Why We’re Trading England for Life in Antigua

We were scheduled to go on a road trip around Wales starting on May 7th and lasting 26 nights. It was all planned, there was an itinerary, accommodation booked (with free cancellation), a budget in place and money allocated.
However there is always room to change your mind.

While we were in Antigua back in February we spoke to the owner of our Air BnB and asked him if he ever rented it out for longer periods of time, say a month. He was quite keen on the idea but only if we avoided peak season.
Two weeks after returning from the Caribbean and back home, we discussed the idea of going back to Antigua to try an experiment -“Can we live like a local for a month?” and suddenly Wales was put back on the shelf and it was all systems go to try this new adventure.

Why Did We Want To Do This? What Are We Hoping To Achieve?

Is there an alternative to living in the UK?

Ok, I’m going to have to be honest here. I try to avoid digesting too much news because let’s be frank it’s all a bit soul destroying currently.
I try to avoid being drawn into political debates or aligning myself with one particular political viewpoint. I like to have the freedom to choose who I consider to be the right person for the right job. Call me naive but we all have our idiosyncrasies.

I fail to understand how anyone voted for Trump to be President or how the normal person in the street still supports his actions.

I watched a documentary recently created by Panorama and shown on the BBC, here in the UK entitled “Trump and the Tech Giants”.

“Peter Thiel. David Sacks. Elon Musk. Mark Zuckerberg. Jeff Bezos.
These tech titans have pledged their loyalty to President Trump. But what do they really believe and what do they stand to gain? This unfiltered portrait, revealed by insiders, shows where American democracy is heading and how this handful of tech billionaires accumulated such unprecedented power and influence.”

It clearly shows who is benefiting from Trump’s policies and believe me it’s not the everyday man in the street!
I felt this was a really good piece of journalism. It takes a lot for me to say that because I truly believe that the media has a lot to answer for in this current world.
Journalism used to be an honourable career, a job that young people competed to get into university to study. They investigated stories and they told the truth!
Now they write articles based upon their own opinions in order to sell newspapers and amass clicks on line. By expressing their opinions they on longer have to worry about whether their articles are factual and, therefore, being sued because this is just their opinion!
The sad part of this is that people still believe what they read. It’s in the newspaper, therefore, it has to be true!

So what has Trump got to do with me going to live in Antigua for a month?

Well unfortunately we have Trump’s little brother Nigel Farage in the UK.
He heads up the Reform Party which is a right-wing, populist, political party that advocates for strict immigration controls, major tax cuts, the abolition of net-zero climate targets, and the defence of traditional British culture!
If you take the trouble to read about their policies you will see many of them are a repeat of what Trump has already changed or plans to alter in America.

There is a very thin line between immigration and racism and I cannot Iive in a country that advocates for racism.
The next General Election in the UK must be called by August 2029.
Despite UK citizens watching Trump’s actions in America and often vocally disagreeing with him there is a surge towards supporting Nigel Farage.
It seriously worries me. I cannot live in a country that is led by this man!

So maybe the only alternative is to look to leave.

I worked hard for my retirement and now I just want a Simple Life

Is there such a thing as a simple life? Isn’t life what we make it?
I don’t know is my truthful answer.
I led a very busy life. I was a career woman working 50+ hours a week. A single parent with two children paying for childcare so I could earn enough money to pay the bills, keep a roof over our heads and put food on the table.
Yes I earned enough that we could have 2-3 weeks away each year, memorable Christmases and special birthdays but to do all that I juggled many balls. In fact I was a professional ball juggler!

So when you then step away from that world and try to slow down it’s not easy. You are not used to doing nothing or even having time to yourself.
You are used to feeling guilty when you read a book in the bath, take some time out for yourself to maybe go shopping or even go to the gym!
I even wrote a post about it entitled “Why Do I Struggle To Put Myself First?”

I’m thinking that maybe if you strip away your previous life and then move yourself to a new country and a new culture then perhaps it’s easier to press reset. To restart your life in a new format so you have time for everything without rushing around balancing diary entries and sometimes still feeling like you are pushing a heavy cart uphill

Maybe if I live somewhere that’s warm all year around life will feel better?

I must admit the weather in the UK, like so many countries is becoming more and more erratic. The seasons seem to blend into one.
Autumn lasts maybe a week, just enough time for the leaves to fall off the trees and then it starts to rain. The rain just goes on and on……….

A real winter seems to be a figment of my imagination.
6-10ft snow drifts that prevented the buses getting up onto the hill, meaning we could skip school and stay at home making snowmen, are a distant memory.
Instead it rains, temperatures are fairly mild through the traditional winter months and experiencing a White Christmas is definitely something in the past!

Spring is like Autumn. It last longs enough for the daffodils and primroses to poke their heads above the grassy parapet before the rain and wind blow them flat.If we are lucky the rain finally stops around the beginning of April in time for Easter.

Summer has been all over the place. We’ve had hot weather in May and June and then changeable, cloudy skies and even rain in July and August when the children are off school. Then we had one summer recently when it was mega hot.
Everything is so extreme. But there’s nothing to worry about because Trump and Farage say global warming is unimportant and economically unsound!

So can I live in a warmer climate? Will I miss the odd snowy day, seeing the lambs gambolling in the fields in Spring and walking through the Autumn leaves as the nights draw in?

Can I live like a local and not like a tourist or traveller?

Will Antigua still hold the same appeal when you are living like a local?
As a tourist on holiday you focus your time away into seeing the key attractions and spending nights out savouring different foods because your time is limited. You are focusing everything into one or maybe two weeks away on holiday per year and money is more available.

When you switch to travelling, as I’ve talked about in “Our Journey: From Holidays to Authentic Travel Experiences” , you have a tighter budget mainly because you want to see as much of the world as you can before this last quartile of your life expires. You go away, therefore, more frequently.
In our case we do three main trips a year with the odd additional shorter adventure thrown in. You still see the key sites but you tend to self cater and only pop out to experience the local cuisine maybe 1-2 times a week. Managing your budget is real!

So if you then alter that still further and actually go and live somewhere then suddenly seeing the sights disappears. You’ve possibly done that already or if not they become part of normal life where you maybe go out once a week and eating out is a treat as it would be back home in England.

The price of buying food at supermarkets will no doubt become very real.
And what am I going to do every day when suddenly some of my normal hobbies are not available?

Can you actually replicate your life in the UK somewhere else?

Well the flights are booked. Our accommodation on the beach in Antigua is waiting –think Death in Paradise beach and palm trees, we have a car waiting for us to pick it up at the airport and a budget worked out.
Lets go and find out!

Final Thoughts:
Have you ever thought about living in another country? What made you decide to do this? What would put you off moving? What would you miss?
I’m interested in hearting from you and if you have enjoyed my article please give it a “like”