General Chat

Hello All
What an interesting thread. I haven't been on the boards in ages due to some unpleasantness a year or two back, but I read through all the posts on this thread and found it too interesting not to add to.

18 years ago me and my husband left England for America on a 3 yr work permit. We renewed it and then upgraded our visa's, got our first Green Card and have just started on our second 10 yr GC. After 18 year we have finally admitted to ourselves and everyone else, that yes, we have emigrated!

We live and work in SE Michigan as we were both automotive based when we came over here. I still am, but my husband retrained as a massage therapist and now works part time doing that and taking care of the house as I still work full time.

I naively thought I was the first in my family to emigrate but little did I know! I moved here about 10 years before I got into the Family History hobby so got quite a surprise to find both me and hubby have distant, and not so distant, relatives in the US, and that we were just the next in an already longish line of our families to make the journey. My husband also has family in Australia that I was able to make contact with this year, so that has been a great find.

Looking forward to reading more expat experiences on this thread!

Wendy.
I would agree with everything you´ve said.
As far as sorting things out after your death, I have a similar problem as OH doesn´t speak English. I´ve made a will under the Spanish system & each of my daughters has a copy of it. There´s also a copy with my solicitor & the central registry in Madrid. I´m in the process of writing instructions for my husband about notifying all the official people in England & am making a list of the e mail addresses of people who will want to know, which an English friend has agreed to deal with.
Sounds a bit morbid I know, but these things have to be faced sooner or later & I would hate to leave people struggling to sort things out.
Things are very difficult financially, but I haven´t given any thought to going back to England & in any case, my husband is Spanish, so we would just end up with the same problems in reverse.
Enjoy what you can while you can.

I just found this thread and wondered why I had not noticed it before then I realised that it is just over a year old and I have never added to it.

I moved to the north of Tenerife because I met the love of my life and he lived and worked here. I didn't need to think twice I just knew that this was where I wanted to be.

I don't think that I would consider moving back to the UK in the foreseeable future as I love the laid back way of life and the warm climate. Like Wisechild I think the health system is brilliant and I had an operation here for a new hip a few years ago. I get the same privileges as the Spanish health wise as my husband had worked here and paid into the Spanish system for 27 years.

It is lovely to be able to eat outside in the evenings or to sit in a bar and drink coffee or wine and watch the world go by. I like to have people come to stay as apart from their company I like to think that I can share with them a little of the lovely life that I have..

I miss my two daughters and five grandchildren in the UK and detest the ten hour door to door journey to see them. There seems to be less and less leg room on the plane each time I go and I find four and a quarter hours with my knees wedged against the seat in front a real pain. As flying is the only way of seeing my family I grit my teeth and go about twice a year. The fares are so expensive in school holidays that they really can't come to see be very often even with a little help from me. We did once consider moving to the mainland just for the benefit of being that bit nearer to the kids but it never became a serious contender against staying in Tenerife. My house is nicely situated I can walk into town and to the beach from here and I am close to shops, bars and restaurants. I always feel safe here even walking at night. I do drive but don't go far really as I am happy where I am, I tend to go further afield when I have visitors who want to see more of the island.

Sadly my husband died last November and my daughters said that if anything happened to me they wouldn't know where to start in sorting everything out. Unlike the south of the island where nearly everyone speaks English it is necessary to speak some Spanish in the north. The doctors, town hall etc all have notices up saying that if you do not speak spanish please bring someone with you who does as they so not provide interpreters. I suppose the day may come when I will have to consider moving back just to make life easier for my children!

I would not recommend moving here at the moment to anyone who needs to work to earn a living as like everywhere else there is no work. Quite a few people have gone back as their English pension is not worth anywhere near as much as it was when they came here due to big changes in the pound to euro rates In some cases they have to accept low prices for their property because nobody is buying at the moment. Having said that it is a buyers market and there are hundreds of nice properties available very cheaply if you have the money to buy them? By going back to the UK they can get financial help, here there is nothing not even for the Spanish.

