Hi Everyone,

I posted a topic last year called "Back to the UK Arrgghh!" or something very similar to that. I posted a lot of negative stuff about the UK and the significant way it had changed since I left way back in 1999, I did post a few positive things but only a few! I keep up with Thai Visa on a regular basis, and felt it time to post an update on the anniversary of 1 year after leaving Thailand.

So, it is 1 year today since making the move home to the UK, my wife and I settled in HIgh Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. I feel as regretful today about leaving BKK as I did in the first three months of getting here. I made that move only because my Mum was very ill, she is fully recovered now and so I think it is time to get the hell out of here!

I am currently working for Serco Defence as a team leader at an RAF base in Bucks and my wife is a reservations officer for Holiday Inn, between us we earn a net monthly salary of around £2200 PM which is crap, rent and council tax costs are astronomical, landlords are taking full advantage of the people who cannot get large deposits together for first time mortgages by hammering them with excessive rents, car running costs are out of this world, car insurance tax servicing and parts prices have to be seen to be believed. You will hear stories of car prices being very cheap and it is true, you can buy a 2007 plate Jaguar X-Type in mint condition for just £5000 = B248,000 which is amazing, I nearly bought one but the insurance quote and road tax was just silly money so I bought a 2007 plate Suzuki SX4 for £4250 = B211,000. If you are thinking about coming back to to the UK after more than 2 years away just remember that 90% of insurance companies will not accept overseas insurance NCD and will insure you as a new driver Ouch! I had 65% NCD from New Zealand but they would not even accept that........thieving bas***ds!

Employers are no better, it seems that the standard now is to give double the workload for half of the pay. Everyday I hear a story of an employee leaving a company and not being replaced, the employer simply shifts the workload onto other staff. It just happened to my wife this week.

Anything positive to say.....well yes there are some, supermarket shopping is very good, my friends and family do not think so, but after the likes of Carrefour, Tesco Lotus and Tops in Bangkok they do still feel exceptionally cheap here.

It is not all about money though, the UK just feels wrong, it feels depressed and gloomy. The sun is out right now and that always gives you a lift but otherwise the UK seems to be under a dark cloud, Historically speaking Brits are generally a decent lot and are quite friendly, but that does not seem to be the case anymore. I do not like it here and I am itching to leave. The UK's immigration policies or lack thereof have caused widespread anger in the UK, I hear it everyday from all sorts of people, it is rumoured that some immigrants are starting to return to their own countries albeit in small numbers disappointed with the UK system, not that the UK was ever a land of milk and honey, but it certainly has seen better days.

My wife is not keen to return to Bangkok even though I could quite easily, so we have narrowed it down to either NZ or AU, AU won and we are currently drawing up plans to move to Perth for a new start. I am no spring chicken that's for sure but I will make it work...I always do though this will probably be my last move.

It is great to be around friends and family but I rarely get time to visit them, renting a home and running a car is painful to the pocket but are necessary things to have, clothes and food are very affordable, cellphone contracts are good, latest smartphones for free and low monthly tariffs, home broadband is cheap fast and reliable, countryside and scenery is stunning, general cost of living is too high, the government similar to Thailand are a bunch of muppets doing their best to line their own pockets whilst emptying everybody else's, a general feeling of gloom, lack of pride in the nation.

I drew up a huge list whilst in Thailand about the things I missed most in the UK, just goes to show how sometimes you think you yearn for and miss things so much, then when you have them back you think jeez what was so good about that. Some of those things were:

Hot sausage rolls

Pint of bitter in a country pub

Daffodils in spring

Cheese and pickle sandwiches

Frosty mornings

Church bells on sunday morning

Village green cricket matches

Car boot sales

There are a lot of aspects I have not covered in my personal opinion of my home country, people may well say well what about the NHS and the police and the freedom of speech and all the other things we all take for granted, well what about them? the NHS is crumbling under the weight of our new friends from the glorious EEC/EU, the police are so strangled by do gooder govt policies they spend more time worrying about offending cultures and religions than policing and so on and so on...........The olympics were wonderful and a great release for us as a nation but will soon be forgotten.

Anyway, thanks for reading my post gotta go to work now. I look forward to your comments if you have any

Cheers

An unbiased view on both sides , happiness is in the heart not the place you are in,

I love London but its changing rapidly , and for the worse ,

Is BKK better ? The jury is still out ,

I can't imagine returning to the UK.

Good luck and best wishes for you in Australia.

It depends a lot where you are in the UK. I once went for a job interview in High Wycombe and it seemed a particularly miserable place. I don't think you can judge the whole of the UK on a dump like that. I'm sure somewhere like Cambridge or Edinburgh would still be very pleasant places to live.

Do not go to Perth, Australia. The mining boom is almost over and everything is overpriced.

