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One Holiday for fourteen days?

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As Alex is at University he gets a LOT more holidays than the 'working' Brit.. in fact the average Brit works more hours & has less vacations / holidays than any other European nationality.

Which is (apart from the weather being better) why I'm off to live in Portugal :-)

.....anywho, talking about moving abroad - why does everyone want to do it?
I'd rather stay here (in Britain) or go to America..... Over here in Britain you don't get alot of tragic weather (at least in the south) and the weather's not too bad (I still think it's boiling NOW!).
In other countries you speak different languages, get earthquakes or other disasters, wierd food! I'd rather stay here and eat a ham & French (OK, so the French make a good bread - they put wierd toppings on it!) stick roll. Or bacon eggs and chips! Not slugs, snails, hamburgers, or other "delightful" food.
I'm not even hung up on holidays! Just some days off, so I can sit and stare out into the rain........

OK, now I sound too much like an old man in a home - I think I should get out more ;)

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talking about moving abroad - why does everyone want to do it?
I'd rather stay here (in Britain) or go to America.

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You don't consider the #1 issue that forces people to consider this Computer Whizz. Due to the currently collapse in the value of most people's pension provisions in the U.K. many people who thought they had provided plenty enough to continue in their current lifestyle will find their actual 'post retirement' income will be barely adequate to survive here.

This 'collapse' in pension worth has happened so suddenly there is not enough time to take effective corrective action if you are within (say) 10 years of retirement. To put it in perspective, many people who were expecting to retire in the next five years on 80% of the income they were earning (a reasonable provision) are only now being told that they will be lucky to get 40%. Even if they saved every penny they had from now to retirement day (highly impractical) just end with 50%.

That kind of shortfall in expected income is going to make it difficult to continue to live in the same style for a lot of people.

However in countries like Portugal where average incomes are way lower, the basic needs of life are priced to reflect what people can afford to pay. This means that, using myself as an example, I have a choice of living at minimal standard in the U.K., or going to live in Portugal (which I like anyway) where I can live in the very comfortable (even affluent!) manner that I currently enjoy.

I don't think the decision is quite so hard to understand when looked at this way.