Labor in the UK

Within 11 weeks the movers will be here. When the representative of the moving company asked me in how many days we were packed up in America he was quite surprised that my answer was "one day". He asked me how that was possible. "Well", I answered, "a crew of five come in, and each starts packing up a room, and they don't stop until they're finished." "Labor must be cheap in the US", was the reps' response to that. I told him that when we moved from Holland to the US the movers took one day as well and that since our recent international move, my husband and I had moved our household three times more, and gotten rid of quite some stuff in the process. I could tell he was impressed when he found out that we had moved without help of a moving company.
"Four days", the rep told me, it was going to take their movers four days to pack up our household, based on the volume of our belongings. Both my husband and I have since asked if they are sure about this, telling them that we really don't have that much stuff, but they insist that it will take them four days.

A family member in Holland put it quite bluntly when she said, "the English are lazy". She had worked for a couple of months in a care home in England and drew her own conclusions from that experience.
My Thai beautician uses the exact same term, "the English are lazy, and I'm married to one". Well, I don't wish to argue with that.
I don't know if the English are lazy as such, but perhaps they are comfortable; they feel they can take it easy perhaps of the soft cushioning the government provides for when they fall, so to speak. I know I'm generalizing here, and I certainly don't want to imply that this is true for all English, as I'm sure it's not...but for some, yes, I think it may be the case.

There have been several articles and reports about immigrants and immigration in this country, and if this is a burden or if this gives an economical benefit to the United Kingdom. From what I've read I have the feeling that the opinions and conclusions are quite conflicting. I can just share my own experiences and the stories I hear around me, and from what I see I conclude that this country needs the immigrants. For example, the people from Eastern Europe that I've met here are highly motivated to make a better living for themselves, and they work hard to make it here. Our neighbor, who is a business owner, tells us that he will take a Polish worker anytime over an English worker, because he knows that he can depend on them. If the Polish worker can't come in for work, he will send a buddy to do the job.

A former neighbor, a cultured Englishman in his eighties who tells us he is not racist, has the opinion that the neighborhood and the city is going down because of immigrants and "blacks". Now I really don't want to argue with a man at his age, who survived the war, and travelled the world, but the parents on the streets who are yelling shamelessly to their kids in the shopping centre, are most definitely English. So is their gardener, who told them he is building up a business for himself, and suddenly he just stopped coming. Why did he let the neighbors down so suddenly? It turned out he was saving up for a holiday, once he made enough money, he just didn't show up at the scheduled time with his customers and just went away to enjoy the sun...I imagine he will have to start his business up on the ground floor again upon his return, he can't count on the recommendations of his former customers I'm sure.

The English are proud of their country, and of their history of being once the most powerful nation on this earth. An acquaintance said once "we did not become great by being nice", but I wonder if they realize that they are losing their edge. Businesses like cleaning companies, removal businesses and plumbing services owned by immigrants are rising from the ground like mushrooms. And guess who I would call if I need something done around the house? Yes, someone who is reliable, flexible and honest hardworking. I'm done waiting for a given time slot of 8-5 for someone who may or may not show up.

I'm very curious to see what will happen with the packing up of our belongings, and if they will really need four days to complete work. Maybe they come with less than five, probably they just work short days...I don't know how else I can explain why the movers would take that long. We'll see.

A Friends' Boost

"Seeing my friends, seeing how well they’re doing, and the amazing progress their kids have made, was very gratifying...-continue-..."

While we just got the news that we are being kicked out of our house for the THIRD time in two years in this miserable country...it seems that we at least did something right...

I think our Dutch friend in the US said it wisely, and it made me grin: "...you learn from whatever life throws at you (some of it, I am sure, is stuff I throw at myself)".
If we learned one thing from this whole experience it is that we need to take the red flag warnings along the way, of whatever decision we are about to make, a bit more seriously. A couple of months ago I felt I was fighting my intuition about moving into this house. So I can blame myself, but really we couldn't have known that the development company was planning to flatten this lot so quickly! I still doubt that bulldozers will already show up in December, so we are trying to reason with the 'big guys' to let us stay untill Summer....

We will see what the outcome will be. I've thought very strongly about moving back early to the US with the kids...but seeing how well they do in school, I refuse to leave just yet...

Thanks friend...