Piff Poff

Hahaha - we too liked the first couple of winters, when it was all new and fresh.

Seriously considering a return to the UK, to somewhere where you can visit a different town/village/attraction/you name it without having to have an overnight stay because everything is so far away. Somewhere where you don't end up being stuck inside for 6 months because of the snow storms. Somewhere, where you can actually afford to go on a proper two weeks away holiday. Somewhere, where if you want to learn a new, slightly off the wall career, you can via night school or affordable courses.

I love that Canada is all shiny and new for you

Partially discharged

I can understand...I have a friend who bought a property in the Chilterns for almost 800 K UKP a year ago and now he wants to tear it down and rebuild a new house on it...it is a barn conversion and he is running into all sorts of opposition...how anybody can expect to be mortgage free with that cost of housing is beyond me.

Oink

Oh come on. My sister just got married last autumn and she's a teacher and my BIL is some sort of politico staffer type, neither earn that much but have bought a nice 3 bedroom cottage in a sweet village nearish London and they're not struggling.

Going Kamping

I guess it depends where you are in Canada - it's a massive place after all. Nova Scotia is obviously one of the smaller provinces so not such a trek to visit places and the winters in this area aren't so harsh. We plan to be mortgage free very soon so affording a holiday won't be an issue for us. I'm sorry you're not having a fun time, but we spent a very long time researching exactly where we would fit best in Canada so I don't see any problems like that in the future for us.

I hope you find some happiness

ps, not sure I've quite got the hang of the quoting thing!

lmartin999

Sounds pretty good to me. Nice pint at The Trout in Wolvercote. Bit of punting on the Cherwell. Wander through Port Meadow.

What could be finer in life?

There's a reason its expensive, its so bloody nice!

Going Kamping

and jam packed full of people and cars with no space to just spread out and relax. We want a bigger house with land - no way on this planet we could afford that in the UK in any areas with work. That's why we started looking further afield and have ended up here

Oink

Sod punting, given its a Friday, I'd have taken the day off and gone down on the train to the cricket.

Piff Poff

We also researched and did reccies and we didn't see any problems in the future and we thought there was lots to do and we were almost mortgage free, until we downsized to be mortgage free and then got an inheritance and then decided to invest so got a mortgage only to find out that the bank had effed us over. We should now be mortgage free in a couple of years as we have just today completed the sale of our investment. If we were to sell up everything here and move back tot he UK tomorrow, we would be able to afford a nice 3 bed detached in a fairly desirable area.

It makes me cringe when I think back to my first posts on here, they sounded very much like yours

Hm, that's what we used to think to, we now know that we could have just moved elsewhere in the uk and tried our dreams out there - you don't know what you've got until it's gone.

I am not having a go, I'm just giving another side of the coin.

BTW I really can't see us moving back to the UK, I can see us moving West or East, gonna get Citizenship before we make any decisions though. The thought of getting old here scares me.

Going Kamping

Each to their own. I'm sorry you got screwed over by your bank. It's lovely out east, come join us!

We looked all round the UK before we looked further afield and we couldn't get what we wanted. We then looked to Europe and the rest of the world. Everything fell into place easily and I believe stuff happens for a reason and that there's something to learn from every experience - good or bad.

I wish you well for the future.

Steve_P

Define old.

Why does it scare you? I'm curious as I see this frequently on this forum.

Oink

No decent pubs and no cricket. What are you going to do all day long?

Steve_P

For myself that would be no problem. I fill my days quite nicely without either of those, thanks.

woodworm

It's called pink goggles or something like that

Piff Poff

70+

It scares me because of the ice and snow and the cold temperatures, especially walking on the icy pavements and car parks.

Prescription costs and dental worry me.

We feel constricted already during the winter months, not found it any easier dealing with the roads during the snow season, I think part of that is that the roads in Red Deer are terrible (on our trips out to shovel snow at the lake, the roads have been much much better) it puts us off going further afield and getting trapped by a snow storm., We honestly thought we would slowly get used to it but OH in particular is getting worse.

I walk the dog all year round, the only people I see in the winter are me and the dog an old (80+)guy and his dog and another couple walk their dog religiously, I don't see anyone else or any other old folk, their all stuck in doors.

I do wonder if OH's negativity is affecting me big style, it's hard staying positive for others. His 'Their all idiots' comments do start to make you wonder I'm hoping that now we're back down to one house things will start to get better

Saying all that, Older people do seem to be healthier and more active here, so why it worries me I'm not sure.

el_richo

Cos they have top be otherwise they're screwed.

This is a slightly interesting read on growing old in Canada
http://britishexpats.com/articles/ca...ng-old-canada/

Leave the poor woman alone and let them have their excitement and new life adventures. Hell, maybe it'll work for them and i hope it does.

The moral of this thread so far is sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. The new immigrants will mainly be overjoyed with their decision, the more seasoned will be back to reality. So in closing, using an RV to go camping is horrendous for the environment and typifies the Canadian way of life and mentality