christmasoompa

Firstly, how do you know what my family scenario is i.e. what my husband earns?!? Secondly, as I said in a previous post, we are not coming to North America to improve our quality of life, we are simply coming because my husband has been asked by his company to set up a North American office (for which he is being financially compensated very well) and we are not relocating permanently. We will be coming back to the UK as we are perfectly happy here despite the financial restrictions.

dbd33

I bought a pint of milk in Flesherton ON on the weekend, raw milk at that. However, Canadians are a small minority in the context of North America so to use one of their strange little quirks as if it applied generally is horribly parochial. Like a Texan thinking all North Americans follow Southern Baptist politics.

dbd33

The tramlines. In LA. Dunno of anything more local but Adrian's yer man for the local view.

Howard1944

It is 2097, Europe is trying to deal with the hordes fleeing the worst drought in African History at the same time they battle the worst storms ever.

London has flooded, the inhabitants have been forced to flee , as has much of the population of the coast as high winds and raising sea levels threaten to engulf the tiny Island.

Australia is being engulfed by raging fires and the water levels are not high enough to deal with them, people are fleeing int the outback and an uncertain future.

The U.S has lost much of its' mid western grain belt due to higher temperatures and are dependent upon imports from Canada, which are reporting record yields due to more available land for farming.

Asia reports record fatalities due to the flooding at the Three Gorges Dam and air quality that is unbreathable.

The US/Canada are threatening to sink any ships trying to enter their ports, all Air Ports are closed, the Mexican border also.

Canada, faced with elevated temperatures are exporting some of the vast resources found under the ice Caps and utilising the now open North West Passage to transport these materials.

Canada continues to enjoy an abundance of fresh Water, the population still under 40 million due to a freeze on Immigration in 2057.

Why Canada, Dooms Day, take your poison???

With due recognition to Gore and An Inconvenient Truth.

Surrey Expat

Think I'll stick with Canada

From the Telegraph.

British expats in Spain targeted for crime

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 11/11/2007

Paredon, nestling on the Costa Blanca, is typical of many villages that have succumbed to the British invasion of this part of Spain.

Official figures put the number of Britons on the Costa Blanca at about 100,000, but the real number is thought to be double that, as many chose not to register with the government or only visit their holiday homes for part of the year.

Paredon is not the British mecca that is Torrevieja or Calpe, but there is a rising population of Britons, many retired, who want to pass their final years here in the Spanish sun.

Many expatriate towns have their own enclaves, British bars, fish and chip shops and the British residents often speak little or no Spanish.

Crime here has not been on the scale of the Costa del Sol, otherwise known as the Costa del Crime. But foreign gangs of Kosovans, Albanians and Romanians, have targeted the chalets of Britons and other foreigners, wrongly believing them all to be rich.

Charles Svoboda, deputy president of the campaign group No to Urban Abuses, which fights the notorious 'land-grab law' in the Valencia region, believes Britons and other foreigners are at greater risk of crime as unemployment grows.

"With the building industry and particularly the holiday home industry, going into recession, there will be lots more people on the dole which is always a stimulator to crime," he said.

Surrey Expat

Looks like its Nigeria then

France flops in the love league

By Henry Samuel
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 28/06/2007

The French reputation for romance suffered a knock yesterday after a poll found it was one of the most frustrated nations in bed.

Couple at the beach: France finds itself among the flops in the love league
Nigeria came top of the satisfaction league, followed by Mexico and India, in the poll by Durex

A survey held in 26 countries puts France second from bottom of the table in terms of sexual satisfaction, only trailed by Japan. Britain was around mid-table.

The poll of 26,000 people showed that while the French were near the top of the ratings in terms of sexual activity, having intercourse 120 times a year, and the number of orgasms, only a quarter of those questioned said they were "satisfied". Britain, which came near the bottom in terms of frequency of intercourse - at 92 times a year - had a 40 per cent satisfaction rate. This was above Germany and Italy, another country with a passionate reputation.

Nigeria came top of the satisfaction league, followed by Mexico and India. Japan was last on 15 per cent in the poll by the condom maker Durex.

"A myth collapses," lamented Le Parisien. "The French lover's morale - and everything that goes with it - is at half mast."

However, Gallic honour was saved by Jacques Waynberg, director of the French Institute of Sexology, who said the expectations in France were simply higher than elsewhere.

"France and Japan have a long erotic tradition and are thus more demanding," he said. "As they raise the bar very high, it's only normal that they are more dissatisfied."

Surrey Expat

British woman, 74, murdered in Spanish home

By Tom Worden in Spain
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 11/11/2007

A British pensioner was stabbed to death in a brutal attack at her home in Spain, while her disabled and bed-bound husband listened to her screams, unable to help.

