I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Feb 16th 2011, 3:33 pm
#31
Done!
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 619
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
I have put off my response to this thread simply because when I read about what the OP has been through it really does upset me and three words spring to mind.....IT'S NOT FAIR 
I wish you and your family the best of luck with your move back to the UK and whether you establish your new life back here or elsewhere in the world, I hope you can find the happiness and security you deserve. Big hugs to you 
I wish you and your family the best of luck with your move back to the UK and whether you establish your new life back here or elsewhere in the world, I hope you can find the happiness and security you deserve. Big hugs to you
Feb 16th 2011, 3:37 pm
#32
Displaced Disgrace
Joined: Sep 2008
Location: HRM N.S.
Posts: 745
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Vegetables being a foodstuff would be high on the list...
Feb 16th 2011, 4:25 pm
#33
All Sooked up!
Joined: Dec 2010
Location: Sooke, BC.
Posts: 1,894
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
I guess some of us need more time to adapt 
your right about GB being dirty ,etc..and aggressive ..although I do find Canadian people overly friendly, which is a good thing as they havnt had to deal with the problems people of the UK have over the past 40 years.
I understand fatcats points of view too and Im sure given time they would have adapted , its all so frustrating going through this whole process of PR one way or another .
One more thing you forgot to add though about the downside of the UK is TV licence LOL ...people here couldnt believe we have to pay for one .
your right about GB being dirty ,etc..and aggressive ..although I do find Canadian people overly friendly, which is a good thing as they havnt had to deal with the problems people of the UK have over the past 40 years.I understand fatcats points of view too and Im sure given time they would have adapted , its all so frustrating going through this whole process of PR one way or another .
One more thing you forgot to add though about the downside of the UK is TV licence LOL ...people here couldnt believe we have to pay for one .
To the contrary it appears that the Canadian system needed to better understand what Fatcat's family, as a whole, had to offer Canada rather than boot them out due to perceived 'financial strain, one of their siblings may have placed on the medical system.
All the same I wish Fatcat and crew the best for their return to the EU. Remembering of course there is more to Europe than just the UK! For a UK citizen the right of PR is EU wide not just the UK.
Feb 16th 2011, 5:12 pm
#34
Dive Bar Drunk
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Toronto
Posts: 8,648
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
I'm going to spending a few days in Henley on Thames next week. I am pretty sure it is no more aggressive (whatever this means), dirty, or overcrowded than Toronto. Even without looking at the stats I think I am less likely to be shot.
I don't find there to be much difference between the services provided through Property Tax/Council Tax (the poll tax is long gone) in the UK and Canada.
I don't find there to be much difference between the services provided through Property Tax/Council Tax (the poll tax is long gone) in the UK and Canada.
At one stage we took a wrong turn, so borrowed two bin liners from a kind lady, put our possessions in and leisurely swam across the Thames in our boxer shorts........much to the bemusement of some fisherman.
Feb 16th 2011, 5:36 pm
#35
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Apr 2008
Location: Calgary
Posts: 3,340
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Sorry but I have to disagree! Not lazy! You both confuse "Lazy" with a more relaxed way of life. You can't compare Apples and Lemons. Life in Great Britain requires something very different. There is no need to run the rat-race of Great Britain here. I come from London and appreciate that where I live in Canada is 40 years behind London. What we lack in frenzied, fast passed and crazy lives we make up for in real community connections. My bank manager knows my name! Cars stop to let me cross the street at any point, jay walking or not. People say "Hello" to you because it is nice to be nice and not because they want something from you. It is not dirty or aggressive like Great Britain. I am sad that people are heading back but lets face it; Great Britain is more aggressive, dirty, over crowded and rude. Look at the crime stats, population stats. It is all there. No generalisations here. It gets worse every year too. I hope you enjoy paying council (Poll) tax for no real services. I wish Fatcat all the best and I understand his plight but sweeping generalisations are not cool!
Feb 16th 2011, 5:40 pm
#36
Onwards and upwards!
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: North West UK
Posts: 288
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Well didn't i start something!! oops!! (I'm female by the way!)
Your right though about generalization and I hold my hands up to that, however, i was a manager and my experience of having Canadian staff who walked in with their Tims breakfast at 10-15 mins late every morning and then wanting to go for a smoke after and sulking when i put a stop to this says a lot! My experience is that 'my' staff did not like having to work, nor did they like the professionalism I brought with me.
My OH has a similar experience where he works to and he works with both Brits and Canadians so he had a comparison. But you are right and not all Canadians are the same and there is a difference between laid back and lazy. The laid back I like, but lazy is my experience at work and if you are paid to do a job you should do it, not have a coffee and a smoke first then gossip for a while.
