Happy to Be Back In UK.......

[Unregistered]

Hello Everyone,

I have just returned to UK from Africa where I have been on the ship for three months. For the last three months I have not be ashore once and was really looking forward to having a stroll etc...........

From walking out of the port gates in Harwich the following happened:

1) Three yobs drove past in a lowered hatchback and shouted w**ker and then sped off.
2) A dog then approached me at speed and started trying to hump my leg.
3) I witnessed the arrest of two drunken youths.
4) I stopped to look at a monument celebrating the victories of Admrial Nelson, at which point two mopeds started doing "burn outs" next ot it.
5) When walking under a bridge I was finally offered drugs.

This all happened before I even reached the town................I never thought I would be wishing to be back in Africa.

I should have stayed on the ship.

[danking]

Blimey, sounds like you stepped of ship and into an episode of Shameless!

[Clanky]

How much did the drugs cost you?

I know what you mean though, you spend ages onboard looking forward to going home on leave and sometimes the reality is not that great. I can highly recommend moving to Spain as a cure for this. Things are still ****, but at least they are **** and sunny.

[ramfeild66]

I live in Newquay mate so aim one of my life goals is move abroad... I'm thinking Scandinavia as I loved it there and I quite like the cold, maybe even Canada if I can find some way of wangling it with their immigration types. British society is in a sad state of affairs to practically anywhere else I've been. No respect, no values and a complete lack of ambition in the most part. My ex was Japanese/Canadian and couldn't seem to go a day without some kind of racist abuse, it was completely foreign to her, hence why we moved back there... unfortunately the course of love didn't run too smooth, hence back in Newquay. Britains club 18-30.

[chris]

buying a place in spain/portugal is high up on my list.

[1st]

how can you wish to be back in Africa when you said you didn't get ashore? Therefore how can you compare the two?

[Ganner]

To be fair he probably didn't fly directly onto the ship unless his company has some nice shiny aircraft carriers so I would assume he stayed there in a hotel or at the very least travelled from the airport to a port giving him some experience of the country. If he was not in that short space of time raped by a dog, offered drugs and witness to the arrest of multiple people I think he has a fair point, plus it was probably really sunny!

[1st]

To be fair yourself and he are talking rubbish. Yes there are bad things about the UK, however the UK is much better in terms of quality of living and social welfare than any African country. The UK isn't perfect but it's a better place to live.
From your point of view he spent a few minutes in the country before joining ship, and in that time he had fully assessed the quality of living and managed to compare it to the UK's. Not only are his experiences anecdotal, they are subjective as well. He experienced a few negative aspects of one UK town, and then somehow concluded he wished to be back in Africa which he implied was better.
Then comes your statement "it probably was really sunny". So more sunshine= a better place? Sorry but I can't see the logic there.

If you don't like the UK at least you have the right to leave.

[ETwhat?]

I managed to spend about 3 months in South Africa a 3 years ago. got to durban, cape town, joburg and a few othere places along the way. I would say it is a nice place and in general as a tourist in big city areas pretty safe and free from hassle, theres less beggars on the streets etc. however for most part unless your earning a UK wage it isnt that great a place to live, so while working there the standard of living seems better its becasue i had more money to spend. (some of the girls in the night clubs had brought their own bouncers). it was sunny and theres a fair amount of cool stuff to do that in the uk is possible but slightly less fun.

However I wouldnt swap it for the UK, some of the things we pay for here that seem pointless suddenly seem like a good idea when you miss them. and the fact no company would take credit card payments over the phone, or even in person for large transactions due to such a high level of fraud is just annoying, consider if everytime you wanted to buy something off the internet you had to go down to the bank of the seller and wire him money.

[Ganner]

Ouch no need to bite my head off! Both his and my post where tongue in cheek and my response was just highlighting how silly and un thought out your attempt at belittling the OP was. It is just a bit of fun! I happen to love my country and its entire people from Her Majesty on down to the lowest Jeremy Kyle reprobate. I wasn’t attempting to actually compare living standards of Africa and the UK, as I am not a silly sausage.

However in my personal opinion any place is improved if it’s sunnier. England on a sunny day is better than England on a rainy day, surely you can see by my throw away ending that my entire post was in jest and a poke in your ribs for your ridiculous statement?

And technically as we have to pay for a passport to leave this country I'm not sure it qualifies as a right : p

[chris]

just to be pedantic, you can fly out the country to most eu countries with just photo id on most airlines so need need for a passport, though you need a passport to get back in

[Ganner]

Wow I didn't know that! Thats not bad if you wnat to get stranded in a lovely sunny part of Europe!

[Steve]

The UK authorities will let you out, since we don't check ID documents on leaving, but the foreign authorities shouldn't let you in without a passport so you can expect to be turned around and returned to the UK where you'll have to establish your ID with UKBA.

[Ganner]

Is that knowledge gleamed from a bad experience Steve?

[alistairuk]

The UK authorities will let you out, since we don't check ID documents on leaving, but the foreign authorities shouldn't let you in without a passport so you can expect to be turned around and returned to the UK where you'll have to establish your ID with UKBA.

Yer ,but the airlines ground staff check you have a passport - since the airline have to pay to return you to the uk if you're rejected at destination

Although given that there all sub contracted ground agents - how much interest they actually put in checking is questionable