Re: An update.....
 

Must admit the negative comments I still receive are from friends:blink: that are currently living overseas and in all honestly hardly any negative comments from friends, family that live here in the U.K....we seem to be a fairly happy lot with our lives.

Re: An update.....
 

Chris

I have read your post with interest, everyone has an opinion on most things and there is always going to be positive and negative feedback. You are in a no win situation because people are going to agree with you and others are going to disagree. It's all down to personal experience that creates these opinions I think.

I had a great life in the UK, only left for the experience of another country and a slower pace of life. I did achieve both and now I am returning to experience the same lifestyle that I had before I left. I certainly do appreciate the UK a lot more now than I ever did before I left.

I wish you good luck:)

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Yes absolutely spot on and it comes across very obviously at times. Britain is far from a disaster area, when we arrived back a few weeks ago I was wondering if we had jumped into a alternate universe :)

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It's really good to know that some of the negative things I have been reading about the UK is not true. I was planning on returning home later this year, but it now looks like it will be early next year. In any case, I can't wait to return

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To be 100% honest i havent come across anyone moaning, everyone has been helpful and happy. The streets are clean, people are working and spending and the countryside is beautiful. Dont be swayed by the Daily Mail headlines. :-)

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WOW!!! you're home already. Must be longer than I thought since I last visited BE. So happy that things have worked out for you and that you're happy back in God's own country :)

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Thanks! Today that's really the only description for where I am. The sky is bright blue with just a few fluffy clouds, I can see the sunlight dappling on the river from my office window, and the birds are singing up a storm. I wish this was a permanent rental rather than just a few weeks.

Our furniture arrived at the dock yesterday and will be delivered this week, customs permitting. Once our new bed is delivered, we'll be able to move in to our long-term rental - probably some time next week.

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Depends where one travels to find the nice / bad stuff, and how closely one looks;
We receive a doggie deposit on our un-fenced front garden about once a month, not bad when there are about 1/2 doz dogs walked past daily.

Public footpaths in the country can be dog deposit minefields if there is a suitable parking place. This is likely to be only one or two repeat offenders.

Most of the countryside is litter free but there are grot-spots. Again, probably only a few offenders but who would dump a sofa in a field or a fridge in a ditch as we have seen. On one walk adjacent to roadside by a remote village I picked up 4 carrier bags of lunch debris, packet, cans in a 100 yards stretch. Discarded energy drink cans are prevalent.

I think that it is not that people don't litter but litter-free is due to the people that pick up litter.

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::::hand up:::: I SAW SOME LITTER!!!! Actually, it was a right mess TBH - the Cambridge bit of the A14 which is on the other side of the Suffolk bit. I suspect that Cambridge CC has forgotten it is theirs and Suffolk CC knows it isnt. My Aussie DH was almost jumping with joy that he had found some! (just to prove his point of course!)

However, much less dog poo here - there are bins for that and the locals are very good at removing it, unlike the unrestrained hounds that used to frequent our garden (no front fences in Canberra!) every day.

I dont get that opinions are slated either - and often taken well out of context but it is probably largely in the name of cognitive dissonance!

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I actually caught a woman letting her dog do this on my front lawn where we lived in New York. I went out and confronted her about it, because I knew she was doing in most days, and her answer was 'I live in those flats over there and there's no garden' Well, excuse me! I didn't realize that having no garden entitled you to trash other peoples'!!

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Offenders of all kinds of things, in all kinds of places, are able to self-justify why they have a right to cause their offense. I suspect they don't even consider what they do is an offence until challenged and then they make up an excuse on the spot.

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To those who moved back recently, has Britain changed much in the last decade? Visually (just from looking at street photos), it almost looks somewhat more continental European than I remember, but then again, I've been in the US for almost a decade and haven't been back to Britain since.

Would you say the chav problem has got worse?

How has the huge influx of Poles, Latvians and Estonians affected Britain?

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I can only speak from my own experience, fundamentally the country hasnt changed, the pubs are the same, the people are the same, the countryside is the same, it seems a lot cheaper but that is because Australia has become much more expensive.
I'm not really aware of the Chav 'problem', there are chavs but they havent caused us any problems anymore than Bogans in Australia did.
I cant really comment on the Eastern European situation, I havent really had any contact with any, I have been bought up in a country used to huge influxes of immigrants (Australia).

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I lived in the same place for about 18 years till we moved over to the USA. Would I get shot down in flames to say it actually got better?
It was lovely to start with but honestly having lived there so long it went up and down depending on general economic confidence, but overall the amenities improved!
Two years ago I visited a small Fenland town and noticed there were now two Polish shops and thought "Thats different!" and then remembered how unreasonably excited I get when I find British goods in the US!

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I think the UK is infinitely better than when we left. Average people are much more well-to-do than they were 20 years ago (they may be worse off than they were 5 years ago, but I missed the boom altogether). They travel more, so are more worldly and less insular. The immigrants have brought a new lease of life to the country. Food is SO much better with really top notch restaurants and even the pubs serving high quality food.

The worst pubs have shut down in many places, leaving only characterful places with good food and good customer service. Fresh, organic vegetables and fruit are in abundance.

Then some things are as they always were ... the people laugh a lot (and complain a lot). The royal family are still batty. The Tories are in power just as they were when I left, and are imposing cuts under the guise of addressing a crisis, the countryside is beautiful, people still eat cornish pasties and garden. Terry Wogan is still on the radio and Bruce Forsyth is still on the telly. Oh and Leeds United still suck :lol: