27 Y.o Englishman Returning To England After 11 Years

[Ollie]

You need money, money and more money in the UK now eg my car tax in the post today comes to 190 pounds & my councuil tax is 160 pound per month. Everything is expensive especially travel, entertainment & running a car, heating home etc., London is almost the most expensive city in the world and that means the young, low income folk suffer most. London is very status conscious and if you have not got it- you live in a grotty suburb full of foreigners and pissed off teenagers - crossed by busy noisey roads and dirty metro trains with misery people.

Avoid London & SE as its very, very expensive and people are less happy and less friendly and spend far too much time travelling in trains, car queues, jams, also London is too multi-ethnic in the sense that no one feels at ease & can integrate & its become too violent and distrustful especially among younger ethnics ; head anywhere North where people enjoy life not endure it e.g. Manchester or even Edinburgh and where you will meet lots of friendly English or Scots girls; London is full of single males and migrants etc.,

Try a few days in a Northern town and then go SE to see the difference. Brighton is too close to London and the property prices are inflated by money from the capital city. Most people of 30 and over are usually thinking of how to escape London's problems so the move into the home counties but you need money to live in the home counties.

I know when you are very young London may dazzle but later you will hate its disadvantages.

This post should be sent to every political party leader in the UK, with instructions to read, digest and take action.

My sympathy to the OP who is under the (dis)illusion that dental treatment is still freeish with the NHS.

[kayo]

Finally, many months after starting this thread, UK-Day approaches fast now. In 7 days I shall be landing at Heathrow, and NOT connecting to another flight, as I have been careful to do over the past ten years.

Nope, this time, I get off the plane and stay! One week!!

So folks, thank you for all your comments, and political statements too!

I am going to start in Cambridge, after all.

I've decided on this, mostly because I'm a little world weary of new places for the time being, and it'll be maybe just a tiny bit easier for me to settle somewhere I am familiar with.

I do not intend to stay there for but my "re-acclimatisation" period, 6 months-year... Intentions aside, though, and time will show what occurs.

Robski, and many others, there is just about 3 things i am looking forward to, with this impending move, and not a whole lot else: visiting several of my anonymous tv.com friends i've made over the past two-three years on these forums; speaking my english as a native; and Cadbury's & Quality Streets.

Oh, and a decent pint to wash down the formaldehyde I've drunk these past 6-7 years in funny countries.

Thanks again lads. Feel free to continue discussing the somewhat bizarre concept of "returning to the UK"

yours,

From his last week on the sub-continent:

Kayo!

[Mossfinn]

Good Luck kayo,

From one University city to another!

Know some people in Cambridge, but unless you are a closet Stonemason, not a lot of good to you, I suspect.

Keep us informed,

Good luck

Moss

[MiG16]

kayo...good luck back 'home'

too bad u didnt hang around in india for a wee bit longer I was thinking of coming to visit in Sept

[farangsay]

Cambridge huh ?

Nice little town. Much more "refained" than Brighton.

Watch out for the guys in black gowns.

They are "intelektuwals" and "akademix".

They are also commies and pooftahs.

Don't let them get you drunk or you

could end up with a sore bum and a

hangover on a night flight to Moscow.

Good luck kid.

[kayo]

thanks farangsay!

So I've been back for five days.

Rain.

Cold.

Grey.

I arrived, and the immigration guy, the customs guy, and the bus driver were english.

The bus ticket sales, coffee vendors from Heathrow through five cafes to cambridge, the landlord of a little guesthouse, the guy who sold me a bicycle, the guy who took my recruitment application, and the guy who is serving me breafast are all polish.

Went to a lovely little Thai restaurant - run by chinese...

Went to an english bookstore, run by a czech...

Oh! to be in Engerlund.

So my money (that would have lasted me two months in Guatemala, or four months in Thailand) is goin to last another two weeks here - if i'm careful...

Right off for the house/job hunt...

To get a house - need bank account & job.

To get a job - need house and bank account

to get a bank account - need job and house...

Oh !!!! I'm loving it.....

:bah: :D

[The Dan Sai Kid]

Does that mean that we will have the dubious pleasure on the forum for a while?

[kayo]

My outright pleasurable company may be dubious, yes.

day 1.

Got a agency to help me find a place to live. Very friendly. Of course, I'm paying them enough to do so.

Got a agency to help me get a job. Slightly friendly. I'm paying them slightly less.

But, although I held a bank account in Thailand and could get non-imm residency there, and I could open a guatemalan bank account with nothing except cash, here, it is now impossible for a fully fledged British Citizen to open a bank account (even with reasonable cash to deposit) until I get a job and/or house in my name.

Oh, unless I'm in credit. Then the banks will give me everything... How strange. Having cash in (smallish but decent) bundles doesn't get me a bank account.

Were I to have lived in credit, I could open a bank account with overdraft and cc cards etc...

Edited February 20, 2007 by kayo

[LaoPo]

Were I to have lived in credit, I could open a bank account with overdraft and cc cards etc...

Maybe you should bring your newest avatar...maybe that'll help ?

LaoPo

[kayo]

That probably weighs a wee bit more than my saved cash...

Good pic... I'm gonna zoom in on it and show it to my pink elephant..

[jezchesters]

Hi Kayo!

Sorry mate - only just noticed this thread. I see you are now in Cambridge, but should you decide to try Brighton, there is one place where you should walk into a job on pretty good money. American Express has its UK Foreign Languages department there - in a previous life I was an EFL School Manager, and regularly used to hook our students up with jobs there. If you can speak 5 languages, I should imagine that they would snap you up. Last time I was in the UK, they used to recruit through Adecco on North Street. As far as accommodation goes, the quickest, cheapest and easiest way of getting yourself sorted is by checking out both the Univertsities and EFL school noticeboards - its a very fluid market so you should always be able to find a spare room in a shared house.

Again, sorry I didn't read the thread sooner, but if you do decide to head down to Brighton, feel free to PM me if you need any more info...

Cheers!

[A_MIKE_U_LIKE]

Welcome back Kayo good to see you return i hope you get Bank account and stuff sorted soon mate

[kayo]

hi MIKE, thanks for the welcome.

I'll keep posting here with news and updates.

Jez, thanks for the info. Although I have indeed settled for cambs (I used to live here an eon ago) I am going to borrow liberally from your advice. cambs is a bit of a language learning center too, so I imagine it will have similar opps.

It's not so bad here. the sun shines and the world looks brighter already.

More to report soon I hope.

[Soph]

Welcome back Kayo! Hope your settling in okay, first few weeks are always a little weird but you'll soon feel like it was all just a dream

[StickKettleOn]

Brighton a.k.a. Skidrow on Sea. Cambridge? I'm telling you mate Bournemouth, it's farkin ace especially with the summer coming up and those southern ladies are oh sooooooooooo lovely. Good luck in whatever you choose.

Brighton a.k.a. Skidrow on Sea. Cambridge? I'm telling you mate Bournemouth, it's farkin ace especially with the summer coming up and those southern ladies are oh sooooooooooo lovely. Good luck in whatever you choose.

b'mouth is a very good night out and many job opportunities. they have a teaching hospital so loads of lovely young nurses.

Kayo - att the very least, I emplore you to seriously consider Bournemouth. As something of a free spirit myself, I have lived all over the Uk.... Nearly always 'starting again' and trying to find the buck, the quality of life and content. North, south, east, west.... Everywhere, inlcuding London. In these places, i nearly always had;

A half decent job

half decent car

Half decent flat

But never did i feel so happy as Bournemouth. This was to my suprise. I didnt realy want to go there, thinking it was a coffin dodging stuffy town. On the contrary, its a beautiful place with nice housing, great pubs, very cool and funky bars and lovely people. The country side is awesome and the town is pretty. The birds are lookers. The shops are good. The bars are cool. I rented an awesome basement flat in an old converted victorian hotel, full of good hard working nice people, with two huge sash windows presenting an An eye level view of a 2 acre apple orchard complete with old Victorian (and working) swimming pool. I paid just £350 a month, and was a 5 minute walk from the town centre.

That place is a massive, massive unknown entity in the UK. Awesome place.

My outright pleasurable company may be dubious, yes.

day 1.

Got a agency to help me find a place to live. Very friendly. Of course, I'm paying them enough to do so.

Got a agency to help me get a job. Slightly friendly. I'm paying them slightly less.

