| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Bugs |
Where did you downsize to..why?...what's good, what's bad?I know a lot of people here have already made a move to another country, whether that's permanent or not, I don't know. I'd like to know why people chose where they are (and that includes our American and other residents in the UK!); what do you like about it, what do you miss from "home" (or is your new place home now?)...do you think you'll be there for ever?Thos in Belgium...HWH and Simon in France...Pricey nearly in Portugal and others already there?...Buttery and Nanny in the UK...Haddock in Germany...Gill_Didsbury in Australia?...others I've missed? |
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| thos |
I moved to Belgium in '97 for a job (not a transfer, but a related organisation with less chance of redundancy). I sold the house in Mile End and rented south of Brussels. Four years later we moved to another rented house and 18-months later, in December '02, we bought.
Houses are still affordable here, so we got quite a lot for our money, although we had to move quite a way from Brussels, so I have a 54km commute. Although Belgium is densely populated, we are living in an area of villages. Unfortunately, the villages around here are not that pretty, and Jauche itself was a 19th century industrial town, but the sugar mill and toilet factories closed down years ago. Most communes have been centralising their schools, but ours has a policy of maintaining the primary schools in the villages. Even very small villages have schools - Folx-les-Caves just up the road has two classrooms, and some of the villages also have Church Schools. Jauche has a large Commune School and also the Church School where my children go - this has two years per class. Schools start at 2.5, so Harry will start at Easter. There is Reception and two years of Maternelle before the serious work starts in Primaire the calendar year they turn six. Perhaps half the houses have some sort of vegetable plot and about one in ten keep hens. Sheep and goats are also quite plentiful. Shopping is mainly in small supermarkets. Unfortunately, the produce is variable. You have to be careful to avoid rotting fruit and stock is left on the shelf beyond the sell-by date. Very few shops stock fresh milk. There are no farmers markets. There are plenty of markets, but all sell the same stuff of uncertain origin. Against that, I buy superb apples (in season) from the orchard up the road at 75c per kg and pears at €1 per kg, and potatoes from another farm at €2 per 10kg, so it is not worth growing those. We have not found a good butcher, but there must be one. I have found some farms with shops, but we have not tried them yet. When we first came over here, we were unimpressed by the quality in the shops. However, on our last trip back to the UK, it seemed that everything we bought (except the fish and chips!) was tasteless and we realised we had turned into Belgians. Other good things: diesel is €1 per litre, beer is fantastic and cheap, as is wine (we rarely pay over €4 for a nice bottle). I believe tobacco is still cheap too. The Belgians make nice coffee (I find the French cannot make a decent cup), but like all foreigners, they can't make tea. It gets cold in the winter, -20 is not unusual, and to the high 30s in summer. It also rains a lot. Further east, in the Ardennes, they have six months of bad weather and then winter comes. ---------------------------------------- We will probably stay here after I retire. Belgium is actually a fantastic place. I would not have considered living here if it wasn't for my work, but I am really glad I came, and it is wonderful for the children. If anyone is interested in coming to Belgium, here is a link for what seems to be a very nice manor house in 12 acres for GBP470K. [url]www.immovillages.be/a_vendre/desc156.htm [/url] or 6 acres for GBP150K www.immoregion.be/pages/detailvente.php?OxySeleCode=00001597705 |
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| tahir |
Mile End? You're a local, well you were anyway... | ||
| thos |
Brought up in Bolton. Liverpool University then back to Bolton. Mile End then Belgium. Mother in the Wirral and two of a superfluity of sisters-in-law (Irish Catholic wife) live in Essex. |
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| tahir |
Born in Whitechapel, moved to Gants Hill, then Romford, still drifting eastwards, might end up in Southend if I'm not careful 
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| lorrayne |
Hello Thos
we too are from UK living here inBelgium - work related - and I have to agree with you - however we wont retire here like pricey we are off to Portugal - we are in the process of buying. Our children are in their twenties now but we wish we had done it sooner. Although our youngest daughter came out and stayed with us for nearly a year working in the local irish bar - because of the language - i speak vlaams not fluently but enough to work with - but that is my piece of advice encourage your children to learn and speak another language - I had to go back to school and was the oldest in the class but hey what fun we had. I miss my family and real fish and chips and the theatre - but the UK has a lot to learn especially from a small country like Belgium |
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| Haddock |
I just popped over to Germany for a beer......and stayed  But seriously I came here in 1994 for a new job. I had worked overseas before for 5 years, returned to UK because I thought I was missing out on what was happening back in Blighty, and then realised that England wasn't quite what I remembered it to be, so after a few years I wanted out again, so I came to Germany.
