Certainly a biggie! Still, a question well worth asking.
I was always (from quite an early age as a kid) interested in the idea of overseas travel. My Dad was in the RAF, so with moves every three years or so I was fairly well conditioned to the idea of a less firmly rooted existence.
I didn't actually get to go (and live) overseas until I was 12, and then it was only to RAF Germany - not exactly plunging into a massively different lifestyle. We did the bulk of our shopping (apart from bread, milk and some veg) at the NAAFI; I went to a British boarding school (first of all in Germany, then in the UK); and we listened to BFBS radio (British Forces Broadcasting Service). Still, it was a gentle introduction to the idea that life didn't necessarily have to be lived the way it's lived in the UK.
By the time I'd been through university (much of which time I spent in Germany again) I'd sort of decided that I wanted to spend more time overseas, dealing with international relations and learning other languages if possible. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office seemed like a pretty good way of doing that. Sadly, it's not altogether matched expectations. The nature of the work - and of the FCO itself - has changed, driven largely by so-called "efficiency" savings, which for my money have undermined the FCO's effectiveness. But above all, the FCO career path best suited to my abilities involves me doing the sort of work that takes me to London for large chunks of my life.
And that, I think, is the real problem. I don't like London as a place to live - too expensive, too crowded and too anonymous. And that's in the comparatively pleasant part of Greater London we were living in (Hackbridge, in Sutton borough). Having lived overseas for eight years out of the last twelve has only increased my dislike, especially as it's become even more expensive. Kay, of course, never wanted to live there in the first place - one more reason not to want to return.
Having spent six months in Thailand, followed by another six months in the UK while we got our London house ready for sale, I'm more convinced than ever that I don't want to live in the UK, or indeed Western Europe generally. Naklua's cheap, spacious, quiet and friendly (both the Thais and the expats), things generally work (and when they don't, you can usually get them fixed cheaply enough) and the weather's good most of the time. Even when it's not, it's still warmer than the UK (except when the UK has a particularly freakish heatwave). The minor downside is the loss of the long summer evenings, but that's more than compensated for by the loss of the long winter nights. Even now, when sunset is at its earliest, night hasn't completely fallen even at six o'clock.
Horses for courses, as they say - but for me, it's no contest.
