OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
Mar 25th 2010, 12:51 am
#2251
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 117
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
Hi Wingandapray,
Your expeirence with going to Australia with your parents as a child is a lot different to mine, as a child it is not you who are choosing to leave your native England but instead you are uprooted taken away from all your friends and are forced to live in a compleatly different and strange envirment, ---- how old were you by the way when you migrated to Oz?
My situation was that when I was 19 years old I imigrated to Australia on the same government scheme as you did ---- the 10 pounds scheme, the year was 1965, in those days if you were under 21 you were still a minor and had to get permision from my parents to imigrate, and they had to sign something, they did not want me to go especialy as Oz was so far away like 12,000 miles, but they new that I wanted to go and they said that they would not stand in my way, So I applied for Imigration and I was acepted, I had a Job to go to, my sponser was Melbourne tramways, My job would be a conductor working on the trams taking peoples fares as I walked up & down the tram with my little ticket machine around my neck, ------- anyway the whole imigration process took about 6 months I think and then was the time to say goodbye to my parents and off to london to take the plane out to Melbourne, it took 36 hours to get there, the flying time alone from England was 24 hours, we had to land at several countries along the way to refuel, I remember one was Bombay India, and the first Australian airport we stoped at was Darwin, and then off to our destination of Melbourne, I lived in a suburb called Brunswick, I only stayed with the tramways for 6 months and then moved to Brisbane for 6 months and then to Sydney for 3 years living in Bondi junction close to the beach, I loved that, worked for the New South Wales railways there as a boilermakers assistant,
Anyway to make this as short as possible the point Im makeing is that I went there on my own as an adult, it was my choice and not my parents uprooting me, so I did not have the anger that you seem to have experienced, my experience was pure Joy, Australia in that time period in the mid 60,s was to me absulutly great, I knew that I had to stay there 2 years minimum, that seemed like no problem to me, I ended up staying 4 years and then I returned to England, at the age of 24 ---- lived and worked there for 5 years and then imigrated to Canada in 1974 when i was 29,
Lived and worked in Vancouver BC for 3 years, and then came to USA, lived in California for 3 years, ended up in Reno Nevada lived there for 16 years, and now I have been living in Las Vegas Nevada for the past 14 years,
So that takes care of the last 36 years of my life ---- oh boy time just speeds along like an out of control frieght train dosent it, and all of a sudden one day you wake up and you look in the mirror and you are 65 and you wonder how all those years of your youth went by so fast.
Anyway Im getting away from my point ----- which is My experience in Australia was nothing like yours, it was only for a breif time of just 4 years but for me it was a great time of my life, I did find though that it was hard to make friends there in Oz, the Australians need to really get to no you before they become your friend, but when they do then you are friends for life, the first thing you learn is not to brag or even talk about your country of birth, you have to quickly get into the way of life over there and ajust to everything and I found no problem after that, then they joked with me a lot and used to call me a bloody Pommie or Pom, and I would say back ---- bloody oath I sure am mate, let me buy you another scooner of beer, and they would say too right mate, fare dingkem,
Take good care of yourself,
Rodney.
Your expeirence with going to Australia with your parents as a child is a lot different to mine, as a child it is not you who are choosing to leave your native England but instead you are uprooted taken away from all your friends and are forced to live in a compleatly different and strange envirment, ---- how old were you by the way when you migrated to Oz?
