12032 Time for a new debate? - Ex-pats

Jeremy Clarkson.....what better excuse does one need to leave the country?

.......but it did make me chuckle :biggrin:

To quote Mr Clarksons closing paragraphs:

[quote]You will sit there in a bar, in your stupid Hawaiian shirt, pretending the waiter is a friend, reading the barcode on a two-year-old copy of The Week, trying desperately to convince yourself that you are happy. But you won’t be, because abroad is where you go on holiday. Britain is home.
And you know what? Yes it’s cold. Yes it’s run by idiots. And yes, I wasn’t bothered about Jade Goody either. But at least we don’t throw our donkeys off tower blocks and we don’t cook our food in the garden. And because it’s always 57 degrees and drizzling, we are less inclined to sit outside all day getting sloshed.
[/quote]

If all this cr*p means that HE is likely to stay in Blghty, then all I can do is perhaps send him a postcard from [U][I]my[/I][/U] 'little corner of Expat land' and write....

[B][FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=RoyalBlue]"Glad I'm here, and [U][I]sooooooo[/I][/U] glad you're NOT!"[/COLOR][/FONT][/B]

Silly s*d. Does he [I]really[/I] think that only the bucket and spade brigade become Expats? I reckon he's in 'la la' land!

:yes:

Hi Carole
I agree, so far, my little piece of 6 year old expat land is ok - working hard.....God willing, fingers crossed, black cats galore etc etc etc.
Perhaps he should stick to cars.

'I urge you all to think carefully. Even if they’ve taken your land and your homes, they cannot take your friends. Or your family. And no matter how infrequently your children drop by now, you can trust me on this: if you live abroad, you’ll probably never see them again. Ever.' J Clarkson

We cannot get rid of ours! (God love 'em and keep 'em) Most especially in the summer months...

Clarkson is well known for his derisive attacks, indeed he earns lots of money by making them, but he does love Italy and the Italians.

Moxie (and him)

I've always taken it as a given that anything he says is tongue in cheek. Never would occur to me to take him seriously.:eerr:

So convince me Moxie, how do you know he loves Italy and the Italians?. he has always seemed a total idiot to me, but I guess it sells air space, and some people seem to enjoy his outpourings and even quote him , for heavens sake.
A

Hello Mimosa Folk.
My better half has all Clarkson's books being a caraholic. I think the man is an arrogant insufferable fool, however in order to convince you I offer a direct quote from his book 'Motorworld' in which he waxes lyrical about Italy.
'Show me someone who says there are more beautiful buildings than those in Italy or more beautiful art or clothes and I'll show you someone who has never been there' J Clarkson
I could offer another ten quotes but I refuse to be on the receiving end of your 'for heaven's sake'!!
Moxie (and him)

"I think the man is an arrogant insufferable fool"
Moxie! who do you mean? Him or (him). Surely not the latter! But if you mean the other, he is also very popular here as well,even if his progs are 4 years out of date. My friends get very upset when Italian cars are not voted "Best Car of The Year". They all cried when the runner beat the Panda across London. Effigies of Tower Bridge were set alight and trampled underfoot! There was a vast increase in letters to the press crying Fowl!
As for the ex pat stuff, he's entitled to his view and he obviously deserves to have his opinion in the limelight being the only sane man left in England! Do we have to take him seriously? Must go and dig out my Pimms and Panama. Cheerio!:eerr:

It seems quite obvious to me how Clarkson arrived at these opinions……..Clarkson has been to Spain (sorry Gala) :laughs::laughs:

No apology needed, Nielo. As Clarkson says, some places in Spain, but also in Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand and other countries in the world have a few whingeing, miserable, friendless and drunken lot of foreigners, not only British. They are the ones who decided to move to a different country because they were unhappy with themselves and carried on their misery elsewhere. In the Spanish "Costas" they seem to be notorious as they gather in those British bars, cannot speak a word of the language and keep on complaining about anything local, except the cheap plonk, which they drink in excess. These are the people who should have never left their own country as moving was not going to provide the magic cure for their problem. They are unable to enjoy the simple things in life and will be a sad lot wherever they are.
There is another category, and this is the ones who made the wrong decision by moving because they were looking at things through rose tinted specs only.
Once again, I do not think it is a problem that has a nationality tag attached.

Sometimes negative comments are made purely out of envy,
I had a friend from uk visit with her family and I said would you like to do the tourist thing- visit Bologna, Parma, Modena, Pisa? or do you prefer to relax in the garden all week, sit under the tree eating good food with a bottle of wine.
She chose the latter, then went back to uk and said to another friend " I did'nt like it there was nothing to do/see"
Her husband told me he loved the place and would move over if he could, but guess he won't be coming!

As Mr Clarkson's employer ( well I pay my TV licence fee)I shall see to it that he is locked up in grey box, to represent the climate, with water dripping on him constantly and he will be fed spam sandwiches which also get wet, ( so reminiscent of my childhood holidays)he will then be made to listen to the inane rubbish that passes for conversation these days in this country. He will then have an opportunity to recant or go through it all again.

I love Clarkson and his irreverent big headed humour. He's not averse to taking the pxss out of himself either. This one was a bit predicable, and not very relevant to our lives, although the desperation for English newspapers rings true. :yes:
The characature was very close though to a lot of expats near to where my folks live on the Costa Blanca - I brought my supply of Marmite back from my last trip to Spain!

I've not found a replacement here for Clarkson's type of humour in Italy so I'm glad we've got access to the BEEB and confess to missing encounters with people like him.

It's just Clarkson, he makes a very healthy living out of being controversial and, besides, he's said something very similar before on this subject.
But I feel he misses the point entirely for irrespective of how happy you may be in Britain or wherever - and we both walked away from jobs with good futures and a beautiful house - isn't it a bit boring to spend all your life in one place? Failure or success is completely irrelevant, surely it's the EXPERIENCE that matters? When I look back on where we've lived, the people we've met, the things we've done, what we've seen, etc failure/success doesn't even figure in the equation.
My god, when I think we could have spent the last 25 years working in well paid jobs in London, driving in to the office everyday, year in/year out with nothing more than a snatched weekend at Easter or a fortnight's holiday in August doing something entirely different, I literally go cold.
If this is "failure", I'll have an extra helping please.

Interesting subject this one..............

I think beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder...............we are all very different, different requirements, different ages, different dependencies, different backgrounds etc etc.........
From my (somewhat) limited experience of living here in Italy and having in effect moved lock stock and barrel over here and not needing to be in employment............my word I cannot see how a youngish (say English) family could possible exist if they did the same, I think Jeff & Nicky are one such couple who have tried, tried and tried.................and due to numerous difficulties with life here have called it a day and are returning to the UK.

It [U][B]is[/B][/U] a different world here, very different ways of life and values (some better some not so) - matter of opinion! - Financially I just cannot see how some younger people could possibly manage?

Personally, I love Jezzer. I was a huge fan of Top Gear when we lived in U.K. Never missed a show, & love his sense of humour, & lets all remember it is humour we are talking about here. Lets not take ourselves or Jezzer too seriously. Have you heard him talk about vegetarians? Well, I am one & he never upset me.
Sprat

Actually, Clarkson is a master of PR. Standard technique - be controversial and people will talk about you. The reaction is not always positive, but hey, it is all about being in the public awareness. Better to ignore him than to give him the air time if you don't like him IMHO.