bandrui

Really Cheers? Haven't go that far in catching up on the MBTTUK section but I have spent a fair bit of time in Atlanta on business and was quite shocked at what a lovely place it is in the outskirts. My time was spent mostly around Lennox Square.

I remember I was there the night the "Limelight" club closed down. It was an amazing show. Also remember running some vineyard 10K where we were given a basket with a bottle of wine in it at the end of the race!

bandrui

Northumberland??? What's that about? OK, just kidding. Kind-a. Nuff said.

I do occasionally try to picture myself in Suffolk and it has a lot going for it. I have a good friend there who loves the "witchy" feel of the place. I think she likes being in the land of the Iceni (remember Boudicca?). But, on a purely subjective level, I just can't see myself there. It's the same feeling I get when I look at properties in Beds and Cambs. Beautiful though it is and as much as I love my hometown of Bedford, I just can't go there. I think in some way it's too close to home, if that makes sense, and I'm ready for something completely different. Having said that, I really liked what Mr D had to say about Bungay.

The little cottage in Newlyn is lovely and almost had me convinced... almost .

bandrui

A beautiful area too. I really like Somerset and wouldn't rule it out of my search.

Pistolpete2

Will be in Suffolk for a couple of weeks self-catering this year to try and see how easy life is mostly without wheels. I agree that Suffolk is not really striking though there are parts, such as the coastal areas, that have a special attraction. The rest is really fields of wheat without cause for a gasp of, wow that is gorgeous! Can't really picture Boudicca doing her bit there but Colchester and environs is probably a bit more cultivated than when she was around.

That place in Newlyn, quirky though it is, was right up my alley, no pun intended. I just wonder if one would get the same feel if actually there looking at it. I want no land upkeep issues in the Uk so that suits me just fine. Vegs will come from the local purveyor or honour stand and fish well, it's Newlyn.

cheers

See here.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...0#prop37893542

vs


http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...2_M54952-03453

cheers

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...?premiumA=true £194,000

vs

http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...2_M54952-03453 £210,000.

Please note this is Dallas, Georgia not Texas.

windsong

I noticed today on one of the TV iPlayers that Escape to the Country has a show on Northumberland

bandrui

Oh, there's no doubt the property markets are entirely different but it's not about that is it. Or I should say for me, it's not about that. It's a million other things... to be in England, to explore the countryside, eat the food, be close to France and Italy, to see the English countryside, to see ancient stone circles, to take train journeys, to visit the museums and galleries in London, to watch British telly, etc., etc., etc., none of which I can do easily from anywhere in North America.

On another note, it has struck me as somewhat wasteful to live in a big house with a spare suite when half(?) the world lives in the equivalent of a hut, not to mention the maintenance that I can't keep up with, the excess energy usage, the waste. No, I'm ready for a little cottage, weekend walks in the country and time spent piddling around in a smaller garden.

Bottom line is that where we want to be is such a personal decision based upon who we are and what we want in life.

Phew! That was a long answer to a short question, wasn't it.

Pistolpete2

I almost think it worth setting up a focus group for Somerset because of the huge variety of lifestyle choices seemingly available and because of the issues at hand such as:

Exmoor, Quantocks & Mendips - take your pick

Taunton Yeovil Bridgwater Burnham-on-Sea Weston-super-Mare Frome - do these 'work'?? and where is the work??

Sedgemoor, rainfall, flooding an issue

Hinkley Point Nuclear and a safe distance

Access to Bath, Bristol and Bristol Airport

Seemingly large variations in per capita income levels by area between different parts of Somerset and property prices/rents

Bath, Saltford, Dunster/Minehead/Watchet, Chew Stoke/Chew Magna, Street*, Glastonbury & Wells - most (classified as) desirable areas???

Good rail access - Castle Cary, Bruton etc. etc.??

*Millfield and other schools/colleges

History buffs/Camelot, Arts/Culture buffs, garden buffs, walkers, cider buffs etc.

Pistolpete2

On the face of it, our turning this MBTTUK around and looking at the US through the rear-view mirror and then saying hang-on let's look at the positive attributes of the US and specifically housing and ownership poses an interesting conundrum. Right now, all the potential economic upside appears to be in the US, partly because the UK political scene is in turmoil (OK so the US isn't ) and the consensus is from all-comers that financial/fiscal powers that be are actually contributing to the malaise. Hopefully, the Tory real power-brokers will very soon see sense - hell! the "old"-Labour lot didn't - and wrest the power away from the two political buffoons at the top and start to right the UK ship - they have at least two and a bit more years in power.

This fiscal/financial/money issue in itself could weigh against the obvious traditional reasons for everybody to be hell-bent upon returning to the UK, which are not now helped by real signs of dismantling of the present-form NHS by necessity, as the obvious need for cost-cutting in general becomes more and more obvious with the passage of time and there becomes less opportunity to meaningfully cost-cut elsewhere by any other means than attrition, because it can cost a year and half's pay to let one civil servant go.

We must remember that nobody (even the Party In Opposition) disputes the need for cuts but there are some who see an urgent need for debt-financed spending to stimulate the UK economy through such things as infrastructure. This is possibly easier said than done since we have already been through proposals to dramatically relax planning rules and regulations only for the huge back-lash to result in a change of course and these relaxations would be needed in order to work on the infrastructure. In any event, such schemes typically take years to mobilise in the UK with or without planning issues due to other special interests such as constituency or transport real or perceived priorities and London and provincial priority conflicts.

cheers

Well said Bandrui!