My situation was that when I was 19 years old I imigrated to Australia on the same government scheme as you did ---- the 10 pounds scheme, the year was 1965, in those days if you were under 21 you were still a minor and had to get permision from my parents to imigrate, and they had to sign something, they did not want me to go especialy as Oz was so far away like 12,000 miles, but they new that I wanted to go and they said that they would not stand in my way, So I applied for Imigration and I was acepted, I had a Job to go to, my sponser was Melbourne tramways, My job would be a conductor working on the trams taking peoples fares as I walked up & down the tram with my little ticket machine around my neck, ------- anyway the whole imigration process took about 6 months I think and then was the time to say goodbye to my parents and off to london to take the plane out to Melbourne, it took 36 hours to get there, the flying time alone from England was 24 hours, we had to land at several countries along the way to refuel, I remember one was Bombay India, and the first Australian airport we stoped at was Darwin, and then off to our destination of Melbourne, I lived in a suburb called Brunswick, I only stayed with the tramways for 6 months and then moved to Brisbane for 6 months and then to Sydney for 3 years living in Bondi junction close to the beach, I loved that, worked for the New South Wales railways there as a boilermakers assistant,
Anyway to make this as short as possible the point Im makeing is that I went there on my own as an adult, it was my choice and not my parents uprooting me, so I did not have the anger that you seem to have experienced, my experience was pure Joy, Australia in that time period in the mid 60,s was to me absulutly great, I knew that I had to stay there 2 years minimum, that seemed like no problem to me, I ended up staying 4 years and then I returned to England, at the age of 24 ---- lived and worked there for 5 years and then imigrated to Canada in 1974 when i was 29,
Lived and worked in Vancouver BC for 3 years, and then came to USA, lived in California for 3 years, ended up in Reno Nevada lived there for 16 years, and now I have been living in Las Vegas Nevada for the past 14 years,
So that takes care of the last 36 years of my life ---- oh boy time just speeds along like an out of control frieght train dosent it, and all of a sudden one day you wake up and you look in the mirror and you are 65 and you wonder how all those years of your youth went by so fast.
Anyway Im getting away from my point ----- which is My experience in Australia was nothing like yours, it was only for a breif time of just 4 years but for me it was a great time of my life, I did find though that it was hard to make friends there in Oz, the Australians need to really get to no you before they become your friend, but when they do then you are friends for life, the first thing you learn is not to brag or even talk about your country of birth, you have to quickly get into the way of life over there and ajust to everything and I found no problem after that, then they joked with me a lot and used to call me a bloody Pommie or Pom, and I would say back ---- bloody oath I sure am mate, let me buy you another scooner of beer, and they would say too right mate, fare dingkem,
Take good care of yourself,
Rodney.
A very disturbing but interesting read:
http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/494
The book states:"Adjustment to a new school system, was hampered by racist taunts and bullying; indeed the ferocity of the Pommy bashing suffered by many British children in postwar Australian schools is shocking (p. 148)."
For example, in 1964 when Ann Hawkins' children came home from their first day at school in Radcliffe, near Brisbane, one had a cut-lip and black eye. The other asked her, "What's a Pommie bastard mum?" (p. 148)
Yes it was your choice but I recent "call me a bloody Pommie or Pom, and I would say back ---- bloody oath I sure am mate, let me buy you another scooner of beer, and they would say too right mate, fare dingkem,
U assimilated into their low brow underclass arrogant culture I have never done so like the cult series "The Prisoner" Patrick McGoohan's defiance I will NEVER yield-"even talk about your country of birth"
See I find that offensive! Why cant you? Australia the land for the insecure.
I find Australians offensive and down right stupid. I will never understand why they are like this and after 38 years of living here it is getting worse. Just ask Germaine Greer-by the way I know the trams and conductors u are taking about-most times they were rude "keep away from the door" ding ding ( maybe it was bearable in the 60's). Accept there was the Hungarian guy who performed acrobatic tricks!! Brunswick is a cosmopolitan mix of inner suburbia-I lived in California redondo Beach-
The English dont need to get to know you as they accept u for who u are not where u come from-I do know alot of people here but I am afraid it is like an estranged marriage as I have an Australian wife and children born here-I am leaving behind my elderly parents and my sister-so u see if we had gone back to the States rather than coming to "the unlucky for some country" maybe I would have avoided this? But that would have changed this time line so I dont know why I had to suffer here?
OH well have top put it away; the wars over as "the Matrix reloaded" said the other day-I look forward to getting the time line back as I have extended family in London-Read the book ( "The ten pound pom" Australia's invisible migrant)-the real story of being British in the convict colony....
For now, I am coming home.......
Mar 25th 2010, 1:02 am
#2252
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Posts: 117
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
By the way... I think you are a lovely bunch of people-
Mar 25th 2010, 1:24 am
#2253
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Posts: 766
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
You can buy dvd players in the UK for next to nothing - 30 quid in the supermarkets and cheaper still if you shop around. Your dvd player (or one bought on return), won't play American dvds as they're all what's called 'region locked'.
However, you can get them unlocked if you go to any electrical repair shop and speak to a man who can! Within minutes, they're 'region free', which means that you can play dvds purchased from anywhere in the world.
Speaking from experience here by the way!!
However, you can get them unlocked if you go to any electrical repair shop and speak to a man who can! Within minutes, they're 'region free', which means that you can play dvds purchased from anywhere in the world.
