Welcome!
Insurance is a tricky one. You'll want to shop around. Some companies will take into account your US driving history, some won't. No matter who you choose, you will pay more for insurance for the first few years. Just be prepared for that.
Along the line of insurance, you won't have any UK credit history. So that will make everything that bit more challenging. Think back to when you were 18 and you couldn't get credit because you didn't have any credit and no one would give you credit... you'll get to jump through all those hoops again.
And I'll be the first to say it - Hawaii to Scotland?!?!???!!!??? Yes, Scotland is drop dead gorgeous..... but so is Hawaii. And you have the perfect weather year round. Sooooo - why? 
LOL... yes, it does seem strange.. but the weather isn't perfect here anymore. In the last five years, from July to September we've been losing our trade winds and the weather is just hot, humid and miserable. We'll have 8 days of humid... trades come back for a day.... 10 days of humid... 2 days trade winds... makes for a very long miserable summer. This year that weather started beginning of May.... Theres been days when it's like walking through soup the humidity is so thick. It never used to be like this. We always had the trade winds and maybe just a couple of Kona wind days that would bring in the heat. Saying that... in winter I drive with the heat on in the car in the morning when it's below 70
![[smiley=laugh4.gif]](https://www.talk.uk-yankee.com/Smileys/classic/laugh4.gif "Laugh4")
. Really going to need that Canadian blood to kick back in when I move to Scotland.
As for other reasons... it's just been small things that finally just added up. I've been planning this move for 4 years. I have a cleaning business here. 6 years ago one of my elderly clients health really started to decline. I asked and begged her to move back to California to be near her children because she had no family here and not really a lot of close friends. She didn't want to leave Hawaii. By the time she realized she should move back to California, her health had declined too much for her to be able to travel and move back. In the meantime, I had been planning a month long trip to Scotland in June 2015. My first time back since May of 1988..... 27 years......I had always used my vacation time to go visit my dad in Canada. This time my plan was to return to Scotland. My father passed away November 2014. (When I planned my trip to Scotland, my father was alive.). I went to Scotland in June 2015 and we had a celebration of life for him there with the family. Just made me realize how much I missed them all. While on vacation I received an email from one of my elderly clients friend informing me that Doloris had passed away. She passed on June 28... what would have been my dad's 94th birthday. When I returned home to Hawaii... Myself and a couple of her friends had to try figure everything out with what to do with her stuff and get everything settled. Her son never showed up to help at all. Just contacted one of her friends and said mail him her computer and good jewelry.
. But, it started me thinking.. I have no family here... and I didn't want that happening to me.
I don't know if any of you have ever visited here... but we used to have the International Market Place in Waikiki....been there for decades... can remember it since I was a child whenever came here on vacation....sort of an open air market with kiosks, always crowded.... people sold t-shirts, jewelry, board shorts.....years would pass, when you came back... they were still selling the same stuff.... lol.... never changed....well, about 4 years ago they decided they were going to revamp and rebuild it. But they assured everyone it would still have the same atmosphere about it when it was done..... They Lied..... They built a shopping mall with high end stores like Sak's Fifth avenue, Gucci... I remember the day I finally had a chance to go see it and walk through. I walked in the back way and by the time I made it to the front I was in tears.... they had completely destroyed the whole ambiance of the place. The only thing going through my mind was "It's time to move"
I decided to go back to Scotland in June 2016 again for a month to see if moving there was going to be the right decision for me. My family was thrilled when I told them I was thinking about moving home. They didn't like the thought of me being here alone. One of my cousins and I did some research on the Ancestry Visa.... thinking that was the way for me to get there. It wasn't until the last year that I finally realized that I'm already a British citizen and just had to apply for a passport. (Made life so much easier finding that out). Usually when I landed back here in Hawaii after being away... I always felt a feeling of peace come over me and thought.... I'm home.... The first time I returned after being to Scotland, I felt sad when I landed.... the second time I came back.... I had tears in my eyes when I landed and sadness that I had left my family..
