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RE: The World of XPILAR - CITYSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART CONTEST WEEK #086: View From The London Eye
Hi @the-gorilla. Thanks, I'm from Cornwall, not from London, but I've visited the capital and stayed there many times. I'm curious, what did you like the most about living in London? :)
I've always loved Cornwall and that part of the country. The beaches are beautiful. Were you close enough to the sea to walk?
Tough question - I was brought up in Reading so London was never too far away (which meant I never had any intention of living there) and then I got a short-term job there and loved it. I think that the thing I loved most was that there's always something to do, somewhere to go and things to see. When I lived by Tower Bridge, I would run along the river past The Mayors Building, Monument, HMS Belfast, The Tate, The Eye, Westminster and back over the Millennium Bridge (and probably a ton of other attractions that I have forgotten about!).
Having lived there, I never thought I'd leave (I also had a home on the Seafront near Bournemouth so the best of both worlds) and then the opportunity to live by the Seaside was too good to resist.
What made you head over to Brazil and live there?
Hi. I moved to Brazil because the person I love lives here, my wife is Brazilian. The process of obtaining a visa for my wife to live and join me in the UK is difficult and can be unfairly biased, so I decided the best, fastest and easiest way was to leave my country. I love my country/England, so we would like to live and move to the UK in the future if it's possible. If not, there's European countries or Southern Ireland, we will see what we can do.
Cornwall is nice, but it's the opposite to London, in London you can concentrate on your career and making money because of the great salary that you can receive and there's always something to do in London, you can never get bored of it. In Cornwall, it can be quiet and boring, especially during the winter months and when your friends/people don't want to do anything. In some places, there nothing to do as it's a seasonal tourist destination and places are closed and the centre of attraction or activity in the evening is the local pub, which doesn't interest me! 😊
I'd have expected the VISA process to be easier when you're married - I guess there's a lot of luck involved, especially with the anti-immigration policies which the current government seem to have. I'm certainly not an expert and not one to get into politics!
To compensate for the better salaries available in London, the cost of living is extortionate. A 1 bed flat will cost something like £1,200 per month in rent which is a large chunk of most people's salaries. Unless you're willing to commute from further out, I think most people would be better off financially living and working in their home town. But like you say, you'd never get bored of London, there's always somewhere to go and people to see. Once you leave though, you'll wonder why you spent hours every day sat on the tube travelling to and from work! I'm glad I had the opportunity to live there. I'm also glad that I left 🙂
I can't really imagine what life would be like living somewhere that only really wakes up in the holiday season... especially if you're not a fan of a night in the pub! What's it like where you live in Brazil? I think the British media has painted quite a bad picture of Brazil lately.
Hello. The situation in Brazil is complicated, politically speaking :) It's warm here most of the year and the food's really nice and it's laid back, but there's flaws or bad points. Mainly corruption and crime. It's not safe here, especially for "gringos" (don't flash your valuables and money and don't speak English in certain situations and locations, unless you want to attract unwanted attention and put your safety and life at risk).
You may have also heard bad stories about the President; Jair Bolsornaro. News stories and media outside of Brazil may paint him as extreme or dangerous, or a dictator (or all three of these). He's not that bad from my point of view and to many Brazilians. Most people voted for him because they wanted a change in the country because they want to get rid of corruption and to curb/ and fight crime. On one hand, it's said, or a lot of people believe, the previous government or party that was in power (PT) was corrupt. So people voted for a new president for big and new change. On the other hand, some people say the previous government was accused of false allegations and it's a lie, they were not corrupt. As I said, it's complicated here, politically...