From LA to rural Scotland: The odyssey of a bookworm

That Daily Mail 'passion' one could nearly be spun into a bodice ripper version.

We are all missing a trick here you see. Off to work on the many versions of how I came to be here so I can sell one to the Daily Mail!

I was sitting on a hot beach in Clearwater, Florida, when my brain - overly sunbaked - threw up a hallucination, a picture of me in muddy walking boots, hanging off a rock, with a skinny, geeky man below - pointing & laughing...

I was sitting on a hot beach in Clearwater, Florida, when my brain - overly sunbaked - threw up a hallucination, a picture of me in muddy walking boots, hanging off a rock, with a skinny, geeky man below - pointing & laughing...

Mrs Robinson - are you from Clearwater?  I am!  I went to Countryside.

That Daily Mail 'passion' one could nearly be spun into a bodice ripper version.

We are all missing a trick here you see. Off to work on the many versions of how I came to be here so I can sell one to the Daily Mail!

I was sitting on a hot beach in Clearwater, Florida, when my brain - overly sunbaked - threw up a hallucination, a picture of me in muddy walking boots, hanging off a rock, with a skinny, geeky man below - pointing & laughing...

Ha ha!    I actually have been working on mine for quite some time.  But I have the good sense to fictionalize it and take 'me' out of the story (as well as changing names, etc...)

Mrs Robinson - are you from Clearwater?  I am!  I went to Countryside.

I'm from Kansas, but in the US - I last lived in Tampa Bay - from 1997-2004. Lived in Tampa (Carrollwood), worked in St Pete. I miss the sunshine & warm weather every day.

Clearwater Beach is ace - grouper sandwich at Frenchys!! And St Pete Beach. And Caladesi Island. And Ft Desoto...

Teheee!

Mine's quite evil: Skilled worker steals job from local 

Teheee!

Mine's quite evil: Skilled worker steals job from local 

Evil but legal!

Evil but legal!

Aye, not exactly DailyFail material 

Mine's quite evil: Skilled worker steals job from local 

Have you no shame?! Also, you've stolen a man too!

Have you no shame?! Also, you've stolen a man too!

Hehehehhe he's mine, no one can have him!!!!!!!!! 

I wonder if it's just a media thing -- oversimplifying facts to make the article more attractive to readers? Surely if she had been doing something dodgy she wouldn't want to publicize herself at all.

I can believe she would since others have done it before while perhaps hoping the story would overpower the urge to ask visa questions Not in the UK, but in Japan this story broke out about a Canadian who wrote a lengthy piece claiming abuse, extortion, and discrimination from Japanese immigration officials.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2012/01/japans-immigration-control

Due to Johnson's hesitance to reveal his visa status, the expat community wasn't ready to rally in favor for Johnson, but many were sympathetic for his story.

Long story short, with digging, twitter drama, several story changes, Johnson eventually admitted to living and working in Japan on a three month visitor's visa...

http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/01/23/christopher-johnson-discloses-visa-information-work-visa-application-paperwork-but-no-approval/
http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/01/20/christopher-johnson-under-fire-for-gaijin-gulag-article/

That Daily Mail 'passion' one could nearly be spun into a bodice ripper version.

That article was an excerpt from her book, hence the flowery over dramatisations. For example, that statement that she was working at Nasa and directing films on the side... "Back in Los Angeles, I’d left behind not only a staff job at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but a promising second career as a film director and scriptwriter. And for what?"

You know us Angelenos, all of us have a promising second career as a director/screenwriter/actress/novelist. It's a requirement of residence.

Yes, that's me heaving my huge case of sour grapes around .

I was thinking about this last night & this woman being in the news really started bugging me - with respect to the part concerning being refused 're-entry into the UK on a visa technicality – a legal row that’s not yet resolved.'

And what someone else posted on an article regarding working for the bookstore in return for free accommodation (on what would seem to have been a visitor visa?!).

I thought about how the British media demonises so many immigrants - the vast majority of whom have gone through the necessary legalities, are paying taxes, not taking advantage, etc - or even asylum seekers, who have the right to be here in terms of international law & are not infrequently reduced to homelessness & destitution.  And yet when a person is featured by the media in glowing & welcoming terms (not to mention an attractive, intelligent, well educated white American woman of privileged background, isn't it all romantic just like the movies, etc etc etc) - it appears that things may not have been above board in terms of being here on a legal/correct visa, even if it was done naively.

Seriously, how messed up & hypocritical (the media) is that?!  

The other thing I pondered, albeit randomly - Wigtown, how can all those bookstores in a such a small & rather isolated outpost possibly turn a profit? How does that work exactly?

I agree Mrs. R, this has been bugging me as well. For one thing it shows the bigotry of the media in their portrayal of immigrants as being the 'right' kind and the 'wrong' kind, and it continues to feed public ignorance about what is actually involved in moving here. And don't even get me started on the woman herself; just the sort of smug, self-satisfied attention seeker that all Americans are assumed to be like.

As for Wigtown, presumably it's a bit like Hay-on-Wye; the bookshops themselves become attractions, and the book festival creates a guaranteed annual event to bring people in.

I agree Mrs. R, this has been bugging me as well. For one thing it shows the bigotry of the media in their portrayal of immigrants as being the 'right' kind and the 'wrong' kind, and it continues to feed public ignorance about what is actually involved in moving here. And don't even get me started on the woman herself; just the sort of smug, self-satisfied attention seeker that all Americans are assumed to be like.

Me three!!! I hugely agree with this sentiment. 
When I first posted this thread, I only heard her talk about needing visas, etc and I though, ooh positive, but I didn't realise it was a back story floating around.    Makes it seem like the 'entitled' American who can move wherever they want, just because!!!!!!! 
 

Kind of makes me feel like a chump. A lot of us here have spent thousands and thousands to be in the UK legally, but apparently we only needed to utilize our pushy, preferably white, American charm. 

Definitely agree with you Mrs R and DrSuperL99.