I am back home now, but I can tell you what I missed when i lived/worked away
1. My valleys, GOD how I missed the lush green hills of the areas where I grew up.
2. The 'Welsh way' which is to wear your heart on the sleeve and be real friendly to each other, talk to complete strangers about any old thing, and NEVER be alone. In Wales if you are feeling lonely, go for a walk, sit on a bench, and within minutes you will be talking to a new friend
3. Proper bacon and proper sausages
4. Rain, daft maybe but i missed the rain, there is nothing like walking o top of a mountain in the rain, cold on your face wind blowing, making you feel alive. Then back home socks off, clothes off, trackies on and a nice cup of tea.
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OWG is old, Bald and Welsh, and provides Seo From Wales - he also thinks Rugby is the god of sports
Choose any of the countries surrounding France: UK, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland (no exp of Spain and Italy) and you can find a place where business professionals will meet in towns and cities on a pretty regular basis. Even in Lille, networking is difficult to come by.
Best things about the UK: Curry, Supermarkets open on Sunday.
I don't miss anything really. We have nice weather, great food in supermarkets and restaurants, lovely friendly people, a lower cost of living, a nice place to live, we get our fave magazines by post, someone comes twice a week to clean the house, we send our ironing to the laundry down the road, if we need anything people come and do it for not very much money. Gee, it couldn't get any easier.
OK - what I wouldn't give for an Arbroath smokie. That's the only thing.
Mostly SE Asia - Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia etc. Each one has their own attractions and advantages. The people are mostly lovely in all these countries. And even if it rains it's still warm.
I really like Penang, we can get a relatively inexpensive hotel room - high floor, good sea view, Internet connection etc. And they drive on the proper side of the road too.
I've been to quite a few countries but I've never yet made it to Australia or Japan. A friend of mine has a Japanese wife and I expressed an interest in going there but he advised me to hold off for the time being - expensive due to the state of the £. I love Japanese food, though, and have also met several Japanese people. Their culture is quite different from ours. They're great, as long as you respect them as you want them to respect you.
Getting invited to a Japanese home is a real treat!
I know we moan about the weather a lot in the UK, but I think it's actually one of its assets. Whenever I go hot places, etc. - it's nice, but nice for two weeks. To actually live in a hot climate on a day to day basis and have to get work done in soaring temperatures, etc. I think I would find a little intolerable in the long term.
Plus with the weather, we get lots of lush scenery - especially here in the Lake District. There's lots of places I'd like to visit but I can't honestly think of anywhere I'd rather live.
You don't have to work in hot temperatures. Just put the air conditioner on.
As for being lush, things grow like crazy especially during the monsoon. The bamboo grows about three or four inches a day. (It depends on how much V!agra it takes.)
The biggest draw back to leaving the UK is property values. If you can solve this one, you are laughing (assuming you have a decent income abd/or fun abroad).
A business colleague worked abroad as a top language consultant for the best part of 20 years (always returning home for his holidays) - a perfect mix you might say.
However without a foot on the peoperty ladder you work out the increase in property on the past 20 years.
It would have been cheaper to buy a small property rent it out and go abroad and do nothing for 20 years (assumng that someone in the family was managing your poeprty for you). The value increase would be staggering, in excess of £100,000-£200,000.
No one can compete with this value appreciation - so beware of the attraction of working abroad.
You can always buy abroad, however not all property appeciates in the same way - take Spain now. The entire Spanish property market has collapsed, by over capacity, mixed in with some poor quality.
In Britain there is a shortage of supply (30,000 too few a year), so prices will always rise (the current drop is a mere blip). The last drop 1988-1992 had no real impact over a 20-year span.
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What do you miss about the UK?
