I've replied to this about 5 times today and still can't work out how to explain why I live here, or why I live anywhere other than the UK. Because the UK is a very comfortable, easy and safe place to live. Perhaps one day we'll get the opportunity to discuss it over a beer which will be easier.
In the meantime, some random thoughts.....
Chile is an odd country. It's not one of my favourite countries. My time here was coming to an end anyway I think, this has just made it likely to be a bit sooner.
I like being a foreigner, I'd prefer to be closer to the UK so I could visit it more easily and more often, but I feel no real desire to live there. That removes a huge barrier to living anywhere.
Bear in mind that I have spent slightly more than half my life as a foreigner.
Chile is a different place, and certainly odd. Not always enjoyable. But I like to live in different places. The Costa del Sol and Lanzarote hold no attraction for me. Not that they're bad places, but they're just sunny Blackpool really and not my sort of thing. And I don't really do holidays.
Chilean beer is s***, the Chileans are self-destructive and often annoying and the traffic annoys me. Half the time stuff doesn't work and mostly people don't do what they said they would do and certainly not when they said they would.
But Chile is never boring. The climate is predictable.There is no rain forecast in the next month, but if there was I could tell you which day it was going to be.
My children know other cultures, are fluent in other languages, and moving in circles that they otherwise wouldn't get the opportunity to. My children are able to handle themselves whether they are in the Embassy with HRH Princess Anne, or at the docks sat out on the boats talking to local fisherman or with their friends bumming around the local park or down at their gym fighting Muay Thai or riding horses around through the countryside with gauchos. That flexibility and adaptability is quite a gift to give children which will stand them in good stead in future life.
I have quite a good life in Chile. Mostly due to contacts made through my career and various roles I have been involved in over the years leading to me moving in enjoyable circles here. I don't mean that to sound as snobby as it does, it's just a world I enjoy.
On the other hand I often go drinking with the handymen that work for me and their friends down the a*** end of Santiago. And it is a lot of fun. Beer's still s*** though.
If I went and lived somewhere more "First World" [for want of a better phrase] then I'd just be one of many; A problem solver in a country without problems. Even worse if I moved to the UK where I'd just be one of 64 million or whatever it is these days..
It's life without Health and Safety and risk assessments and you need to take responsibility for yourself. There is no granny state. A few years ago I asked a ski guide if I could snowboard off the back of the mountain. He looked at me strangely and said "of course". So I asked further "I won't get into trouble of anything?" He said "You'll almost certainly die, but that's your problem".
Outside the cities of Chile there's a freedom to life. You truly can go places where no man has been before. My house down south is 15 miles from the nearest piece of tarmac. That's just cool. And very quiet. My youngest usually wanders off when we're down there, grabs a horse from a local farmer and just goes off for the day. Happily wandering. It doesn't get much better for a child, and she's been doing that since she was about 8 or 9, I guess.
I like that stuff.
In the UK I'd die of boredom in a week.
And I like different places for different things. I was very happy living in San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota, Dallas, New York, Munich, Paris, Annecy, and many many more. But I always ended up moving on. It's what I do. Right now I fancy Cadiz.
I'm pretty good at building my life around me in new places. It doesn't intimidate me or bother me. I don't have much in the way of personal goods, I've never seemed to accumulate them. So moving is always pretty easy.
We have more fun watching a rugby match here at 5 in the morning, in the middle of a curfew and a state of emergency then we could ever possibly have watching it in a pub in England. It's like some kind of bonding experience where your little differences just don't matter.
Chile can be difficult. But I don't really need a place to be easy, or normal, or even understandable, I just need to have fun in it. There's something very stimulating about living in a different place, even when it is a difficult place.
And ultimately I have had a lot of fun in Chile. Still do, but the pendulum is beginning to swing.
It's a way of life I love and I'm lucky to have the opportunity. But many people wouldn't, my sister for example. She'd die a death leading my life. I doubt she's been 50 miles from where she was born more than half a dozen times. She's very happy, we'd just hate each other's lives.
It might sound stupid, but even living through the s*** going on at the moment is still an excitement and an experience that I wouldn't have got if I didn't live here.
My life has been more enjoyable and more rewarding because I have spent some of it in Chile, even if it is an odd and annoying place.
There you go, I can't explain it any better with a keyboard. It probably wasn't worth the read.
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