One thing related to the inequality that exists in people's circumstance. My first thought is about people in the first world countries, but now we have to consider the emerging economies and are they going to take over from the present leading economies and are they going to be as generous with their new wealth?

I saw a newsclip on TV about the number Chinese coming to the US briefly to give birth. They then stay long enough to get the documentation including the US passport before leaving to return to China. These are the wealthy Chinese and this gives them the leg up in moving to the US. Pity help us if they take control of the US. The Trojan Horse comes to mind.

Now with all the faults of the US I don't think we have anywhere near the corruption of some of these emerging nations. India, China, Russia, South America, Middle East and Africa come to mind. Now if they get a foothold in America, including Canada, pity help us.

Strange I should say that after reading Pete's post because I'm afraid of the bad influence the Americans are having on the UK. On another web-sight I see the number of Americans who are being transferred by American corporations to the UK and it won't be long before they implement their power and corruption if they haven't already.

feelbritish

[QUOTE=bandrui;10594600]Oh, there's no doubt the property markets are entirely different but it's not about that is it. Or I should say for me, it's not about that. It's a million other things... to be in England, to explore the countryside, eat the food, be close to France and Italy, to see the English countryside, to see ancient stone circles, to take train journeys, to visit the museums and galleries in London, to watch British telly, etc., etc., etc., none of which I can do easily from anywhere in North America.

On another note, it has struck me as somewhat wasteful to live in a big house with a spare suite when half(?) the world lives in the equivalent of a hut, not to mention the maintenance that I can't keep up with, the excess energy usage, the waste. No, I'm ready for a little cottage, weekend walks in the country and time spent piddling around in a smaller garden.

Hear Hear! Could not have said it better! Having come from South Africa where they still live in huts or squatter camps! (mind you their president does not mind spending his peoples' millions on his own personal home)

Pistolpete2

It was a while that I was carried alone by the ultimately well-proven false premise that the Uk stood for lack of corruption and reasonably good government.

Extreme though the level of corruption is in the India, China........ list you have above, which is actually quite clearly directly holding back the growth potential in India and Russia in particular, I'm not so sure that the UK is that far behind these days if one includes the degree to which special interests play a hand in government policy and money is able to corrupt public officials and create a two-way win/win position between the media and the in-favour political party of the day, as in Murdoch.

Neither major UK political party took on the bankers and instead each was complicit in their irresponsible practices and the irony is today the UK Government is crying over the real threat that the EU hierarchy will topple London's preeminence as a financial centre. This as a direct result of the perception that the London financial services sector is where much of the blame for Europe's present financial predicament lies, whether real or imagined or simply created out of petty jealousy.

bandrui

Ok, we're going there are we .

Certainly I see the UK government/financial systems as only slightly less corrupt than the US system. I no longer believe that the US president has much control over the country, but rather the "back-room boys" continue their greed and manipulation regardless of who is president. Case in point - the Federal Reserve, a group of private individuals who print money at little cost to loan to the government, who are then required to add it to the debt-load and repay in real dollars. Same for loans made to Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal. Goldman Sachs have manipulated this situation to their advantage.

UK was just as complicit in selling packaged sub-prime mortgages, though they originated in the US , hence the 2008 fiasco.

What is so heart-breaking about the financial situation in both the US and EU, is that the common person (the 99%) can no longer trust that the governments are there to serve the people; rightly so.

On a brighter note, I do believe that we are in the early stages of a revolution. People have frankly had enough of the greed, manipulation and corruption and will, at some point, reach critical mass. The only way I can handle it is to take a step back and look at the big picture; empires rise and fall throughout history and IMHO the US is falling. We already know what happened to the British Empire.

To the extent that we can rely less on government and more on ourselves, the better off we are (and I don't just mean financially). What does this look like? Well for me, that means working for myself with whatever marketable skills I may have vs taking some menial work at minimum wage; paying as little tax as I can as an individual (not something I prescribe for corporations such as Starbucks!); living frugally; grow some of my own food; fight corporate money grabs such as the smart meter fiasco (I am one of the few left on this island who do not have a smart meter); buy locally; work with community; etc.

On the whole, I think people have become a bunch of sheep who do not question authority and yet seem to want endless proof when anyone suggests a different way. people have to take back their power and stop rolling over and playing dead to corporate manipulation.

A quote from Barbara Hand Clow says it all for me: "We need to opt out of consensus reality. We shop like addicts, eat like pigs, consume natural resources acting like there is no tomorrow. The planet bakes in extreme heat with crops failing and maniacs on psychotropic drugs murder people who go to the cinema at midnight to watch Batman." Most never think about these things. It is a crisis in consciousness that we have on this planet and if we are waiting for our governments to sort this out we are going to be sorely disappointed.

We do have ways in which we can have our say. We have to get out of this mass consumerism and stop putting endless money into the hands of corrupt corporations and their documented policy of planned obsolescence (q.v. class action lawsuit against Apple for unreplaceable 18 month-life batteries in IPODs; printer counting chips; the lightbulb). What do we fix and repair anymore? Think of the jobs. I for one, never buy from Starbucks or Apple among others; I buy used when I can; reduce, reuse, recycle. I turn down the heat during the day, when I go out and when I go to bed. Most people don't give a thought to where that power comes from or where the water comes from when we turn on a tap.

Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WPrTk90VZM (53 mins but well worth watching)

You know I could go on ad nauseum but now that I have got that of my chest, let's look at Somerset...

bandrui

Good idea.

Having walked through the Somerset Levels, I would hesitate to purchase a property there. I do think the Isle of Avalon will one day once more become an Isle .

Always on my mind.