You need screens for your windows.

Tell me it wasn't the Eaton Waitrose.....I love that place.

I think I might have flipped out with all the 'target' crap and other garbage I was asked to do at work and brought forward the plans I had for moving to Spain.

Doing it early would have reduced the chances of it working. Luckily I met my Canadian wife (to be) and I was able to do this instead.

i'm very happy here in Canada although that's down entirely to my job and my missus. if i was still in Englandland i'd probably still be pretty happy although i almost certainly wouldn't have such a good job (my industry is booming everywhere but the opportunities in Canada are much greater!). actually by now i'd probably have slipped back into rustic mode and ended up running a cider press, speaking some mad accent and having a mortal fear of cities. ahh the countryside!

Today, in Canada, I'm sitting in the house waiting for the rain to start having spent the weekend doing much the same. If I venture out I get munched by mosquitoes even during the day.
If I was in the UK I would have spent the weekend in London browsing in Camden Market, grabbing lunch at a pub, enjoying a show....... or maybe taking a trip to the Norfolk coast for to build sandcastles followed by fish & chips for tea - that's it - I'm booking a one way ticket to the UK!!

Id probably be living in a council house in Basildon, with no carpet and torn wallpaper, as a single Mum to a menagerie of kids, using my benefits cheque to buy cheap cider and a pack of cheap fags on a Friday.

No Joke........thats the life most of my freinds lead back home

Glad i got out and made something of my life.

It appears you picked the wrong Province in which to live. Great weather all summer in the GTA with plenty to do all the time.

Totally agree - we live where the jobs are.....

Were I back in the UK I suspect that workwise I be pretty much doing what I do now except probably better paid. The Mrs, in contrast, would be worse off but again would probably be doing what she does here. I suspect that work permitting we'dve moved away from Essexshire, to seek out some of those thing that we all seek from Canada - bigger houses, more space etc etc. For us that could have mean't anywhere from Suffolk to Scotland!

What changed by moving to Canada - why would this not be achievable in the UK? I am not meaning to be rude, I am genuinely curious.

Walking my dog in the Cotswolds. Not 24/7 obviously, it depends on the time of day you ask me the question.

Monkey see monkey do by the sounds of it

Probably stuck in a rut with work and life in general..Canada gave me a boost in terms of my career and ambitions..some i managed to achieve while awaiting to move to Canada simply because i was leaving.

When i return ill be much more focused and more ruthless in what i want and what i think/know i can do job wise.

It is really difficult to say. Who knows what you will be doing in 13 years time?

If I had stayed in the UK I hope that I would not be doing now what I was doing 13 years ago. The trouble is I have a sneaking suspicion that I might be. Hence one reason to emigrate.

My atttitude changed, my peers changed and my whole life changed. I had to be responsible for myself and i yearned for something different.

Also the Canadian way of life and attitude to work and life is very different and i adopted that pretty quickly, i surrounded myself with freinds and peers that could better me as a person.

Im probably being a bit dramatic but the outlook on life of the people of Basildon was pretty bleak. I wonder if i had stayed there much longer would I have been swallowed up by that "Everyone owes me something, and im gonna bang out some interacial kids to get me a council house" mentality