Wendy

Hi Bridget.
Thatnk for the info you e mailed to me a few days ago.
OH finally had his op. this morning so I will have my nurses uniform on for the next few days. I was really surprised that he went as a day patient & was discharged within 3 hours of having a general anaesthetic. Luckily a friend came with us to drive home as I don´t drive, but I´m now having the devil´s own game getting OH to take it easy.
As you will have realised, we are still in Menorca & the ferry stops tomorrow until April, so it looks like we will be here for another winter. Some new English (well Scottish actually) people have just bought an apartment near to us & will be moving out in October. Makes a change. Most people are going the other way.
Hope you find somewhere nice to live & settle back happily.
Marion

Do you know where you will live in UK Bridget?

Do you think you will regret exchanging glorious summers for the miserable ones we have lately?

Will you be leaving lots of friends behind? We moved around a bit before we retired although always in the UK and found that once we moved here it was harder to make friends, most of our friends reside in the areas that we lived in when we were younger. However, I am sure you will be wanting to be in easier reach of family. Trouble with that is family also have wanderlust sometimes :-D

Well!
It is a long time since there was a entry on here!

Just to say we have made the decision to go back to the UK, but will we be able to sell our house. I think we have it at a reasonable price and may even drop a little lower if necessary.

I wonder if anyone who posted on here many months ago will now be
Irving in a different place?
I wonder if there will be any replies?

Hi Bridget.
Yes, we´re still here. OH still waiting for his op, so everything on hold until afterwards.plus we have friends coming over from England at various times between now & September & a flat to sell.
A friend has just accepted an offer of €205 000 on his huge 4 bed house just up the road. He pais €340.000 for it 5 years ago. I don´t hold out much hope of selling any time soon.
Job situation gets worse every week, but on the bright side, the sun is shining & the exchange rate is better.
Can´t have everything.
Nice to hear from you.
Marion

Just in case there is a chance that we could resurrect this thread I thought I would add a comment.

Marion where are you now, did you remain in your home and how is your husband getting along after his Op...I hope all went well

Bridget

Susan
Thanks for the reply and I hope to see you as often as you can give us a few minutes.
Do you know why your uncle went to Australia, I have found out quite a lot of interesting things about some of my Ancestors and relatives when finding then abroad...good luck with your research.

PS I love the picture!!
Bridget

PPS
I was asked a while back if living in another country in the UK is "going abroad" i answered YES because certainly the just moving from one place to another that really counts....maybe I should change the name of the thred....

Now that I think of it.

I did have an Uncle who moved to Oz. He had travelled there, met his wife and stayed there . He has passed away now though.

I am, one of these people who have lived everywhere and nowhere. I will pop in now and then but am afraid I am best at talking rubbish than about myself :-) :-)

Ah, Susan

Of course you can still add on here.....you could write about places you have visited and why or why not you would have considered living in. Have you lived in the same place since you were born..if so you could write about that,,,Hope to hear from you soon.

Hi all

I think it is an interesting thread. :-) A friend and I used to have a long thread where everyone joined in at first, but it did not stop us adding when others fell by the wayside. A few people looked in now and then. We had so much fun on it even when there was just the two of us. Then three then four :-D

I would add to your thread but I haven't moved abroad unfortunately. Great idea for a thread though :-) :-)

Hi Bridget.
Yes, I would have gone ahead & moved too, but we had a problem in that it was the beginning of November & the ferries to Barcelona had stopped for the winter apart from the overnight one that takes about 12 hours & the airline that provided the main link between Menorca & Barcelona cut the number of flights, making it impossible to get there & back in a day to view the property, so we would have had to put the cat into kennels for a couple of days. There is only one boarding kennels on the island (at the other end of course) & they only have room for 4 cats at a time, so if they´re full, hard luck.
OH seems to have gone off the idea a bit, but I´m still determined we will do it. Have no intention of sitting here waiting to die.

Marian

Thank you for such a swift reply and a great surprise as I thought that no one would do so.
A strange thing to say but I think that I would still have moved, money is pretty tight for most of us and if you can find somewhere else and Tarragona is a decent place, I think I would still have moved.
I hope that OH soon hears about his hernia op. it is the waiting that is so stressful, keeping my fingers crossed for him.

The sun is shining here but still a fairly strong wind, drying the washing nicely though!
Our swimming pool is now having water going into it, been out of use for a few weeks but the men where such good workers and we are delighted that all is well once again.

