SultanOfSwing

How utterly embarrassing! I used to live in Belfast, luckily I didn't run into anyone in their PJs or God forbid some daft old bint in a nightie. Of course, I ever went to the shops in my PJs but once when I drove to the 24 hour garage for a packet of fags I realised I had still got my slippers on. Luckily it was about 2 in the morning and I had parked close to the wee window thing so no-one was any the wiser

To the OP - for what it's worth, I constantly think about my decision to leave the UK, and can honestly say it is up there with the stupidest things I have done. Having recently discovered that my wife has basically zero interest in moving to the UK at present, I'm more or less resigned to the fact that I'm stuck here until I can win the lottery or otherwise get rich.

Rose tinted specs my knob - my arse might be planted in the US for now but my heart and mind still reside in good old Carrick. You really don't know what you had back there until you can't access it any more . . .

Burn1911

I acutally think this is a GREAT way of looking at America.

I LOVE living here, however if I lived in Florida would I feel the same? I have no idea at all, I can't imagine anywhere more different to the PNW than Florida but I might enjoy living there

I am 100% sure the reason me and DH are happy is because of where we live, this place couldn't suit our lifestyle any better.

When I went back to the UK this year I couldn't wait to leave and get back here to home - I felt it was crowded, dirty and everything was rammed into a small place and I felt extremely claustrophobic! BUT that is compared to here in the PNW where we are surrounded by ocean and mountains and HUGE trees!

Each person and circumstance is different good luck with your decision

Bob

You've not been to his part of MA then, it's another world

Hubcaps

Answer below

Our quality of life is so much better, the schools are better, the people are nicer, attitudes are better. The scenery, the trees, the lakes, the food, the shopping are fantastic. Everything is just so much better and so clean!
I've lived all over the UK, from Scotland to Cornwall, in big cities like London, on a farm on a Welsh mountainside plus everything in-between and I have never lived anywhere better than I do now.
This is home.

It was quite something when I met my father-in-law at the door last week and the first words out of his mouth "You won't be coming back then." A statement not a question. If I get my way (and my green card), no I won't ever be going back.

Nutmegger

I sympathize i with your unhappiness, but believe your statement should read "I didn't know what I had back there until I couldn't access it any more . . ."

This whole situation is so personal to the individual, no-one can figure out how another person is going to react to either coming to the US or returning the UK.

HumphreyC

I've also found that a helpful way to think of it. Another way to do it is to break it down into cultural regions. Someone called Joel Garreau tried to do this back in the eighties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Na..._North_America



I'm sure it has been argued over endlessly but it seems roughly right.

SultanOfSwing

Think of it as poetic license then. I can't be arsed editing it

Sally Redux

You were paraphrasing Joni Mitchell

SultanOfSwing

My poetic license is not of the kind that covers original work, it would seem

HumphreyC

What can I say. My Police Scanner gives me hours of entertainment.

Giantaxe

Unless you have a serious illness and lose your health insurance maybe... I feel pretty positive about the US too, and have considered it my home for a long time now. I adore San Francisco more than any place I've lived. But, for all that, there is this level of stress and anxiety - especially at my age - over things such as healthcare and the lack of any credible social safety net. Quite simply, I would not live in this country without having access to good health insurance, and there is no guarantee that will always be the case.

meauxna

We changed the green part name to Cascadia; Ecotopia sounded clinical.

I also remind DH (and others) to think of the states more like the separate countries of Europe. It makes more sense then, the way the laws etc fit together.

Burn1911

I agree with that - BUT I refuse to let that take over my life worrying about stuff. Maybe I am an idiot, but I will deal with stuff like that as and when it happens, I am not going get all stressed and anxious on the off chance it might!

I do know me and DH are in the minority with our thinking on that, we have had this discussion with friends who do worry about such stuff - suffice to say each to his own!

Hubcaps

Same here. The plan is that I return to work when (if) we get our green cards and all monies I earn will go into the "just in case" fund.
We have savings we could live off for a few years and if/when our UK house sells we'll have much more but as the kids need me less at home now I'd quite like a job again.
Insurance isn't something we're too concerned with as we're planning now for a time when we might need to pay for own. As it stands right this minute we'd have to leave if my husband's job went...but hopefully not to the UK and if we had to go there I hope not for very long.

AmerLisa

Yeah the Mexamerica has creeped a lot further north.....