But, although I held a bank account in Thailand and could get non-imm residency there, and I could open a guatemalan bank account with nothing except cash, here, it is now impossible for a fully fledged British Citizen to open a bank account (even with reasonable cash to deposit) until I get a job and/or house in my name.

Oh, unless I'm in credit. Then the banks will give me everything... How strange. Having cash in (smallish but decent) bundles doesn't get me a bank account.

Were I to have lived in credit, I could open a bank account with overdraft and cc cards etc...

Nope.... You must be talking about a current account with the usualy benefits. You can recieve a standard account with zero benefits to enable you to deposit/withdraw/transfer funds with most banks. All you need is I.D. If you are presented with problems in this department, the citizens advice will help you organise a standars bank account. If the worst comes to the worst, try the Allied Irish. They take anyone!

I cant believe that after 11 years away, you would chose to live in such a dull town as Cambridge. Grey and boring.

Either way, I wish you the very best of luck. Its never easy starting again in Blighty, so all the best - sincerely.

SKO

[WilliamIV]

I'm on my way to India in a few hours, to spend some time with my brother and get some dental work done (that would surely take years on NHS and me teeth won't wait! )

Hi Kayo

Just seen your OP

I visited UK last Summer for Relatives Wedding

After Living in LOS for 8 years

YUCKS !!!

But I just come cback to BKK after 3 months in Bangalore

So was interested in which place you visit your Brother

and your Dental experience in India

and why you chose to do it there and not Thailand ?!

Billy Boy

[kayo]

Welcome back Kayo! Hope your settling in okay, first few weeks are always a little weird but you'll soon feel like it was all just a dream

Thanks sweetheart.

at the moment it's a nightmare! Well, no it isn't too bad really. it's no joke about the weather, though, is it!

Brighton a.k.a. Skidrow on Sea. Cambridge? I'm telling you mate Bournemouth, it's farkin ace especially with the summer coming up and those southern ladies are oh sooooooooooo lovely. Good luck in whatever you choose.

b'mouth is a very good night out and many job opportunities. they have a teaching hospital so loads of lovely young nurses.

Kayo - att the very least, I emplore you to seriously consider Bournemouth. As something of a free spirit myself, I have lived all over the Uk.... Nearly always 'starting again' and trying to find the buck, the quality of life and content. North, south, east, west.... Everywhere, inlcuding London. In these places, i nearly always had;

A half decent job

half decent car

Half decent flat

But never did i feel so happy as Bournemouth. This was to my suprise. I didnt realy want to go there, thinking it was a coffin dodging stuffy town. On the contrary, its a beautiful place with nice housing, great pubs, very cool and funky bars and lovely people. The country side is awesome and the town is pretty. The birds are lookers. The shops are good. The bars are cool. I rented an awesome basement flat in an old converted victorian hotel, full of good hard working nice people, with two huge sash windows presenting an An eye level view of a 2 acre apple orchard complete with old Victorian (and working) swimming pool. I paid just £350 a month, and was a 5 minute walk from the town centre.

That place is a massive, massive unknown entity in the UK. Awesome place.

My outright pleasurable company may be dubious, yes.

day 1.

Got a agency to help me find a place to live. Very friendly. Of course, I'm paying them enough to do so.

Got a agency to help me get a job. Slightly friendly. I'm paying them slightly less.

But, although I held a bank account in Thailand and could get non-imm residency there, and I could open a guatemalan bank account with nothing except cash, here, it is now impossible for a fully fledged British Citizen to open a bank account (even with reasonable cash to deposit) until I get a job and/or house in my name.

Oh, unless I'm in credit. Then the banks will give me everything... How strange. Having cash in (smallish but decent) bundles doesn't get me a bank account.

Were I to have lived in credit, I could open a bank account with overdraft and cc cards etc...

Nope.... You must be talking about a current account with the usualy benefits. You can recieve a standard account with zero benefits to enable you to deposit/withdraw/transfer funds with most banks. All you need is I.D. If you are presented with problems in this department, the citizens advice will help you organise a standars bank account. If the worst comes to the worst, try the Allied Irish. They take anyone!

I cant believe that after 11 years away, you would chose to live in such a dull town as Cambridge. Grey and boring.

