feelbritish

Never thought the day would come when I would be doing an update about moving back to UK.

We decided to move back into our house we owned before we left 14 years ago and which was rented out. We were lucky that our tenants basically looked after the property. Reason for moving back to same area was mainly because OH felt safer being in a place he knew. He is afraid of unknowns and unlike me does not do adventures well!

We are happy here and please to be back where we have the same neighbours from before we left. The town is small market town on River Thames in Buckinhamshire with only 14000 habitants. The only drawback which irritates is the traffic and lack of parking. Also when I go on my walks around town I find that some people keep their homes nice and tidy but so many are basically just left to weeds! My walk is not as pretty as I had in Canada so it is possible I will join a gym instead! We can however walk to the town for shopping.

We found the price of food to be cheaper than Canada and excellent quality. Cheese yippee!!! Been eating too much of it! OH says that hardware and power tools are expensive so if they cost $59 in Canada expect them to cost the same here but in pounds! Having daily post even on Saturdays is great and when you order on Amazon, it gets delivered in 2 days!

For practicality we kept the same gas and electric provider and our old insurance NFU have given us insurance with no problems as all. We took on a new telephone and internet company and so far is alright but had to wait 2 weeks to go "live" and one downside is that you can hardly ever get to speak to a person so that can be frustrating. Our tv was brought back with us as it was a large 52inch one (maybe a little big for house) and we bought a Freesat box, plugged it in and voila! TV works just fine! Had a problem buying a tv licence because Post Offices no longer sell them and hadto go to a corner shop (PPI stores) and the one we visited was run by a man who had no command of English but who "compromised" our debit card and it was immediately had a "hold" put on it! We thought it was strange he wrote down our address and looked at the pin at the back! Our bank HSBC was wonderful and sorted everything out within a couple of days and then warned us of these scams! We felt like real country bumkins! We did eventually get our tv licence sent through the post and now we are online will renew in a year's time with the computer.

As soon as we got a bill in we registered at the doctor's surgery. My name was still on there but we re-registered anyway as the doctor we had was retired. They are mega busy there and best time to go is between 1pm and 3pm in order to get parked up, or other option is to walk, about 15min. The receptionists were extremely friendly.

We did get a shock at the size of the house. We forgot it was so small, 3 bedroom end of terrace with 30ft garden and nice double wide driveway but coming from our house in Canada it looked so small! We had far too much stuff which we could not get rid of and our roof space is now full. We brought back our queen beds which only just fit in the room with a foot space around where the dressers are but they were such good quality we did not want to buy them new. We were glad we left the lounge suite, no ways would it have fitted and we are having a new one much smaller made up here in UK.

I have found people to be so very friendly. People greet you when walking and chat to you in shops. The other day while driving home from shopping my OH asked me if I felt at home here more than Canada and I can honestly say yes. When asking him, I was surprised he said yes as well as he really did not want to leave Canada but now has settled in here nicely and is loving it.

On the first day of moving in our neighbour invited us for supper, we declined as we already had a "take out" curry and bottle of champers from Sainsbury but went the second night and had a good catch up. It is one of those neighbourhoods where you can knock on a door and pop in for a cup of coffee!

I cannot say there are any major negatives, but as we have both retired we are having to cope in a small house with no activities planned individually yet and being together 24/7 can have its pitfalls. This would have happened if we stayed in Canada as well but soon I will have found some individual activities and he will too!

We have two very active Allottments in the town and he plans to put his name down for one which may or may not work out we can only wait.

One disappointment is that we had to give up our caravan dream for the moment as we found out we could not keep it on driveway and would have to pay monthly for a site somewhere and the car we wanted and nearly bought was a VW 2l diesel (cancelled immediately after the problems with them) and we decided to buy a small Hyundai i10 instead which we both love as it is a pleasure to park up and drive around in. We usually take the small lanes when we go shopping in the nearest large town to B&Q and love the fact that the countryside is so close to us.

We probably will miss the coast as we lived right on the ocean in Canada but plan to take small breaks to Devon, Dorset and other coastal towns in the summer and we may think about getting a camper.

For the moment we are happy to be here doing up this house and this spring will be too busy to think about camping.

