Britains Going To The Dogs-I'm Staying In Spain !!

[costakid]

What about Milton keynes? They say the cars there wear the nearside front tyre quicker than any other. I think its an old wives tale.

[maureenscot]

I went to Milton Keynes years ago and got lost going round the terraces of roundabouts. I finally found my way back out without bothering to try to get to my destination

[costakid]

We go shopping to Milton Keynes but I have never come out the same way as I went in to the City centre. People who live there tell you its very easy to get around as it is a grid system but I have never mastered it.

[masterob]

Milton Keynes boasts 124 roundabouts (Basingstoke has a miserly 44)! Because of its grid layout every intersection has a roundabout. When we first moved here from Spain we thought we would never master the layout but eventually we did but I agree it can be a challenge at first.

Getting back to the OP, having experienced 10+ years of living in Spain and now 2 years back in the UK, I think it fair to say both have their pluses and minuses but, on balance, for us, the UK suits us best. I think the things that really struck us when we got back was the reliability of services such as electricity and water. Such a relief not to worry about power cuts especially after bad weather! Perhaps we are very lucky but we get a weekly refuse collection and our Doctors surgery is open EVERY day of the year bar Xmas day. Supermarket choice excellent especially compared to Mercadona, Eroski and Carrefour. One thing I won't do is to moan about immigrants in the UK. For 10+years we were immigrants in Spain and the Spanish kindly put up with us!

[BENIDORM]

Great post Masterob, and good to hear that you've settled down OK, I'm sure that you miss many aspects of life in Spain, however I fully understand your needs to move back.

I'm quite surprised at the major moans about UK----Roundabouts, condition of roads, not immigration, racism etc.
Certainly since we moved to Spain permanently the roads have improved dramatically in Spain and UK roads seem to be overworked and overcrowded.!

With regards to services such as water -electric, I've noticed a vast improvement recently here in Spain, we rarely get cuts now and just this past week the Electricity sub-station in our village has been completely re-furbished .!
Supermarkets I'm more than content with where we live prices, quality and service have got better and better lately, or is it just me becoming used to it all ?
Regards,
Gordon

[IreneD]

I love this thread - lots of chat about the UK and Spain, plenty of pros and cons for both. A nice sensible chat with no-one kicking off or getting sarcastic or nasty.

Now that we've been here for 4 years, we feel settled and enjoy our adopted country. We love the little mountain town, the Spanish people, the supportive community and of course, the weather, the beautiful surroundings and the laid back lifestyle. I miss the family, Marks & Spencers, the green-ness of England, being able to speak English with virtually everyone we meet. I can get by in Spanish but still find it a struggle. It's taken me 4 years to get to the stage I'm at now, I think it will take at least another couple of years before I can speak to a Spanish person without a big hesitation when I first translate in my head what I want to say. I don't enjoy the very hot months of July and August - and September this year, too.

I agree that the traffic in England is pretty horrendous, it takes ages to get from A to B, also agree that to be able to get an appointment to see a doctor here, next day, is a big plus. We have found the health care here first class.

So many pros and cons for both countries. What really seals the deal, if I'm honest, is money - or lack of it. Our lifestyle here is fine, on our tiny income - to have the lifestyle I want in the UK, it would need to be double, at least. My family is scattered around so - as they would be my main motivation to move back - I'd want the money to be able to hop on a train often to visit. I think that would be preferable to driving, due to the congested roads. We have a nice house here but if we sold it, I think we'd probably only be able to afford a flat or something very small. I would definitely miss this house and the great location here, such fantastic mountain views - I would miss waking up to that every day!

So............we are here to stay, for the foreseeable future

[Lavanda]

For me, what you write, Irene, is also true. We couldn't afford our current lifestyle in the UK. The idea of buying a few hectares, building a house, living outdoors for a good eight months of the year and getting water from our own borehole and using, mostly, solar power, all this would be quite difficult in the UK and expensive. We have also grown used to the geographical space around us. The UK seems overcrowded.

