lf1

Cheers, for short term use I bought a pay as you go phone from Orange. Phone was free and £10 to top up. for my IPad I bought a pay as you go SIM card from T mobile. Same deal card was free with £10 top up. Both worked fine and we are in a rural village.

PAT M

I sort of understand why the other thread was closed, I follow with interest but am guilty of not posting very much for various reasons. We are making our move back to London very soon, our house still has not sold so we are going to rent a furnished flat in the Sutton or Bromley area. We plan to stay with our son for two weeks in November to search for a one bed flat (£750 to £800 PCM). This means we will be using our savings so we hope to find part time jobs to help cover the costs. God willing we will be back in good old Blighty permanently from December. Please wish us luck, I will post once we are back with any useful information. Good luck everyone!

Pollyana

The other thread was closed after consultation with other UK forum moderators. It was agreed that both threads were now largely the same - lots of chat and occasional posts with information. As there is really no distinction now between the two there didn't seem much sense in keeping them both open. We had also seen that several times people had posted that they weren't sure which of the two threads to put their comments in, and about having to search both to find someone's post.

There are lots of other threads in the UK forums containing information on moving back to the UK, as well as the help provided in both 50s threads, so you shouldn't lose out at all
You should be able to pick up a UK " pay-as-you-go " mobile cheaply enough with enough credit to last three weeks in any High Street or shopping centre. Have a look before you go though, at the main providers like Orange, O2, Vodafone etc and make sure you pick one with good coverage in the area you are visiting.
Same with an iphone though more expensive of course. Coming from Australia I can just put a UK sim card in my own iphone, but I don't know if that works with a US one - someone who has moved back recently would probably be able to tell you

curleytops

Cheers - You can get an el-cheapo mobile for a fiver here if you're not interested in having a camera in your phone plus £10 for the top up and sim card included. We got my dad a Nokia last year for under £20 with camera & internet, not the fanciest in the world but does the trick. Hubby uses it as his every day phone now.

Re Downton - I'm with you lot, didn't see THAT coming!


Re movies - In case any of you Maggie fans have not already seen it, I would highly recommend "Keeping Mum" - Maggie Smith is absolutely brilliant and Rowan Atkinson/Kristin Scott Thomas along with Patrick Swayze (!) are all hilarious.

mikelincs

Tesco do mobiles very cheap, or you can just buy a sim card for any unlocked phone, good coverage, and the credit has no time limit, they can be topped up, if needed, at any Tesco or Wilkinsons store.

Sue

There are lots of threads in the MBTTUK section about cell phone use in the UK.

Here's some to start you off:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=766504

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=756823

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=746590

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=762370

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=740048

Hope the above are useful.

dunroving

I'm sorry to see the other thread die off, having been a contributor since the first day. However, it was getting a bit confusing having the two threads on two separate forums.

Where is our statistician, Rondey? Maybe he can go back and find the other one(s) (remember, one was closed because it was so big and restarted anew, with the same title?) to add up all of the views and posts to see if it is a BE record!

dgjamison

Hi everyone, I have'nt been on here for a long time, just logged on today to catch up but was wondering how Trottytrue was, have any of you heard
from her. You all seem to be doing great, and it is so good to hear that those of you that returned are still really happy with your decision. Sometimes I still miss Canada, but am so much more happy with my friends and family round me. All the best to you all happy thanksgiving to you who are still in USA the Canadian one is over I know. Regards Denise2

Celticspirit

Hello Denise and good to hear from you! Are you still in Belfast? In Four Winds still? I spent two weeks at my brother's on Rugby Road in April and was there for the opening of the Titanic museum and ceremony at the City Hall. I was judging a dog show in Larne :-) Beautiful weather and so much fun. For me things are moving slowly but getting there. Can't to get back.
TT stayed off the list for a long while and recently has been back sporadically. She appears to be recovering well and still plans on returning to the UK.

