Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

It may sound strange but I feel the same way, I dont know where I will end up "dying".

we have been here for quite a while now, a few years, and I still wake up and think, I am living here for the time being.

I am not unhappy or saying i dont like it, but that is the feeling that comes ovr me.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Let's not forget that over 40% of Spain's transport infrastructure over the past 10+ years has been paid for by the EU - that's why it's expensive in the UK for the quality of the roads, UK taxpayers are also paying for a chunk of Spain's roads at the same time :blink:

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

How true, we don't belong anywhere after we have lived in another country for a number of years, no matter how hard we may try....

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

That is so very true, with VAT on every cent of turnover, that is doubly difficult for the smallest business.

In this time of dificulties the jobsworth stick to their ridged rules, ie if the SS payment is late, I think that there is a surcharge penalty of about 20 percent, so the problems and the debts snowball.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

:thumbup: When they have been a net contributor for as long as the UK has, instead of being the largest net recipient a few years ago, that might all change. It has finally been done now, but we used to drive the road from Frigiliana to Torrox, and I've never seen any UK road that bad.

Este reasfaltado era muy esperado desde hace meses por los vecinos que usaban esta carretera, pues a medida que la misma se alejaba de Frigiliana su cubierta empeoraba, estando en un estado desastroso una vez que se pasaba de La Venta.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

I spend a lot of time in both countries and naturally both have their pros and cons.

I personally find the UK exciting and vibrant with lots going on. Many people here in Spain that I know are thinking about going back because they are bored.

The town we live in is small and you see the same people, have the same conversations repeatedly but it is wonderful living here but good to escape quite often too.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

The post war period produced several large scale movements of people, like the Jamaicans to England and the Turks to Germany. Contrary to what the native population expected – a temporary influx of workers to fill jobs they couldn’t – the incomers stayed and grew in numbers.

You can’t really compare that to the movement of people from the UK to Spain, the numbers are much smaller, but it hasn’t just been pensioners making the move, younger workers have come too. And younger people following their pensioner parents.

The Jamaicans and Turks prospered in their new countries and I can’t think of any recessions back then, but the British in Spain have just been caught by one and it has driven a lot of them back.

I’m helping someone to pack at the moment, their three businesses having failed. They’re going back with a lot less money than they arrived with, six years ago.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

The reason why most prospered is because they moved to a richer country ie the UK.

They went to work for much higher wages than at home in their own country, so even if things did not work out or they did not want to stay for whatever reason, then usually went home with savings to set themselves up.

The "immigrants" to Spain from the UK are a different kettle of fish, they are investing in a country where it is harder to earn the same money and effectively subsidising their stay with savings or equity- hence when they choose or have to leave, they go back poorer.

It could be summed up that there are 2 types, thoses that emigrate to improved prospects, poor country to rich.

And those that go for "a change" of life knowing that they will probably be worse off, ie security to insecurity, that is generally speaking of course.

Years ago immigration was usually about financial improvement.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Excellent post.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Very true, but unfortunately, i left the UK 20 years ago, miss some things, but would never want to live there again. I also feel i have no real home anymore. The UK authorities still have other ideas though!

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

My home will also be Britain. I am happy living in Spain but will always consider home to be where the heart is that is the UK.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Reminds me of when my neighbours asked if we were at home for Christmas and I replied yes. They responded with when were we travelling, when I frowned they changed what they had asked in order to clarify that they were actually asking if we were going back to UK for the festivities. Their reaction to the fact that I call where we live "home" was great to see.

Rosemary

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

I know two Swedish families living nearby. For at least 20 years now, they’ve spent eight months of every year in Spain and four months back ‘home’ in Sweden.

(I don’t know Sweden’s status with the 183 day rule that we Brits often fret about, but they’re always got nice Volvos on Swedish plates.)

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Home is where the heart is.

I for one have no desire to go back to the UK under any circumstance.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Hear, here:thumbsup:

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

have to go to the UK to visit the parents and business, but that's it!

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

With me, it's visit the kids, but I'd far rather they came here. I hate travel at the best of times.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

mmm mmm they arnt waiting with the cuffs are they:rofl:

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

That's just the way I feel.
I've only been back once for nine days in the last three years.....that was nine days too many and I couldn't wait to get back home to Spain!

