charleygirl

My take on sheltered housing is that it has a warden, the ones I have seen from outside are flats, with a garden that the tennents pay for upkeep. housing21 scheme is available to over 55s and the rents are bit cheaper I think, some I have seen are as low as 65 pounds a week.
I dont think it i somewhere for me to go to but if nothing else it is an option and couple of places I have looked at have vacancies.
Myself I want to be able to work and rent a flat somewhere not in a warden controlled place. But that is down the road. I saw a lovely 2 bedroom bungalow yesterday but it is 550 pounds a calendar month, it is near my home and over looks farmers fields......now if my mum would move in with me with her pension and anything i could earn we could probably do it.
Denise posted a sticky about housing schemes with links etc, that is how I found it. Its says for the elderly but I dont consider 55 as elderly.....hahaha
http://www.housing21.co.uk/
You can search a by county.

quoll

It might not be quite that simple in UK - some of the places actually need you to have a UK phone number (Starbucks for example) otherwise I think you have to pay. Others, like Little Chef and Maccas are free as long as you register with the Cloud. It wasnt quite as easy as I had hoped it would be.

Mallory

My take on sheltered housing. My mum, and her sister (my favourite aunt), both were in sheltered housing before they died. It has its pluses and minuses. If you are 55 and active, I don't think you would enjoy it. It's very geriatric - most everyone is old, arthritic, moving slow - you get the picture. They have an arts and crafts room, do ceramics, and drink cups of tea and chat, play cards, etc. (my mum enjoyed the social aspect). There is a warden who comes round to your door, and personally checks to see if you are okay every morning. There is an alarm system in the house to call the warden in emergency.

One of the downers is, they make close friendships with each other, and have a great time, and then one by one they start dying. It can be very depressing. My mum had a wonderful friendship with the gentleman next door, and were firm friends. I was staying with her once, when he died. He had cancer, and was in hospital, but still it was a real downer.

My mum needed intraocular lens implants, and had to wait about a year for each implant. She went legally blind while waiting for the first implant, and the book mobile came round and gave her audio books. There were shops and bus stop about 1/2 mile away, but she couldn't walk because she was on the list for a hip implant for almost 2 years. She died the morning after the operation. All of her friends there were devastated of course. She had known most of the people there for all of her life.

Her sister (my aunt) went to same place a few years later at age 91. She had a stroke and fell down on the floor at about 5 a.m., and was found by the warden at about 10 a.m., when she didn't open the door. Died 2 weeks later in hospital.

The units they were in were on ground level. Very very small, probably about 500 sq feet. Single person gets 1 BR, bathroom, LR, and kitchen with no room for table. Couple got 2 bedrooms. Plus they had a little front garden, and they were responsible for mowing. There was a washer/dryer room.

Sheltered housing is great for people who are not able to keep up a family size house, and not ready for a nursing home. Also, great for people who need company, as loneliness can be devastating. Personally, I wouldn't like it because of the people dying all the time. I would rather live in a more diverse situation.

cheers

Question #2 ( I just got out of bed)

I've read on another forum about the need for references in order to rent a place in the UK. Has anyone thought about this? How do you get around this if you haven't been renting and you have been living overseas? Are they all sticklers for the references?

sallysimmons

Hi Rodney, everything you said about the iPad is true, but one thing to be aware of is that AT&T doesn't exist in the UK and you'll need to buy your Internet plan over there, not here. Sales clerks here might not know this but it's true.

We took an iPad to the UK and we couldn't get on the Internet using our US plan. We could have bought a UK plan for just one month, but we decided not to bother as we didn't really need it.

It won't be a problem for you to buy the iPad here and then sign up for UK web access when you get there, but I just wanted to save you the money of signing up for a year-long plan in the US. Just sign up for as long as you need it here.

cheers

I had no problem of accessing my internet account in the UK. It was almost unbelievable really. I was in the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth and I used their computer to look at my bank accounts and I did it with no problem. So I think you can use the computer of the local library if needed.

Also a big tip here. I was recommended to use the USAA bank as they don't charge for withdrawals in the UK. Only thing is you have to have a military connection. Have you served in the US forces?

