JLFS

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

Mataroni

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?

bil

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.

Mitzyboy

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

HBG

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.

mrs-mop

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!

JLFS

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.

whitelinen

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

bil

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.

bil

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

agoreira

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!

agoreira

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

HBG

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.

Rosemary

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

Mitzyboy

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

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