Originally Posted by el_richo (Post 8248199)

even i dare say the Lake District.

Originally Posted by Time 4 Change (Post 8246276)

We are seriously considering emigrating, for the 'better life', we are not after perfect weather etc, but an actual better run country, with less crime and better opportunities for our family, we have been researching on the internet, but all you get is statistics, and statistics dont really tell us what we need to know, I would like the real truth, of the country, we currently live in a small rural village on the outskirts of a nice town, however everything seems to be getting 'taken over' and no where really feels safe anymore, is it just me or are there any 'safe' places left in the world. I have looked at Canada and most things say this is the place, but i really need to know!!! Can anyone help me?

xxx

Originally Posted by Souvy (Post 8248130)

I'd say probably not. Canadians are superficially friendly and it stops at the front door. I've been here for 10 years now. During that time, I've been into perhaps six houses (family not included), and then only fleetingly. To emphasise the point, we are on very, very friendly terms with our next-door neighbours of five years. We have never set foot in their house.

The concept of popping next door for a cuppa is alien to Canadian mentality.

Originally Posted by DigitalGhost (Post 8248212)

I don't live 1000 miles away from the lake district and the general opinion amogst the locals here is that it is easily one of the most small minded, racist and bigoted areas of the UK.

One of my ex-girlfriend's used to visit her parent's holiday home there once in a while with a gay male friend of hers and they used to have to pretend like he was her boyfriend when they were out there to avoid him being lynched.

Originally Posted by Neil52 (Post 8248294)

You been to Australia Sir :lol:

Originally Posted by Devil Girl (Post 8248289)

It all depends on what you are like and what your neighbours are like as well.

I remember calling around to my neighbours house when I was younger but not since then.

Ever since then I have either never seen my neighbours or if we have seen them I have just said hello in passing.

At the moment I do not have a lot to do with my neighbours at all (we live in a flat so we have got four neighbours). Well with the exception of one that moved into a bungalow next to us. We speak and they got the younglings a little present for Christmas but I would not think about popping around to their home for a drink and they do not call around to our home for a drink either. If I see them I will stop for a chat but that is that.

Originally Posted by dboy (Post 8246927)

I agree, but it seems that a number of folks on here, see such posts as objects of their own amusement and quite frankly you and others come off as being rude knobs to the uninitiated. The comments you made above would have been better.

The op's comments are typical of many who have bought into the 'grass is greener' mentality and the Daily Fail, the poster is, after all, new on here and it doesn't take much effort to be cordial, while making the same point.

Originally Posted by DigitalGhost (Post 8248193)

Well that excuses any spelling errors but it doesn't really provide a reasonable excuse for that load of bollocks that you just wrote.

I have wanted to leave the UK probably since I was old enough to think for myself but my reasons are not migrating away from crime or for financial benefit and are really just centred around the fact that I have never really felt like I truly belonged here and I can't exactly explain why. Ironically I took a trip to South Korea last year and in my short time there I actually felt more comfortable and at home than I have in the UK for years, like I could achieve anything.

There are those who move for the wrong reasons and there are those who move for financial benefits or for the good of their families but then there also those who choose to try to move abroad just because they feel like it is something that they have to do in order to get a real chance in life.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

we came to Canada from NW England in 2005, for the "lifestyle" and have been extremely disappointed.
While Canadians are polite with excuse mes and pleases and thank yous they are not too friendly.
neighbours aren't neighbourly or sociable.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

Canadians seem to want you when it's at their conbenience they have no regard for your emotions and being out on a limb without you familiar friends and family. As long as they're ok that's all that matters.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

The Canadian kids make plans with my 2 teenagers and constantly let them down with no excuses.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

Their dress is generally scruffier especially in rural areas.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

Poor live next door to rich and average so there's a mish mash of values and states of houses and gardens.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

You have to drive drive drive eberywhere, there's no quaint little strools down by village full of thatched cottages or slate houses or castles.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

You can drive for days and the scenery is still the same-

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

it has got so boring that we're returning to Britain this summer.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

The winters are 5 months long and most Canadians can't stand them and the ones that can afford to go to warmer climes leave in Nov until April.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

The summers are lovely sometimes too hot and you get troubled with mosquitoes and black fly.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

We get bears, deer, porcupine, raccoons, hummingbirds in our field which is fantastic.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

Fuel prices are equivalent to 50pence/litre in Ontario but our family of 2 drivers pay an average of £70/week travelling quite local.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

Insurance is higher because not as many people are putting into the pot.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

Food and clothing stores aren't as well equipped. You can't get the British luxuries unless you go to Euro stores and pay through the nose for jaffa cakes or English mustard.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

Education is lacking and teachers don't correct the basic grammar or spelling mistakes.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

The grass is definitely not greener.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

Please think seriously about spliiting your family up and taking grandchildren away from their grandparents.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

While on the surface, our childrens grandparents wanted us to have a "better" life it has taken its toll on their health and they have raoidly gone down hill since we left, so we cannot sponsor them here and we are returning to be with them.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

When I told my mother recently that we're returning she was over the moon and admitted it was like a bereavement when we left, but the dear never wanted to stand in our way. That's TRUE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.