Sour note. No Social Security increase for next year. Two years in a row with no increase. This is because there is no increase in the cost of living index. I wish they would use my bills, which have increased, as an index. Side note, congress have voted themselves an increase for each of the last two years but it wont do them any good when they are voted out of office next month.

HighTide

Just received notice from Ottawa that the Settlement Visa for my partner has been issued and to expect delivery of documents in 3 working days. Can't believe how fast this was as we only applied on Sept. 27th. We did however send a load of supporting documents. Now we can really begin to finalize plans !!

between two worlds

Wow! fantastic High Tide/David!

Thought of you when my sister just went for w/e to stay in nice-sounding B & B on N Devon coast....could be a lovely life, if quite busy.

Tina

Mummy in the foothills

Congratulations, Get packing

jasper123

Thanks for that Sally, but I researched the apple site here and even called an apple Rep on there 800 # and so I asked all the questions, everything was fine until I asked him OK I see that you can buy a external keyboard or an Ipad charger dock/keyboard combination, but can you plug in an external mouse? and he said NO you cant !!!!!
So you see thats important to me to be able to move a mouse around with my hand, I know that I could not get used to a touch screen mouse, and I wouldn't be happy with it,
So I have decided to buy a lap top, and I know you can plug in an external mouse on them, and I want a nice size screen 15.6 would be a nice size for me, so I checked out the comet site in UK and they have some nice brand name lap tops like toshiba or HP for 379 pounds, which is not a bad price really, I just want a simple lap top, I dont do anything on a computer that needs hi tech, I just email and surf the web, and the lowest memory and hardrive space on even the cheapest computers these days are massive compared to my 5 year old PC that I have been using without any problem, for all that time,
So I think I will Just wait until I get to England and shop around comet/currys and a few more places for a lap top and get a nice mouse, and a cheap Printer,sign up for internet service and then buy a cheap pay as you go mobil phone too, and then I will be all set right
Take care,
Rodney.

cheers

Rod,
Don't forget to get a hot water bottle for those freezing nights in bed.
I'm going to confirm what was told to you about the plug in moose on an ipad. I believe in asking different people the same question until I get the answer I want to hear.

jasper123

Whoopee David, thats got to be a huge weight off both your minds, now the planning of your UK trip, I think you said that you want to go back for a short visit first to check out a few suitable B&B'S before making the permanent move, is that still your plan?
Anyway good luck and Im happy for you both that you have got over this very important hurdle, Take care,
Rodney.

jasper123

Well I havent used a hot water bottle since I was a kid over there, I remember when I was a wee kid the bottles were made of china or something and were breakable if you dropped them, but then rubber was invented and we all had rubber hot water bottles, I remember that if you got it touching your skin it would burn and you would wake up pretty darn fast
Rodney,
PS I may have to where my long johns to bed or a big overcoat as my mum does not ever have the heat going at night when we go to bed, and in my past visits I have found it to be freezing around November, as that is always the month I have gone back, but seriously though I (WILL) be buying a nice electric blanket when I get back, My dear Mum already knows that

cheers

I read someone said go back to the UK in the spring when everything looks good. But since you go back, in November, it will only get better as time goes on. My take is I will be so happy to be there no matter what the season is.

I also think of the worse case scenario. Cold, raining, dark, wind blowing, raining, freezing cold, dark, dismal and raining. Then Rod if that happens to you when you are waiting for the bus reach into your coat pocket and feel that return ticket back to the US....Narrrrr. Think of that blazing simmering heat in Las Vegas and say I'm glad I'm home. No Target or Walmart but I have the security of living in England. Prices maybe high but you need less. You don't need to spend to justify living there.

Rod do you have any siblings in the UK?

Your mother must be thrilled that you are coming home!

It is very common to meet people in the UK who don't understand where your coming from mentally by coming back to live in the good old UK. I think it has been mentioned that the British people are always complaining. They don't know how good they have it!

Rod, save me looking back at the postings, are you going to Bournemouth or Portsmouth?

Cheers Mate!

cheers

I think the winter before last I bought a hot water bottle and use it quite a bit. I also bought some 'wool' socks to keep me warm in bed.