[Closed] How many ex-pats do we have on here?

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Devon originally

I'm [i]not[/i] in Spain 😉

[img] [/img]

Smogmonster - google perth mtb and you will get the clubs website which has details of all the local rides, the photo in my post is jarrahdale

Riding pretty good once you get used to the peagravel, generally the mtb 'scene' is made up of a small number of dedicated riders, not much general mtb interest around and not much stuff in most bike shops.

Save all your your wiggle and crc purchases until you get here - not vat and free postage, but buy lots of hard to source cotic and singular frames before you leave....

Email in profile for more info.

Double post

not expat yet, but moving to Finland in July. No plans to return to the UK full time. Belgium, NZ, Oz, Germany and Austria are pretty attractive atm too 🙂

Will be an expat again soon, this time it's Bogota Colombia, still not sure how I feel about it yet.

not expat yet, but moving to Finland in July

Lucky git 🙂

What professions are people in - there's a real variety of locations mentioned there!

IT.

I was an expat. My family moved to Peru when I was 12. I came back for university and proper sausages. Strange how you miss the small things!

I'm in Central France.

Been here full-time since 2007.

Semi retired IT contractor.

Now full-time cyclist! 😉

I havent lived in the Uk now for 5 years.

Left when i was 20 and now living in Innsbruck, Austria.

Best bike place 😉

5 Bike Parks within 1hr or so.

Miss Dominos thats about it

Nick I was nearly in Innsbruck yesterday. Glad to hear there are bike parks nearby, will be visiting them in the summer.

I'm still living a mile from the house I was born in ........ should i move?

Finland is an excellent choice 🙂

I concur with Kitz_Chris, bit snowy here at the mo.
Colorado USA
[img] [/img]

I'm still living a mile from the house I was born in ........ should i move?

No, not if you are happy there.

in the desert that is Zaragoza- northern Spain, only for a year, but it's been fun so far

What professions are people in - there's a real variety of locations mentioned there!

Haven't done ANY riding since I got here though, but roll on spring. I'm also hoping to get down to Utah again, now that it's only 4 hours' or so flight.

I'm in Slovenia. Been here more than 10 years. Great riding (STW have been here more than once to report), whatever your taste. I work in a research lab.

I live near Belfast, it is shit as is the UK and its lack of job prospects, I am divorcing but have three great kids, should I up sticks and leave?

We had a chat about this thread today in our site office, lets face it the quality of life in UK is turd

lets face it the quality of life in UK is turd

Rubbish. You might've had a crap time of it, that's your problem not the UKs.

I'm still living a mile from the house I was born in ........ should i move?

I depends why you left in the first place. And whether "now" feels the right time to go back.

i live in a place called Hommersåk, Norway. Winter lasts forever but i really like it here. Moved from the UK 10 yrs ago. 5 years in Zurich and now Norway. I agree with the above speaker, "quality of life in the UK is mostly shite". I wont be returning, other than to visit family and friends

quality of life in the UK is mostly shite

Such a stupid statement.

Most countries have pros and cons. The UK has a lot of pros, however they are sadly lost on so many people. Great shame.

OK, I'll bite. What are the pros?

Bob Diamond?

Pros about the UK:
- you can get a good curry, ranging from madras, to tikka masala, rogan josh, peshwari nan, paneer gobi.... I could go on.
- Barstaff know which beers should be served cold and which ones warm.
- You can see masses of music from the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, France etc etc etc.
- You can buy alcohol in the corner store, and have change left from a fiver!
- Fish and chips is a) possible and b) something that people understand without having to translate.
- Tea is available on tap, you don't have to import decent teabags.
- People don't give you a funny look when you ask for squash, y'know, diluting juice? No? D@mn.
- There are around 20 different countries you can visit within a 4 hour flight of London.

Oh god, what have I done?!
<sob>

Of the UK? Well off the top of my head

Intelligent forward looking tolerant culture
Accessibility of mountains, seaside
Outstanding natural and man-made beauty
Some of the world's best museums, art galleries etc etc etc etc
One of the world's biggest and greatest cities
Countryside access
Good career prospects
Great cultural output (tv, film, music, literature etc)

For a few.

That's not a competitive list, by which I mean it's not meant to say my country's better than yours. However it is a list of good things.

Just because you used to wallow in some hole of a crap town doesn't mean the whole country's bad.

yeah, thats not really saying much for the uk nicko.

Been in Vancouver 3 years, no plans to move back.

Shiny - where in KL? I'm back in London at the mo but should be back soon.

Being chased by a pack of monkeys as a downpour closed in - and as you know that means it got dark - on the Mont Kiara singletrack was........ interesting....

Looking at moving at the moment

Fish & chips and orange squash isn't really an argument for staying somewhere.

The UK is Okay, but other places clearly have something to offer.

Only thing I want to stay for is family and friends and familiarity - otherwise keen to explore.

Everywhere has it's pros and cons I guess

Liverpool.

I tried living down south but it was shite.

Anlegov where in Slovenia?

Hey Clockwork667 - Where in Colorado are you?

I just got back from a weekend Skiing and back to the day job. I work in Academia, but the real reason I'm here is bike racing.

Boulder has the most vibrant mountain bike scene I know of; the local Wednesday night race series attracts some of the fastest riders in the USA. Just one of many reasons I'm here.

Just because you used to wallow in some hole of a crap town doesn't mean the whole country's bad.