I have bern adding flowers to the flower pots which have neglected for a while, some very good prices nearby. Must be the reduced number of people living here.

Well OH looking for a coffee so must go

Best wishes

Bridget

Hi Bridget.
Well I,m still here at least.
Don´t know how things are on the mainland, but it´s been a pretty dire winter here & doesn´t look like it will improve any time soon.
We found a property near Tarragona just before Christmas which we were keen on & which was much cheaper, but when we told the landlord, he immediately said he would reduce the rent to match because we are good tenants & he didn´t want to lose us, so what could we say.
Obviously it´s helped a lot, but still doesn´t alter the fact that everything here is at least 50% dearer than on the mainland, so we are biding our time for now & will see how things are later in the year.
In any case, OH is waiting to have a hernia operation, so want to get that over first.
Hope you & the family are well.
Marion

Just read through most of this thred again and all so very interesting...I wonder if anyone is interested in joining us and I am sure that circumstances have changed for some of us,

Best wishes to you all

Bridget :-)

Good morning everyone.
Isn't it refreshing to read something positive about the UK. Thank you Karen, sometimes we forget just what a great place Engand is.
Politically of course it is in turmoil with so much written about the private lives of those chosen by the people of the UK.

One of the reasons we left was the number of people who where given permission to stay in the UK even though they had not gone through the correct procedures, OH was particularly affected by this as I have stated before.

However Spain is also suffering in much the same way, although they are stricter about how the illegal immigrants are managed.

Last night we went to the Moors and Christians Parade. This is an event we have enjoyed every year since we first arrived here.
Sadly it was not the same this year! For a start the parade started at the other end of town to the Castle and this meant that we only saw the last few hundred metres of the parade.also it was a much smaller in time, event, which was also disappointing.
Our daughter in law managed to take a few photos and I have promised to buy the book of pictures when it is made available.

The attendance of people has grown tremendously and we were pleased that we found a restaurant where we could sit outside to watch the parade.

We were home at about 20.30 hrs and we caught up with the various football, and Rugby.

We decided to go to bed when the fireworks had finished or so we thought!!

At about midnight Jet and Joe became very distressed when some fire works were let off, and in the end I had to lower all the shutters and let them crawl under our bed.........this event must have cost thousands of euros as it continued until 01.30, yes that is right, 01.30 hours and then the private fireworks started, so another 30 minutes of amazing fire works but by then all we wanted to do was go to sleep!

This morning it is quiet everywhere, I have not even heard the church bells and the only noise is from the TV because OH is catching up with the sports watching England v Georger.

A lazy day ahead for me I hope. We will book our tickets for the Tunnel crossing to the UK , will go shopping for milk, fres veg etc and then I am going to relax for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile I wish you all a very happy day

Bridget
However, this is where our grandchildren are and they are a big calling so

I'm in the UK at the moment, on a trip 'home' , and thoroughly enjoying the fresh air and cooler weather (yay, I can breathe again)!! And of course it's great to catch up with family and friends.
I love wandering around Tesco or M&S food....just fantastic compared to my local supermarket, especially the freshness and variety of the fruit and veg!!
I find driving a joy, as other drivers are polite and obey the rules of the road - on the whole - which is far more than I can say for the way they are in the Middle East! The price of petrol is a killer though!!!


K

We are going to the UK at next Friday. I am looking forward to seeing my granddaughter and the rest of the family.
Will add more tomorrow.

Good night everyone

Bridget

Don´t know the area at all Bridget, but it rang a bell as soon as I saw it. Now I remember why.
My grandmother´s older brother emigrated to the USA in 1911 & eventually settled in Attleborough ,Massechusettes.
Just been shopping to our local polygono & I always walk back through town afterwards & pick up the newspaper.
It was like battling through a rugby scrum this morning. Haven´t seen so many tourists at one time for about 3 years.
The lady in the newsagents commented on it too & when I said that the supermarkets had been almost empty, she sait "they must all be on All Inclusive".
A friend had an e mail from Thomson yesterday advising him that in future they will only sell All Inclusive packages. I´m not sure about them. They mean that local businesses get very little trade & speaking to a couple of ladies last week who were on an all inclusive package, they said they hadn´t tasted decent food for 10 days
No wonder they seem cheap.

Marion