Thanks for the responses.
Yes, the boss offered and I will tell her if and when I need it. Not so much for myself, but to keep paying the bills at the old home.

Been here now over a week and I am enjoying the honeymoon period. I do walk more, my choice, and I feel confident that all will be ok. Last night was one of those oh god I miss my family moments, but no regrets.

I bought a one way ticket on purpose, so I would not be tempted to go back. Glad I did, as I would have gone to Heathrow last night.

Anyway, nice to watch Brit tv, documentaries are what I missed the most. You know, intelectual stimulation. None back in Thailand unless you are around expats, cause the locals only want to talk about how white your skin is, what did you eat for lunch and was it delicious. The political situation there is of no concern to the locals.

I do feel as I belong here and look forward to first day of work.

HI there.

I have just read this thread and I got to the end and obviously you were not in the U.K at the start of it. I wish you all the luck and it would hurt me to leave my family especially my boy's so I admire you for wanting to do right by your family. I hope you settle and the U.K is not that bad you sound like a strong man so you will be OK, James

Hi James. Thanks for the kind words. Yes, all for the family. Makes me happy to do it for them. The separation is a killer, but I think of the future for them and it overrides all negatives.

Regards..

Just read through this thread, has been a rollercoaster ride, but inspirational, at least for me. I'm in a fairly similar situation, married to an Israeli girl with two littl'uns and intending to come back in the spring, after 18 years away. I'm also coming back to Eastbourne funnily enough, so your dealings with the local council were interesting. Anyway, just wanted to wish you good luck, and hope it all works out. Keep us posted with any updates...

Cheers!

HI Ellush. Many downs and a few ups. I simply refused to give up. So I came back to a mountain of bureaucracy. I knew that, having done enough research about it.

I am in Bucks and so there I shall be until something better comes up. I know I keep saying this, but loneliness is the biggest boulder on my shoulder. My son was singing to me on the phone today. That was hard.

New boss is fine. His wife is a psycho. But it pays the bills and it will bring wife and son to me.

Keep your chin up. You can do it. Eastbourne is a lovely place. I always go to Battle to meditate at the abbey. But have not had the funds nor time to go. But I owe myself a visit and will do so after first salary comes through.

It is nice to be in England. It is where I belong and it took me 46 years to find home.

And here is an update....

After on the job for 3 weeks, I got a 7:30 am call on a Sunday morning requesting that I pack up and leave that monday.

I was shocked. I asked the female owner of the place to explain. She refused. As I lived with the Thai chefs upstairs from the restaurant, I asked them. They had no idea.

For the past 3 weeks I worked like a horse, training the English staff to explain Thai food, and ensuring good communication between the front of house and the kitchen. It was all going well!!!!

1 week into the job, the English staff asked for a meeting. I was officially welcomed into the team.

Monday (Nov. 3), the boss comes in and in a very arrogant way, asked for my passport to copy it. I again asked her why the vindictiveness, she said she has nothing to say.

I told her that the contract stated 1 weeks notice. She said that I had to give one weeks notice, but that she did not have to!

I then reminded her that without that notice, she was effectively making me homeless. Not my problem, she said.

Unbelievable. None of my staff understand why. The only reason we could come up with was that perhaps I was too expensive and this was her way of reducing costs. It is a good restaurant, authentic Thai food and nice location.
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1 hour later, I go to the council office and talk to the so called Homelesness Prevention Officer. Sorry, you have to be here for 6 months to justify us giving you shelter. So, may I sleep by the door tonight as you leave for your home, I asked. She apologized and wished me good luck.
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One of my chefs called me to see how I was. He told me to come to Birmingham at a Thai Bhuddist temple, where there are rooms. I called the monk and he asked me to come. So here I am, entering my 2nd. week in a shelter. Nice people, warm bed, hot food. But not what I wanted in this trip.
I am very grateful, but this is so depressing.
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So, Thursday I went to the job centre in Wolverhampton to have my National Insurance interview. PASSPORT TAKEN by Indian lady. Sorry, your passport is in bad shape and we cannot verify who you are. We will send passport with the application and YOUR ORIGINAL birth certificate.

So there you are. No funds to send home for my little boy, freezing cold, no jobs and only hope that the monks do not ask for the room back. I am very respectful of them, I serve them breakfast and lunch, clean the place up and spend the rest of the day on the internet looking for work.

Most general manager jobs require LOCAL people, so there goes my experience.

Just about ready to give up. And I cannot go home without my damn passport!

Hi there again.

Really feel for you but have not been in that position. Don't know what to say about it all except I feel for you, all the best James.

Oh no that is awful. I really hope things look up. With the Christmas season surely lots of places need more help.
Sending {{{{job vibes}}}} your way.
Good luck.

Sorry to hear this. I know you were hoping it was a good stepping stone for a life in the UK.

