Souvy

16 for me.

Not homesick at all, except perhaps for some proper Branston.

I'm going to the UK next month. I'm not looking forward to it.

wonderwoman

Tbh you never know when it'll creep up on you, almost 10 years here, and boom! I think it's connected to a health scare for a family member back in the UK......hopeful a visit will get in back in check lol

scilly

Left the UK in August 1967, spent 1 year in Texas. Didn't particularly enjoy it (the year that Bobbie Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated), but not homesick

Came up to Canada in August 1968

Never felt homesick at any point since we walked on board that plane in Manchester on August 22 1967

Trips back to UK were largely "duty" trips with time for just a few of-interest days for us for many years until all the "oldies" died. Only the trips in 2001 and 2008 were tourist trips for us, with no compulsions to see so-and-so or whoever.

It was the best decision we ever made!

BristolUK

I don't suppose you were in Dallas in 1963?

scrubbedexpat091

I've been homesick pretty much since the 6th month here in 2005, but everyone is different and some seem to never think of home again once here, hard to really know how it will effect you.

Piff Poff

Around about 7 years was really really tough, lasted for a while - a good couple of years. Now I don't really get homesick, just nostalgic.

I do sometimes have that ok, now I'm ready to go home feeling...usually when something big is going down. DO is moving to Hamilton in November, I want to be back in my 2 up 2 down where she was little and put Lion King on until it all goes away lol.

MillieF

I often get nostalgic for a Britain that doesn't exist and a set of values that have probably not been in existence for a while yet either.

I am in my 4th year here, and many moons from the UK, and I miss lots.... of what is not here - in this bit - and should be....Internet shopping, decent food... Welfare Friendly Farming, traceability etc, and proper recycling (glass).

I don't know though how badly the past I left behind has improved....or perhaps, may indeed, have gone to the dogs.

The first couple of years were a breeze. Year 3 I thought, "oh damn" I did that winter, and now there is just going to be more of the same...Why?

ChrisAsh

Oh good! Looks like I'll be getting on with life and tackling home sickness when/if it happens.

I should think a lot of my family in the UK will make their way back here eventually too so that should make it easier!

Plan to work in many places in Canada over the coming years so looks to be a fun adventure ahead.

moneypenny20

In 11 years I've never been homesick but I do get peoplesick at random times. However that's easily fixed with a phone call/Messenger/FB etc.

scilly

Maybe you're living in the wrong place??

We have almost complete recycling here ...... except if you live in an apartment. The managers are slow to get the separated containers and tenants seem to think someone else will do it.

Even condo owners are getting into it.

Internet shopping is common here, and more and more grocery stores are offering the service, and some have always offered "phone in your order, we'll fill it and deliver it".


I'm also not sure what you mean by "proper food". We certainly get proper food here .......... farm fresh veggies and meats, healthy breads, etc etc. Most of the English food I can no longer remember, or wish to remember! Like the overcooked veggies, well done meat, mushy peas, tripe and onions. Maybe the fact that I was a child in the 40s and 50s meant that I was never exposed to "junk" food ....... which in those days meant bought food of any kind.


As for getting nostalgic about a place that no longer exists ..............

5 of my female cousins emigrated to Australia with their families in the early 1960s. One never settled. We spent a lot of time with her in 1975/76, and she was longing to get back to Oldham, the Moors, etc etc.

She didn't remember how dirty the town was, how many of the mills were not working .............. and that had happened even by 1967 when I left.

Then they took a long service leave "home" in the early 1980s ................ and she finally realized that her idealised Oldham and the Moors no longer existed .......... and possibly never had!

She also realized her whole family was in Australia ....... but she insisted that her husband took her ashes back to England and spread them on the Moors after she died in 2003.

scrubbedexpat091

I think its pretty reasonable for a tenant to think the building will provide recycling just like they provide trash service.

Do you expect the tenants to arrange a service for a building they do not own? That statement is a bit perplexing to me.

scilly

What I mean is that the tenants seem to expect to want to just put the trash down the chute or into ONE dumpster outside, and that someone else will sort it out.

That it isn't their responsibility to do an initial sort in their own apartment ...... easy enough to sort paper and cardboard, from cans, from bottles, from compostables, and finally a small bag of "garbage".

That's 5 categories.

We have manged to get 5 areas to do that in our pretty small kitchen, OH takes the compostables down every other day to the council-provided wheelie bin which is picked up every week.

We put out a maximum of 2 paper grocery bags of real "garbage every 2 weeks.

All paper, cardboard, newspaper, magazines etc go into a yellow bag. Glass goes into a grey box, and cans etc into the blue box ............ all picked up every week.


I know of one apartment block near here that has 3 dumpsters out back, each one intended for a particular group of "throw outs" ............... so what happens????

The tenants just put the stuff in the easiest dumpster for them to reach, so everything goes in together.


THEN they complain that no-one is recycling

scrubbedexpat091

Gotcha. Makes sense now.

At our last place there were 4 containers for recycling.

Cardboard
Glass
Plastic
Metal tins/cans

For the most part most seemed to sort, never really noticed wrong items in the bins.

At our current place despite the city by law the landlord won't provide recycling. I asked and was told no, I did report it to the city but thus far nothing has been done. So everything goes into the trash.

BristolUK

I made a new garbage/recycling thread for this

Paul_Shepherd

You obviously are mentally and emotionally prepared for your move and new life, I also moved out here alone too, i had homesickness at the start as i struggled to get a job, but once i got a job i was fine, even at Christmas, I dont feel it now, ive been here over 7 years and only went back for one Christmas.

As my parents passed away years ago, all my family over there have their own family units so i dont really feel part of anything anymore, although im still in touch and its lovely to see them when i visit, my life is here now.

Sounds to me as if you will settle in nicely, i do get occasional short term bouts of homesickness now, but this is only when something has happened to make my mood low and when I feel down, i do feel it then, but it doesnt last long.