dgjamison

i Celticspirit, great to hear from you, yes I am still in the fourwinds area, but looking to buy a property with my daughter with land to build a granny annex (has to be totally seperate though as I like my privacy and they need theirs) so hopefully something suitable will come sooner rather than later, we are looking at the finaghy road south lisburn road area but its hard getting something with the land we will needI am so glad to hear TT is recovering I did think about her a lot and wondered, and hope she gets back to the UK soon. Hope all works out with you, I would love to have met you when you were home I should have given you my email address to get in contact with me. Hope things work out for you, my only problem with here is the weather, but I am hoping to travel to europe when we get settled in our own home again. Just returned from Krakow Poland and would recommend a visit, it was fabulous and so interesting and sad.. will try and keep in touch more often.. just want to say hello to everyone and hope they are all keeping wellDenise2

Cardienscarf

Hello - hope I'm not butting in but I'm over 50 (but don't feel a day over 21) so thought this might be a place for me

I found the forum when I did a google search about transferring my 401K to the UK and came upon the Over 50's & 60's moving back to the UK. That seems to be closed now. I've read some of the posts there and here and am keenly watching the Back Home threads to see how people are finding it back in the UK.

I've been in the US for 21 years but more and more I find I want to be on English soil, with English landscapes and skies, English traditions and English people. So now, instead of just talking about it, I'm putting wheels in motion.

I've applied for US citizenship as I want to keep my options open. I have one son living in the US and another about to start his career in the Royal Navy so I'm always going to be a bit divided no matter where I live. So I'm really at the beginning process.

I was in England in September and if I rented over here rather than owned, I would have asked my son to pack up my house, put everything in storage and I wouldn't have come back. Every step toward the gate at Heathrow seemed to get heavier and heavier. But here I am, putting one foot in front of the other and, hopefully, doing things in a more organized and sensible fashion so I don't burn all my bridges and turn up in England flat broke and completely clueless.

I (think) I can honestly say that if money wasn't an issue, I'd be back there this weekend but I have a good paying job here and I'm nervous about going into survival mode. Been there, done that and having a bit of cash is much easier than not having any!

So, hope I've posted in the right place - it seems many of you have been where I am and have made the leap (some more than once) and, having posted around the forum, decided it was time to introduce myself over here.

feelbritish

Hi know how you feel, if money was not a problem here either I would also sell up and move tomorrow! We have to wait 2.5years to OH retirement but in the meantime it is nice to chat with like minded people on here and get all the info you need. As someone else said to me, time goes quickly and before you know it you will be on that plane heading home! Most people on here have thought about it, made the decision and then had to wait for the right moment to move back. I do think you need to have your finances all sorted out because I can think of nothing worse than going back broke!

Celticspirit

So glad things are working out for you. I will pm you with my email so we may stay in touch.

curleytops

Hi Cardienscarf, glad you joined us. I think we all lurked a bit at first before finally coming out and speaking up. I know how you feel having to return to the US - I was going through the same thing as you two years ago. The "transition" time can be a bit tricky because sometimes its hard to stay focused and you find yourself daydreaming about being back here and dreading all the preparation ahead of you. My advice is take one day at a time and make each day count. Start your clearing out and do a little each day. You might feel like you're in no man's land at the moment so make use of the time to your advantage.

Everyone's circumstances are their own, you may be bringing more or less of your belongings with you than others have but its never too soon to start determining what you're keeping and what you're parting with. You don't want to be dealing with that at the last minute and believe me, even with the best of preparations you will likely be very stressed by the time your house is empty - it comes with the territory I'm afraid. A lot of us converted all our photos, music, video etc. to digital storage to cut down on the "baggage". Its extremely time consuming so even if you do a little every day or so that can be a big help.

I found the people on this forum to be extremely supportive and helpful over the past few years and I'm sure you will too. Don't be afraid to ask questions, somebody here's sure to have an answer for you. Please do keep us posted on how you're getting on and all the best with your move

Cardienscarf

You've hit all the nails on all their heads!

I've found myself eyeing my possessions with a view to take or not to take. Some things are non-negotiable, some are definitely out and some I want to take but the jury is still out on whether I will or not. I should start off-loading the things that I definitely won't take unless it's a necessity.

Great idea about converting everything to digital. Thank you for your understanding and tips!