However, if I won zillions on the lottery I could see myself buying somewhere in the Devon or Cornish countryside to spend the dreaded months of July and August. The thought of cool, wet, green woods in the West Country is so tempting when it's hot here. Then I think of the winters and am glad we live here.

[patricia]

I just read this about Swindon "The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England, was constructed in 1972 and consists of five mini-roundabouts arranged around a sixth central, anti-clockwise roundabout. In 2009 it was voted the fourth scariest junction in Britain, in a poll by Britannia Rescue"

[patricia]

I do agree about the financial angle, it is very expensive in the UK to go out, although I have to say that food shopping in the UK is not expensive. Meat possibly, but I do not eat meat, but vegetables and salad stuff I thought was very cheap and in some cases cheaper than Spain. It is going out that is so costly as someone has said a drink in a pub five pounds eating out very expensive and the cost of theater ticket nearly a 100 pounds or so Still travel is free if you have your bus pass which includes the tube also and museums are free - well most of them - and then you have the spring which is wonderful. But then you have council tax and the cost of heating etc., so a lot more expensive in that way, 1k plus for council tax and certainly not less than 1k. and in the end it all comes down to finances, for me any way. As I said before I would love to come and go as I wished. but that isnt possible. However one day I may have to go back but until that time it is Spain for me with the odd trip back to the UK

[elusive]

Agree very much patrica. If we had the money we would have the best of both worlds. Before we came we thought if we are gonna do this lets do it full time.lets do it properly no reason to be in the uk But you dont really think about july and august.nothing is to hot when u think about living in spain from the cold and grey of the UK! You never thought you would be happy to see a cloudy day.but looking at it now after being here a couple of years im starting to think of now could we afford it. Sell up and downsize in the uk use the money to spend x amount of months here etc. You start looking at the price of property at home and notice that houses are selling around you .

Saying we feel rich living here is prob abit OTT but we can eat out when we like and buy things if needed without worrying if theres enough money left at the end of the month (putting savings to one side) in the uk it was a cheap carvery and a chinese take away once a month. Here we can jump in the car and go to beautiful places for a few nights at the drop of a hat. In the uk it was "im not paying that to go look at some castle ruins in the rain" we wont stay in spain forever. Well i certainly wont as im gonna have to get a "proper" job back home at some point.im abit old for the gap year excuse!

My main issue here is health. im young compaired to most of you guys on here and my S1 will end soon and its a nightmare trying to find a job with a contract so that is my concern. We can afford private healthcare if needed which i resent as under spanish law im entiltled but thats another thread! but i dont know if its anxitiy being outside of the uk with a health service you know and english speaking ppl but ive never felt so ill since i moved here. Muscle pains etc made worse by the summer heat far worse than the cold in the uk. Nueralga (sp) type issue that is prob made worst by having time on my hands that allows me to think more and start worrying if theres a real issue or not.. Sometimes i do feel trapped here and could do with a break back home and wonder if all those "ailments" would disapear when you are "home"

[Lavanda]

That's a very thoughtful post, elusive. What you are describing can only be a psychological response to living 'abroad'. When we first came here I remember being panicked by the enormous thought of, "What have we done?" and "Why am I making my life so hard?" We had come to live in a village where there were no other English-speaking people for 20km around. My evening-class Spanish was useless. I had mental claustrophobia and I cried — a lot. However, I was soon enveloped in the open embrace of the people in the village I now call 'home'. I do know what you mean, though, but there's a song that goes, "Everywhere you go you take the weather with you." Perhaps if you were in the UK you would have other ailments that only the sun and the easy life in Spain could cure? However, I agree about the Summer heat. I change into a grumpy, impatient and hideous person once the thermometer goes over 35ºC and this year we had a lot over days over 40ºC. Horrible.