Either way, I wish you the very best of luck. Its never easy starting again in Blighty, so all the best - sincerely.

SKO

Cheers SKO. you're not wrong mate. Cambridge isn't too bad though.

Actually, right until a few days before landing here, I was still really unsure 'bout where to go.

I chose Cambridge to make things slightly easier. I'm telling you mate, I've never been so nervous about moving anywhere foreign. Only moving back here has made me nervous. So for ease and a bit of familiarity, I settled on coming here.

It's not to say I can't move later on though, and yeah, I've been hearing some great things about B'mouth. that's made it a place for to want to live there at some stage for a while too!

Visited the CAB this morning to see what they say about situation. They're going to advise me this afternoon.

All in due time

I'm on my way to India in a few hours, to spend some time with my brother and get some dental work done (that would surely take years on NHS and me teeth won't wait! )

Hi Kayo

Just seen your OP

I visited UK last Summer for Relatives Wedding

After Living in LOS for 8 years

YUCKS !!!

But I just come cback to BKK after 3 months in Bangalore

So was interested in which place you visit your Brother

and your Dental experience in India

and why you chose to do it there and not Thailand ?!

Billy Boy

Grey, Rainy! i second your YUCKS sentiment!

But, it's should be done once every decade or so. Replant the roots, so to speak!

My bro was over South of Delhi a commuter town called Gurgaon (shopping Mall capital of India, quite a bland place, but near Delhi, and he had a great dentist there, so I decided to combine the trip. Plus, I've just heard from a user on here that his quotes for similar work in BKK were nearly 50% more than what I payed in India, so it's worked out.

I suppose also, that the works carried out were fairly complicated, involving surgery and maybe I felt more comfortable with a fluent english speaker (as most educated Indians are).

It went really well, and I'm very pleased with the service and attention I received. I go back in six months for follow up work.

thanks for the wishes and the interest/attention ladies and gents. I'll update when I have something of interest to tell!

Edited February 22, 2007 by kayo

[kayo]

Well, a couple of months on now...

It's not much fun being back. I may well have made a mistake coming back to Cambridge, iinstead of trying somewhere else.

I did find a pretty good place to live, sharing a nice house with all mod cons with two very sociable lads my age.

Like a fool, however, I was so optimistic upon my returnm that when I found this place, I layed down three months rent > bulk of my cash! which means of course that it is now quite difficult to move on again! How stupid was I? This is one of those things I've never done on my travels and expat years, instead paying as I go initially, until I have a feel for a place...

One approaches ones own country in a different manner I suppose.

The housing factor, however, is at least covered; for the time being!

the second of three big things: Bank account.

I cannot for love not money get a bank account. It doesn't matter that I have one in Guatemala, or one in Thailand... I cannot get one in my own country, despite having (had) cash to deposit, they won't give me a bank account unless I can show three months worth of household bills, or salary slips. UK receipts, that is.

Ok. I have some, but they are from the mid nineties.... How else can I open an account, to deposit my n thousand pounds in, mister bank person?

Oh no I'm sorry! Of course, if you have a debt record in recent years, we'd be happy to help!

<deleted>?!

Oh yeah, since Sept 11 the banking regs have tightened... now apparently only if you are in debt, nationally, can you open a bank account with no papers.

Even if your a white male caucasian english <deleted> like me.

It's the rules.

Eh? Since when does anybody play by the rules...?

Sh1t I've been away too long.

Work, similar scenario.... I can't get a job. Having no referable references, nor any previous (local) employers.... Oh adn the ten years I spent teaching national police academies, children of royals, or those spent running some of the most popular resorts/bars from thailand to latin america apparetnly don't count.

Nope, apparently those years of in depth experience don't actually count for experience at all. I may as well have been in the BKK hilton for all those years, as far as anybody here looks at those entries in my CV....

Which two potential employers/rejectors have actually had the balls to ask me... "We find your CV rather impressive. Quite Frankly, we don't believe you. If you had come clean and just told us you'd spent time in prison I'm sure we could have worked around it."

Aghast... Do I look like I've done time? <deleted>?

But to the defence of those who had the balls, there were 50 others who thought similar but never said it.

I wonder if I can use thaivisa and my years of posting, as a reference that i was actually doing what I said I was doing ...