Speaking from experience here by the way!!
Thanx for the info, can you also just buy a DVD player over in UK that is region free, so THEN I WOULD NOT HAVE TO GO TO A ELECTRICAL REPAIR MAN, OR WOULD THOSE TYPE BE VERY EXPENSIVE?
Rodney.[/QUOTE]
Hi I bought a DVD player in the uk, it cost me £34 and it works world wide, so I brought it to canada with me and it works great with a converter plug. Just tell the retailer that you want I think its called a global or world DVD and there you are. You might find it easier to get in the UK, not sure about Canada and the US. I havent been on here for a while, we have been packing and selling our furniture, am really mixed up at the moment, as we only came back to Canada last August, after 26 years at home in N. Ireland. Am missing my kids and grandkids so we are going back in April/may to see how we feel, and putting whats left of our stuff in storage here . I am feeling so sick of not being settled, I get so envious reading other peoples posts, who have returned and are so happy, but I still remember why we wanted to leave, and feel it's too soon to miss home yet, does that make sense? Yet I don't think I am going to settle in Canada either. I wish I had the option of a granny flat with one of my kids like Barb, I feel it would be the best of both worlds, although my heart aches for Barb, as Australia is that much further away. Sorry about the rant, but am so confused and it has cost so much of our savings, we really can't make to many more mistakes Oh to be contented what a lucky state of mind
Denise
Mar 25th 2010, 1:36 am
#2254
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 117
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
Denise
[/QUOTE]Yes that's a difficult one-U have to feel where u belong-that's VERY important-where u feel u are u-u could think about a compromise what about Europe? But again it is where u feel happiest not convenience or others. U shouldn't compromise yourself as we did this and now we are in a mess because of family, guilt and loyalty. The two country split is never easy but u should know what is right-
Mar 25th 2010, 1:48 am
#2255
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Joined: Apr 2008
Location: Nottinghamshire UK > Florida > UK 10days >Ireland > BACK IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE UK
Posts: 209
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
Denise
[/QUOTE]Hi
In reply to the above i thought i would just post this again for people who have not been on for a while just in case they have a DVD player that isn't multi regional.
Yes as you and others have said it's very easy to make your DVD player work for any region DVD i have decoded one in UK and USA from this website you can do it yourself for free. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sho...vd-unlock#dvds
If you are buying one in the UK just buy a cheap one and they seem to play any region DVD's without having to be decoded.
For anyone living in UK this website is great for all sorts of help from comparing car/house/travel etc insurance, loans, mortgage quotes to free offers thy have saved us a fortune also very trust worthy. Martin Lewis who started the site is amazing, always looking out for the ordinary people making sure they are not ripped off by the big companies. He has his own TV show, he appears on GMTV, This Morning and radio showing people how to save money.
Chris
Last edited by pcmaccallum; Mar 25th 2010 at 1:53 am.
Mar 25th 2010, 1:49 am
#2256
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 766
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
To all our Irish Friends, "Happy Saint Patricks Day". Spring is definetely on its way here in Scotland. Lambs are in the fileds, daffodils and crocuses are blooming by the road side and the days are getting longer and warmer. There is a softness in the air that was missing back in Canada, it could be just be my imagination though.
Work is extremly busy and the days of the long commute are definetly taking its toll. Did speak with a organization in Ayr that will help me with the deposit of a flat which I will repay monthly. Will meet with them next week when I finally get a day off. So hopefully will move in the next month or so. Also a lady that I work with is in the process of downsizing and has graciously given me a teak table and chairs, and some other odds and ends. Things are definetly looking up.
Work is extremly busy and the days of the long commute are definetly taking its toll. Did speak with a organization in Ayr that will help me with the deposit of a flat which I will repay monthly. Will meet with them next week when I finally get a day off. So hopefully will move in the next month or so. Also a lady that I work with is in the process of downsizing and has graciously given me a teak table and chairs, and some other odds and ends. Things are definetly looking up.
