Take her to England or Australia?

[Bembaman]

You can get them, but not like at home The pitta bread is all soft and doughy and there's not enough lethal animal fat in the meat to dribble down your chin or chilli sauce to blow your head off You cannot beat the life terminating UK donner!

[Guest]

Hi,

 

I'm 42, based in London, and I work in the IT industry, or at least I

did until my contract in the US came to an end just before Christmas.

 

I suspect that I will not get back into that line of work in the UK

in the near future, if at all. I also suspect that it will not be long

before I loose the roof over my head.

 

I used to survived the short gaps between previous contracts OK. This time, even

though it is still close to the Christmas break, I still have not been able

to get hold of any of my previous agents let alone any replies to my direct

mailings. Times are bad if the established agents are loosing their jobs as well.

There are IT jobs advertised in London, but as always they specify the

usual 2 dozen skills required for the one job. Competition is intense.

The Bush family feud is depressing the economy here; as an indicator consumer

spending at christmas was less than hoped for. The side effects of this could

go on for another year, and possibly longer if the war goes ahead and Iraq

is occupied.

 

On top of the recession in the IT industry, businesses in the UK and in London

in particular, are out-sourcing work to India and to Eastern Europe. This was

previously only affecting developers but now support jobs are being relocated

as well.

 

If you do get a job, in London in my case, the hours are long, and the

work environment often unfriendly. Depending on how far out you have to

live you could be travelling for upto 2 hours in each direction, in an

overcrowded, dirty carriage that in some cases should have been withdrawn

from service years ago on safty grounds. that of course depends on the train

running on time, if at all.

 

House prices are still on the up, but economists are forcasting that the

market will collapse in a big way in Q2. House prices are a big issue for

anyone whom wants somewhere decent to live. Rented accommodation in London

is expensive.

 

There are pluses in London; the social entertainment scene is good; pubs,

thearter, mueseums, sights etc, but it is not as free and easy as in LOS.

On teh downside the cost of living is expensive, the traffic is bad, the streets

are filthy, and violent crime is on the up. There are no signs, from what I can see,

of it improving in the near future.

 

So summing up; if you can hang on in Australia or LOS, even if you have to take

a cut in income and change jobs/career - do it; dont come back to the UK.

I was hoping to quit Blighty myself, but the recession has recked my plans.

 

 

[chilli13]

I must agree - you can get kebabs virtually everywhere, but unlike mcd & the likes they vary considerably in style & quality from country to country. LOS is probably one of the worst places even in arab city, while the UK, Germany etc. are ok, but IMO the ones in Denmark are some of the best outside turkey/arab world!