Yeah, so, I've altered my approach now. Cos, frankly, the siutuation got desperate, and I lowered my sights drastically on the job seeking front. And, again quite frankly, I can handle not getting a dream job to start with.. or even a medium day job of no value, This I can handle. As well as all the agencies I signed up with not bothering to find work for me, despite my phone calls, and visits to their offices. this I can handle.

But is very degrading to get rejected from housekeeping jobs in hotels, potwash in kitchens, and , worst of all, having a Tesco's the size of Gatwick airport say hesitantly, that they are fully staffed. <deleted>?! I can't even get a job at tesco's/

Wel thank fuc.k. Thanks to that, I suppose I may as well rule out lowering my dignity anymore and even bothering with McDonalds, or Hmv, or some such sh1t.

No... Altered approach now.

Blue Arrow are holding an "integration to the catering industry" course tomorrow. Essentially it is targetted at foreigners who've come to work here, but it's open for anybody who's signed up with them, so I'm gonna give that a shot. They'll spend time and money on me, and maybe then (!) they'll bother to think of trying to help me (at which they've been pretty useless so far.)

If the English don't like foreigners, I think they hate Expats even more.

[Mahout Angrit]

Hey Kayo

Can't you get yourself a passport from one of those far away climes and get yourself a job at Stansted, there doesn't seem to be an Englishman employed there at all.

Your problem is you are a UK white male, there are no help groups out there to fight your case. If you'd have been a onelegged brown muslim lesbian policewoman who'd arrived under a train there would be associations queueing up to help you.

Wish you luck, The rules, control and political correctness in UK is madness and frightening but only those of us who have spent years away can see it. There really is no hope but dont weaken.

[MiG16]

reading of kayo's experience has made me also nervous

hope things work out for you soon...........

(trying to think of some smart cheer you up comment...but failing ) I guess u will have to settle for my best wishes sweetie

[the gent]

Kayo,

The Natwest Bank operates a Step Account for new customers who have no verifiable UK credit history. Essentially, this would operate for approx. 3 months during which time you would be permitted a notional overdraft facility and limited direct debit access. But, once you have established a track record it can be converted to a conventional current account.

Proof of identity and address is of course critical now, not least because of the Banks' fear of falling foul of the current govt's implementation of money laundering laws. I'm afraid the days of commonsense and judgement have long gone to be substituted by almost stalinist bureaucracy. Little old ladies from the proverbial sticks face the same strictures as you when they wish to deposit their savings into new investment accounts. Believe me, it ain't personal. My wife experienced the same problems and this was with a bank where I have held an account for the past 27 years. Proving your address can be difficult in your circumstances but registration with your GP, full driving licence, utility bill and council tax generally meets the criteria.

Have you considered working in a bar full time whilst searching for more rewarding employment

Choke di, khrap!

[stament]

Kayo,

Sorry to hear about yor struggles. If I was you I'd head back to Asia. England isn't the place it used to be sadly, as some posters have noted.

I'll be leaving England in the summer and can't wait.

Good luck

[Rinrada]

When wife first arrived here she got a starter bank account (red Card)from Nationwide...similar to flex a/c but only good for depositing and withdrawing cash.

One year later after bunging in some paychecks she has now got the full Flex facility plus a couple of other accounts.

Nobody ever said life was easy over here especially after living in fantasy island...but as the Ts say ...up 2 youuuu.....

Kayo...good luck...

[eek]

Honestly..i think some people cant see past the end of their own noses!

Sorry your having such a hard time there.

Problem is a lot of people dont travel outside of their own freaking towns let alone travel half way across the world to live. Its either inconceivable for them, or a touch of jelously. Most probably both.

Im sure you incite quite a bit of envy from a lot of these folkes, who wished that instead of sitting in their office chair with a crappy name badge and a status symbol they had got out of the box and did half of what you had been doing. I guess they enjoy the payback of making out that they doubt you (makes them feel better if they delude themselves into thinking you cant possibly have done that), or just not giving you an opportunity (cuz they are jelous as hel_l).

Of course..thats a very bleak perspective..and some may geniunely just not be in the position where they can offer you that chance.

I really REALLy never want to go back to the UK to live...and i really REALLy wish you all the best.

Edited April 24, 2007 by eek