Denise
Mar 25th 2010, 6:39 am
#2257
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Joined: Jun 2009
Location: Finally back home in Scotland
Posts: 1,031
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
Hi Easterdawn, have'nt been on here for a while, how are things for you now? are you still happy to be back home in Scotland? and I hope all is well with your husband and you get sorted with your deposit for a flat. We have sold all the furniture that we bought in August last year, and as you can imagine at a big loss, but thats the way things go, I wish I had bought second hand until we knew for sure how things were going. I am so mixed up, I just wanted to know how you are feeling now you have been back for a while and gone through so much. I am really looking forward to seeing my family again, so maybe that will decide me. Anyway all the best for the future, I really hope all goes well for everyone who are returning back to the UK and to you Barb, that all works out for you back in OZ
Denise
Denise
Work keeps me very busy, as I have said before the commute is a killer, never really getting home at the earliest before 7pm. I am looking for an apartment in Ayr but because of the hours of work this week working 48, next week 56, really havent had time to go out and view. Funny though three of the people at work are all ex expats, one from Alaska, one from South Africa and one from Sacramento (sp?). Although they have been struggling with work they are all glad they are back in UK, two still have houses to sell back in US.
I always get a kick out of how many people have family living in Toronto, nearly every person you meet has a relative living in Canada and nearly 100% are living in Toronto
Well better get ready for work, hope Aes1 has a good flight and that Barb arrives safe and sound in Oz. Relocateme, wave to my husband if you fly over P.E.I.. To all the new people on thread, welcome.
Mar 25th 2010, 9:22 am
#2258
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Joined: Sep 2003
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 716
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
I was 12. Bullied and traumatized the moment I arrived. They started it , they drew "first blood". Great movie by the way. Well I am glad for you Rodney that you had a good time but I am afraid the 60's are LONG gone and maybe then it was abit more British-It certainly is not now-If u look and find the posts by "Pommie Bastard" here on ex-pats u will see how he did here-There is a book "The ten pound pom" Australia's invisible migrant-A. James Hammerton, Alistair Thomson
A very disturbing but interesting read:
http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/494
The book states:"Adjustment to a new school system, was hampered by racist taunts and bullying; indeed the ferocity of the Pommy bashing suffered by many British children in postwar Australian schools is shocking (p. 148)."
For example, in 1964 when Ann Hawkins' children came home from their first day at school in Radcliffe, near Brisbane, one had a cut-lip and black eye. The other asked her, "What's a Pommie bastard mum?" (p. 148)
Yes it was your choice but I recent "call me a bloody Pommie or Pom, and I would say back ---- bloody oath I sure am mate, let me buy you another scooner of beer, and they would say too right mate, fare dingkem,
U assimilated into their low brow underclass arrogant culture I have never done so like the cult series "The Prisoner" Patrick McGoohan's defiance I will NEVER yield-"even talk about your country of birth"
See I find that offensive! Why cant you? Australia the land for the insecure.
I find Australians offensive and down right stupid. I will never understand why they are like this and after 38 years of living here it is getting worse. Just ask Germaine Greer-by the way I know the trams and conductors u are taking about-most times they were rude "keep away from the door" ding ding ( maybe it was bearable in the 60's). Accept there was the Hungarian guy who performed acrobatic tricks!! Brunswick is a cosmopolitan mix of inner suburbia-I lived in California redondo Beach-
The English dont need to get to know you as they accept u for who u are not where u come from-I do know alot of people here but I am afraid it is like an estranged marriage as I have an Australian wife and children born here-I am leaving behind my elderly parents and my sister-so u see if we had gone back to the States rather than coming to "the unlucky for some country" maybe I would have avoided this? But that would have changed this time line so I dont know why I had to suffer here?
OH well have top put it away; the wars over as "the Matrix reloaded" said the other day-I look forward to getting the time line back as I have extended family in London-Read the book ( "The ten pound pom" Australia's invisible migrant)-the real story of being British in the convict colony....
For now, I am coming home.......
A very disturbing but interesting read:
http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/494
The book states:"Adjustment to a new school system, was hampered by racist taunts and bullying; indeed the ferocity of the Pommy bashing suffered by many British children in postwar Australian schools is shocking (p. 148)."
For example, in 1964 when Ann Hawkins' children came home from their first day at school in Radcliffe, near Brisbane, one had a cut-lip and black eye. The other asked her, "What's a Pommie bastard mum?" (p. 148)
Yes it was your choice but I recent "call me a bloody Pommie or Pom, and I would say back ---- bloody oath I sure am mate, let me buy you another scooner of beer, and they would say too right mate, fare dingkem,
U assimilated into their low brow underclass arrogant culture I have never done so like the cult series "The Prisoner" Patrick McGoohan's defiance I will NEVER yield-"even talk about your country of birth"
See I find that offensive! Why cant you? Australia the land for the insecure.