As i have said in previous posts, i love this place and that's why we fought so hard to stay so far, i love the people here and their laid back way of life and relaxed attitude to things, however, work is work and if you are costing the company money then that's not right, that is all i was trying to say, although i admit i didn't say it very well. Lets hope now my point is clear?
Anyway thank you guys for all your good wishes and although I can't wait to get back to the UK, my OH is having a tough time right now as change is hard for him and he feels like a failure even though he has no reason to. We only said we were coming for two years anyway, we kind of got rumbled into applying for residency, never fully understanding what was in store for us. It was one of those things you do that you are glad you did so that when your knocking on heavens door (another song....good eh!), you can look back with no regrets and say i'm glad i tried it! 'No regrets'!
Good luck all and i'll pop in from time to time and see how things are going!
Your right though about generalization and I hold my hands up to that, however, i was a manager and my experience of having Canadian staff who walked in with their Tims breakfast at 10-15 mins late every morning and then wanting to go for a smoke after and sulking when i put a stop to this says a lot! My experience is that 'my' staff did not like having to work, nor did they like the professionalism I brought with me.
My OH has a similar experience where he works to and he works with both Brits and Canadians so he had a comparison. But you are right and not all Canadians are the same and there is a difference between laid back and lazy. The laid back I like, but lazy is my experience at work and if you are paid to do a job you should do it, not have a coffee and a smoke first then gossip for a while.
As i have said in previous posts, i love this place and that's why we fought so hard to stay so far, i love the people here and their laid back way of life and relaxed attitude to things, however, work is work and if you are costing the company money then that's not right, that is all i was trying to say, although i admit i didn't say it very well. Lets hope now my point is clear?
Anyway thank you guys for all your good wishes and although I can't wait to get back to the UK, my OH is having a tough time right now as change is hard for him and he feels like a failure even though he has no reason to. We only said we were coming for two years anyway, we kind of got rumbled into applying for residency, never fully understanding what was in store for us. It was one of those things you do that you are glad you did so that when your knocking on heavens door (another song....good eh!), you can look back with no regrets and say i'm glad i tried it! 'No regrets'!
Good luck all and i'll pop in from time to time and see how things are going!
Feb 16th 2011, 5:48 pm
#37
Onwards and upwards!
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: North West UK
Posts: 288
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
From what I have read about this in the past it was not Fatcats's family needing to adapt as it seems they were well settled in Canada.
To the contrary it appears that the Canadian system needed to better understand what Fatcat's family, as a whole, had to offer Canada rather than boot them out due to perceived 'financial strain, one of their siblings may have placed on the medical system.
All the same I wish Fatcat and crew the best for their return to the EU. Remembering of course there is more to Europe than just the UK! For a UK citizen the right of PR is EU wide not just the UK.
To the contrary it appears that the Canadian system needed to better understand what Fatcat's family, as a whole, had to offer Canada rather than boot them out due to perceived 'financial strain, one of their siblings may have placed on the medical system.
All the same I wish Fatcat and crew the best for their return to the EU. Remembering of course there is more to Europe than just the UK! For a UK citizen the right of PR is EU wide not just the UK.
I wish we could go to Europe especially Portugal but the fear of OH not getting work in time and us not having enough money to live on is a risk we are scared to take. Not sure of electrical work in Portugal and we don't speak the language either. We were going to learn the language but can't find any Portuguese books or CD's over here, so we are learning Spanish instead!! Thanks again 
Feb 16th 2011, 5:51 pm
#38
Purpe80 in another life..
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 665
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Good luck!
Feb 17th 2011, 7:41 am
#39
Just Joined
Joined: Mar 2009
Location: Townsville, Australia.
Posts: 5
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Well didn't i start something!! oops!! (I'm female by the way!)
Your right though about generalization and I hold my hands up to that, however, i was a manager and my experience of having Canadian staff who walked in with their Tims breakfast at 10-15 mins late every morning and then wanting to go for a smoke after and sulking when i put a stop to this says a lot! My experience is that 'my' staff did not like having to work, nor did they like the professionalism I brought with me.
My OH has a similar experience where he works to and he works with both Brits and Canadians so he had a comparison. But you are right and not all Canadians are the same and there is a difference between laid back and lazy. The laid back I like, but lazy is my experience at work and if you are paid to do a job you should do it, not have a coffee and a smoke first then gossip for a while.
As i have said in previous posts, i love this place and that's why we fought so hard to stay so far, i love the people here and their laid back way of life and relaxed attitude to things, however, work is work and if you are costing the company money then that's not right, that is all i was trying to say, although i admit i didn't say it very well. Lets hope now my point is clear?
