General Chat

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.
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.

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 :-) :-)

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.

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 :-) :-)

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....

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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.

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!

Hi Marion...my husband was super organised and had everything in a file ready for " when required" I am not so organised but have everything together but the language would be a major obstacle for my girls hence the consideration of moving back to the UK. Before Mike died I never once gave it a thought now it crosses my mind frequently. In the meantime I love living here and being retired.

Wendy

Wendy, among Mike's friends and acquaintances is there anybody Spanish/English speaking who would agree to act as interpreter if your girls need it at any time?

Hi Ann ...I've pm'd you xx

Goodness me,

Yesterday when I wrote my
Ast entry I had no idea that there would be so many replies and such interesting views.....thank you everyone for adding your points of view.

I have no regtets about moving to Spain, it has been a valuable experience and would recommend it to anyone. However after the terrible accident that my granddaughter had just over a year ago I started to think that I wished I lived back in Blighty,,,,,,,,then my Army son was posted to Northern Ireland and the cost of travelling by air just went so high that I knew we could not visit to often...yes Skype is an amazing experience and bee a great way of being in contact but not the some as holding her etc.
As I said, the house is just on the market and I know housesetc are at snails place and cheaper than a couple of years ago..........maybe it will happen maybe not, who knows but I do not want to stay here forever,

It cost my son. His wife and their daughter nearly one thousand ounces to travel here and return to Ireland...now that is an amazing hike in air travel.

So sole asked that so many people relied and I hope we are able to continue keeping this thread alive...any ideas for the name expansion of this thread...which would new people to join us.

Enjoy your day everyone and a special Hello to Brenda. Please stay with us

PS

Do you think that I should slightly change the name of this thread? For example

"Did anyone in your family emigrate and then return to place of origin? "

Other suggestions please.

I think the current heading says it all, Bridget. I'm happy with it the way it is.

Not everyone who emigrated has returned to their origins, so the present title seems adequate to me. What do others think?