I find Australians offensive and down right stupid. I will never understand why they are like this and after 38 years of living here it is getting worse. Just ask Germaine Greer-by the way I know the trams and conductors u are taking about-most times they were rude "keep away from the door" ding ding ( maybe it was bearable in the 60's). Accept there was the Hungarian guy who performed acrobatic tricks!! Brunswick is a cosmopolitan mix of inner suburbia-I lived in California redondo Beach-
The English dont need to get to know you as they accept u for who u are not where u come from-I do know alot of people here but I am afraid it is like an estranged marriage as I have an Australian wife and children born here-I am leaving behind my elderly parents and my sister-so u see if we had gone back to the States rather than coming to "the unlucky for some country" maybe I would have avoided this? But that would have changed this time line so I dont know why I had to suffer here?
OH well have top put it away; the wars over as "the Matrix reloaded" said the other day-I look forward to getting the time line back as I have extended family in London-Read the book ( "The ten pound pom" Australia's invisible migrant)-the real story of being British in the convict colony....
For now, I am coming home.......
Mar 25th 2010, 10:47 am
#2261
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 117
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
Really though this is serious-I mean the BBC may like to hear the stories of the British child migrant-the book I quoted "Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants" by
A. James Hammerton, Alistair Thomson
Bye the way I look like the child on the cover!
SEE: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/494
It needs closure................................
A. James Hammerton, Alistair Thomson
Bye the way I look like the child on the cover!
SEE: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/494
It needs closure................................
Mar 25th 2010, 1:35 pm
#2262
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Joined: Sep 2003
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 716
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
Really though this is serious-I mean the BBC may like to hear the stories of the British child migrant-the book I quoted "Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants" by
A. James Hammerton, Alistair Thomson
Bye the way I look like the child on the cover!
SEE: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/494
It needs closure................................
A. James Hammerton, Alistair Thomson
Bye the way I look like the child on the cover!
SEE: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/494
It needs closure................................
What ship did you come out on?
Mar 25th 2010, 2:28 pm
#2263
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 766
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
Good Morning
Work keeps me very busy, as I have said before the commute is a killer, never really getting home at the earliest before 7pm. I am looking for an apartment in Ayr but because of the hours of work this week working 48, next week 56, really havent had time to go out and view. Funny though three of the people at work are all ex expats, one from Alaska, one from South Africa and one from Sacramento (sp?). Although they have been struggling with work they are all glad they are back in UK, two still have houses to sell back in US.
I always get a kick out of how many people have family living in Toronto, nearly every person you meet has a relative living in Canada and nearly 100% are living in Toronto
Well better get ready for work, hope Aes1 has a good flight and that Barb arrives safe and sound in Oz. Relocateme, wave to my husband if you fly over P.E.I.. To all the new people on thread, welcome.
Work keeps me very busy, as I have said before the commute is a killer, never really getting home at the earliest before 7pm. I am looking for an apartment in Ayr but because of the hours of work this week working 48, next week 56, really havent had time to go out and view. Funny though three of the people at work are all ex expats, one from Alaska, one from South Africa and one from Sacramento (sp?). Although they have been struggling with work they are all glad they are back in UK, two still have houses to sell back in US.
I always get a kick out of how many people have family living in Toronto, nearly every person you meet has a relative living in Canada and nearly 100% are living in Toronto
Well better get ready for work, hope Aes1 has a good flight and that Barb arrives safe and sound in Oz. Relocateme, wave to my husband if you fly over P.E.I.. To all the new people on thread, welcome.
Denise
Mar 25th 2010, 3:28 pm
#2264
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 38
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
I have read all these posts and I am always encouraged by them and they help me retain my sanity in ways you would never imagine. I know I definitely am going back to England, and my deadline is Spring of next year. but I cannot pinpoint a month as I still have US citizenship to come through, and like lots of people, a house on the market not selling and of which I have not yet reduced the price. I am optimistic..........but, there is this other side of my Pisces self, that is bringing me down. So I apoplogize for expressing self pity here, I know I will probably feel different in a few hours, at the most by the morning, but in the meantime I just want to cry......Lots of posters have similar troubles/concerns/circumstances/situations to me, but does anyone out there have them ALL?