Anyway thank you guys for all your good wishes and although I can't wait to get back to the UK, my OH is having a tough time right now as change is hard for him and he feels like a failure even though he has no reason to. We only said we were coming for two years anyway, we kind of got rumbled into applying for residency, never fully understanding what was in store for us. It was one of those things you do that you are glad you did so that when your knocking on heavens door (another song....good eh!), you can look back with no regrets and say i'm glad i tried it! 'No regrets'!
Good luck all and i'll pop in from time to time and see how things are going!
Your right though about generalization and I hold my hands up to that, however, i was a manager and my experience of having Canadian staff who walked in with their Tims breakfast at 10-15 mins late every morning and then wanting to go for a smoke after and sulking when i put a stop to this says a lot! My experience is that 'my' staff did not like having to work, nor did they like the professionalism I brought with me.
My OH has a similar experience where he works to and he works with both Brits and Canadians so he had a comparison. But you are right and not all Canadians are the same and there is a difference between laid back and lazy. The laid back I like, but lazy is my experience at work and if you are paid to do a job you should do it, not have a coffee and a smoke first then gossip for a while.
As i have said in previous posts, i love this place and that's why we fought so hard to stay so far, i love the people here and their laid back way of life and relaxed attitude to things, however, work is work and if you are costing the company money then that's not right, that is all i was trying to say, although i admit i didn't say it very well. Lets hope now my point is clear?
Anyway thank you guys for all your good wishes and although I can't wait to get back to the UK, my OH is having a tough time right now as change is hard for him and he feels like a failure even though he has no reason to. We only said we were coming for two years anyway, we kind of got rumbled into applying for residency, never fully understanding what was in store for us. It was one of those things you do that you are glad you did so that when your knocking on heavens door (another song....good eh!), you can look back with no regrets and say i'm glad i tried it! 'No regrets'!
Good luck all and i'll pop in from time to time and see how things are going!
I have not read of your historical dissapointments and they are possibly justified. But ones memory of "great" Britain is a little sentimental. I understand you have an autistic son like us. That is a massive problem anywhere and can depend where he is on the spectrum As for teachers not knowing about Aspergers etc! I am a retired teacher from England and my 5th son, eight years old now, (third marriage) is autistic. I had heard vaguely about autism and never heard about Aspergers -just like your Canadian teacher. If you had your child at the grammar school where I taught I would similarly have seemed dim. So why give that as acharacteristic of Canadian teachers. What did you know about ASD before your son was diagnosed?
I think I can say that if one feels homesick one sees things differently. I migrated to NZ and Aussie and returned to the UK. 30 years ago I came back to the sunshine and had a changed attitude.
I constantly am amazed at the way England has stuck to the class system.The two leaders of the coalition born with silver spoons and have private, elite educations. Here in Aussie our Prime Ministere was born in the Welsh valleys and migrated here with her coal miner dad. Worked hard at school and became a lawyer. Joined the Labour party and worked her way up the political ladder. I attended Cameron's university so I'm not talking envy.
I am eighty, married with three young kids. We live in a modern house on our 50 acre property, have all the consumer toys and have a duplex in the city. All owned! We have 2 near-new cars. And yet I qualify for a full age pension and can afford holidays abroad. If I lived in England I would be in poverty street. The UK wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few. It used to be that 10% owned 90% and I doubt that has changed much. I love most people in the UK - even the aristos who, personally, are usually very nice. But the system, contrary to some popular belief, is stuck in pomposity, titles, ceremony and mostly covert class consciousness.
Maybe that will be more obvious when you return. If you go to Surrey I can introduce you to a friend with a school dedicated to ASD. She has an autistic son too. When she discovered that the local education system was inadequate she formed a group to better things. Could not you have done this in Canada?
Mancunian.
Feb 17th 2011, 8:52 am
#40
All Sooked up!
Joined: Dec 2010
Location: Sooke, BC.
Posts: 1,894
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Thanks James!! I wish we could go to Europe especially Portugal but the fear of OH not getting work in time and us not having enough money to live on is a risk we are scared to take. Not sure of electrical work in Portugal and we don't speak the language either. We were going to learn the language but can't find any Portuguese books or CD's over here, so we are learning Spanish instead!! Thanks again
I wish we could go to Europe especially Portugal but the fear of OH not getting work in time and us not having enough money to live on is a risk we are scared to take. Not sure of electrical work in Portugal and we don't speak the language either. We were going to learn the language but can't find any Portuguese books or CD's over here, so we are learning Spanish instead!! Thanks again Actually, here the in the Algarve the Ex-Pat community is huge and English is widely spoken by the locals. You'll not be left out on a limb of you don't speak the local language although of course it is handy to have the basics as a minimum.
