[NSC] Ex Brighton Pats , why are you living abroad ? What is your story?

[loco61]

Have a realistic chance of moving back to Hove after 21 yearsin Germany. Always wanted to live abroad but Germany became the obvious choice in 1997. (Wife is German and got a great offer and support to move out here from my work).

Loved living here. but it is time to come home! ...

this year i will have made it to The Amex on Boxing Day as well as Old Trafford, Bournemouth, Wolves and Wembley by the end of the season .

THAT IS NOT ENOUGH ... i am really looking forward to getting the train to Falmer regularly in the future!!

 

[luppers]

Mine is a simple story. A few years ago my marriage broke down. as a result had to sell my home in Eastbourne. I already had a holiday home in Turkey and decided to move here as I simply could not afford to live in England. so that part it was for financial reasons as cost of living here is very cheap. Also I suffer from arthritis and climate here makes it a lot more comfortable. It is a smashing country. In the area I live there is a large expat comunity and have darts leagues, pub quizes etc.One good example of the cheap living,council tax is £28 a year

 

[NooBHA]

After dropping out of teachers training college came back to Brighton where I was born and raised, worked on the Dodgems & Ghost train on the Palace Pier during summer of 1971 fell in love with a Danish girl who was over studying English then I moved to Copenhagen later that year. Lived there for 20+ years then my job took me to Mexico City where I have been ever since and shortly will be retiring there.....

Mexico City. I suppose those years on the Dodgems are probably the reason you survived living in Mexico City

 

[maltaseagull]

Is a Maltese pension mainly chocolate based?

You should be on the joke de jour thread

 

[BadFish]

I was kicking around Brighton and working in the outdoor industry mainly up near East Grinstead but also traveling around the country and over to the French Alps every summer. I'd been doing it for a few year and was trying to work out how i could kick on and make a proper career out of it. My plans involved moving to the Peak District or possibly Sheffield.

After a night and day out on the town I was sitting in the Windmill with a few mates of mine who had not been with me the night before. I was fully intending to go home for a well earned sleep. This turned out to be one of the major sliding doors moments of my life. Will a little bit of chemical assistance i was persuaded to head into town and enjoy a second night out. We ended up in the Western Front and we got chatting to a few girls from Australia. Myself and my future wife really hit it off and spent a bit of time together over the months before she went back to Australia.

We kept in touch via email, letter and postcards from where i was working. Eventually I had enough money to go 'travelling' round Australia. 4 of us set off for Oz, via Malaysia. My grandfather had served as a policeman in Malaysia after the war and I wanted to go and visit his village the country and specifically his village. My mates and I never found his village, probably because it had been swallowed up by the neighbouring city, or that we were armed with a map hand drawn from memory... or that were were useless knobheads . While in Penag we bumped into a woman we knew from work who put us up in her apartment for a couple of extra weeks. While there I spoke to my future wife who was enjoying a picninc on a public holiday due to the Melbourne Cup horse race. I thought this was incredible, what a place a day off work because of a horse race.

When we arrived in Melbourne we met up again and spent more and more time together. My mates went travelling around the country and I moved into a flat with her in Melbourne. Eventually as the end of my visa was looming closer and closer we had to make a decision about staying together or parting our separate ways. We decided that we were going to me a defacto partner visa after spending long enough together.

I flew back to the UK a month before her and we started the process of applying for a visa. We spent 18 months or so back in Brighton and then moved over to first Melbourne and then a place called Cohuna near the Murray river. We left London in Februrary and it was something like -5 degrees at Heathrow. When we arrived in Melbourne it was 45.5 degrees and I still had my parka in my bag.

We lived in Cohuna for 5 or 6 years while my wife worked on the family beef farm. I worked on the farm for about 9 months but left before me and her father, who was a tricky bloke to get on with, fell out. I was training to be a teacher and the relationship between us and her parents, specifically her dad, was getting harder and harder to bare. It came to a head one Easter when i was sitting holding my baby daughter. He had taken exception o a flippant comment of mine about the Americans not being very good at war and stood over me and my daughter shouting the odds. Eventually during a pause in the abuse i asked if he was finished and he started up again, I stood and pushed passed him to take my daughter out of the firing line. All hell broke loose and my wife's sisters were shouting and screaming as past and present grievances were dragged out for all to argue about. I quietly put my daughter in the car, collected my son and my wife and drove back to our house. It was then we started to talk about where we were going to go.