I am divorced (second time) financially burned by it, though I do have a little money I dread losing, and I am emotionally wiped out from the short, very stressful marriage. Live in an area I only moved to to get married, therefore haven't had a chance to make close friends here. Too expensive, mortgage draining me, divorce left me with a part-time job I can't change due to economy but it is safe. No one to give advice locally because I don't want my employers to know I might be leaving - at worst, lose my job, at least, my boss will make the rest of my time here even more miserable (she is so hard to work with). Only family here are 2 grown sons but still finding their way and live other side of the US, so no physical help or emotional help. No health insurance, not poor enough for Medicaid, not old enough (58) for Medicare. Have to sell house, work out money situation, deal with all concerns of shipping, selling car, stuff, etc, etc, for move by myself. No support in UK besides older half sister who will call maybe twice a month to give sympathetic ear but doesn't want to be involved with the move other than that. She lives in the North of England where I do not intend living for many reasons. I am focusing on Bournemouth area only because it might be warmer. It's a needle in the haystack, may as well put stick a pin in a map. Haven't been back to UK since father died in 2006. No friends except a long lost college girlfriend only recently regained contact with (email only maybe once a month) after 30 odd years, so really don't feel I can ask for any help from her - and she lives in the Midlands. I could go on in my depressing misery, but bottom line, I feel I am tackling this new adventure completely on my own, mentally, emotionally and physically and I wonder if I am strong enough to do it. I have no one this end to help go through any preparations with me and will have no one the other end when I step off the plane. I feel completely overwhelmed by it all, being pulled in different directions weighted down more and more. Did I say that I am also not completely English? My mother was German, I grew up culturally both (another sad story), and have no one left on that side either. So I have felt that not belonging completely in one country my whole life...........if anyone is still reading this, you are probably as nauseated by my wallowing as I now am, so I need to stop!!! Thanks for letting me post, as I said at the beginning, I shall probably be my crazy, positive, strong self in a few more hours.........it's just how to stop these feelings happening again and wearing me down a little each time? I think I just need someone to say "everything is going to be OK" just once in a while. I would believe them! Saying it to myself doesn't work. At least it hasn't yet.......
I am divorced (second time) financially burned by it, though I do have a little money I dread losing, and I am emotionally wiped out from the short, very stressful marriage. Live in an area I only moved to to get married, therefore haven't had a chance to make close friends here. Too expensive, mortgage draining me, divorce left me with a part-time job I can't change due to economy but it is safe. No one to give advice locally because I don't want my employers to know I might be leaving - at worst, lose my job, at least, my boss will make the rest of my time here even more miserable (she is so hard to work with). Only family here are 2 grown sons but still finding their way and live other side of the US, so no physical help or emotional help. No health insurance, not poor enough for Medicaid, not old enough (58) for Medicare. Have to sell house, work out money situation, deal with all concerns of shipping, selling car, stuff, etc, etc, for move by myself. No support in UK besides older half sister who will call maybe twice a month to give sympathetic ear but doesn't want to be involved with the move other than that. She lives in the North of England where I do not intend living for many reasons. I am focusing on Bournemouth area only because it might be warmer. It's a needle in the haystack, may as well put stick a pin in a map. Haven't been back to UK since father died in 2006. No friends except a long lost college girlfriend only recently regained contact with (email only maybe once a month) after 30 odd years, so really don't feel I can ask for any help from her - and she lives in the Midlands. I could go on in my depressing misery, but bottom line, I feel I am tackling this new adventure completely on my own, mentally, emotionally and physically and I wonder if I am strong enough to do it. I have no one this end to help go through any preparations with me and will have no one the other end when I step off the plane. I feel completely overwhelmed by it all, being pulled in different directions weighted down more and more. Did I say that I am also not completely English? My mother was German, I grew up culturally both (another sad story), and have no one left on that side either. So I have felt that not belonging completely in one country my whole life...........if anyone is still reading this, you are probably as nauseated by my wallowing as I now am, so I need to stop!!! Thanks for letting me post, as I said at the beginning, I shall probably be my crazy, positive, strong self in a few more hours.........it's just how to stop these feelings happening again and wearing me down a little each time? I think I just need someone to say "everything is going to be OK" just once in a while. I would believe them! Saying it to myself doesn't work. At least it hasn't yet.......
Mar 25th 2010, 4:10 pm
#2265
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,606
Re: OVER 50's & 60's MOVING BACK TO THE UK.
AES1 should be home by now, Lets hope all went well for her.