There are international schools here too.
I still feel that your OH might benefit from looking to the North Sea to bring in the money. That would leave you free to settle anywhere in Europe without worrying about local jobs/income, or the state of the land based UK job market, of which the North Sea is independent. In the UK there is also a rapidly expanding alternative energy market offshore too, as in Wind Farms. You don't see these jobs in the press or at the local employment agencies. Work is roughly 6 months of the year with 6 months off. It's not a bad life.
All the best
James
Feb 17th 2011, 12:47 pm
#41
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 120
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Well didn't i start something!! oops!! (I'm female by the way!)
Your right though about generalization and I hold my hands up to that, however, i was a manager and my experience of having Canadian staff who walked in with their Tims breakfast at 10-15 mins late every morning and then wanting to go for a smoke after and sulking when i put a stop to this says a lot! My experience is that 'my' staff did not like having to work, nor did they like the professionalism I brought with me.
My OH has a similar experience where he works to and he works with both Brits and Canadians so he had a comparison. But you are right and not all Canadians are the same and there is a difference between laid back and lazy. The laid back I like, but lazy is my experience at work and if you are paid to do a job you should do it, not have a coffee and a smoke first then gossip for a while.
As i have said in previous posts, i love this place and that's why we fought so hard to stay so far, i love the people here and their laid back way of life and relaxed attitude to things, however, work is work and if you are costing the company money then that's not right, that is all i was trying to say, although i admit i didn't say it very well. Lets hope now my point is clear?
Anyway thank you guys for all your good wishes and although I can't wait to get back to the UK, my OH is having a tough time right now as change is hard for him and he feels like a failure even though he has no reason to. We only said we were coming for two years anyway, we kind of got rumbled into applying for residency, never fully understanding what was in store for us. It was one of those things you do that you are glad you did so that when your knocking on heavens door (another song....good eh!), you can look back with no regrets and say i'm glad i tried it! 'No regrets'!
Good luck all and i'll pop in from time to time and see how things are going!
Your right though about generalization and I hold my hands up to that, however, i was a manager and my experience of having Canadian staff who walked in with their Tims breakfast at 10-15 mins late every morning and then wanting to go for a smoke after and sulking when i put a stop to this says a lot! My experience is that 'my' staff did not like having to work, nor did they like the professionalism I brought with me.
My OH has a similar experience where he works to and he works with both Brits and Canadians so he had a comparison. But you are right and not all Canadians are the same and there is a difference between laid back and lazy. The laid back I like, but lazy is my experience at work and if you are paid to do a job you should do it, not have a coffee and a smoke first then gossip for a while.
As i have said in previous posts, i love this place and that's why we fought so hard to stay so far, i love the people here and their laid back way of life and relaxed attitude to things, however, work is work and if you are costing the company money then that's not right, that is all i was trying to say, although i admit i didn't say it very well. Lets hope now my point is clear?
Anyway thank you guys for all your good wishes and although I can't wait to get back to the UK, my OH is having a tough time right now as change is hard for him and he feels like a failure even though he has no reason to. We only said we were coming for two years anyway, we kind of got rumbled into applying for residency, never fully understanding what was in store for us. It was one of those things you do that you are glad you did so that when your knocking on heavens door (another song....good eh!), you can look back with no regrets and say i'm glad i tried it! 'No regrets'!
Good luck all and i'll pop in from time to time and see how things are going!
However all professionalism did in London was give people jobs that came with the equivilent amount of stress as going through a divorce. I don't want to spend my life stressed out, answering my blackberry immediately because goody two shoes Joe-Bloggs started answering his blackberry at 2am it's suddenly an unwritten rule of law to answer your blackberry at all times. Neither do I want my partner (I'm single now since I processed my Bunac visa) getting in a huff about an email her boss has sent her at 8pm when I've spent 2 and a half hours cooking a special meal for us, and then for her to worry so much about the email that she can't sleep properly.
God bless the coming days when I can stroll in late to work, have a coffee and a natter and no one batter an eyelid.
Feb 17th 2011, 12:54 pm
#42
Assimilated Pauper
Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Ontario
Posts: 40,018
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Feb 17th 2011, 1:02 pm
#43
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 120
Re: I'm going home, i've done my time!!
Obviously it's for answering immediately which I do - when in rome bit.
I'm saying I don't want to spend my life stressed out with work breathing down my neck - ergo I want a laid back lifestyle that don't use them.
I'm saying I don't want to spend my life stressed out with work breathing down my neck - ergo I want a laid back lifestyle that don't use them.
Last edited by zRichi; Feb 17th 2011 at 1:08 pm.