I’m sure, like @JohnBoy you’re making the right decision for your circumstances. OTOH it’s now over six years since I last visited the UK and I really don’t want to go there again, as apart from being able to buy decent lamb, I found it profoundly depressing.
OTOH, my sister-in-law and her husband are currently in the process of fleeing Joburg for SE England and my wife will have to (reluctantly) visit England at some point - she’s not been back since we emigrated in 2017.
Fortunately, I’ll be able to use Gigi (who’s never been in a kennel) as my excuse to remain in France.
The other thing to bear in mind is do your offspring want an inheritance? By thetime my mum died (at 96) we were all settled and had no need or desire for more than few bits and pieces.
We refused the inhertance and passed it on to next generation, who were young adults. And yes they paid taxbut still left them quite enough for 20 and 30 something year olds.
So we didn’t obsess aboutwhat was going to tax man but more about the gifts that my mum actually gave.
You leave an assurance vie to the beneficuaries to pay tax with.
Indeed, but if not Josie, which I never liked apart from a few bits (Killarney, Melville and Rosebank Mall on a Sunday morning) I’d much prefer Cape Town to living in the the UK.
I’be never been a fan of Cape Town, though many happy memories there, and friends still there. But it never felt like “Africa”. More like the South of France with penguins (smelly, aren’t they.)
I’d forgotten the market at Rosebank Mall until you mentioned it. We were only up the road in Benmore Gardens.
After being away from somewhere for over 25 years I don’t think you can ever go ‘back’ there, simply because that which one had previously experienced is no longer there. I miss some things from the UK of the era that I experienced there, but could I actually afford to buy a decent pint of Bitter now, and if so, then with my more advanced years would I actually be able to drink it ? Some things are perhaps best left as memories.
I’ll never go into a care establishment in any country. If left on my own as a widower then I’ll either manage or die. The restaurant across the street will cook my lunch and it’s only 5 metres to their door. The bakery next door will deliver, and I expect the zimmer frame will take me the 60 metres to the village shop for essentials such as baccy and scotch. They will also deliver if I phone.
So yes, I’m staying till the end.
Did you see Thora Hird doing Alan Bennet’s “There’s a crisp packet under the sofa” ? If so, then you’ll understand the way I’m thinking.
I have been away for well over 30 years and so, apart from siblings and their families have nowhere or no one I could pick up and start again with. My old town and village before that, is now an awful expensive Home Counties dump and houses are ridiculous prices not to mention the other higher costs of living compared to here like heating and lighting and water especially. Luckily I have family here in the next commune so any problems I have, they deal with them for me and are always popping in plus the grandchildren are my life these days so could not go anywhere else. The UK is as alien to me now as any other country in the world, France is my home and has been very good to me after losing OH and where I prefer my money spent.
It’s opposite for me no other family here at all. 18 months ago I visited the place I would move to in uk, it has hardly changed apart from house prices. So for me although it will be sad to leave my beautiful house and friends here I will be able to see family more frequently, still enjoy the countryside similar to here except with mountains . Who knows what can happen over 2 years it might all change for me.
Moot point for me anyway, I couldn’t afford to live in the UK. Accomodation costs rule it out; not the money to buy nor rent. Just as well I don’t want to eh ?
This is an interesting topic, not least because we have just ‘gone back’ by choice after 18 years of living in France.
I appreciate everyone is different, as are their circumstances, but what I find unnecessary in an adult conversation is the childish venim aimed at what after all, for most, is the country where they were born or brought up in and now probably rely on that same country for the vast amount of their income.
As foreigners living in France, and mostly in later years, living a life chosen rather than needed to survive naturally creates a feel good factor viewed through rose tinted glasses.
Now back in the UK, I am still wearing the same glasses and I can see exactly what I want to see, life is good.
To answer the original question ‘what would make you go back to UK’…
For me, sheer curiosity of course!
Like many, I have been absent from UK (Edinburgh) in my case from 17 years and England, (Oxford) 32 years.
I always ‘thought’ I could go back and live in Oxford and or Woodstock and Edinburgh is an amazing place but I would need to go visit some other places and I would be looking for a place with a great public transport system, preferably in or going towards car free, perhaps a University City for the vibrancy and a great food scene.
Bristol? Leeds (c’mon LUFC), Norwich??
It is an intriguing proposition to move back and try and relearn the language and all the witticisms and stuff having spent so long having to ‘average’ out my English to talk with non-native English speakers at the EU and prior other Governmental places in Asia and Africa. …..think it would be
Oh, that is a rotten shame. Can you quietly/discretely check the situation re available help/possibilities in UK (without telling her) ? just to ensure that she hasn’t missed/overlooked something