We have already seen family and they are about 1.5 hours away. We went over to them once and this Sunday they are coming to us. We plan to take the grand-kids geocaching in the woods and then for a cream tea in the town! Weather permitting.

As for the weather, it has been very mild with quite a few sunny days and definitely not as cold as Vancouver Island at this time of year.

Overall we are both glad to be back and it feels like the last 13 years in Canada were like an extended holiday!

curleytops

Great update F/B, its good to hear you're settling in nicely. I know what you mean about feeling like your time in Canada being just a long holiday; I felt that way after 40+ years if you can believe it. The cost of the power tools must be a bummer for your other half but I found that if you can just tell yourself you're here now and this is what it costs and Canadian prices just aren't applicable any more, you can save yourself a lot of angst. Concentrating on all that lovely cheese helps! Anyway, nice to know you're enjoying your time here

fulwood

Great update.. wish you all the best..

mikelincs

When you come to renew your TV license, I would do it on-line and pyay for it in monthly installments, that's what I do, and you just dont notice you are paying it. If you move you can just change the address on-line as well.

Editha

Great update. I'm glad to hear things are going well.

BristolUK

Ha. The idea that one can just go along to the doctor and register. How quaint.

None of this waiting around on an "orphan" list for a year or so, hoping that the doctor given will be easy to get to.

feelbritish

Well it is how it happened. OH is getting his flu shot Sat and will queue up with other OAP. We also only have one doctor's rooms with 18 doctors for 14000 people. However, on the telephone a long message suggests you self medicate if you have a cold and not to waste doctors time. Also messsge tells you to see nurse for minor ailments and suggests you navigate their website for repeat prescriptions. Pretty organised bunch.

Editha

Exactly the same at my GP's practice. I assumed BristolUK was talking about Canada.

BristolUK

Sorry yes, that's what I meant. I hoped my use of the expression Orphan list would identify not necessarily Canada but that I wasn't referring to the UK.

feelbritish

Now I understand. On Vancouver Island we were lucky to get doctor but other people are having to wait months or years and use the walk in clinic. I would say even though I have not been there yet, the medical facilities seem to be superior here. Still have a cottage hospital next to doctor's surgery and a small pharmacy. We do live in a very affluent area although not affluent ourselves

mikelincs

Our surgery here in the UK has a walk-in surgery every morning, so you can always see a Dr. you may have to wait a while, and not always find your own Dr. there that morning, but it can be quite quick if you just ask to see the Dr with the shortest list. Flu jabs here started several weeks ago and are on Saturday morning, you are given am appointment time, we arrived and were seen immediately, were'nt there more than 5 mins.

Editha

My own experience is that both the NHS and the Canadian health system have advantages and disadvantages, and whether you get good or bad health care in either can be a matter of chance.

In the UK I and my husband had a series of bad GPs, and I'm currently very disatisfied with the care my mother is getting. My own current GP seems OK, but it is too early to tell. Our GP in Alberta, on the other hand was brilliant. I'm not sure that it has been a resources issue, although British GPs are much more reluctant to refer for screening or refer to a consultant.

Alberta hospital care on the other hand was less satisfactory. We had to attend A&E on one occasion, and waited half the night to be seen. In fact we only got attention when my husband collapsed. Oddly, there was only one other patient waiting. They just hadn't assigned a doctor to deal with walk in cases. I asked my GP about seeing an ENT specialist about my chronic sinus problems, but she said the waiting list was 18 months.

In the UK, by comparison, we've had to attend A&E a couple of times in the last year and got marvellous service on both occasions, plus my husband has had some hospital treatment which wasn't made available to him in Canada, although it might have been eventually.

feelbritish

Yes we were told that as well, if we wanted to see any of the doctors we could book appointment with whomever is available which would probably be one of the newer interns or doctors and I have no problem with that. I think it is a good system.

vikingsail

FeelBritish thank you for a lovely post. Very excited for you. Please continue to let us know how things transpire for those of us that live vicariously through others for the moment.

spouse of scouse

Your update made me smile, FB. You went through a bit before you got there, but it sounds as though it's been so worth it. Very happy for you!