I understand the sentiments & phraseology here but I am tempted to ask if those who did/have returned to the UK actually found that 'Blighty' was STILL home?
In May of this year I visited for one week seeing some old dear friends ...... and the family. Apart from 'The Old Days' & the depressing 'who of the old crowd had died' I found very little to talk about. Walking down the street I felt somehow 'out of place' - certainly more out of place than I felt back in my now TRUE home, the Dominican Republic. I think this recent article for another website expresses my thoughts exceptionally well
http://www.offshorewave.com/offshorenews...ggood.html
I would be interested to hear the experiences of those who returned & found themselves to be 'Out of Sync' with life in the UK. Has 'HOME' now become a foreign land they would wish to return to?
I am fairly well known for my whining and bouts of homesickness amongst this group, but yes I still consider blighty home and always will, I just don't like it here, never have.
Blighty stopped being home many years ago.
I went back 3 times over the last 44 years the last in 1982. I still have a brother and sister I keep in touch with and keep up to date with local news on the web ( Borehamwood Times), but I have no urge to visit.
We have lived in Ottawa since 1963 and have no regrets whatsoever about my move to Canada. I have a son and his family living in Washington DC ( IMF ) a daughter and her family in Montreal. My eldest grandson ( 26 this year) is here in Ottawa.
This is his blog. http//ckiff.spaces.live.com/
I know this will sound corny- but home, to me, is a state of mind. We've spent the last couple of years traveling around the US for work, but now we've settled and I'm happy about that. I have a job, we've started making friends, we're not always thinking about where we'll be going next.
Last october we travelled back to the UK for the first time in over two years. It was strange. My home town was familiar but, aside from the few friends that hadn't moved away, it was just another town - one that I was familiar with- but that was as far as it went.
Best thing i ever did was move away. There are times I get homesick and grumble about things- but these are the little comforts, and the occasional long distance phone call settles my nerves and reassures me that my friends feel the same way I do about moving away. The world has gotten considerably smaller since I left the UK and people are pretty much the same wherever you go. I've not found it hard to fit in, only to be understood, and feel as much at home in my job here as I did back in the UK.
I've lived in a lot of different places and on many different levels of what people call comfort - and I have to say that I feel more comfortable here than anywhere I've ever lived.
If we had to live back in the UK, I would have to chose somewhere I've never lived before because it wouldn't matter. Wherever you go, unless you're incredibly obstinate, you find ways to fit in - calling Petrol "Gas" or the shopping "Groceries" and so on, little things that you don't realise until you get back to where you started and people take the piss out of your change in language. I fought it at first, complained how things were wrong - but after a while I just sounded rude and let it go. I'm not a tourist, I don't need to complain until its made right- if Mrs Servalan had been from India and I'd made the move there it would have been the same deal. After a while you start to think of it as home, because thats what it is.
The UK's always home to me. I feel connected to the UK in a way I never have while I lived in the US and Ireland. The missus wants us to move back to the US, and, while there is some excitement there, I'm dreading leaving the UK having just reconnected with everything and everyone there. ?
I understand the sentiments & phraseology here but I am tempted to ask if those who did/have returned to the UK actually found that 'Blighty' was STILL home?
In May of this year I visited for one week seeing some old dear friends ...... and the family. Apart from 'The Old Days' & the depressing 'who of the old crowd had died' I found very little to talk about. Walking down the street I felt somehow 'out of place' - certainly more out of place than I felt back in my now TRUE home, the Dominican Republic. I think this recent article for another website expresses my thoughts exceptionally well
http://www.offshorewave.com/offshorenews...ggood.html
I would be interested to hear the experiences of those who returned & found themselves to be 'Out of Sync' with life in the UK. Has 'HOME' now become a foreign land they would wish to return to?
We have been back in the UK for 4 years now, after 4 years in the US. It was home from day 1, tbh, and we've never had any regrets about moving back. Yes, we can acknowledge plusses and minusses of each country, but on balance, we are happy here. (we were happy in the US too, come to think of it).
Nope! Once I got outta there, I've never, ever looked back. Home is where me 'art is!
Visited in December and February and just slotted back into as if I was never gone...it is my dream to go home for good.
I have lived in the USA since 1987 and in this house since 1991. I went back to the old country once, in February 2001.
Never again. I was a stranger in a strange land and so much had changed I vowed never to go back. I actually wanted to come back here before our vacation was finished!
To me, England will never be home again... (
I feel the same as Melhug - maybe it is an Oregon thing? ;-)
I moved back to Bristol 3 years ago after nearly 14 years in Philadelphia. I was 39 when I went to the USA (same age as Tom Paine was) and perhaps too old to put down deep roots. Some of my reasons for wanting to come back were:
- Urban living is not scary in Britain. I do not like American suburbs and the cities freak me out.
- US suburbs are car-oriented. If you want to meet people you have to drive somewhere with the intent.
- Not enough Americans read books
- Not enough Americans have passports
- Too many Americans do too much golf...
- ...and too much religion
- George W Bush was elected twice
Now I live close-packed in a cosmopolitan city that is as near to London as Philly is to NYC. Almost everyone I meet has relatives abroad or has lived abroad. I can mention a book and someone will have read it. I can be on the Mendips in an hour, enjoying a 300 degree view of the horizon, or I can saunter down Whiteladies Road and imagine that of all of the people I can see, none is packing heat. I like it here and I'm never going to move anywhere else ever again.
I moved back to Bristol 3 years ago after nearly 14 years in Philadelphia. I was 39 when I went to the USA (same age as Tom Paine was) and perhaps too old to put down deep roots. Some of my reasons for wanting to come back were:
- Urban living is not scary in Britain. I do not like American suburbs and the cities freak me out.
- US suburbs are car-oriented. If you want to meet people you have to drive somewhere with the intent.
- Not enough Americans read books
- Not enough Americans have passports
- Too many Americans do too much golf...
- ...and too much religion
- George W Bush was elected twice
Now I live close-packed in a cosmopolitan city that is as near to London as Philly is to NYC. Almost everyone I meet has relatives abroad or has lived abroad. I can mention a book and someone will have read it. I can be on the Mendips in an hour, enjoying a 300 degree view of the horizon, or I can saunter down Whiteladies Road and imagine that of all of the people I can see, none is packing heat. I like it here and I'm never going to move anywhere else ever again.
Maybe because Ottawa had such a large number of people that had imigrated here from the UK is why I felt at home so quickly when we arrived in Ottawa in 1963.
Your remarks about the US and there inward looking attitude doesn't seem to be to apply and here and Canadians are great travelers.
We seem to have the best of what the US and the UK has. Been here in Ottawa for almost 50 years and have little feeling for things British.
I could live anywhere deciduous trees grow and there is a sea front nearby.Like NJ, Nova Scotia,BC,Gaspe Bay area,Cornwall,Whitby,Bridlington,South Coast of England Et Al.
Some people in this area live 6 months in the USA and 6 months in Eastbourne.
Keith, I check on that blog now and again.
I could live anywhere deciduous trees grow and there is a sea front nearby.Like NJ, Nova Scotia,BC,Gaspe Bay area,Cornwall,Whitby,Bridlington,South Coast of England Et Al.
Some people in this area live 6 months in the USA and 6 months in Eastbourne.
Keith, I check on that blog now and again.
You mean our grandson Chris? http://ckiff.spaces.live.com/
He is back in Ottawa after spending 5 months away in Saudi Arabia ( working), Jordan ( 1 week vacation) and New Zealand (1 month vacation)
He has been offered a management position which will still involve flying.
With no serious attachments he is enjoying an exciting life.