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Spain is different to the UK in many ways. Going back for short bursts when you have lived here for a considerable time will not really give you a balanced view of the country. Of course we can all sit and watch TV reports and believe it all, but dont forget in the UK they are reading newspaper reports about how crap it is in Spain :D

Ive been back twice this year (inc Christmas) and have had time to enjoy the positive aspects. I respect people opinions, but I still find it very had to understand how people can write off a whole county.

I just dont understand the "Britain is crap" point of view ..... because overall it's no crappier than any other country when it comes down to having to live there. Every country has its own challenges and issues :)

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

:thumbup::thumbup:
That is all very true, I reckon if you have nothing good to say about the UK, then you have notheing to say, period.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

So true. There are many things that we'd all like to change about not only Spain but the UK too. Come to think of it, is anywhere perfect to live?

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Nowhere is perfect. That's a given. I always look at people who try and tell me a given country is 'perfect', and wonder why the lady doth protest too much.

There are good things about the UK, just as there are bad things about Spain.

However for me, the negative aspects of the UK were in my face, almost every day, and the downsides of Spain don't affect me so badly.

Weather, the council, the greyness, the full roads and feeling of being crowded in... naaah, you can keep it.

I personally can't think of anything positive I'd really miss.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

The weather, you cant get away from for sure ...... but I spent the last few years in the UK in a leafy village in Warwickshire having spent most of my life in a city area. You don't feel crowded in under those circumstances in a village, and the roads aren't full. People talk to you in the street, and are friendly. It's a different way of life :)

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

I’m one of those keeping my powder dry, just in case, even after many, mostly happy years in Spain.

My trouble is that the place we have left, and left many years ago in the UK, has changed considerably and from what I can judge from my short visits home, not for the better.

But that can be changed by selling up and moving somewhere different (better). I spend some happy hours trawling the internet at times. looking at little green villages, by the sea, perhaps at a house with a thatched roof and a pond full of happy ducks outside.

But then I look at the price, swallow hard, and click off.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Thanks for this, it has certainly made me feel better after reading all the negative stuff about UK and all positives about Spain. We are looking to relocate back to UK and know it won´t be easy as we will miss Spain.

Its nice to read a more balanced view of things, as you say nowhere is without its challenges and issues and it depends on your circumstances as to how much those issues affect you!

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Another thing to bear in mind when reading about the negatives about the UK is that a lot of people retired or early retired and then came toSpain more or less straight away.

So of course their view is rosier by comparison to the grind of work and the daily commute, they have more time to tend their beloved gardens, go to pottery classes or whatever.

This also would have enchanced their way of life in the UK too, so the improvement to their life is not solely due to moving to Spain, but closely related to giving up work, in a lot of cases.

I think the move back will be a lot smoother than you think.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Remember the britishexpats mantra...............rent dont buy :)

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

I spent most of my life in a fairly leafy village, and you can have it. The small minded petit bourgeois, the backstabbing neighbours... boy, when you have a problem there, you soon know who your friends are. When my mother had her stroke, and we were busting our balls trying to keep our heads above water, there were half a dozen people who really did something to help us. When we wanted to sell the land behind our house, we had a sustained campaign to stop us by the neighbours we thought we got on with. The 'funny' part was that it was lead by one who had sold off half of their garden not long before, and the members were all people whose houses were built on slices of other people's gardens. Wonderful irony.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

The duck ponds are basically puddles of avian sewage, you'll always be a newcomer, and if you don't fit in.......

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Agree, the problem is people lump all of UK together, they know the part they come from well, and very little about the rest of UK. I walk the coast path a lot, and last weekend I commented to wife that people here (Bil, namely, but I put that down to him being a grumpy old, moaning shit! ;)) reckon people are unfriendly in UK, nobody speaks to you. During the course of the week, out walking every day, we must have passed hundreds of walkers, and not one failed to speak. Some just an hello, how's things, others quite long conversations. We sat outside a pub having food, again everybody chatting. I know everyone in my street, we all take parcels in for each other if out, (also know Ann the postie well) when we are in Spain I let me neighbour use my drive to park his car, he takes stuff to the tip for me in his trailer etc,etc. I just don't recognise the world some here tell us about, but obviously towns and cities can be pretty unfriendly places. Bil tells us everyone speaks to him now, but he's retired, he doesn't go out to work all day, he has time to spend chatting to people in bars, in the street etc, it's a different situation completely. Tell me where you came from Bil, so I make sure I never go there, sounds like a hell hole!:rofl:

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

I bet all those neighbours spoke highly of you as well, I bet they are missing you!:p

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

It’s often said that the majority of expats are pensioners, but I wonder if it’s true?

I live in an expat area where you would expect to find that, but I’m not so sure. We’ve got expat bar owners, restaurant owners, estate agents, solicitors, garage owners, people who run car hire businesses and garden centres. We’ve got hundreds of ordinary workers, builders, plumbers, carpenters, coach drivers, gardeners, office workers, TV and satelite engineers by the dozen, computers technicians, priests, writers, gardeners etc etc, all well under retirement age.

As an aside, do they steal local Spanish people’s jobs? Of course they do.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Or is it a chicken and egg thing. Ex-pats catering for ex-pats where ex-pats settle because there are ex-pats available to do the jobs, and so on. I do not think that I am making much sense but maybe someone else can make sense of what I am trying to say.

Rosemary

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Well there you go then ..... the whole of village life written off :rofl:

I lived in a large village until I was about 18. It was nice in that you knew many people and even at that age popping down the pub was great, because it was a nice atmosphere

Then I spent the next 30 years in and around Birmingham, moving back to the countryside for the last few years or so that we were in the UK. I never came across what you mention, but experience tells me that because everyone knows you ... what you do gets around. So if you are extremely rude to one person, everyone knows and treats you differently

Village life is like a big internet forum. What you say or do can bee seen by everyone, as opposed to city life where you just get lost in the size of it and maybe dont even know your next door neighbour that well

In a village, to coin a phrase, you reap what you sew :D

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Well put.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

[QUOTE=bil;9271388]I spent most of my life in a fairly leafy village, and you can have it. The small minded petit bourgeois, the backstabbing neighbours... boy, when you have a problem there, you soon know who your friends are. When my mother had her stroke, and we were busting our balls trying to keep our heads above water, there were half a dozen people who really did something to help us. When we wanted to sell the land behind our house, we had a sustained campaign to stop us by the neighbours we thought we got on with. The 'funny' part was that it was lead by one who had sold off half of their garden not long before, and the members were all people whose houses were built on slices of other people's gardens. /QUOTE]

Doesnt quite add up.......village life is crap yet half a dozen people rallied around to help out in a time of need?

As for people campaigning to stop an individual selling their own property....impossible.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

I have to say that given unlimited funds I would probably live in England but I would spend a long time picking the location. I have had both sides of the coin in England, where I was brought up was a great friendly area of Sheffield and a wonderful childhood I had. Then I got married, and moved to a village on the outskirts where new housing had been built. Strangely the old locals were extremely friendly but the incomers were out and out keep up with the Joneses snobs. Moved southwards to Bexhill at the end of the seventies and met some of the friendliest people I have ever met then moved to Eastbourne to a road of some forty or so houses where no-one talked to one another and so one became more insulated and ended up with a sod the lot of them attitude. When we moved to Spain we did not tell anyone that we were leaving, not that they would have been interested.
Out of interest the worst piece of dislike, unfriendliness, call it what you will was in an off the tourist area part of Cornwall, I went to the bar in a pub and with my northern accent asked for the menu. I was told that they were not serving food even though they had a board outside.:frown: Returned to Rosemary and told her, she went to the bar and in her west country accent asked the same question and was given the menu. It is something I shall never forget.

Graham

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Well, the big joke is that they wanted to stop us putting 4 nice houses on there, which at the time would have been a nice little earner, and I could have retired on the spot.

Now the rules have changed, half the land has to go to 'social ' housing, they are getting twice the number of houses (sadly we are getting a small fraction of what we would have got) and they now have a more down market housing group on their doorstep.

Had we been unable to sell, my fallback option was to sell the land for a pittance to the nastiest bunch of gypsies I could have found.

Re: My thoughts on moving back to the UK
 

Yeah, funny that. People tend to describe me as negative and pessimistic. I say it's realism. I was in that village for the best part of 40 years, so I got to know the politics and so on of it. When you discover that a big slice of people who are nice to your face are sticking the knife in your back to their best ability, well, that kind of sets you against them.

Some areas in the UK are friendlier, tho if you are going to base your experiences on how nice other walkers are to you, well all I can say is, 'quel surprise!'

Try going to south wales. The people in the northern half of wales tends to be nice, the rest not so.