AmerLisa

We interviewed 4 of them, when we were selling our house 3 years ago, they were all smarmy....with the exception of the one that we actually went with. And we were able to dicker the percentage rate with all of them.....just like the terms you'd deal with in any sale.

Elvira

You're looking for a sp@nking?

As for my name, the clue is in my location...

Dan725

Oo-er missus!

AmerLisa

But you don't have to sell the house yourself....something I didn't feel comfortable dealing with when we sold our house. And the estate agent said they'd come out to show the house....but gee, were somehow never available at the time..... Thankfully we only had to show the house twice and the house sold to the second couple. But when it came to bargaining - the estate agent really had the buyers interest and not ours. We were adamant we weren't coming down in our price and the estate agent acted quite dubious that we'd get full price - in the end we did. With exception to their advertisement and pictures they took (that's where the real money is going) we could have done the rest.....

gardnma

Back to the true friend / fake aquaintance thingy for a bit.....

Today I had a call from an old mate in the UK. We spoke and I told him I was trying to choose wether to B&B or rent for a trip back home next year.
His comment:
"Oh, dont worry, we'll just move into her parent's cottage for two weeks and you can use our house, save yer money."
They have two kids smaller than ours and will, no doubt, be a bit put out by this kindness.
This bloke I have known since being 7yrs old and we are great mates.
Now here's the point:
We haven't seen each other in over a decade (just phone calls), he has since married with kids also.
The Mrs and I have made many aquaintances and friends over the years here and I just cannot, for the life of me, imagine any one of them doing the same.

BigDavyG

Mate I'd book a nice travel lodge if I were you - he was probably taking the piss

gardnma

Rotten swine, I'll kill him.
After we've had a good piss up anyway.

Jerseygirl

Yep same with my bessie friend. Don't keep in touch...I'll call her and say I'm at the airport and it's like I've never been away. That's a true friend.

jen_andreson

Do most of you feel then, that you don't have any close friends in the US?

I've found the workplace relationships to be phoney and such, as are some social relationships. However, I've got a wonderful circle of friends who would do/have done many kind things for us. All of our neighbours brought round meals when I was in hospital, they offered to watch my eldest daughter so that I could get some rest with a new baby in the house, etc. They've jumped in to help organise events, helped out in a crisis. We've been offered holiday homes and accepted two of those offers (cabin in the woods and lakeside home) and in turn we've helped them out with accomodation in the UK, watched their children, etc. We've also got my husband's lifelong circle of friends who were nothing but welcoming to me.

Of course it's not the same as with my British friends, as I don't have a long history with these people, but they are friends all the same.

I don't think I'd stay here if I felt that I had no friends/was going to be dumped like the trash.

Jerseygirl

Maybe you're lucky...you can share your husband's lifelong circle of friends.

jen_andreson

Maybe that is it, or at least gave us a place to start. We don't have many of them living close to us, but it was at least a group to meet for holidays, and all of that. The neighbour bit took me by surprise--we moved in and neighbours kept popping over to introduce themselves, which my husband tells me in completely normal. I wasn't used to it, as we didn't know any of our London neighbours. It took some time for me to feel comfortable with them.

Lord Lionheart

oooeeerrr missus

Elvira

I find people here very friendly and neighbourly, but it never seems to go beyond that. I know that if we or they moved away, it would be highly unlikely that we would ever have any contact again.

DEE_UK

I love the company I work for! (Am I rare?) We get 20 days paid holiday, plus an extra day of your choice and also a day off during your birthday pay period. So, thats 22 days! And we get 8 "state" holidays, which I think is the same number as the UK holidays.

My colleagues and I often go out to lunch together, and talk to each other during working hours - about non-work related things!

Am I lucky? The last company I worked for in WV gave me 5-weeks paid time off when I went to England and my sister passed away (I hadn't accrued enough PTO or "sick" time.) I had only been working for them for 5 weeks when I had to head back. When I got married in Feb this year, they gave me another 2 weeks full-pay as a wedding present (as I had no PTO left since I went to England during Dec-Jan.)

I think I am lucky! I guess you just need to work within the right company and environment, and when you do, you work hard - so they really appreciate you!

Lord Lionheart

I went out to lunch with one of my work colleagues at least three times a week for 6 years, even when I passed him over for promotion.
I worked hard, travelled the world and got well paid................... right up until the day I was downsized ( read fired) on the spot that day.
Never heard from the guy I went to lunch with for 6 years, gave up on him after 3 or 4 calls, he became suddenly 'too busy' every time I called him.