Anyone relocated back?

Although I think there’s lots that could be changed for the better, there’s still lots of lovely places and people, of all ages, colour and creed, across the UK, as well as pockets of deprivation and unpleasant people. Young or old there’s grumpy and rude people across the globe and of course things will have dramatically changed after 44 years. Good luck x

Find a U3A near you:

www.u3a.org.uk/get-involved/join

You might be surprised to find friendly people!

access if their parents

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus (b 544BC) said No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. and that is so true.

None of us is the person we were almost 50 years ago and nowhere is the place it was almost 50 years ago. We have lived abroad in developing world countries and adjusting to life in the UK was a challenge. Despite the state of the UK right now there is no poverty on the scale we saw each time we left our home, none of the UK hospitals are ‘Third World’ hospitals such as we encountered, children here all have access to education compared to those abroad who only have access of their ostentatious can afford it and for some, only if they are a boy.

Lots of other comparisons I could make such as levels of violence (I don’t suppose many GNetters have inadvertently been caught up in an armed bank robbery while doing the weekly shop) and - yes - amounts of litter but the point is, everywhere is different and everywhere has changed. In fact the last place we lived changed enormously even as we lived there, and has changed again since with the advent of cheaper mobile and internet services.

I’d never go back to live where I grew up as it’s unrecognisable now, a vast area of urbanisation, whereas I remember countryside and peaceful surroundings. People have to live somewhere, though, and that is life.

I do know that having moved many times, it’s up to us to make a new life for ourselves. We are the ones that made that choice so we are also the ones who must make it work for us. At least nowadays we have the internet and it’s so easy to find out what’s happening where.

I hope you find some way of settling in to your new area, CountessFosco, I’m sure the community you’re looking for is out there somewhere.

My goodness CountessFosco I’ve lived in England all the time since you left and if I look back to 1975 ...

The price of things: In 1975 a loaf of bread cost just 11p. A pint of lager in a local pub was 20p, while a pack of cigarettes cost 20p for 20. The average house price in Great Britain is just £16,980.
😱

I do of course realise you mean different aspects entirely but still, I thought it amusing to reminisce!

Countessfosco apologies I meant not to offend 🙏

It really is a lifetime and I'm not surprised you're finding it difficult to settle.
Everywhere has changed, not just here, and so have you, as have all of us.

X post

We left in December 1975
So 48 years ago, not 44?

A time of turmoil, strikes and inflation.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Caravansera

An excellent reminder of the Britain that CountessFosco left behind. Life was difficult then, perhaps more so for us than others as I had two small children and we were forced to move, for work, to the very expensive SE area where the mortgage rate was, I think, about 13% and rising rapidly.

There were refuse collectors' and street cleaners' strike nd everywhere was dark, dismal and filthy and rat-ridden.

Of course, I can remember the happy days with the children, a holiday staying with MIL, making new friends but it was a stressful time for so many people then.

The Pollyanna Principle describes it well.

Caravansera

There’s this:

The Pollyanna principle … [uses] the archetype of Pollyanna as a psychological principle which portrays the positive bias people have when thinking of the past. According to the Pollyanna principle, the brain processes information that is pleasing and agreeable in a more precise and exact manner as compared to unpleasant information. We actually tend to remember past experiences as more rosy than they actually occurred. (Wiki)

Then there’s this. The UK 44 years ago in 1979.

5 January – Lorry drivers go on strike, causing new shortages of heating oil and fresh food.

15 January – Rail workers begin a 24-hour strike.

22 January – Tens of thousands of public-workers strike in the beginning of what becomes known as the "Winter of Discontent".

1 March National Health Service workers in the West Midlands threaten to go on strike in their bid to win a nine per cent pay rise.

30 March – Airey Neave, World War Two veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the House of Commons car park.

23 April – Anti-Nazi League protester Blair Peach is fatally injured after being struck on the head probably by a member of the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group.

4 May – The Conservatives win the General Election by a 44-seat majority and Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

21 May Conservative MPs back Margaret Thatcher's proposals to sell off parts of nationalised industries.

23 July – The government announces £4 billion worth of public spending cuts.

10 August–23 October – The entire ITV network in the UK is shut down by a technicians' strike.

27 August Lord Mountbatten of Burma and two 15-year-olds, his nephew and a boatboy, are assassinated by a Provisional IRA bomb while holidaying in the Republic of Ireland. The Dowager Lady Brabourne died the following day in hospital of injuries received.

1 October – Statistics show a 2.3% contraction in the economy for the third quarter of the year, sparking fresh fears of another recession.

30 October – Martin Webster of the National Front is found guilty of inciting racial hatred.

1 November – The government announces £3.5 billion in public spending cuts and an increase in prescription charges.

15 November Minimum Lending Rate reaches an all-time high of 17%. Inflation rises to 13.4%.

We are all aware that the diplomatic deadlock over Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trade protocol was undermining local efforts to suppress paramilitary outlaws and fanning fears of a potential spike in violence.

Do you not think that the more things seem to change the more they stay the same?