Intelligent forward looking tolerant culture - maybe, but I'm not sure it's so far ahead of anywhere else
Accessibility of mountains, seaside - I miss the seaside (live in a landlocked country). Accessibility of mountains depends where you live. Besides, UK hills hardly count as mountains by north american/mainland European standards.
Outstanding natural and man-made beauty - true, but hardly unique
Some of the world's best museums, art galleries etc etc etc etc - and how often do you visit them? Besides, many exhibitions seem to tour, and will turn up in most capital cities.
One of the world's biggest and greatest cities - if you're wealthy...
Countryside access - again, hardly unique
Good career prospects - debateable, subjective
Great cultural output (tv, film, music, literature etc) - all available worldwide, thanks to interwebs etc.

Sure, a lot to recommend UK, but not much you can't find elsewhere, without having to put up with rubbish transport, chavs, hype, expensive beer, replica football shirts, Rupert Murdoch, The Daily Mail, acres and acres of bleak retail estates full of near identical shops selling near identical junk...Gah!

...and breathe. Place is going to the dogs. Britain feels to me like somewhere with far more past than future nowadays.

@Kitz_Chris

Currently sitting in my office in Golden, live in Arvada so not that far at all from you.
I'm not a racer but I will be doing the 18 hours of Fruita this year.
Do you work for CU?

How come? Are those thoughts sector specific? or just the economy in general?

I was under the impression that a lot of the Australian resilience was commodities driven...

That's exactly the problem. The whole country is dependent on commodites exports to China - there is significant inflation caused by high labour costs and a tidal wave of credit.

This will eventually end but the country is really poorly placed to cope with an adjustment. The government (state and federal) is half inept and half corrupt, and they control a huge chunk of the economy and they're really bad at it! I am not a Thatcherite but this is like stepping back into the 1970s in Scotland - the unions' influence over local politics is immense (and negative) and practically every job has a wage fixed by tripartite agreement. Developers, tobacco and alcohol firms also shovel money into the pockets of both main parties - and they distort the markets. There is huge protectionism for farmers, booksellers, supermarkets, car manufacturers etc.

There are large subsidies that are thrown about all over the place for no reason e.g. Ford just got $42m (I think) from the Green Adjustment fund to...fit a diesel engine to the locally-made SUV and a 4 cylinder petrol engine in a sedan. WTF is the Commonwealth funding a massive global company to do what is obvious?

There's a massive amount of credit-driven spending; there are many flashy cars and they are far overpriced compared to world markets, so they're all financed. The media and the property analysis houses are integrated so there is no "voice" for people who don't think that property will always go up.

There is no desire to compete or co-operate with regional economies. There is a real lack of enthusiasm for Asian co-operation and there is little takeup of Asian languages. They just don't get it that Singapore is a far easier, cheaper and more efficient place to do anything that anyone in Sydney can do in professional services. Even in tourism after 30 years of Japanese package tourists coming in, it's impossible to hire Australian Japanese speakers to show them around - let along Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese. We're a few hours away from millions of emerging middle class people who want to take a foreign holiday and we've done nothing about it. If there's any hope, it's in the second generation kids who speak their parents' languages and who'll be able to take up that business. Generic Australian parents (like my family members) are mostly more interested in how their kids are doing in fifteen sports rather than worrying about they're doing in school.

The Australian economy is doing great but it's a crystal vase and will shatter on the slightest tap imo.

But having said all that, it's a really nice place to live, the people are mostly friendly, public services are (so far) pretty good, the climate is often pretty comfortable (it's a really big deal to have weather that you can comfortably stroll around in for most months of the year! wouldn't live in Darwin or the desert, though). I'm not down on Australia - I just think we're all dooooooomed and it'll be good to have a hobby.

Fish & chips and orange squash isn't really an argument for staying somewhere.

er... no, but you try living without them for the rest of your life. And seriously, Canadians (like Americans) do not know curry.

Sure, a lot to recommend UK, but not much you can't find elsewhere, without having to put up with rubbish transport, chavs, hype, expensive beer, replica football shirts, Rupert Murdoch, The Daily Mail, acres and acres of bleak retail estates full of near identical shops selling near identical junk...Gah!

Yeah, but Spain (for example) has Pedro J, Cope and Intereconomia (catholic right wing politics), Real Madrid (more of the same, but with a bit more racism chucked in), crappy run down estates etc. Hardly Sunny Spain when it comes down to it.

What I'm trying to say is that the grass is always greener on the other side: get over the initial honeymoon period and you'll find you still have a mortgage, kids, you still need to buy food etc. I like living in Spain, but I don't for one second think this is a paradise - I'm sure I'd be equally as happy in most other countries.

@Clockwork667 That means you're just down the road from me!

Yep, I work at CU... and enjoy the fact that everyone has the same mindset when it comes to powder days and long weekends in the mountains!

I wont be racing 18 hours of fruita, but will be at almost all the other events in CO. Send me an email if you want any bike related stuff, I have a few good hook ups in the area.

Clockwork667 & Kitz_Chris in Breck now till summer then probably making a move to the front range. Definitely looking for rides when the snow melts if you're about then.

@clockwork, Kitz_Chris and 10. I'm also in Colorado. Used to live in Fort Collins, now in Denver, been here almost five years and love it. Originally from NI.

I'm a Registered Nurse working in Auckland, for nearly 5 years now. Young family (6+10) great life for kids out here so no plans to return to the UK.

I'm off to Kandahar in Afghanistan for three years - hopefully leaving in the next ten days or so. Not much chance of getting any mountain biking in though!