Janette May Grocutt, 74, was found dead in a pool of blood on Friday evening.

Police believe she was killed after interrupting robbers, heightening fears among Britons living in Spain that expatriates have become lucrative targets for crime gangs who carry out a series of targeted burglaries on a single night.

Mrs Grocutt's home, in the remote village of Paredon, near Alicante, had been ransacked, and detectives investigating the killing believe she was stabbed several times as she tried to fight off at least one attacker.

Detectives said Douglas Grocutt, who heard his wife scream as she tried to fight off her assailant, was not injured in the attack, but was taken to hospital for treatment.

A police source said: "It was a horrific attack on a defenceless old woman."

Police and the civil guard were called to the grisly crime scene on Friday about 6.30pm, after a neighbour found Mrs Grocutt's body on the floor and her husband in a state of shock.

The neighbour, a Briton who would give his name only as Paul, said the horrific discovery had shocked the quiet village.

"I found the body but I've been told by police not to say anything," he said. "Everything points to it being a burglary. I am totally devastated.

"We are a very small, close-knit community and we are all stunned by this."

Ambulance officers treated elderly neighbours who were suffering from shock after hearing news of the killing.

Ramon Cerda Juarez, a councillor responsible for security in the nearby town of Pinoso, said: "The couple are well known in the area and have been living here for five or six years."

Another British neighbour, who asked not to be named, said the husband had been very ill for some time and is bed-bound.

"We are convinced it was a burglary gone wrong. There have been many burglaries in the area and people have been worried for some time that something terrible like this would happen. The entire village is in shock."

Paredon, about 40 miles from Alicante in the south-east of the country, is surrounded by pine forests, vineyards, olive and almond groves, and is very popular with British expatriates.

The couple are believed to have moved from Cornwall to Spain to run a campsite in the area and rent out homes to British holidaymakers.

Their log-cabin style house, which has a well maintained garden and is set in a big plot dotted with olive trees, was sealed off by police last night.

The couple's two dogs wandered around the grounds as detectives continued their investigation.

Locals said gangs of robbers had targeted the area, and talked of one night in November, when they broke into six homes in the area around the village, stealing jewellery, cash and vehicles. Gangs are thought to target expatriates in the belief they are wealthy.

Police last night refused to say whether anyone had been arrested over the attack.

A spokesman for the civil guard, which is investigating the killing, said: "We cannot give out any information, on the orders of the judge who is overseeing the investigation."

A post-mortem examination has been carried out in Alicante.

dbd33

Surely you're not suggesting that sex and Canada go together? How do you even know the gender of a person who's dressed in six inches thick of plaid covered down?

Steve_P

To some it doesn't matter.

Surrey Expat

Guess that's why its the hotter places that do better in the study!

dingbat

I responded to the part of your post that I quoted, that is all. This was your information given freely on an open forum, not mine. I really don't care what your husband earns, to be honest. I tend not to look at things from the dependent wife point of view.

Howard1944

dbd33, sure hope you ate in the Bistro while in Flesherton, or at least drove through the Valley up to Thornbury??

christmasoompa

[QUOTE=dingbat;5546099]I responded to the part of your post that I quoted, that is all.QUOTE] What a bizarre answer! So you responded saying that we would struggle to survive in Canada based on my 'family scenario' but discounted my husband (a fairly major part of our 'family scenario') in all of that?! Quite how you're qualified to tell me that I would have a crap quality of life in Canada based on my childcare costs in the UK and no other details whatsoever about us is a bit of a mystery to me. How strange. Or was it a 'humorous' post that just didn't come across terribly well on the internet?

iaink

The point is that unless he is going to be paid substantially more in real terms for his canadian job, you are likely to be in exactly the same financial situation here, regarding child care expenses etc.

In fact, as you wont qualify immediately for any of the canadian child benefits, and wont be eligible for the UK ones once you are no longer resident, you might be worse off.

Canada is no longer some cheap haven with low cost of living. Property costs in the major cites have shot up, Vancouver and Toronto are largely comparable to the UK now, only without the higher wages to compensate.

No humour intended...its not really funny when you are making ends meet on a single income because there is no point a second person working for less than $20 an hour, even when that would not be considered all that bad a pay rate by the average canadian.

I know quality of life is not all about disposable income, but look carefully at what you are getting into. If hes setting up a new business here you can expect him to be spending long hours at work with little or no time off. Its whats expected in the canadian business environment. So if you are planning to get out and about in the mean time you are looking at needing a second car, and thats a second multi thousand buck expense on insurance alone. I'm not saying dont do it, but for gods sake make sure you go into it with your eyes wide open.

dbd33

I've been through the valley and very nice it is too but, on this occasion I just went for milk and to despoil the Flesherton Community Pond.