We left in December 1975

polnan

Countess,, ah! I have lived in England all my long life, and I feel bad about it.. I think life has changed everywhere, but England, where is the "green and pleasant land" I grew up in, well for starters there are a lot more people living here, and that surely makes a huge difference.. nuff said... life changes so I am told

Wales?

nanna8

Things have changed a lot here in Australia ,too. Not always for the better,either. When we came, 50 years ago, it was full of beautiful trees and many unsurfaced roads, even a few kangaroos hopping around. No one had to lock their doors and dogs were allowed to roam free. Funny thing is, the dogs were happy then - no one got bitten. Meat was so cheap you could live on prime steak everyday if you wanted. Sometimes when you have been away from a country for a long time you keep a kind of snapshot in your mind of how it used to be, only to find everything is more crowded,buildings have taken over from open land and everyone seems to be a lot less relaxed.

It's still like that where we stay except for the prime steak being cheap.
Fish is very expensive which puzzles me as Australia is surrounded by ocean.

Kangaroos like the local golf course best, it's watered and lush. 🦘

Doctors are striking because they're being unfairly paid for the job they do, thanks to the Tory government

I think she had a lucky escape

A friend advised me never to return to the UK as it would disappoint me.
My mother spent the last 3 years of her life in a french residential home, she was well looked after and the cost was less than the 'home' social security had dumped her in because she had a first floor flat with only stairs. The'home' was 2 terrace houses knocked together. It smelt bad and was staffed by English language second speakers w

I’m an ex military wife so born here and one of our postings was to Germany lived there for 9yrs loved it and then we moved back to uk. Also felt similar to you that it had changed so much but in truth it hadn’t changed we had we were used to a different style and way of life. You just need adjustment time. Give it time you will settle down here. We actually moved to our home town in a city and struggled to settle in end we different part of the country in the countryside and loved it being there 25yrs now

The UK has changed (mainly due to the Tories and Labour making a mess of things) and it's obvious when you return after so many years but the countries you lived in probably changed too and you didn't notice the change so much because it was incremental, day by day, rather than one big leap. We lived part of the time for years in rural France and things changed - restaurants closed, young people migrated to the cities for work, rural transport atrophied, small shops closed in villages and small towns. A new pig farm opened near us and a new noisy TGV line too.

Elusivebutterfly

I see a lot of people on FB nostalgia groups who have moved maybe 50 miles from where they grew up, complaining that the area has changed and it's much worse now. It's not England or the area you grew up in - it's the world that has changed.

I think that things have changed for the better. I don't see the litter Countess talked about, in fact, I think everywhere is much cleaner. People are friendly and most teens work very hard.

On a bigger scale, social attitudes have improved vastly with racism, sexism and homophobia now considered unacceptable.

Whenever we've driven up the A12 the roadsides have been covered with litter. Lots of rubbish dumped in rural areas, especially large items.

Countess Fosco, I heartily agree with most of your comments, I was only out of the country for 10 years and DH and I returned on his retirement mainly because of health care costs and family in the UK. We both thought the country and the attitudes of many people had really gone downhill. So much bad behaviour and selfish attitudes in public places and very dirty streets etc. Poor health service and unreliable public transport. Another thing we really noticed is how much people moan about things. Been back over 10 years now and I suppose I've got used to it and unfortunately I probably moan as much as many others but it's a poor state of affairs when children aren't brought up to be polite and respect others whatever their age.

My friends and I have often thought of moving back but we then know it would not be possible because we are looking back through rose tinted glasses. The UK has changed, we are older and not in the health we were, therefore we stay in France.

We've lived in France for 15 years having wanted an adventure.
We've both very happy here but I do sometimes wonder what (when the time comes) will happen to whichever is the survivor. The thing that bothers me most is the loss of language having read that no matter how good one's second language is, that language will disappear before one's native language.

StacyAnna

Where, Fleurpepper? In the UK? I thought you lived abroad somewhere?

Yes, in the UK- where we visit very often and so many counties. Where our ACs and GCs live, as well as no many friends, where we still owe property. It hits us like a bomb each time- and we think, ah well, it's only the M20, and then we travel on the M25, M11, M40, A3, M1 and lots and lots of roads, country lanes too. And it is the same everywhere. The litter is abominable.

I wonder Caravansera if, when we are sad, we just look back wearing rose tinted spex? ‘everything was better then and I was happier’. Possibly at times we weren’t. Our memories probably skew - as the late Queen reminded us “recollections may vary”.

I also wonder if, tied in with all this, we just feel sad because we are getting older and don’t like it? Not in a vain way, but as in “life was SO different for me back then and I really miss those times/that life/that house”.

Things have changed a lot here in Australia ,too. Not always for the better,either. When we came, 50 years ago, it was full of beautiful trees and many unsurfaced roads, even a few kangaroos hopping around. No one had to lock their doors and dogs were allowed to roam free. Funny thing is, the dogs were happy then - no one got bitten. Meat was so cheap you could live on prime steak everyday if you wanted. Sometimes when you have been away from a country for a long time you keep a kind of snapshot in your mind of how it used to be, only to find everything is more crowded,buildings have taken over from open land and everyone seems to be a lot less relaxed.

I think since Nigel Farage & Brexit started getting a lot of air time it has given a voice to those who feel overwhelmed by people of different nationalities and its led to a gov't who are very far right and whose policies towards those of different nationalities who are here are awful, very vindictive. Tories always have been about promoting individual wealth rather than collective good and that does filter down to how the country feels to live in, ie you can't get a GP appointment, ambulances are overwhelmed as NHS hospitals are full because the gov't wants to push people to go private. Tories don't see that they should contribute to someone else's health care they want private care to avoid that. But a socialist health care, access for all based on need rather than pay, is one of the things that make this country great. I'm planning for a change of gov't next year to install a more compassionate gov't