Being Single And Happy - One Of The Few Cultural Taboos Left

[Guest P-Diddly]

Malaysia is one nice place. You ever been to the Pehrentian islands on the east coast ?

I do like KL too. Just everything seems to work !! German efficiency with Asian mentalness. Good combination.

Reckon two years, I'll finish up in the Caribbean and get a new place there. It's stable, more stable than these lunatics. WP's are easy too. If you bother with such trivialities . . .

Sorry guys, anywhere but the UK. I like the World, however risky it may be, I do at least feel alive.

[Kingding]

Reckon two years, I'll finish up in the Caribbean and get a new place there. It's stable, more stable than these lunatics. WP's are easy too. If you bother with such trivialities . . .

Sorry guys, anywhere but the UK. I like the World, however risky it may be, I do at least feel alive.

I hear you my man, Six months time I am upping sticks to give Australia a year long test run. We have so far had a summer that has resembled staring out through a tupperware container and the rain has been mildly warmer as per usual and if I have to endure another years worth of media driven misery and gash weather I am going to disappear up my own fundament and turn into Marvin from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy so time to go.

My other reasons are too myriad to list, I expect you already know most of them hence why you are there.

[Guest X-QUORK]

Kingding and P, thanks so much for reminding me of my lack of drive and ambition to leave the sceptred isle, thanks a lot. Some of us like drizzle and The Archers.

[ccc]

I hear you my man, Six months time I am upping sticks to give Australia a year long test run. We have so far had a summer that has resembled staring out through a tupperware container and the rain has been mildly warmer as per usual and if I have to endure another years worth of media driven misery and gash weather I am going to disappear up my own fundament and turn into Marvin from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy so time to go.

My other reasons are too myriad to list, I expect you already know most of them hence why you are there.

Take it you are doing the working holiday visa thing ? Always the best plan. I hear about people moving to another country based on a holiday there !! Mental I reckon. You really need to try before you buy.

For anyone else interested. If you are under 30 (or 35 for NZ) you can try each of the following countries for a year on a working holiday visa. Very easy to get. I recommend.

NZ ( Can get 2 visas - one for under 30 and one that geos till 35)

Canada

Australia.

Why not...

[Guest P-Diddly]

I hear you my man, Six months time I am upping sticks to give Australia a year long test run. We have so far had a summer that has resembled staring out through a tupperware container and the rain has been mildly warmer as per usual and if I have to endure another years worth of media driven misery and gash weather I am going to disappear up my own fundament and turn into Marvin from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy so time to go.

My other reasons are too myriad to list, I expect you already know most of them hence why you are there.

Yes, grayness was the main factor, followed by mindless authoritarian everything, followed by brutal over work, followed by funny attitudes towards existence and survival.

It's not the UK or anywhere, or anyone else, it's me. I've been a nomad all my life and I find it hard to stop. The places just get further away and even more exotic, I just can't help myself. Every time I up sticks it's another exciting mission, bit dangerous, new smells, new sounds, lots of different people, cultures, grub etc.

I have a base here now. But the fun won't stop.

Guess I like airport lounges and pressurised cabins.

[Kingding]

Take it you are doing the working holiday visa thing ? Always the best plan. I hear about people moving to another country based on a holiday there !! Mental I reckon. You really need to try before you buy.

For anyone else interested. If you are under 30 (or 35 for NZ) you can try each of the following countries for a year on a working holiday visa. Very easy to get. I recommend.

NZ ( Can get 2 visas - one for under 30 and one that geos till 35)

Canada

Australia.

Why not...

Lived in Oz for quite a few years before, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Hobart and was lucky enough to get a passport when I was there. Definately not expecting it to be the land of milk and honey though and I wouldn't go back to Perth if you paid me to be honest. However with possible little Kingdings on the horizon we thought it would be worth checking it out before we settle down. We'll start in Brisbane and take it from there. I'll miss the Scottish highlands the most I reckon, just spent two weeks hiking up there and God I love it.

Just have to see how it goes.....

[Kingding]

It's not the UK or anywhere, or anyone else, it's me. I've been a nomad all my life and I find it hard to stop.

I have a base here now. But the fun won't stop.

Ditto, travelled ever since I was born, went to 17 different schools last count and get itchy feet if I stay anywhere longer than 2 years.

Pisses the missus off a treat.

[Guest P-Diddly]

Lived in Oz for quite a few years before, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Hobart and was lucky enough to get a passport when I was there. Definately not expecting it to be the land of milk and honey though and I wouldn't go back to Perth if you paid me to be honest. However with possible little Kingdings on the horizon we thought it would be worth checking it out before we settle down. We'll start in Brisbane and take it from there. I'll miss the Scottish highlands the most I reckon, just spent two weeks hiking up there and God I love it.

Just have to see how it goes.....

World's a tiny place now anyway. Aeroplanes and 3G internet and Blackberry's. I just decide to sit over here, or over there, or anywhere really, it's no big deal.

[Guest P-Diddly]

Ditto, travelled ever since I was born, went to 17 different schools last count and get itchy feet if I stay anywhere longer than 2 years.

Pisses the missus off a treat.

Can't stop . . . won't stop . . . never stop . . . whooooaaaa!!!!

I did spend years opening a bunkabin door (little cabin thing to live in on site) and seeing the same stockpiles of crushed concrete or untreated contaminated soil.

Now I refuse that living death existence.