Normally great place to live, just not at the moment.

Ex Perth Bangkokian now.

Cheers

Sydney is more expensive than London !

Im in the same boat as the previous poster Litlos, ex Perth now BKK.

Perth was a great place to grow up but as Litlos stated it is a very expensive place to live currently. Perth was just recently named the most expensive city in Australia to live.

Western Australia is the resource state which has had two massive mining booms but I would disagree with Litlos in saying that it is coming to a end. Maybe so for some of the natural resource sectors but WA is on its way to being one of the largest LNG producers in the world.

What does this mean for Perth??

The cost of living is getting out of control for those living in Perth on the back of the WA economic surge.

But on a more positive note the weather would certainly beat the dark clouds hanging over your current residence. Perth cannot be beaten in summer it's a great place.

Im not sure of your age & whether you would be considering retirement in the future but if you are coming upon those years maybe look at Tasmania, a amazing piece of the country. My folks just moved from Perth to live in Tasmania for the above mentioned reasons of Perth being to expensive. They couldn't be happier with their decision.

Best of luck with your future endeavors.

Two adults earning a net joint income of £2200 p.c.m., seems wages are really low in the UK for the normal working couple. I once returned to London after being away for seven years, but after not seeing the sun for three months it was a real downer, so took a holiday to Ibiza. When the plane broke through the cloud at about 20,000 feet all the passengers spontaneously applauded.

is their a specific reason for choosing Perth/ Tasmanian is beautiful and housing relatively cheap, but maybe jingjoh can give a heads up on employment opportunities

From what I understand there is not a great deal of employment opportunities in Tasmania. I made the suggestion on the basis that the OP may be in his years nearing retirement. If this is the case it would certainly be worth looking at as you said housing is extremely cheap, cost of living is low & fresh produce is in abundance.

2200 would be enough to live well in Los but in uk or oz I'd be struggling too!

The uk ( non capitals intended ) is totally cr@p. I have rented my house out for 3 years and now can't get rid of the bloody tenant even though I have a buyer waiting to move in right now. The tenant was supposed to leave 2 weeks ago ( an unmarried mother with a ten year old brat, says it all really ) and the council have told her NOT to move until I get an eviction order. Can you believe the council is in effect telling her to break the law? So now I am having to go through the courts to get MY house back. I phoned the council and some uneducated moron couldn't answer my questions like, I want to move back to MY house otherwise I will be homeless, the ignorant pratt replies " oh I have to end this conversation now". So I may lose the buyer while the unemployed sits in my lovely little house and leeches off me and the state with the council's blessing.

What an '<deleted> sh!thole.

You do need to give notice of eviction tho right?!

I gave notice to quit i.e. tenancy contract over, it is called a section 21, that is the normal procedure but the council have told her to stay until the COURTS issue an eviction order and only then will they re-house her and the kid,which is so unruly all the neighbours just cannot wait to wave bye bye. If you have property to rent on the uk don't ever ever rent to dss. It is going to cost me a lot of money to the see the back of her and I may lose the buyer. Then I will be in Thailand end of Oct. and the house may sit empty over the winter. Bad idea.

I do feel for the OP, although High Wycombe is not quite the shit hole someone said. The few times i have one of those, I hate Thailand days, i soon start thinking of the alternative and realise it's not so bad here after all.

I wish you luck with your proposed future plans.

At least you will be able to smile when the Euro crashes

Joking aside, thanks for the report. Has your wife lived abroad before? Why doesn't she want to leave the UK? £2200 per month is not terrible by American standards. But the deal with people quitting and then not re-hiring has been going on for a few years now. We are expected to just take on the extra work. As you say in UK, bullocks!

The uk ( non capitals intended ) is totally cr@p. I have rented my house out for 3 years and now can't get rid of the bloody tenant even though I have a buyer waiting to move in right now. The tenant was supposed to leave 2 weeks ago ( an unmarried mother with a ten year old brat, says it all really ) and the council have told her NOT to move until I get an eviction order. Can you believe the council is in effect telling her to break the law? So now I am having to go through the courts to get MY house back. I phoned the council and some uneducated moron couldn't answer my questions like, I want to move back to MY house otherwise I will be homeless, the ignorant pratt replies " oh I have to end this conversation now". So I may lose the buyer while the unemployed sits in my lovely little house and leeches off me and the state with the council's blessing.

What an '<deleted> sh!thole.

It would seem you have not employed the right estate Agent to handle your house lease,nowadays it's common practice for the the lessee to sign a lease agreeing that if the Landlord decides to evict the Tenant,then they have to vacate the premises in a total of 8 weeks,so there is no hanging it out indefinately.

This was designed,so that the Landlord does not incur costly Court fees!

Also your house should have been leased on a 6 month renewable (or not) lease,the days of the sitting Tenant are long gone.