On my 3rd job here now, I have married a German woman and we have a bilingual child. We have built a house here,and whilst not ruling out moving at some stage, I wouldn't return to UK to live. I only really miss Cricket, Fish & Chips and the sea. I think generally Germany (and probably most European countries) are more enviromentally aware then the UK. For instance all houses on the estate where I live have to have a rain water harvesting system. The drains in the street go to a seperate sewer, which terminates in a man made reed bed, the over flow of which feeds down to the local river. A lot have houses have Solar as well. Health system in Germany is very good, as are the kindergartens & schools. A lot of eco labelled produce is sold in supermarkets, but how eco it really is I dont know. One of the things I like about Germany is that there are a lot of trees. Some really big forests and it all seems to be managed really well. In a nut shell it seems less Rat Race here, an echo of former times in the UK. Lots of people have veg in their gardens and most have fruit trees as well. Anyway at this rate I will have to send an application form off to the German Tourist Authority 
Nearly forgot the beer here is bloody good and cheap, as is the wine. |
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| Nanny |
where did you downsize to and whythough i was born in upstate new york in an area called the finger lakes, my parents had immigrated there from england after the war. at the age of 10, post a visit to see my grandparents, i announced that i was going to go back to england to live when i was old enough.i don't think my parents ever thought i would really do it but age 19 that's what i did. went to live with my grandparents initially and intended to go to vet college to study vet nursing but as i had missed registration had to sit it out for a year. in that time i decided instead to join the police force in essex (i was living in east tilbury so joined essex police) and whilst a constable in that force met and married my first husband, also a police officer. he was from suffolk so after a year of living in tilbury, we transferred up here. we were marreid for 18 years before we parted and then i met my present husband and the rest, as they say is a more pleasant history. i have thought many times about going back to the states to live but i just think too much time has passed now and as somebody once said,"you can't go home again" canandaigua has changed and got bigger and i have moved on. all my syblings (there were 5 of us kids) are spread out and only my mom lives in my home town and i wouldn't live there anymore. frankly i have everything here that i need and although i moan about the cost of things, i feel i live in a safer place than in the usa. i don't worry about guns and i am fortunate enough to be able to live in a fairly safe county and a safe village. what do i miss? autumn mostly and snow in the winter and god how i miss the hills sometimes. it is very flat in east anglia. but i can go to scotland for that you see so it isn't all that far away. what i really like about this country is the history. i live on a roman road. people have been wandering up and down the road in front of my house well since time immemorial more or less. i dig in my garden and i may find evdience of the people who have lived in this place for hundreds of years. roman sodiers walked up and down and maybe stopped their chariots in my layby for all i know i find that amazing. |
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
i came to scotland in may of 1999 to meet my now husband. we'd been 'dating' online for several months. originally i was just looking for another pagan to be a friend and a penpal with. i had intended to go to scotland on holiday in 2001 (had to save up!). Dave was one of two pagan people who answered my emails (found his email address on pagan profiles, BEFORE it became a meat market). it went from emails to phone calls to can you come in 2000 instead to can you come NOW! he'd already asked me to marry him before i came and i tentatively agreed but i wanted to see him first before i decided.
he got the necessary paperwork together including a visa for me and all the paperwork for the wedding if i decided to go ahead with it so i wouldn't have to go back if i didn't want to. dave sold a large part of his precious library to fund my trip, bless him. things were even better in real life so i decided to stay and marry him so we did on june 8th of 1999. we;ve been married nearly 6 years now and it's been pretty darn good even during the worst times. we now have a 3.5 year old daughter as well 
i've been all over scotland in that time frame. we stayed at his flat for the last two weeks of his final term at st andrews university and i was there for his graduation. we then moved to skye and lived there for 2.5 years and when i became pregnant we moved to glasgow because it had better opportunites for work and futher education. we lived there for 2.5 years and now we're living in edinburgh where dave is doing his Masters (a 2nd one!) and where he'll do his Ph.d. i love scotland, the people are amazing and they simply DON'T let you keep up the facade the americans are so damned worried about keeping up, suits me to a T
skye took some getting used to as i had been living in san antonion the 10th largest city in the states before i moved there, what a culture shock! everyone seemed to know everything about me and i didn't know a thing about them. it took me months to be able to leave the house unlocked. but after that it didnt take long for me to appreciate the solitude and peacefulness of skye and how relatively safe it is. glasgow was exciting after skye and i have some great memories there but i was ready to move to edinburgh. the people on the bus aren't as friendly in edinburgh as they are in glasgow but overall i prefer edinburgh as it's just so green and gorgeous! a lot has to be said for going shopping on THE main street to shop and having an enormous park and CASTLE (the american kid in me is doing the oooh oooh ooh jumping up and down for joy thing!) everywhere i go i see at least a few trees though i live a stones throw from the base of Arthurs seat so this is a particularly green area. everything is so multicultural, it's really amazing. though i kinda wish there weren't so many americans around, they are spoiling the scottish accent i was picking up so well when we lived in glasgow
things i miss: a few foods, definately good root beer, kankakee state park, my dad and a few of my friends... that's it things i love here: people expect to take you as you are, the only facade i've seen here is a thin veneer at work but that comes away once you're out the door. also love black pudding and haggis, hillwalking and the scottish highlands which take my breath away EVERY time and they nearly make me cry because they are so achingly beautiful... i always tell dave that i think that the goddess must have a special place in her heart for the highlands or she wouldn't have made it so beautiful
i'm not going to live in the states again... i never felt right in my own skin in the states but when i came to scotland i remember getting down on my hands and knees on west sands in st andrews and kissing the earth as i had finally found home we toy around with the idea of possibly moving to new zealand some time to have a small holding but if we ever did that i'm certain we'd come back, scotland has far to strong a pull for us both... as a child as young as 10 i always imagined a dashing scotsman whisking me off to a highland cottage... and though i had to wait another 18 years for it i got my wish...why mess with perfection? 
