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upping sticks & moving abroad

Clisty1989

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Location
Swansea
Been thinking a lot about this over the last couple weeks, but few things bug me. I'd like to keep working on the glass, but I know its done very differently overseas. Can't decide where atm, thinking of either Spain, Portugal or maybe even the US or Oz/NZ. Anyone done it either successfully, unsuccessfully or thought about it, id love input. Not going any time soon, probs tail end of 2018/ early 2019, but need to do the homework now. Any advice would help, thanks in advance

 
What about building a business over here that supplies an income whilst you start out overseas?

I would think moving to Europe would be the easiest option at least until brexit.

I've got 4 kids, if I had no responsibilities i would bugger off too.

 
What about building a business over here that supplies an income whilst you start out overseas?

I would think moving to Europe would be the easiest option at least until brexit.

I've got 4 kids, if I had no responsibilities i would bugger off too.
looking at cyprus, window cleaning done similar to here, 99% of people speak English, and its easy to move to. Plan is to build my round up, then rent over there for 6 months, and whilst there rent the round & my house out. I'll try get a job with a window cleaner over there for the 6 months, then if all is well I'd come back for a few months, sell the house and round, ship my tools over and set up a business there. If it doesn't go well then I haven't really lost out as I've still got the house and business. Looking at at least 12-18 months of research and prep before I take the plunge.

 
Each to their own, but I could never live abroad, completely happy here. 

We go away abroad quite a lot, but after around 9-10 days, I'm missing my local pub, millwall, just missing my social life in general.

I don't like working in the heat, prefer warming up when it's nippy.

Enjoy my life here, can't see why moving abroad would make it better. Each to their own etc etc ?

 
The only gripe I have with this country is the weather. For the most part it's just depressing. Apart from that it has to be one of the best countries in the work for business and opportunities etc. 

That's said if I lived abroad I wouldn't want to clean windows. We go to Italy twice a year and temps are regularly in the 30s..it's a beautiful country but it not somewhere I would be wanting to work outside all day long..it's bad enough here when we get a heatwave.

If I lived abroad I'd want to do something totally different and preferably out of the heat.

 
Been thinking a lot about this over the last couple weeks, but few things bug me. I'd like to keep working on the glass, but I know its done very differently overseas. Can't decide where atm, thinking of either Spain, Portugal or maybe even the US or Oz/NZ. Anyone done it either successfully, unsuccessfully or thought about it, id love input. Not going any time soon, probs tail end of 2018/ early 2019, but need to do the homework now. Any advice would help, thanks in advance
I thought about it so many times over the years. Could've bought a place in Lanzarote from a family member. when I went over to have a look I saw an English painter painting as I was sat by a pool with a beer in the intense heat, and I just thought right there and then f*** that for a lark!!! Working g in that heat would not be fun.


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I also thought about it and was kindly reminded about how much I hated working in the sun when it was 25 degrees and I was going to move to a country that's always 40 haha

 
I worked in hot countries before. You just start earlier. Sometimes I would start at 4am. Then you just finish earlier afternoon and get on the beach or chill out in house with ac on. 

 
heat doesn't bother me when working, which is a bonus. It's a long way off, so gotta do all the research 1st, then gonna go out for a couple weeks on a fact finding trip looking at everything (healthcare, jobs etc) before ill even consider it

 
heat doesn't bother me when working, which is a bonus. It's a long way off, so gotta do all the research 1st, then gonna go out for a couple weeks on a fact finding trip looking at everything (healthcare, jobs etc) before ill even consider it


You. Could probably find out everything you need to know and more from the comfort of your sofa and Google.

Good excuse for a trip though

 
No matter where you bugger off to, you still have to take your mind with you. That can't just bugger off.
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Good point. If you can't be happy in this great country of ours, why would going abroad make such a difference?

 
Been thinking a lot about this over the last couple weeks, but few things bug me. I'd like to keep working on the glass, but I know its done very differently overseas. Can't decide where atm, thinking of either Spain, Portugal or maybe even the US or Oz/NZ. Anyone done it either successfully, unsuccessfully or thought about it, id love input. Not going any time soon, probs tail end of 2018/ early 2019, but need to do the homework now. Any advice would help, thanks in advance


My first post prompted by your post.

I am a Brit in the USA - I did some cleaning in the UK.  Window cleaning as seen in the UK does not exist here.  Those with money get their places done both outside and inside maybe once a year.....for around $300 to $400 as a starter.  Commercial does exist, to a degree, it mainly involves someone employing a gang of Mexicans to swing off a roof with B&Q buckets tied to a belt, grasping onto a squeegee and a blade as they push the dirt around the windows.

The Mrs works for an international company and every office she has worked at here in the US from Florida to Philadelphia and now in Texas has had the dangly Mexican method of cleaning used.  That was on a 3 storey, a five storey and a 20 storey......the cynic in me say's that a dozen Mexicans are cheaper than a water fed pole.

I am in contact with a large supplier of window cleaning goodies in the UK and they tell me that they have regular shipments of poles and similar to the US.  I would love to know where they go, I have never, not once, ever in 8 years seen a WFP, displayed, wielded or used.

If you do not like the heat stay away from the east coast of the USA (south carolina to florida) as during the summer it gets up to the 90's with a 90% humidity too.  The north east in the winter is dire and unworkable outside from November to April unless you have kind of cross genetic linking to polar bears.  When I say dire, I do mean dire, an english winter is like a nippy autumn day in comparison.......think frozen solid, permafrost like ground, a snowafall of 12" to 36" overnight, freezing rain cold enough to freeze the sap in tree's so that they become brittle and snap.  Anything liquid outside just freezes in November and thaws in April.

Spain and Portugal:  I used to go and skydive in Spain and one of the instructors at the DZ (airfield) had, in a previous life, been a window cleaner.  When he moved to Spain he thought......."aha, loadsa Brits I'll get a round together".  He said it was miserable.  Most people retire down there on a fixed income pension so they count every penny and don't spend it on discretionary items like window cleaning.  He had a bit of a round, but nothing like he had in the UK which is why he used to travel away during the week to teach skydiving and then go home weekends.  Add to that the buggerance factor of metal security bars over many of the windows down on the Costa's.

Just some info based on having lived in places.

 

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