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

The single people in their 30s I work with bore the crap out of me these days. I just keep wondering when they're going to get bored of doing the same things - that were great fun in my early 20s - for decades on end. All the while pissing money away they will definitely need later.

The reason they don't congratulate you is obvious - it's not a life-changing event to continue to remain single, and the management of stressful life changes benefit from people's vocal support.

As for the comments about "you'll meet someone" etc., these are just platitiudes no more meaningful than chat about the weather. Just ignore it. If you're so happy, why do you care?

[Guest P-Diddly]

The single people in their 30s I work with bore the crap out of me these days. I just keep wondering when they're going to get bored of doing the same things - that were great fun in my early 20s - for decades on end. All the while pissing money away they will definitely need later.

The reason they don't congratulate you is obvious - it's not a life-changing event to continue to remain single, and the management of stressful life changes benefit from people's vocal support.

As for the comments about "you'll meet someone" etc., these are just platitiudes no more meaningful than chat about the weather. Just ignore it. If you're so happy, why do you care?

Marriage and houses and kids etc needs to be done once just to get all that cr@p out ones system.

Must say having kids is great. I stick around only because of the little one. I'll be free again in about 13 years.

One rule in this house. It belongs to daughter. Wife lives here again, but the boyfriend is not allowed anywhere near the place. Same if I have a girlfriend. This house is neutral ground for the benefit of daughter only.

[OnionTerror]

One of the biggest dreads for me is to slowly turn beige. I dont want to get to 45, and become Mr Bland, such as wearing socks & sandles and wearing beige elasticated slacks. Horrendous thought...

[The Masked Tulip]

I fear, with the last 3 or 4 years like this, that UK Summers have become a cold but bright April followed by this nasty grey cloud cover and drizzle for virtually the whole of May to Sept at which point, as the nights get darker, we get a few days of warmth and blue sky.

I think this is the result of global warming but it makes for a miserable time and I am now seriously considering moving elsehwere once the global economy picks up.

Also, frankly, many Welsh women are best avoided - they are unimaginative, overweight, focussed on money, and, frankly, very callous. I know that is a sweeping generalisation, and there are bound to be some lovely ones out there, but that has been my experience of them. They make English girls look like Angels.

[Frank Hovis]

I fear, with the last 3 or 4 years like this, that UK Summers have become a cold but bright April followed by this nasty grey cloud cover and drizzle for virtually the whole of May to Sept at which point, as the nights get darker, we get a few days of warmth and blue sky.

I think this is the result of global warming but it makes for a miserable time and I am now seriously considering moving elsehwere once the global economy picks up.

Also, frankly, many Welsh women are best avoided - they are unimaginative, overweight, focussed on money, and, frankly, very callous. I know that is a sweeping generalisation, and there are bound to be some lovely ones out there, but that has been my experience of them. They make English girls look like Angels.

That's the killer for me. Big Brother watching, Facebook following, Hello magazine reading, Radio 1 listening, clothes buying.

By no means all but far far too many. And age doesn't seem to stop them. I know women in their fifties who have the same trivial obsessions they had in their teens.

I have the male failing of following football, but I do at least accept that it's a failing.

[ccc]

Lived in Oz for quite a few years before, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Hobart and was lucky enough to get a passport when I was there. Definately not expecting it to be the land of milk and honey though and I wouldn't go back to Perth if you paid me to be honest. However with possible little Kingdings on the horizon we thought it would be worth checking it out before we settle down. We'll start in Brisbane and take it from there. I'll miss the Scottish highlands the most I reckon, just spent two weeks hiking up there and God I love it.

Just have to see how it goes.....

Nice plan - good luck. Way to do it. If you have a passport too you are sorted. Avoid all that ******ing around.

I will happily be a nomad for my whole life. Would be good to get a base sorted out. Once that is done I think I will become even more of a nomad. Why not. Every time I come home I notice one thing. After about a week everything just seems the same. It is as if you have never left. Except you have had an amazing year travelling in between. Whilst many at home have been sitting their jealous of what you are doing.

I always despair when I hear people talking 'The trip of a lifetime'. That is so depressing !! It infers it is all downhill from there on. I prefer to look at each trip as another amazing time on the long list of amazing times until I pop my clogs.

Life is too short to worry about stuff too much.

[MrPin]

One of the biggest dreads for me is to slowly turn beige. I dont want to get to 45, and become Mr Bland, such as wearing socks & sandles and wearing beige elasticated slacks. Horrendous thought...

That won't look so good on yer motorbike, a compulsory purchase for men of a certain age.

[Kingding]

Life is too short to worry about stuff too much.

+1 Hugely agreed, I think if I was minted I would spend most of my time travelling. After driving around Scotland the other week the urge to get on a ferry to Europe and continue on was almost overwhelming, however I find myself once again sat in my poxy office doing a job I care nothing about....means to an end, means to an end.

To me time is more valuable than anything else, my weekends are my own and it would be a very, very extrordinary set of circumstances that would make me give them up to do some monotonous guff in an office.

[Guest P-Diddly]

+1 Hugely agreed, I think if I was minted I would spend most of my time travelling. After driving around Scotland the other week the urge to get on a ferry to Europe and continue on was almost overwhelming, however I find myself once again sat in my poxy office doing a job I care nothing about....means to an end, means to an end.

To me time is more valuable than anything else, my weekends are my own and it would be a very, very extrordinary set of circumstances that would make me give them up to do some monotonous guff in an office.

We have the same disease.