Originally Posted by jan the piglet (Post 8246625)

No wonder I'm homesick

Originally Posted by jericho (Post 8248441)

I love this notion that the media have "created" the belief that the UK has gone to the dogs, and without the Daily Mail, everything would be better.
However, it's bollocks.

You could always of course pretend that the it's all a myth, it's not really happening, and the press make the stuff up because there's nowt better to do. Or you could listen to peoples own experiences, people that actually live there and see it first hand.

Yes, there is crime in Canada but it really irks me when people say it's the same here as it is there. It's not..... by a loooong shot.

Originally Posted by Oakvillian (Post 8248443)

This is such a load of complete bullshit I can't let it go, even though others have already pointed out the crass generalisations.

I've been invited into more of my neighbours' houses in three years of living here, and have more friendly conversations, shared beers, cups of coffee etc in each others' kitchens or round the pool in the backyard than I did in seven years of living in the same building in London. From my perspective, Canadians are much more friendly and neighbourly.
Bollocks. It may be that you're out on a limb, but others of us have made better friends here than we had locally in the UK. Being a flight away from family rather than a drive makes no difference to the amount of time one spends with them - in my case, I probably speak to my sisters and their families more now than I ever did when they lived in the same country.
That probably says more about teenage culture the world over, and the mismatch between your and their expectations, than it ever does about Canada
Again, I call bollocks. In the corner of rural Hampshire where my parents live, people dress for form over function - the pig farmer isn't going to go and trudge through slurry in a 3-piece suit, now is he? Here, the weather plays a larger part in people's attitude towards appropriate clothing, but there's a big difference between dress-down casual and "scruffy."Why is this a problem? Are you an inveterate snob, or some sort of Hyacinth Bucket type? I like the fact that (admittedly within the context of Oakville, an affluent middle-class suburb) there is a great mix of trades and professions and levels of income represented on my street.
This, surely, depends entirely on where you are. Granted, you won't find the thatched houses, but there are certainly historical villages and great rural walks in NS/NB; there are various sorts of military fortifications to be found throughout southern ON and QC. Rural living in the UK also involves driving everywhere, now that fewer villages have a functioning pub, shop or post office.
Bullshit again, unless your drive happens to be across the prairies. This is simply untrue.That's your prerogative, of course, but you do a very poor job of getting across to others that it is anything other than your own failure to appreciate what's here, or your inability to cut the apron-strings to your own parents, that is driving you back. Most Canadians, eh? I'd love to see a source for that claim. All those that can afford to head south for the winter - really? You're losing your last vestige of credibility by this point.
No... I think what you meant is "I get troubled..." - I certainly don't and I know many others in southern Ontario for whom neither mosquitoes nor blackfly pose any problem at all.
well, that's something, I suppose. Again wiht the generalising from personal experience. My family, of 2 drivers, pays nothing like that amount in fuel costs, even with a daily commute by car. Perhaps you should have considered more fuel-efficient vehicles before complaining about their lack or fuel economy.
Insurance costs do tend to be higher, but that is because the market functions differently. It's not as simple as a function of a lower population.
I don't know where to start with this one. Don't buy bloody jaffa cakes if they're too expensive. Try assimilating, develop a taste for something that doesn't offend your sense of parsimony. I can buy Colman's mustard powder in any of three or four supermarkets within about 20 minutes of home. I don't know what you even mean by clothing stores not being "as well equipped" - all the ones I've been in have clothes in them, which seems to me about the totality of equipment that matters.
Crap. My son's teachers are excellent. They correct both spelling and grammar to the extent one would expect in elementary school. The examples of work I see on the walls when I visit the school - and my impression through conversations with neighbours over a cup of tea or a beer - give me no cause to believe that standards will decline as he goes up through the grades.
Yes, it is, for some people.
Quite apart from the insensitivity of assuming that every child's grandparents are still alive, this sentiment only applies to those parents whose relationship with their own parents cannot stand a separation. Others of us flew the nest some years ago so this is simply a non-issue.

I'd hesitate to criticise your diagnosis of your parent's health, and I sympathise with your desire to care for them, it is surprising that their health has been adveresely affected by your departure. Your cause and effect linkage is somewhat suspect here. Depending on how you look at it. Others might think it's inexcusable emotional blackmail. You don't say.

Originally Posted by Souvy (Post 8248329)

We live on a very small and very quiet street. Over the last few years we have made a point of getting to know all our neighbours. We are on good terms with all of them and will chat in the street for long periods of time. There is, though, an invisible line that seemingly cannot be crossed.

Originally Posted by The Dean (Post 8248453)

My God, my eyes hurt.............. do you always split up your replies like that?
:blink: