Actually, on 3 more years now Funny story really. Have lived in the US on and off for 30 years -with a year back in London 1988-89 - last time I've been Have a USC hubby and 21 year old DD.

Anyway, DD develops an obsession with Doctor Who (she'd been brought up with British comedies on the telly - Mrs Bucket, Faulty Towers, etc). Talked about wanting to go to the UK maybe to study. I start looking into this and found out she is a citizen by descent. We decide to get her passport asap and plan a trip over together.

Kept doing all this research, and low and behold I am suddenly gripped by this aching homesickness. Memories were flooding back of things I used to eat, places I used to go, the history, the green fields, the little white dots of sheep on the hillside as you passed by in the train. All of it....just this longing that hasn't abated, and I just cry at the drop of a hat thinking about going home

So broached the subject with the hubby. He is a world traveler and worked in many places overseas, so he was game right away. I have some practical reasons for coming home too. He is older than me by 12 years, and I worry about long term healthcare. Also, I am tired of having to take the car wherever I go, and the expense of it all.

We have a house and a small business to sell. The 3 years is to give my daughter the two years she needs to get through nursing school, and an extra year to see her settled (since now I am rearing to go she is dithering). She will make a decision then if she stays or comes with us. Then we sell up and move!

Thank you so much for still being here. As much as I appreciate all the detailed information I have gathered here, it is the heartfelt responses to being home that I value the most. Hope to hear from you again!

Perthhomeschool, yes I think health care is one of major reasons a lot of Brits return home to UK combined with other factors I am sure it will be one of reasons I return home. I have no health insurance right now as can't afford it.

I agree about the healthcare, its a major concern. I too have no healthcare and yet in Britain when I was back I had to see doctors and explained my situation(long story) and he just told me when you get back and get settled let me know and I will be happy to see you. An eye specialist. The docs over here only care about money. In order for me to come back I would have to leave my husband and dogs. I may be forced into that if medical bills get the better of us. I much prefer the UK. Spent 6months over there last year helping out my parents after surgery . I didn't mind the weather one bit. I actually enjoyed a walk every day. I just wrapped up. I did miss the blue skies somewhat but overall I felt at peace. I don't want to grow old in the US.I wish everyone the best. I read a lot of posts every day and realise I am not the only one torn.

Fulwood, it can be very stressful without it. Since we are business owners we pay 100%, which in my case is $700 a month. My husband is already on Medicare. If the Medicare date is raised to 67, as is proposed, I will have 12 more years of paying that, and my husband will not be able to retire. As it is he will be almost 70 when we move.

I hope you are able to get back and have your eyes seen to soon. Do you have family over there you could maybe stay with until your DH could join you?

yes i have family I could stay with, but there is no way for me to make the income necessary to bring my husband over!!

Puritanism and repressed attitudes and unwarranted hang ups over matters which are simply natural parts of life itself must have died a death a long time ago now here in Britain

Sex - all aspects of it - was part of the school curriculum anyway - at least it was in my case. Why should discussing sexual matters be any different from a casual discussion about the current weather situation - very cold and snowy as it happens right now - or the high price of spuds following last year's very wet summer or a forthcoming referendum on the UK's continued membership of the European Union or what will finally happen to the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London?

Down the pub or over a dinner table or in a pleasant chat in the park with a mate or two on a fine sunny day - why not?

As Dame Judi Dench said when playing the part of Mrs Laura Henderson outside her Windmill Theatre in the West End of London:

"Americans - strange people - but very polite!"

Lothian, I was about to respond to the heart of your comment (sex) but when coming upon your final statement about Judi Dench, I was gripped by yet another longing to go home. I lived in London and frequented the West End. The theatre is one of the things I miss the most about the UK. Better than sex

"Americans - strange people - but very polite!"

The corollary must be :

"English - strange people - and very rude !"

Maybe if you sell up and rent for 6 months you could do it on savings, then move to UK where your Dh's income as well as yours can count towards the income requirements.

Why

Logic would indicate the corollary would be "normal people - but very rude", surely?

In a word: Anglophobia

As a Scot I can truly say that some of my best mates are English and none of them are anything like "rude" in any way at all. I think the word "rude" needs interpretation in the context of that Anglophobic post. I have met a fair number of American tourists here in the UK both in Scotland and down in England and almost all of them commented on how "friendly and approachably amenable and polite" were most of the people they had met here.

I assumed Scot47 was just attempting humour by pointing out what the converse would be, rather than actually saying the English are rude ... maybe I was being too charitable in my assumptions.

I think the experience of tourists is probably quite valid in and of itself (I believe your encounters with tourists are probably repersentative of a typical tourist's experience in the UK), but it doesn't necessarily represent the experience of the same people if they came to live here. The places they go, people they meet and situations they encounter as tourists would be different than what they experience as residents, especially in some areas of the UK. (Same is true of any country, of course)

My two (American) sons-in-law have been to the UK and loved it - they found the people to be polite, friendly and helpful - they like the fact that it was a slower pace of life and more vacation time than here in the US. Now - if only I could persuade them to move there!! I would be all set. My youngest son-in-law did consider it about a year ago and was actually looking into the "spouse visa" but then decided that financially they could not do it - worrying about not being able to find a job, much higher house prices, etc. However they loved the UK and are looking forward to their next trip back there in a couple of years. Maybe, it would be different if they moved there to live - I don't know. I am sure many Brits fall in love with the US when they come here on vacation - they don't know what it is really like here - the work, work, work mentality, few vacation days, guns, etc. Visiting a country is very different from living there. That said - I would move back to the UK tomorrow if I could.