Well, this is my first post ater a month in transition so I thought i'd join this thread as it seem't highly appropriate. Anyway we arrived a month ago with our 2 children back to our home town after 11 years of being away. We were so lucky my sister arranged a rental for us before we came without an agency so we moved in to a wonderful furnished house. We had my husbands music stuff shipped first and have some more to follow but really get rid of every damn thing if you can! you really forget what you had when you hav'nt seen it for a while! but it was worth bringing the Macs and electric stuff, just check on the back that they take 110 and 240 volts and their frequency are 50 to 60 and they plug straight in. Dont buy adaptors in the US they aren't fused!! wait til you get here. What else...my kids can't get on with these disrespectful loud mouthed, football mad village kids! I must admit I miss the respect in schools but adults are alot more friendly to deal with! Got to keep away from the gossip though cos it can suck you in! just like their worn out faces you see walking through town!! Oh and cigarette smoke everywhere, you cannot escape it!!!
Bills are higher but there are a million ways to pay them it seems! I like the top up cards idea. I live in the Midlands and for my 3 bed small detached my gas/electric is about 80 pound a month, my phone about 70, but with broadband. Inccidently BT are a tad slow on the telephone but will call you back within an hour but when you have no phone thats a bit tricky so you have to wait 30mins to talk to someone.
I think my water is about 35 and council tax 147. My rents cheap in this area too at 550 a month for a cute modern house.
I was pleasantly surprised how advanced technology is here, more so than the US, its true they are falling behind. And every person has the trendiest haircuts ever!
As for jobs I hit lucky working for my brother doing office work. My husband pulled his hair out for a month but eventually got a job in sales. There are a million recruitment offices many are minimum paying jobs at 5.50 an hour but they are gettable and can keep your head above water! I'm waiting to hear if i'll get any tax credit, been 2 weeks now! must keep bugging them!
The food is soooo much better and I love shopping for it! the kids are in chocolate heaven!
To sum up, I'm glad we moved back, life is more laid back compared to the rat race I lived in Cally although oh I miss the open space and warm sunshine.
Sorry I rambled on I have so much to tell!
grin
Kay,
Thanks so much for posting it was very interesting and helpful. Please keep updating us as you think of things, I always very interested to hear how people find the transition, especially when they had been in the US for a long time.
Deborah
I agree, it's nice to hear form you Kay. One thing I have wondered about - especially if the BBC is to be believed - is that the UK is full of yobs and lager louts (I know - my terminology dates me - I am sure they call them something else by now) and that the overcrowded towns and cities are rife with racial tension.
I know for sure that I would miss the respect and dedication in the schools - and most importantly - I have yet to meet a disgruntled jaded teacher around here.
I hope you and the kids settle happily. Eleven years is a long time - especially for kids.
I was pleasantly surprised how advanced technology is here, more so than the US, its true they are falling behind.
Thanks for coming back and updating us! I do enjoy hearing about those that went somewhere else. We'll have to rope you in to a Bungle mode and have frequent updates!
That said, I'd be interested to know exactly *what technology* is so advanced over there.
Pleased you found home though. That's the big thing wherever anyone goes.
Andrew :)
That said, I'd be interested to know exactly *what technology* is so advanced over there.
I'd hazard a guess at banking, insurance, mobile phones and charging-a-bloody-fortune-for-petrol-and-getting-away-with-it ;)
That said, I'd be interested to know exactly *what technology* is so advanced over there.
Cellphones for starters.
Yes cell phones for sure...everyone and his dog has one and you can change the sim card and activate a new account. No charges on incoming calls and top up at every shop in town!
Definately the credit card machines, all cards have chip and code and can be read easily! Banks also don't charge for withdrawals so you can use any although private ATM's charge as they do in the US (hard to know what to call them here shock ) Changing the subject but I have to say the bookshops are wonderful, especially the childrens section! Artwork and design soo much more up to date!
Cellphones? Well I have a sim card cell phone that I use here (quad band - worldwide) but I'd hardly call that "advanced". It's just a phone. I use SIM cards on the country I'm visiting. Most US phones that have SIM cards can be unlocked anyways. (Frankly I hate cellphones with a passion).
Chip and pin? Whatever that is. I just use Amex
I hardly ever use cash so the ATM thing doesn't apply.
I'm not convinced yet Kay - yer gonna have to try harder. Now if you told me you lived in the middle of a field in Wisconsin when you were here I might believe you, but you lived in Fremont/East Bay.
Andrew )
Chip and pin? Whatever that is. I just use Amex
Is that the past tense of Amish?
Yeah yobs and louts are everywhere. All the time. Almost as many of them as there are pigeons and dog shit.
Everyone in the UK does seem to have zippity-do-dah phones compared with the USA. My brother in South Africa had a great Nokia back in 2005 that didn't come out in the US until ten months later.
I think the weirdest thing for me is that the UK seems to be more in the grips of capital greed than anywhere else I've been. Everyone seems so eager to get into as much debt as they possibly can. Town centres have been replaced with cell-phone stores, estate agents and car dealerships. There was something very odd about walking down my sister's street and seeing a newly built Saab and VW dealer, and everyone with new cars parked outside their houses. This is a frikking Welsh coalmining valley town we're talking about here. House prices are so detached from reality that I cannot fathom why anyone would buy a shithole for 100 grand more than it was three years ago. But for some reason everyone seems to be confusing a bank loan of £250,000 for a mortgage on an overpriced house as wealth. And everybody you will ever meet works in call centre. Bananas I tell you.
Consumerism has gone utterly bonkers here. It seems that the rise of reality TV has altered normal reality so much that everyone is dressed for the cameras just in case they are there. And it's not just teens and young adults with expendable cash - it's fortysomethings with weirdo haircuts and gaucho pants. Why is everyone dressed like a bad 80s Madonna video? I go to Tesco for a pint of milk at 8am on a Tuesday morning and everyone is dressed for a Saturday night out. In exactly the same clothes as everyone else. This seems to be the rule - if you are a male then your t-shirt must be so small that even if you are underweight you look fat. The goal is to look like a West End chav. Tacky gold necklace is a must. If you are a woman you can prove the glass ceiling no longer exists by showing your gussett as often as possible. Mix as many styles as possible - the look you should be going for is an Eighties homeless prostitute Eskimo. Never wear clothes that match. EVER.
The haircuts thing is driving me insane. It seems that every male under the age of 30 has exactly the same haircut. Here's how you can have one yourself! Take a razor and shave a number 2 around your ear. Yes it looks like you've forgotten to cut the rest of your hair but that's the point! Make this uncut bit as messy as possible and apply a bucket of hairgel. After a week die it bleach-blonde. Look like a twat.
Now if you told me you lived in the middle of a field in Wisconsin when you were here I might believe you, but you lived in Fremont/East Bay.
Well if we told you the sky was blue and the grass was green in the UK you wouldn't believe us, so why start anywhere else? :lol:
Now if you told me you lived in the middle of a field in Wisconsin when you were here I might believe you, but you lived in Fremont/East Bay.
Well if we told you the sky was blue and the grass was green in the UK you wouldn't believe us, so why start anywhere else? :lol:
Don't be so ridiculous East 17, of course Mczip would believe us and he would then go on to tell us one of the following
a) The grass is much greener and the sky much more blue where he is
b) He hates green grass and blue sky, just one more reason the UK is an utter hell hole filled with people who have no success or happiness in their poor miserable British lives (well apart from ones who buy his photos for their mags)
c) The grass was never green and the sky never blue when he lived there and the only reason we think it is now is because we have the wrong attitude
:wink: