around me, I don't see the same country that some of you are obviously seeing. I hope you find what you're looking for.


<hr width=100% size=1>