We have ended up in Geelong which has been the best move that we have made. We have our struggles and our ups and downs but here in Geelong we have a good circle of friends, i play football with lots of British ex pats and we are pretty happy. I am enjoying being involved in the early supporters groups for the new A league team around here called Western United https://wordpress.com/view/watchingthebill.home.blog . I have been writing and stuttering and intermittent blog about this. I also write a blog about my experiences as the father of 3 children on the Autism Spectrum, the link is here https://viewfromasperia.blogspot.com/

Very interesting to ready everyone's stories, thank you for sharing and sorry i have prattled on so much with mine

 

[LlcoolJ]

I was kicking around Brighton and working in the outdoor industry mainly up near East Grinstead but also traveling around the country and over to the French Alps every summer. I'd been doing it for a few year and was trying to work out how i could kick on and make a proper career out of it. My plans involved moving to the Peak District or possibly Sheffield.

After a night and day out on the town I was sitting in the Windmill with a few mates of mine who had not been with me the night before. I was fully intending to go home for a well earned sleep. This turned out to be one of the major sliding doors moments of my life. Will a little bit of chemical assistance i was persuaded to head into town and enjoy a second night out. We ended up in the Western Front and we got chatting to a few girls from Australia. Myself and my future wife really hit it off and spent a bit of time together over the months before she went back to Australia.

We kept in touch via email, letter and postcards from where i was working. Eventually I had enough money to go 'travelling' round Australia. 4 of us set off for Oz, via Malaysia. My grandfather had served as a policeman in Malaysia after the war and I wanted to go and visit his village the country and specifically his village. My mates and I never found his village, probably because it had been swallowed up by the neighbouring city, or that we were armed with a map hand drawn from memory... or that were were useless knobheads . While in Penag we bumped into a woman we knew from work who put us up in her apartment for a couple of extra weeks. While there I spoke to my future wife who was enjoying a picninc on a public holiday due to the Melbourne Cup horse race. I thought this was incredible, what a place a day off work because of a horse race.

When we arrived in Melbourne we met up again and spent more and more time together. My mates went travelling around the country and I moved into a flat with her in Melbourne. Eventually as the end of my visa was looming closer and closer we had to make a decision about staying together or parting our separate ways. We decided that we were going to me a defacto partner visa after spending long enough together.

I flew back to the UK a month before her and we started the process of applying for a visa. We spent 18 months or so back in Brighton and then moved over to first Melbourne and then a place called Cohuna near the Murray river. We left London in Februrary and it was something like -5 degrees at Heathrow. When we arrived in Melbourne it was 45.5 degrees and I still had my parka in my bag.

We lived in Cohuna for 5 or 6 years while my wife worked on the family beef farm. I worked on the farm for about 9 months but left before me and her father, who was a tricky bloke to get on with, fell out. I was training to be a teacher and the relationship between us and her parents, specifically her dad, was getting harder and harder to bare. It came to a head one Easter when i was sitting holding my baby daughter. He had taken exception o a flippant comment of mine about the Americans not being very good at war and stood over me and my daughter shouting the odds. Eventually during a pause in the abuse i asked if he was finished and he started up again, I stood and pushed passed him to take my daughter out of the firing line. All hell broke loose and my wife's sisters were shouting and screaming as past and present grievances were dragged out for all to argue about. I quietly put my daughter in the car, collected my son and my wife and drove back to our house. It was then we started to talk about where we were going to go.

We have ended up in Geelong which has been the best move that we have made. We have our struggles and our ups and downs but here in Geelong we have a good circle of friends, i play football with lots of British ex pats and we are pretty happy. I am enjoying being involved in the early supporters groups for the new A league team around here called Western United https://wordpress.com/view/watchingthebill.home.blog . I have been writing and stuttering and intermittent blog about this. I also write a blog about my experiences as the father of 3 children on the Autism Spectrum, the link is here https://viewfromasperia.blogspot.com/

Very interesting to ready everyone's stories, thank you for sharing and sorry i have prattled on so much with mine

How boring, you could have ended up in Sheffield like me mate. [emoji23]

 

[mylesfdo]

Always wanted to move away and considered Mexico, Las Vegas, California and Thailand as love all of them. Never really managed to save enough dough to have as back up if work dries up or to pay some rent up front.