This may be a totally off the wall idea but have you thought about looking for work on a ship. You'll get bed/board and be earning some money. You say you are looking after the monks and cleaning for them so you could add this to your CV as voluntary work and it might add weight to an application for a ship's steward.

What about private English tuition just to get a few quid in your pocket - didn't you used to teach English in Thailand?

Two friends of mine have just got Xmas jobs - one in Morrisons and one in Tesco to get some extra money. It is only for Dec/Jan but it's 2 months work. Any chance of that.

Also short term have you looked into the homeless charities like Shelter as opposed to using official channels like the council. I don't know what Shelter's criteria is though.

Good Luck with everything


Edit: Just remembered - have you looked through a copy of The Lady magazine. There will be a few live in jobs in there all over the UK. You can get the mag from Smiths.

Hi. Thanks for the suggestions. Too old to work on a ship. And they prefer Philipinos, anyway.

I will look into the Lady mag. I am looking for any job at this point, but do send out cvs for the qualified jobs.

I have adverts for teaching English and Spanish. At the location I am at, it is far from everywhere. If I could afford New Malden, where the bulk of Koreans are at, I would teach English there.

Thanks for reading.

The UK job market is tough at the moment... and likely to be so for the foreseeable future. Sorry to hear your dilemma. I guess if you are not picky, you may find something easier!

I'd look into leaving the London area - from what I read that's where a lot of the job cuts are. If you go to locations that nobody wants to go to, you may be a bit luckier!

All the best.

Have you thought of becoming a teaching assistant? You'll find plenty of jobs like that. I've seen loads of these positions since i've been here.

Have you signed up with any of the employment agencies? I think my boys went with Arrow initially and were happy to take anything on offer - just anything would be better than nothing at this point in time I would think.

Sorry it has all gone pear shaped for you - there must be some good karma coming your way soon.

OP, I think you have two major issues.

1) You are discriminating against yourself. You might be told you're too old but you don't have to buy into this suggestion. Your age does not exclude you from retraining to do something else.

2) You are going back to the UK on a wing and a prayer hoping for some kind of fairy Godmother to give a leg up the ladder. This is my own personal opinion, it's not meant to offend but I think the same way about everyone, UK born and bed and immigrants, why should anyone move to the UK and be expected to be given tax payers financial support when they've never contributed to the UK tax system?

I'm planning to go back to live in the UK too, I'm 49 and living in Australia. However one thing I've learned is not to bother trying to fit in or belong in a place where you're not wanted of of any use.
I've completely changed career over the last 2 years and I've started a business that i can transport to the UK. In other words, i've created a job before I get there. I've renovated a house to get the money to afford my own small home in the UK and I've organised a pension fund too.
I am not expecting anything from the UK, I know it's already been given away to non British, non tax paying immigrants. I think it's wrong but there you go. That's how it is.

Because that's how it is, I'm not making it my problem because i can't change anything except my own attitude. So, i've retrained myself so that i can move back and be self sufficient.

You could do the same. I reckon there is heaps of work for debt counsellors at the moment and any job that offers help showing people how to manage their income and debts.

Just my humble opinion but I would think that your ticket home rests on reinventing yourself.

The problem is, its all well and good getting retrained (and a good idea long term) but if you need money NOW, its not much help.
I can really sympathise with the age thing though as i am the same age as the OP. Amazes me that the oversall job market wants young young young all the time when the older person has far more experience and wisdom to offer, but thats life i guess.
I have always been very entreprenuerial. In my genes i think, so I say look outside the square.
When i was very young with two toddlers under my arm, no partner, and not a pot to p**s in, i knew i couldnt get a conventional job, so, I jumped in my car, drove to the old Commercial Rd area of London where all the clothing sweat shops were.
It was 4 weeks before the start of the new school year and i knew all my friends and neighbours would be buying uniforms for the kids. All i had was 50 quid. I walked into several wholesale outlets and discovered they were packed full of uniform gear. I sweet talked the Indian guy who owned one place into letting me buy one sample of each item with the promise that i would come back with orders for him by the end of the month.
I then rang EVERYONE i knew telling them i could kit out their kids 50% cheaper than the uniform shops.
I did 3 home parties that first month, did £600 worth of orders!! That set me off on a very lucrative little business for about 3yrs and I was earning 2.5 times what my ex partner used to earn doing a job.
I discovered all the sweat shops are gone now on my last trip back,but I am telling you this just to outline that a bit of ingenuity when your back is against the wall comes in very handy!!
These days i guess ebay is the selling avenue for a lot of things, but maybe worth looking into. Look up liquidation auctions and such like, even go to car boot ales and pick up stuff to sell on.
This might sound daft and a bit Arthur Daley, but money is money and you need to get it anyway you can right now.

I wish you all the best.