Cheers..I would love to have taken those pictures but Sallysimmons was behind the camera. They are beautiful. Unfortunately well fortunately we are having warm weather here in New England. No snow in the forecast.

between two worlds..Yes its nice to be back

Dontheturner.....One of these days you can make me tea and crumpets....

Jerseygirl.....I watched the series and you will enjoy it the good and the bad. No spoilers

Just sending my DNA off to National Geographic for Ancestory testing, should be fun. It was a Christmas present from my daughter.

Snow here in East Anglia too. Schools closed, many businesses closed, buses struggling, plenty road crashes, bin collections cancelled.

I have seen it and yes I did enjoy it...enjoyed the Christmas Special too.

[QUOTE=trottytrue;10484197]
Dontheturner.....One of these days you can make me tea and crumpets....

Avril - nothing less than a lovely roast English dinner, with Thai Pork Soup, for starters, and possibly Bread and Butter pudding, with sultanas for afters!

J.JsOH....Love the picture looks so cold, always so pretty.

Jerseygirl....Yes the Christmas special was good. Cant wait for the next series.

Dontheturner..Making my mouth water. Bread and butter pudding.....

Avril Im really enjoying reading your posts, I must agree with everyone else, its so nice to see you back on here again, and yes I do hope your husbands health is better,
Take care of yourself,
Rodney.

J.JsOH..As I have not been on here for a while could you let me know how you feel about being home after 18 years in the US.

dunroving.....Have you decided what you are going to do are you heading back to the US or are you staying in Scotland. I know ED is in Scotland and has not had a good time I have not heard from her in a while.

Hello Avril,

Just lately we have been feeling more positive about being in UK.

At the start we were feeling elated that the move had been achieved successfully.
But then we struggled through some disappointing experiences of life in Britain, housing, poor workmanship from tradesmen, a dislike for the society I saw around me, and just coping with this 'foreign' land.
I didn't feel welcome.
June accepted the disappointments better than I did, but then it was June that wanted to come back and me less so wanting to but willing to do so for her since she had gone through similar issues on moving to US and I had had no problems acclimating to US.

Now things have settled down and I've stopped noticing the things that annoy me.
June is happier here than I am, she feels comforted being covered by NHS instead of the threat of US high medical cost.
As we have no illness I haven't yet had cause to appreciate the NHS umbrella.

All in all, for me I would rather have not come back and suffered the consequent stresses of re-establishing a life here.
I was quite happy and settled where we were in US and it has been a 2+ year disruption.
But then, there was no guarantee it would have stayed settled in US, my job was changing, maybe we would have had to relocate to keep my job. It's possible it could have been as difficult there for us in the past 2 years as it has been here.

Still, we are doing well, doing things that make us happy, learning to not be disturbed by the disturbing (politics, crime, dysfunction society, economy that was all so raw when we first arrived)

We do have a bit of savings and income in retirement and are able to live within our means so are not feeling the pinch of high prices.

A wonderful UK wonderland, heck no, but OK yes.


We are pleased to see you back on a steady path again.

Regards,
June and John

Interesting post and giving another view of England.
I have just watched a British film on TV called Better Things. What a drag. It must have been easy for the actors to remember their lines because it seemed that all they had to repeat is the word 'f*ch' for the entire 90 minutes. I thought Hollywood films were bad. I saw a couple of other films on TV yesterday that were British and they weren't as bad. Don't get me wrong there are some British films that are as good as others are bad but they do show a different side of life than we imagine. I think we all agree that it depends on were you live in England as to how people live and think.

Never a more true word spoken, I agree cheers, everywhere you go in England or even over the whole U.K. people have different opinions, and how they regard there LOT in life, we are one nation but all so different from each other in where we happen to live in this small Island, someone living in a different city/town just 20 miles away from you have there own thing going, even another accent ----- and the differences to life up north to life down south or anywhere in between is like chalk and cheese, nowhere is better, just different thats all !!!!

To all on the forum thought we needed a laugh

If My Body Was a Car!
This is just too funny - scary how true it is!!!
If my body were a car, this is the time I would be thinking about trading it in for a newer model. I've got bumps and dents and scratches in my finish and my paint job is getting a little dull...
But that's not the worst of it.

My headlights are out of focus
and it's especially hard to see things up close

My traction is not as graceful as it once was. I slip and slide and skid and bump into things even in the best of weather.

My whitewalls are stained with varicose veins.

It takes me hours to reach my maximum speed. My fuel rate burns inefficiently.

But here's the worst of it,

Almost every time I sneeze, cough or sputter,
Either My Radiator Leaks or My Exhaust Backfires!

J.JsOH....Thankyou so much for your honest reply. It really helps to know the difficult time some have adjusting to moving back to the UK. I think of the UK as a small US we here have the same problems but over a far bigger area. You are similar to my husband he has never really wanted to move back to the UK and was doing it for me but then he is an American.

Your comments have been food for thought. I would find it much easier than my husband to settle back into life in the UK He has a routine here and he is very familiar with the way of life and the people. I listen to my family in the UK and even though they are not very happy with the way things are going they are not willing to do anything about it. They do alot of moaning about everything. But then they end it by saying they would not move away.

I think if we moved back financially we would be alright might not be able to afford as big a house but who needs it. I think the difference I see with those who are able in the UK they tend to travel more go on cruises, spend more time at the theatre, movies and dining out plus the ladies seem to spend much more time shopping or popping out for coffee with friends. Here in the US to do many of those things you have to travel many miles.

Thankyou for replying and thankyou for the good wishes. I have learnt to truly try and make the most of each day.

Thanks Avril - I shall let Tim read this - She thinks it is just me!

Hi Avril,
I just showed this to my Mum and she said yep thats me to a tee, and I replied yep me too
Thanks for that, funny but very true,
Mum is so much better now, her appetite has returned to normal and she is starting to put a little weight on, and she is walking around the house now without pain, and her disposition is good now too, she can even laugh now,
WOW what a wonderful difference from just a few weeks ago when she came out of hospital when I was so worried about her and thinking that she was drifting away,
And I think the most wonderful thing when one goes through a spell in hospital and goes through all those tests like MRI and CT scan and echos etc etc, when you come home to get well, HERE in the UK you actually can concentrate on getting well without having to worry about when that hefty co-pay bill comes through the mail from the hospital