where to move

Madeira is an alternative to the Canaries - a more temperate climate and less touristy hi-rises. Just posters of Cristiano Ronaldo on every corner.

Exeter is a nice little town

Lord Tisdale wrote:

Czarcasm wrote:

In terms of climate, for me you cannot beat the Canary Islands. Only 4 hours away,  It rarely gets rediculously hot in summer,.

42 fooking degrees it was the last time I got off a plane there, had me one year old grand daughter in tow as well, strangely she seemed to cope with it better than me, the whole regime of pool to AC Bar seemed to sit pretty well with her.

Tenerife is me least favourite Canary, but it would do today.

Well yeah you'll get spells where it gets up to those temps but generally even August temps are low to mid 30's innit.

Humidity puts me off a lot of destinations and is a big reason I've given Asia a wide berth up to now at the times of year I can go. There's nothing worse than coming out of a lovely air-conned apt. in the evening and 10 minutes later you're dripping in sweat.   That's what's great about the Canaries - cool evenings generally.

Agree with you about Tenerife too, especially Los Cristianos/Las Americas - full of crooks and scallys. Much prefer Lanzarote & Gran Canaria.

I went to Gran Canaria on my first ever non-family holiday, with my partner at the time, I was like 16 and scraped enough money together on my part-time Satdee job to just abait get there. Anyway, I ended up getting wasted at the pool bar one night, I had the best night ever making friends with some random girls in the resort, whilst she was sat there miserable as sin apparently, wanting to go back to the hotel for about 5 hours.

The next day she decided a walk along the sand dunes were a good idea and I figured a bit of air might help in my struggle against a pretty formidale, pounding headache. Apparently the sand dunes aren't quite what I pictured in my head, and the 'short walk' I expected ended with me almost dying of feckin thirst.

At one stage I was so utterly desperate for some water I thought I might actually die, obviously I'd left my wallet in the hotel thinking we'd be ait for an hour or two at most. My feet were swollen to feck, I didn't have any suncream, my feet were blistering in me brand new 'flops, and the headache had become a migraine. The other half's amusement even managed to turn to concern by this stage, and I resolved that the next human we came across I would ask them for water.

As I reached the peak of one last dune I had given up. I was almost in tears, ready to just lie there and hope someone would come and save me. Thankfully I reached the top of this final peak and there were people over the dune! I was saved!

They were nudists, mind. Bit awkward when I realised.

Good times.

There are plenty of British expats (they're never 'immigrants' if they're British are they?) in Australia. I'm not convinced that it's just a sunnier version of Blighty though; I spent a week in Melbourne in July a few years ago because an idiot relative got married there, and it was cold, rainy and depressing. Like a more boring version of Manchester.

In Oz you will always be a Pom and reminded of the fact every day for the rest of your life. Every "ex pat community" I have ever encountered depresses me in the extreme. Generally the interesting people are outside the crowd and hard to find.

Cornish Chris wrote:

There are plenty of British expats (they're never 'immigrants' if they're British are they?) in Australia. I'm not convinced that it's just a sunnier version of Blighty though; I spent a week in Melbourne in July a few years ago because an idiot relative got married there, and it was cold, rainy and depressing. Like a more boring version of Manchester.

They probably would be if they were living off the state, had been given 'social' housing within 9 minutes of jumping out of the back of a lorry and were stretching the resources of the health services, education system and so on..........Can you give me an example of "British expats" doing any of the above?

We aren't allowed to claim our own benefits whilst overseas, two or three weeks out of the country and your ESA disability allowance will be stopped, a jobseekers would be sanctioned for going on holiday even. As you say try claiming abroad, ive not tried it but good luck if you do.