[elusive]

Thanks lavander. It funny cause the health "issues " only started around 2 years in. Now been here 2 and a half. I had worked here upto the 6 months previous so had a routine but ive been "retired" for the last year so to speak. Maybe as the novelty started to wear off and you think right ok im actually living here and need to create a life and you see what the reality of work is like here you start to say the same things as you did in the U.K before you came out ie i cant do this job forever i need a change.now its im in spain i cant do this forever i need to go back to reality at some point even if money isnt an issue interms of needing a job here to pay the bills as im living with family members. My problem is that i do suffer terribly with anxiety and can worry about nothing which doesnt help the situation ad you dont know whether the health issues are more in your head then anywhere else

[jogger]

Elusive, I think I know exactly where you're coming from. I retired in June and had a few minor (I hope) health issues but if I have a minor twinge or pain I always think the worse, especially since I have so much time on my hands. My latest has been headaches, which I used to suffer when I did my daily 5 hour commute to London and back, I've ordered magnesium oil this evening after reading the migraine thread but what I'm getting at is when you have time on your hands no matter what country you are in (and I'm currently still in the UK) your mind will run away with you. I even was sent by a doc for counselling for Health Anxiety because he said I'd had all the blood tests and they were normal, once I had a doctor say to me,'' what is it this time?'' I wouldn't think the answer to your problem is moving back.

Take it easy.
Roy

[elusive]

Thanks roy. Your post sounds so familiar.

[Lavanda]

I'm not sure moving back to the UK will solve anyone's health issues if the Tories really, really are going to remove all the foreign workers in the health service and replace them with British people. Of course, it's popular rhetoric but just imagine if they really think that that is what they are going to do! Maybe stay here for health care and just take up yoga and relaxation classes, elusive and jogger. However, we all worry about something and, for me, it's the health of my parents (93 and 90) in the UK where getting a doctor's appointment takes over a week.

[elusive]

I certainly have no time for the NHS. Ok in an emergency but other than that..... members of my family have had nothing but extreme bad experiences with them. I guess its just the familiarity of the language and for me it was always easy to ring and get an appointment the next day.maybe if/when i look at at private care here things might change as even when i went to see a dr a few months ago i decided to pay private even though im registared with a dr on the spanish nhs. Thanks all for a enjoyable thread.

[BENIDORM]

Elusive,
Some great advice and thoughts passed on to you by forum members.
I'd guess that most ex-pats of all nations go through some form of home-sickness, which really in my opinion, is the best way to sum up all of the varying emotions expressed here by so many members.
Home-sickness seems to come and go in waves, some days people feel on a real low and the next day they are on top form, I would suggest that it is always best to try to keep busy and active, the best cure ..I would think.

I hope that the end of the rainbow soon touches your doorstep...

Regards,
Gordon

[IreneD]

Gosh! It's quite a comfort to read I'm not alone! My health anxiety has been really bad at times, here! I'm not sure why, as I read various worrying things about the direction the NHS seems to be going, I know family members have to wait ages to see a doctor or have tests and my experiences of the health system here have been very positive, both for my OH and myself. Interesting that others feel the same as me.

[gerryh]

Is it a question of Britain's going to the dogs or any place you used to live, when you revisit it several years later, doesn't seem as good as when you lived there?
Certainly true in my moves around the UK.
After living in the new place for a few years and revisiting the old place the road systems has changed, the waste ground I used to park on to go into town has now been built on, my favourite restaurant has shut, the shops have changed etc etc.
Cheers
Gerry

[Wicksey]

I'm another health anxiety sufferer .... glad I am not alone. We have always just PAYG privately but as we are getting older and have had a few more problems the worry is building again. We are going to try the route of getting registered here as we have been resident since 2012. I am about to ask for the letters of legislation from the UK and I'll see how it goes. I've had peripheral neuropathy in my legs (tingling numbness) which scared me half to death but have recently been diagnosed with an under active thyroid and low essential vitamins and minerals which could explain it. For 2 years I have worried myself silly and had goodness knows what tests and MRIs so I think I must now consider trying to get registered here once and for all. The language thing is a pain as we cannot decifer medical jargon but other people manage.

I cannot see myself returning to the UK even part time as we are now priced out of the market and can no way afford to run a house there. A break somewhere in the height of summer would be good though, just a matter of transporting the 4 cats with us!