Re: Had enough of the UK
Originally Posted by
Aerolor
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We emigrated to Canada in the early 80's Donkeyman. Husband had a very lucrative job there at the time but it didn't last. Almost the moment we arrived the country went into a steep decline which lasted a good few years. Contracts in coal, gas and oil were mothballed and Calgary suffered very badly, as it depended on them in a big way (apart from the cattle industry that is). People were losing their jobs on a catastrophic scale and many folks lost everything (it really was a boom or bust town in those days). House prices nosedived and you used to see adverts saying "buy my house for a dollar" which meant buy the debt so I can get out. Mortgages are not organised as they are in UK and you sell the mortgage remaining with the house. Because of the situation fortunately we did not buy a house, but remained in rented accommodation, saving as much as we could. Jobs in OH's industry were almost impossible to get for established folks let alone immigrants. A couple of years passed limping along and eventually the company my OH went to went bust. If we hadn't had the children we would have tried somewhere else in Canada, but the children were 10 and 6(going on seven) then and my youngest had never been to school (they start them a lot older over there). So they were not compromised too much, we decided we would come back for a while. My husband stayed until the bitter end when the company was wound up and I came back a few months before him to get the children into school. We intended to go back when things had settled down and, although my husband went back to work there, it was with his UK employer. Husband then went to work in South Africa for quite a while - children were settled back in school so we didn't get back to Canada on a permanent basis. We have visited folks there and have an abiding love the country and its people. Once you have the commitment of children it is difficult to wander about the country like it is when there are just two of you. They needed to be settled. I often wonder what it would have been like for us if we had managed to stay, but we couldn't afford the gamble and possibility of losing all our capital trying.
I had similar experiences to you Aerelor,but things played out the
opposite way round,
Jobs were plenty, houses cheap to rent& buy,due to people leaving
the country because of civil unrest& uncertainty
Initially l got a job, then moved to.CT
Started a business fixing machinetools
Ran business for 18 yrs,in which time we able to buy 2 houses
fully paid for, despite the very high interest rate.
Got old and tired, wanted different life style.
Sold up everything&bought a run down farm on the southern
coast, situated on edge of forest, 3kms from coast and overlooked
by a nice range of mountains, just the ticket
best thing being,very few people.
This place was being run as a guest farm & had 3. Job cabins
but very few guests
Anyway we improved the place, collected a few animals, there was
quite a lot to do, but it was the best time of my life
17 yrs of that, we were quite getting quite old, so we sold at
quite a good price,due to i.mprovements& internet increasing our
turn over.
Moved to nearest city,P E to a house we already owned.
Better half was missing kids in UK so sold up again
and here we are.
I find UK has gone backwards in the intervening years, but
missus is happy so l am reconciled.
I think yourself& Bruce etc, should be happy that you did what you
did, at least you did it.
Hope l haven't bored you
Best Regards. Donkeyman.