It's just not the same place as it used to be here. In the last couple of years, more then a dozen high-rises have gone up... with a dozen more slated to be built. Its turned into a concrete jungle with towering glass high-rises. None of it is affordable. Affordable housing here is considered $ 500 000 for a 1 bedroom apartment. I'd never be able to afford to buy a place here. And the rents are through the roof. $2000 is considered a cheap monthly rent. I do clean outs for real estate people on the weekends...(most real estate people have it in the rental agreements that the units have to be professionally cleaned when vacated. Which is extra business for me
) I've seen what's available and what the rents are. Some of them, you'd have to pay ME to live in. I've been blessed. I've lived in the same apartment since 2004 with the best landlandys that anyone could ever hope to have. It's just a four plex with 2 apts upstairs and 2 downstairs. When I first moved in, my rent was $700 a month and in 15 years it's only gone up to $850. What I pay for rent is unheard of for what I have. I have a good sized 1 bedroom, with a parking spot, in a prime location. I'm right around the corner and walking distance from Waikiki (but on the other side of the canal in a residential neighborhood with no high-rises). I can walk out my door... walk 1.2 miles and my toes will be in the Pacific Ocean at Ala Moana beach park. I've truly been blessed. They also own the house next door which is 1 apt. on top and 1 on the bottom. One of my landladys lived in the bottom apt. there. She passed away suddenly 2 years ago. Well, this past February I got a phone call from one of the landladys saying they've finally decided to sell the buildings. I was like Argggggg, couldn't you have waited 1 more year.... LOL.... she said they had to do some repairs next door and it may take that long to get it ready to be sold. Their nephew lived upstairs and niece lived downstairs so they were going to give them time to find a place to live first. They moved out too quickly for my liking...Anyway.... I got so stressed out because I kept doing the math in my head.... O.k... if the place is ready to be listed in July... and it sells right away.... that's 45 days escrow and they can't raise the rent for 45 days... that will get me to October.... what do I do for 3 months.... just constantly stressing myself out about it because I know the moment this place sells... the new owners are going to raise my rent to $ 1500 a month minimum.... and they could go higher.... I'm in a prime location.... finally in May... I called one of the landladys and spent 5 minutes explaining why she shouldn't do it and that it would be no benefit to her and could hurt the sale... and to discuss it with her sisters and daughter who's going to handle to sale... but if she'd give me a fixed rental agreement until Jan. 31, 2020. She called me back 5 minutes later and said no problem.... Told you... best landladys EVER... so now, whoever buys the building buys my lease... and cannot raise my rent on me. I'm the only one who they did this for because they knew I was planning to move... the other 3 tenants are going to be in for a sticker shock when the building sells. I have no idea what they pay in rent... I know I pay the least.... They're probably in the $1000-$ 1100 a month range....everytime someone moved out, they'd raise the rent a bit., but whoever buys is going to up the rents big time.
The Traffic... oh my god... the traffic. One day about 3 years ago I stopped off at Costco on a Friday around 5 p.m to get a couple of things. I also tanked up at the gas bar. I always reset my trip odometer when I tank up. It took me 55 minutes to drive 3.6 miles to get home. That wasn't because of an accident on the road or lane closures.... that was sheer traffic volume. And I'm driving on King street through town, which is the main road, a one way road 4-5 lanes wide... and it still took 55 minutes. It should NEVER take 55 minutes to drive 3.6 miles anywhere... anytime. Only thing going through my mind at the time... It's time to move. Traffic is a nightmare here and it's only gotten worse over the years.
The amount of people and crowds.... beaches and hikes you used to go on that only locals knew about so they weren't that busy.... now with social media..... they are crowded with people. It's funny.... one writer in the paper wrote an article on that subject a couple of years ago about how overcrowded all the places are now.... and she sort of ended her column with... the only place you can get any elbow room now and not have to deal with crowds is at the New International Market place....
Because I knew I'd be moving.. I've been working extra to come up with money to buy a house there. So the last 4 years.... 60 hours has been a short work week. I've gone months not getting even 1 day off. When your self employed, you don't work, you don't get paid. Now that my place is being sold and whoever buys would up the rent... If I stayed here... I'd be working those hours just to be able to afford to live here. Everyone asks me why I'm moving to Scotland... I jokingly say it's so I can semi-retire and go down to a 40 hour work week..... and getting 28 paid days off a year... Where do I sign up for that !!!!!
Getting back to Socialized Medicine..... That one needs no explanation
And not to offend anyone..... The number 1 reason for moving.... Cannot stand living in a country that was stupid enough to make trump president
So like I said at the beginning of my very long winded explanation.... it was a whole lot of little things that added up to a big thing and the decision was made..... it's time to go Home and be with my Family.....
