Only $70K................... don't bother coming to California then

Kids have to live in the EU for 3 years before being able to get discounted unies.

very true....though the lecturers I had all worked in the real world as well, and some of 'em were minted...the cheeky crunts

Wots a 'crunt' Bob?

Can't afford a maid, and my (immigrant-from-Europe) husband is painting the house.

I suppose my points are:

* don't stereotype women -- what, we want to live where there's good shopping while the menfolk watch football and eat big steaks?

* the immigrant situation in the UK is similar to the immigrant situation in the US in that there are people from countries with lower standards of living pouring into the country with the higher standard of living -- legal or not. This has an effect, but so far, it hasn't been catastrophic, and I live in the state with the most illegal immigrant crossings (probably #2 to California in total number of undocumented workers).

* your standard of living depends on your skills, your ability to outperform others, and a schmooze factor based on your charisma and who you know. And some luck. And stuff.

a runt that's dropped down the alphabet a bit

ouch!!

Exactly. We had to get 2 mortgages to buy our first home here in the US. We spend over 50% of our salary on our mortgage alone. I don't see how that is better than England's housing market, especially given the fact we live in a large shed, that would burn down in 2 minutes flat!

Good question. Personally I like to be able to get to something interesting at the weekend. Maybe a little local art exhibition, or to a show or maybe a musical, some interesting shopping such as Guilford, Covent Garden, nice antique shops (British antiques, not Texan made in China tat), I'm a keen gardener so open gardens would be great.

So - you need to be somewhere central where these things are available.

You also need a pleasant climate, no mossies or flies to speak of, so you can spend time out of doors.

Jings! don't say I'm going to plump for the Home Counties. No, no - I'll have to give it some more thought!

Oh and nice pubs!

We used to keep sled dogs in England...they lived in kids wooden playhouses..my son asked why did we move into a place like the dogs had mum...

If you're really interested in Chinese antiques, Houston actually has some reasonable places to pick them up. There are some "tat" shops trying to pass off repros as antiques,but if you sift through them, there's some good stuff out there. When we originally came here we were thinking about importing some asian(mainly chinese) antiques for resale, but decided there was too much competition....

Out of interest, why do you keep referring to Texas when your location is Wyoming?

Was in Houston, now in Wyoming but probably short term. Where do you buy the antiques?

We've not bought since we've been here - we brought ours with us, plus some extra looking to sell them and dip a toe in the market. We ended up buying a bigger house and keeping it all! Doesn't stop us looking though....There are a few places along Harwin - really need to sort the cr@p out at most of them. There are also 2 or 3 along Westheimer that sometimes have some reasonable stuff in, and one out in Katy (where we are). Haven't actually been to many of those for the last couple of years - once we changed direction and decided importing wasn't for us, I kind of got diverted elsewhere. Just recently though I've been to a few of the auctions just browsing. A lot of it is absolutely hideous - far too "fancy" for my taste, particulalrly some of the French shipments, but it seems to go down well here..

Oh, right. Need to investigate some of these.

We were originally leaving last December so must confess I didn't really try too hard to fit in - now looks like it could be another few years. Also, live north of the Woodlands on Lake Conroe, so get lazy about going into downtown. There is a British Ladies Group in the Woodlands which organises alot of stuff.

yeah, we dont go into Downtown much these days - well, I don't, wife goes every day I go to the Zoo and the Childrens Museum and thats about it!