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| joanne |
Buttery - If you love Scotland - then you'll love New Zealand - its very Scottish in its own way especially South Island - The majority of White New Zealanders have Scottish roots as so many went over there
I'm 1/4 Kiwi and tbh feel that there is part of me that is forever Antipodean even though basically that Kiwi blood is pure Scots in origin. If I was going to emigrate - I would definately pick New Zealand as the destination, they are struggling to find people prepared to live out in the countryside as everyone wants to be in the big cities so there are some stunning properties to be bought, the population is very small as well just over 4 million in a country thats as big as the UK - loads of space
Joanne |
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| tahir |
Lovely story Buttery, you can meet some strange people online eh?
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| Bugs |
Wow, thanks everyone, some lovely stories so far and really interesting. It seems there's money to be made in them thar furrin hills with a good travelling fish and chip van
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| Nanny |
where did you downsize tooh buttery why did you have to go and say root beer?i hadn't missed it till then............................................ i would go and live inscotland tomorrow and so would my husband if the work was there............i love tha place and think yo are a very lucky person |
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| Daydreaming |
Buttery - If you love Scotland - then you'll love New Zealand - its very Scottish in its own way especially South Island - The majority of White New Zealanders have Scottish roots as so many went over there
I'm 1/4 Kiwi and tbh feel that there is part of me that is forever Antipodean even though basically that Kiwi blood is pure Scots in origin. If I was going to emigrate - I would definately pick New Zealand as the destination, they are struggling to find people prepared to live out in the countryside as everyone wants to be in the big cities so there are some stunning properties to be bought, the population is very small as well just over 4 million in a country thats as big as the UK - loads of space
OH is a Kiwi I snatched him and brought him home, my real, live souvenir!! 
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| tahir |
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| Jonnyboy |
We've downsized to Northern Ireland, of course the 'Northern' bit a always puts people off as they expect us to live in an army base, but to honest it's a beautiful, scenic, welcoming and mostly agricultural place.
I met a lass from over here 10 years ago, drugged her, married her and lived happily in my homeland of Wales for 8 years before deciding to move over here. The reasons, firstly I've grown to love the place and the people, secondly my wife is a real family person whilst mine are all pretty independant so she had been pining for years. And thirdly it was a financially realisitic way to achieve our smallholding dream without working like dogs. So far things are working out really well, we bought just over an acre for £40k and our house should be built by the end of August. I'm hoping to rent a few more acres and go into part time organic chicken farming and set up a deli/home cooking enterprise. Northern Ireland still retains the sense of community that most places have lost, you know your neighbours and the pace of life is noticabley slower, not because people don't work hard but because people take the time to meet, great and catch up. |
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| nettie |
This is amazing, it's so lovely to hear such interesting stories about people. | ||
| roiphil |
In the proces of downsizing to southern ireland, mainly due to finances and what we could afford, also the pace of life is slower, basically i agree with all that jonnyboy says above. | ||
| Jonnyboy |
Good luck to you! Where in Southern Ireland are you hoping to settle? |
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| roiphil |
Athea Co Limerick, early august not long to go now | ||
| Jonnyboy |
Excellent, we will be here two years in August. You should have a lot milder weather down there. | ||
| roiphil |
Sound good all we have at the moment is a field full of reeds, hopefully have a house built sometime but for now its a caravan
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
are you talking about me or my husband
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| ButteryHOLsomeness |
ooh thanks for that, it's good to know that we may actually have somewhere easier to immigrate too! it's funny but during the LOTR films as i see the backgrounds i think 'my goodness that looks like scotland!' very interesting to know that it's got a scottish feel to it as well personally i'd prefer to move out to the spacious countryside. i want a big farm house, loads of outbuildings and a LOT of land! and preferrably that land will be at the base of a mountain in one of those breathtakingly beautiful mountain valleys with a stream running through and woodlands backing onto the foot of the mountain. i just love the idea of a smallholding nestled in amongst the mountain and woods...
do you have any idea what the climate is like in an area like that in NZ? i'm hoping to move so that we can grow MORE stuff so the same climate isn't so appealing, not that i mind scotland, i think the weather isn't too bad but i'd like a longer growing season and a touch more heat. |
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| Andrea |
Portugal seems to be a popular choice! I'll be heading back in about 5 or 6 weeks
I didn't deliberately set out to downsize anywhere, but when I quit my job to go travelling out there last year it clarified all the thoughts that had been rattling around for a while. I like Portugal because there is a sense of community which we're lacking here, there's lots of space & silence, and because land is so much cheaper I can afford the start up costs to get myself going. Of course, the sun has nothing to do with it 
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