Chopper-Chris

Wish it was for happier reasons...funerals and weddings seem to be the only thing that draws me back to the Mothercountry these days...

It'll be nice to see all the old friends again though, here's the question...

How do you guys fit in all the people that you want to see on such a short trip?

Englishmum

I wish I knew the answer to that! I don't think you can see everyone on short trips or you just end up being exhausted.

We did once stay in a large grist mill in the Cotswolds and invited friends and family to come and see us and stay overnight if they wanted to in an attempt to avoid having to dash around visiting various people. This is where we stayed:

http://www.owlpen.com (the grist mill was lovely)

We soon found out whom our real friends were LOL! Some people couldn't even bother to drive 50 miles to see us, yet they get the hump if I don't do the same on my short visits to England.

To be honest, we were warned about that when we first became expats and my husband's English boss in Hong Kong said he'd rent out a large house in England every Summer and people came out with the flimsiest of excuses to avoid having to travel but still wanted his family to call in and see them......

Safe travels and enjoy your all-too-short visit to Blighty!

Adnams

Run around from one end of the coutry to the next like loons and end up p*ssed off and tired just like EM said. Next visit we're doing just the above renting a cottage and people can come and see us for a change!

Chopper-Chris

Thanks Mum!!!

What a great idea...I'm going to do it, people can come to see us for a change!

username 34

and you know what .... they probably wont! you'll invite them and they'll be busy and say why couldnt you have come at a different time ...

like you've not just flown across the friggin atlantic!!

I'm of the mind now we invite you to come see us if we are in the UK - if you dont then dont whinge coz we havent seen you!

Bob

get them all to meet you at the pub, and if they say it's to far, slap 'em as your flying the atlantic

jumping doris

My two eldest daughters are in the UK at the moment. They don't drive, yet family members have expected them to travel by train to see them. They are staying in the NW with friends and my OH's sisters are on the South coast and are miffed because the girls aren't travelling down to see them.
Next week they will be with friends in the Midlands, yet his sisters won't even drive up there.
They are also annoyed because we won't fly back for a family reunion because we just can't afford 5 tickets at the moment yet, when we invited them here, they said it was too far to travel!!!!!

Voltore

I used to run ragged doing this, but put my foot down a few years ago. As one post says, you really do find out who your friends are. nuff said!

Deedee13

i never have time to do the visiting crap.. by the time i have gone down to the pub for the mandatory pub lunch, gone to tescos realised how much stuff i have missed and go the next day just incase i aint missed anything else and the next and the next and the next.. then go shopping for bigger suitcases because of all the things i missed, and then not forgetting the newspapers and then the trip to the chippy and then.... and then..... sod em i send a postcard!!