Old man passed away last year and got a bit of money from inheritance so spent 3 months over in California(had a Mexican kinda gf who lives there) and Nevada seeing if I could make the move and if it would ever be a perm thing with the chica! Whilst I could move there, dont think will work out with chica and my God is California fking expensive!! I could defo move to Vegas though as its so much cheaper accommodation wise and well most other things too actually!

Im currently on a 3 month trial over in Koh Samui Thailand where I have contacts for work and can also carry on with my remote internet marketing. Looking quite good at mo and think will be making the move perm after Ive come back home in May to pack things up and move out flat etc. Love it here and I can rent a room in 5 bedroom villa(only 3 rooms ever gonna be occupied!) with pool for £300 all in a month and eat out for less than £10 a day.......have tried cooking at home but most days too hot to be arsed and its just as cheap to grab something out!!

 

[Mexican Seagull]

Dodgems exprience certainly helps with the driving here, i.e. don't get concerned with the dents and scrtachs on your car - though I put that down to everyone trying to get too close to see my Seagull sticker - whilst a lot of what you read in the news about Mexico is true it is a great place to live in

 

[Geestar]

This has to be my all time favourite thread on NSC.....cool stories.

I get itchy feet but haven't had the moves of some of you, still time though!

Sent from my TA-1020 using Tapatalk

 

[Marty McFly]

Of course, you had a brief UK visit in between. But ran away back to Canada after working with me proved TOO MUCH.

Your I.T hissy fits proved TOO much FOR me!

 

[PTC Gull]

I am in the airline business and one of my suppliers (@davinpizan, they were the original owner of Equant) needed Sales and Biz Dev people for the Flight Ops section. That was in 2002 and the job was in Atlanta but that got shelved 3 months after I joined. Fast forward to 2006 and the opportunity to move to Atlanta came up again and we came here in early 2007. Never regretted the move, wife has her own business and life is good. Still get back to UK 3-4 times a year to see daughter and Grandson and the Albion. As I come from an RAF family I was used to moving around world so moving here was relatively easy, especially when the company paid for the move. But I just realized my life travels are long and include a lot of places. Born in Brighton, grew up in Yemen (Aden) back to Sussex (Peacehaven) then Norfolk, then East Wittering near Chichester, then Shoreham (first experience of Albion) then Withdean, then Burgess Hill, back to Hove Actually, then Peacehaven again then Seaford, then Castle Donnington and Derby (miserable hole that is) then back to Slough, then West London and now here! Jeez thats a lot of air miles!

 

[BLOCK F]

I lived in Vancouver for 4 years and loved it. So, without wishing to derail this very interesting thread (again) I'll briefly explain why I decided to live abroad (i.e., back in the UK).

Basically the lure of the South East was overwhelming. I could never live longterm anywhere else. During a short visit in 84 (the only time I came home in 4 years) it was like summertime in Narnia - the quality of the light, the smell of Brighton sea front, Cuckmere haven, London, the theatres, pubs, unbelievable music, people with opinions they didn't mind sharing, the humour, the spirit. There was no way I wasn't going to come home (2 years later). I have had quite a torrid subsequent 33 years in many respects, but I have no regrets. None.

I had a recurring dream in the late 80s of flying (like a bird) over Rottingdene (where I grew up for the first 5 lears of my life) with people waving blue and white FA cup banners....the FA cup season I missed....and not being able to reach land....nightmare....the smells of the sea side. Horrible dream. After I bought the house in which I still live, in Faversham, the nightmare stopped. The Albion got better briefly, then very worse, but the football and my life eventually got better (I got divorced and had debts, and a shit poor work-life balance till around 96). Then there was Gillingham....Withdean....better food, better lifestyle, better relationships....all the while the local countryside and beaches always kept me smiling. And the people. Plenty of *****, but so many lovely people.

Being in Vancouver for 4 years made me feel a foreigner in my own land when I came back. For years. But I quite liked that, weirdly. I still feel a bit out of kilter. It's quite....ennervating.

Vancouver is stunning, though.

Thought there may have been a Burnley connection!