BuckinghamshireBoy

Whippy whoo, crossing my fingers...

You serious about thinking of getting out of the land of the free?

BuckinghamshireBoy

Love it!

Our eldest ~ aged 29 ~ only moved out a few months back when she twigged that we were selling the house from under her feet.

Edit, odd characters due to Swiss/French keyboard, not on my usual machine.

Jerseygirl

Hubby has just asked me to order M&S sandwiches...to be delivered for lunch tomorrow.

Seriously...30 hr delivery from UK to Canada...brilliant.

lizzyq

The same situation for us. Steveq and I met just before my daughter's 5th birthday, now she is 30 and a mum herself. Having been a mum since I was 20 I'm looking forward to having my wild twenties in my fifties

Bahtatboy

Retirement (or semi-retirement) beckons for me next year. Bahtatsprog3 is flying the nest this month, so Bahtatgirl will have the house to herself. I've been abroad for 10 years on my own - re-settling isn't going to be smooth, and I think one of the reasons why the waters have been relatively calm during that time is the Japanese maxim: "The ideal husband is healthy, wealthy and absent".

Ingles

Remember the "good old day's" before the inmates took over the asylum !
Not only made me smile , but also sad
http://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-...ency-interview

Bahtatboy

"lunatics"

Lion in Winter

Yes, I've had enough freedom thanks. The decision is made, it's the funds that are lacking.

Expatrick

(You are lucky you are not using a Hungarian keyboard!) - 44 Alphas!

Dreamy

When my parents married, my dad was in the merchant navy and spent long periods at sea. After my younger brother was born, Dad came home from sea to work in the local steelworks. Shift work, endless shift work for the next 30 plus years. Both my brother and I left home as soon as we were able to - then my brother emigrated to Greece and we emigrated to Australia. My parents have an age gap of about 5 years so they both retired at more or less the same age.

Three years after my dad retired, my mam kicked him out. I just think they had absolutely nothing in common, my mother had developed her own life whereas my dad hadn't (too ******* exhausted after decades of shift work!) and he didn't like being left all day while she went out socialising. They didn't speak to each other for 4 years after the separation but had something of a rapprochement last year when my mam needed someone to look after the dogs so she could go on holiday (I'm not making any judgement... well, okay I am).

Anyway, this waffle is just to say... have a plan for retirement!

Mr Dreamy is concerned that I'm planning the same thing... I've told him - don't turn into your mother and I won't turn into mine

SultanOfSwing

My wife and I met right before our son's 6th. I was a little older though (25), and he's about to turn 20 . I'll be 49 when our daughter goes off to college, so I'll still have a few good years left in me

spouse of scouse

A memory has just given me a smile. I was going through some paperwork related to an accident I had some years ago, which wrote off my company car (that's not the smiley bit!)

I was reminded of travelling to hospital in an ambulance, when my mobile phone rang. It was the very nice police officer who'd taken my statement at the scene and departed once the ambulance had arrived. He asked me what I was doing, which surprisingly didn't strike me at the time as a strange question (if he'd asked me what I was wearing, it may have). When I told him I was in the back of an ambulance, he said that he was very glad I wasn't behind the wheel because I didn't have a driver's licence.

If I wasn't in shock before, I was after hearing that. Boring reasons why I had forgotten to pay a fine for not having a train ticket, then moving house and not getting the reminders, with the result that my licence had been suspended. Nearly 2 years ago.

Although the accident was the other driver's fault, I was driving without a licence. Visions of having to come up with 40 grand for the company car, losing my job, going to prison (I wasn't thinking very straight!)

I wondered whose squeaky voice was asking him what was going to happen to me, it was mine. Honestly, I've never heard anyone squeak instead of talk, but I managed it. He told me to get online any time before midnight and pay the outstanding fine - my licence would be automatically reinstated and would show as valid on the date of the accident.

Bless that fine, 'dodgy in a good way', beautiful police officer!

Lion in Winter

Proper coppering.

But why do you lose your license over a train ticket?

spouse of scouse

It's very easy in my neck of the woods! Infringement notices (with fines attached) are issued by the police, local government authorities, government authorities such as public transport, and various others. You can get infringements for things like speeding, illegal parking, not registering your car, littering or failing to have safety equipment on a boat. You probably get one for picking your nose in public as well. If you don't pay the fine, your licence is suspended and you can't drive.

When travelling to work on public transport, I had to get a bus and then a train. I always bought a 'through' ticket on the bus. One day, I got a lift to the train station, and just jumped on the train as usual, forgetting that I hadn't been on the bus so didn't have a ticket. Of course, that was the day the ticket inspectors were out in force. It felt like everyone on the train was staring at me as I pulled out ticket after ticket from my bag, but of course not one for that day. So I got an infringement notice, moved house, forgot all about it - and thus embarked on a life of crime

moneypenny20

Surprised you got the visa to live in the UK with all that criminality going on.