Being envious of the lifestyle when going abroad...

[LittleMissUnreasonable]

Does anyone else feel like this too? I live in a very wet part of the UK and whenever I go abroad or meet people from abroad, the lifestyle always seems amazing. Examples below;

• Met a Canadian girl abroad in Spain. Very tanned and toned. She played volleyball for her college team and had long hair and am effortless beauty about her. Whereas near me, the only sports teams are tennis/football, most of which are difficult to play outside due to the weather
• visiting Italy, all the food seems beautiful. 80 year and old women whipping up delicious pasta in moments. Whereas in England, I just feel like we never have time to sit down and make proper nice food
• Spain, fresh tacos cooking constantly, beautiful women looking like they've stepped out of a magazine. In England often darting through the wind and rain to get to an office job, stuck inside and grabbing a sandwich from Boots for lunch.

I'm fully aware I'm seeing the world through tourist tinted glasses, but can anyone who lives abroad or knows of the lifestyles/ isn't from the UK please give me some tips on how people do this!! Any beauty tips, any easy amazing recipes. I'm aware I can't sit on a Parisian Street drinking wine and eating olives, but would just love some tips from some locals of how to bring a bit of it to the UK :)

Many people are seduced by the sunshine and relaxed lifestyle of other countries but scratch the surface and you will find the same social problems everywhere. Drugs, unemployment, crime and poverty. Its not exclusive to any particular country!! Going on holiday is not the same as Living in that place
However, I was born and raised in a very famous UK seaside resort and when this comes into conversation, most people say "wow" I'm so jealous, it must have been great growing up there......and I have to be honest say .....It was !! 😀😀

Lived just outside Brussels for 13 years. The loo still had to be cleaned; the laundry done, the food shopping, the cooking. Same shit, different place in two different languages.

I had a nice lifestyle, but I am glad to be back.

DH used to go to Greece a lot for work and I would occasionally go with him. Down the road from our hotel was a lovely supermarket on three floors linked by moving ramps and on the top floor a restaurant and a crèche/play area. The restaurant was incredible - beautiful salads, hot dishes, cheese, fresh bread - a world away from supermarket cafes here!

Thank you for all the lovely snippets into other people's lifestyles (and the wake-up calls as well).

Also thanks for the food tips, I will certainly try pomegranate molasses and make more of an effort to iron clothes 😅

I love this thread, marking place!

Italy has huge differences between the north and the south. I'm not judging, just pointing out!

I think this is very true. My Italian dh doesn't even have a t-shirt as apparently they are for gyms and he doesn't go to the gym. 😆

I live in a hot country (well its not very hot at the moment) and life admin is the same as anywhere else. Personally I couldn't move back to the UK as I don't do too well in winter. But I can cope with it for 3 months of the year, the usual daily grind I find a lot easier the other warm 9 months. I find people way more positive when the weather is good. I do think that SAD is a real thing.

There are positives and negatives to wherever you are. You just have to weigh up which are the most important for you.

@rifling just curious what does he wear then? Just curious

On the top of ironing clothes, I’d say ensure that your clothes actually fit. That means, if the waist needs to be taken up, go and find a seamstress. If the trousers are too, have them taken up etc…. It’s amazing the difference it makes tbh.

Take the time to eat and enjoy the food. Make it an casino where everyone sits around the table. Cook from ‘scratch’ with good quality ingredients. Did you know the expression ‘cooking from scratch’ doesn’t exist in French. It’s just cooking….

Go out in nature. Ok you can’t do beach volleyball here but you can go walking in the countryside, rowing, climbing, orienteering, fell running. All of which will make you ‘toned’ and will allow you get some sun.

@0976gg I assume a shirt or a polo?

fwiw the idea of wearing joggers is still making me cringe, even after 20 years in the U.K. My dcs have learnt that if you go to a shop or anywhere really that isn’t ‘sport’ I expect them to wear something else than that.
Each time I have been going to France, spain etc… you can recognise British people miles away. They are the only ones who still wear sport wear (often Wo shape etc.. because they are so old/badly fitted/shapeless in the first place).

Yes, he wear shirts and polo shirts/short sleeved shirts in the summer. He also always wears a vest under his shirts at work as he thinks it looks sloppy not to!

@rifling yes, thats what I thought. Recently had a chat with DH, he is British about summer menswear. I still assume men wear shirts with shorts rather than t shirts but apparently I am wrong. But I grew up in France and lived in other parts of Europe for years.

That’s interesting, I always thought of Englishmen as being very well-dressed when I was growing up. They were the ones in blazers rather than North Face jackets and trainers.

When I told my family I was going out with one they tended to say “Oh, a gentleman!”

Ha yeah but eating all that pasta in Italy means it's not long before they young gorgeous girls start piling on the pounds :-D. And the bureaucracy in Spain is horrendous. I love visiting both countries but living there is a completely different kettle of fish. I wouldn't be any more glamorous there than I am here, just sweatier and more red faced :-D.

Not totally relevant but our van developed a noise in Spain and we took it to a guy who promised to replace a bearing while we waited. The garage was on an enormous industrial estate far from tourist haunts.
The cafe just down the road was incredible - huge range of food, squid, cuttlefish etc. An equivalent English cafe would have only had burgers (not that I don't enjoy a good burger).

It is men in their seventies plus who used to dress more formally in Britain. On the beach men used to wear shirts with their sleeves rolled up.

I have lived in a few European countries, actually in the end they are not so different really. Some differences of course, but not the perceptions you get from a short visit. We noticed that many people's lives around the home, clothing, leisure time etc were quite similar. There are always the well dressed polished people, there are always those who aren't so bothered, some clothes are expensive others are Primark/h&m/supermarket. There are those who do a lot of housework and have pristine homes, and those who don't. Some eat healthy fresh meals, others will grab a ready made packet sandwich and a packet of crisps.

You can grow your own easy to grow things like tomatoes, herbs, radish, strawberries, lettuce
Just need a bit of planning, can grow in tubs, water & sun light
Some will grow, some will fail, that's how it grows
Food in season is cheaper than imported food.

I haven't ironed anything for 10+ years. I buy material that doesn't need ironing.

Have a Mediterranean day once a week or once a month ?

When I was on holiday recently I saw this Italian family. The mother had 5 children between about 8 and 6 months. She was around 32 I'd say and she made looking after 5 kids so easy. She was tall, slim and so beautiful and completely in love with her kids. She really was amazing. She did have both mothers in law with her but she did all the work. One day she left the two babies with the grandmothers and she and her husband and the older kids were jumping off rocks. It was all so relaxed.

Her husband lay reading a novel most of the time with headphones on ...

DP went to replace a fence post and some livestock fencing yesterday. He decided to do it wearing a shirt and cap with twill work trousers instead of a t-shirt and knackered jeans because 'a shirt's cooler'.

All he needed was a waistcoat and he'd have looked like a Sicilian peasant circa 1945.

it worked for me