Why ?

Why did you leave the uk ?

Completely nosy question

Re: Why ?

For us it was a question of finding a better life.

We were living in a London suburb, OH had his own business but our 3 children never saw him. He worked up to 70 hours a week never daring to turn down work and I did all the office admin.

The turning point was one weekend when my son refused to talk to the stranger who was his father.

We started to look around for a better work /life situation but in the UK at that time where there was work there was no housing (fit for humans) and where there was housing there was no work.

My father had remarried a Dutch woman and we had spent holidays here and enjoyed our time here so after a brief spell in Germany (best left alone) OH found work and a house here in NL.

I found that many of the things we had been told about Europe were lies and we very soon adapted to our new lifestyle which was much more family based and less about material things.

Re: Why ?

No problem Julie, I have nothing to hide, you may not like my reasons, but here they are.

First came Mr Clumsy´s health. He was a chronic asthma sufferer, along with associated chest infections. He was actually told by the doctor that if he didn´t get out of the British climate he´d be heading for an early grave.
Apart from Mr Clumsy I loathed the cold, wet weather, I truly suffered with SAD and was diagnosed with that, light boxes and various tablets did not help at all.



There were also other things that really made me think. One example, jobs advertised at my place of work, advertised internally first, but stating "only ethnics or disabled need apply". Okay, I didn´t want to apply for any of them, but I would hardly call it fair practice. It is the "norm" in local government though. No doubt other establishments too, but I wouldn´t know about that.

There are too many reasons to list here but the final event that spurred us, me in particular, into action was the very sudden terminal brain tumour that "hit" my closest friend, just a couple of hours after she had driven us 250 miles from Derbyshire to Kent. I won´t go into detail but it was the worst 8 months of my life. During one of her lucid moments she said something to me that I will never forget as long as I live. Her words will stay with me forever, and very true words they were too.

"whatever you plan to do, do it now whilst you can. If you hadn´t ducked when you did that little arrow might have hit you instead of me".

Those words changed my life, and that is no lie. After her death I was totally distraught, I couldn´t even think logically. I know how it affected me, everyone knew. I was offered counselling at work, I refused because I knew what my problem was and I was the only one who could deal with it and work through it.

So that was it, a big leap into the unknown and off we went to Africa. We had of course visited there many times and knew quite a lot of people there, some in, what could be referred to as "high places". These particular people were very helpful in obtaining permits to enable me to do some voluntary work with certain things.

It was certainly an experience, living there and being on holiday there are so far apart you couldn´t begin to compare them. Living there is extremely hard and expensive, health is also a big issue. Mr Clumsy´s chest problems became non-existent, a huge plus, but he got malaria 3 times, a different strain each time. The doctors and hospitals there, (bearing in mind we had to use private) are so on the ball re diagnosing and treating malaria it´s amazing. Within 10 minutes the blood test and diagnosis are done, you are whizzed off to hospital and you don´t leave hospital until every "ring" of malaria is gone. The first specialist we saw told us that malaria does not recur if properly treated, it only recurs if you get bitten again by a malaria carrying mosquito.

We spent almost 3 years living there, but after a year I came over to Spain and bought a house here, which was always our intention to do so when we retired. I then went back to Africa.

Eventually we left Africa and moved over to Spain, that was fun, I couldn´t remember where the house was, long story. Anyway we got here, our two little Pomeranians arrived a couple of days after us, another long story, never trust BA. After the arrival of my two little dogs, safe and sound, then began the settling in process, the paperwork, which was not so easy at that time, these days for newcomers it´s a doddle.

Mr Clumsy´s health is good here, the odd occasion the asthma and chest infections have occurred he´s been treated immediately and successfully. We made many friends of here of different nationalities. We, personally, have always found the Spanish to be pleasant and as helpful as possible. The weather is mostly good, when it rains we know it will stop, the night can be very cold in winter, the days too sometimes. The summer can be too hot, but it´s okay, it´s better than being too cold.

Do we regret our moves? Definitely not. I was used to not seeing my son for long periods of time as he was in the Army. He said only someone as crazy as me would move to Africa, but he said "go for it mum, better to try than to regret not trying". Now here in Spain and he´s no longer in the Army, he did 12 years and came out after his leg was shattered and rebuilt, we get to see him two or three times a week via Skype, we can telephone any time, our calls within Europe are free (for now at least). My son, his wife and baby Jaxon will be here for two weeks in July. Other friends will also be visiting throughout the year, other more or less lifelong friends live just up the road from us. My other close friends from Norfolk moved to their place here permanently last week, which is great.

So there you are, there are other reasons too of course, but the above are the major ones.

Re: Why ?

Cass, I do so agree with you about realising what lies have been told about Europe. We found the same. Oh the times we´ve heard about "dirty Spanish hospitals"........my goodness the Spanish hospitals make the British ones (at least the ones I´ve seen) look awful.

Re: Why ?

I'm not judging anyone clumsy I was just being completely nosy. It's never crossed my mind so I am interested in others reasons is all.

Sounds like you had very sound reasons and have made life as best you can that's all any of us can do whether we stay or go.

Re: Why ?

Hi

It has been my intention for some years to downsize significantly and spend half my time in the UK and half abroad.

Just a better lifestyle for myself, warm weather and better fishing.

I have to agree completely about healthcare in the EU, even so called backwards Countries such as Poland, have much better facilities than the UK.

Re: Why ?

I really don't blame you swimfeeders and I hope you can achieve to that. Ideally for me would be 6 or 7 months here and the winter months in Kenya. Not possible I'm afraid, I couldn't possibly think of transporting little ChoCho there and back, and I can't even think of going far without her. Mr Clumsy would have to stay at home, I don't think he'd cope with another bout of malaria, and he'd be certain to get one because he's a typical male and refuses to listen to common sense

Re: Why ?

No problem Julie, I didn't think you were judging anyone.
Perhaps I should have added in my post that since we came here I have lost two more close friends at, what I call young ages. My friend Carol who lived in the south of France spent two horrendous years with multiple myeloma, I was so glad she had managed to spend a couple of weeks with us during her first remission. Then last September my very close friend, more like family, who died very suddenly with heart failure, completely unexpected, right out of the blue.

Losing close friends like this has quite simply reinforced what my friend who died from the brain tumour said to me. How right she was then and how right those words still are.

Re: Why ?

Yes losing people can have a huge impact, I can easily understand that one.

Re: Why ?

Julie I dont mind people asking. In fact Ive been asked so often I wrote a book about our move