Yesterday I wrote a blog post where I literally gave reasons from my personal experience and my personal opinion as to why I would not be moving to Scotland, but staying here in Oklahoma City. I called it a comparison because that is exactly what it was. I was comparing what I have now to what I would have had. I wasn't saying Edinburgh was this or that, or that Oklahoma City was better because this or that. I was saying I live here in Oklahoma City, and this is what I pay, this is where I live, the type of housing, etc. Literally, because I called it a house once and an apartment once, I was called out for being a liar. What? Well, there you go, still another reason not to move to Scotland. Not if the people who I would be engaging with most of the time can't expand their brain cells to include two words meaning the same thing. I say "pants" for trousers too. They call underwear "pants" so does that mean I'm a LIAR if I say I am wearing new pants today, but they can't see them because I was talking about my trousers? It went downhill fast.
Here is basically what I tried to say, and it was not accepted. It was not only not accepted, it was never challenged. They just called me names, told me I was wrong, and accused me of lying and being an idiot. I was the only sober one I think. That's another reason not to make a permanent move to Scotland. The size of the country is 1/2 the size of my own average to small state, and they have twice as many folks, many of which are on disability for being too drunk to work; I'm sorry, but it's true. I know we have the same thing here, so why would I go from a place that has less people in a much larger area who have issues to a place that has so many more people in a much smaller area with more addictions? I want to help not add to the problem. If I was there I would be a volunteer at a homeless shelter, but according to their visa rules and laws I can't even do that more than a few hours a week, and I'm not allowed to work at all for the entire time I'm on the visit visa. I would have to have a work visa and that means I would have to have a job offer, and that means I would have to be hired but I can't be hired because employers there can't hire me if I am not a citizen! It's just a mess.
I live in an apartment (I will call it a house from time to time, get over it) that is upstairs and on the 2nd floor in America. They call that the 1st floor, as the ground level is the ground floor. So when I said I went up a flight of stairs but lived on the 2nd floor I was called out for that too! I tried to say why, but I was called an idiot. I was literally put down for having a different word for the same thing. We don't say drink-driving here, we say drunk-driving. I was corrected. I call this time of year Fall, but I was corrected, it's Autumn only. I was corrected constantly, and as a professor of English looking at their atrocious spelling and misuse of words, I had enough of it and I left the group. NO ONE can tell me I had another experience than what I had. It was in fact MY EXPERIENCE!
Apples to apples. What may appear to be a green apple vs. a red apple, may be evident, but it is nevertheless apples to apples. In Oklahoma I pay $680 a month for a 2 bed 2 bath apartment that is upstairs and in the city about 5 miles from the downtown hub. I pay no water, garbage, or sewage. I have electric heating and I pay for my own electricity, about $125 USD a month. My cable is connected with the internet and a landline phone for $125 USD. I pay about $40 in insurance each month, but I do have a car and pay a payment of $330 as well as $100 for insurance and maybe $50-60 for gasoline. I pay about $7 to go to a burger joint to eat, and about $13 to go to a restaurant. I pay $350 for pasture board on my horse, my horse that only cost me $125 USD by the way, and the U.S. Government literally paid me $1000 to keep! (www.blm.gov/whb but watch them all think BLM stands for something else and say we can't use those initials.) He's an American Mustang. I live in a conservative state, one that still votes for pro-life, and we are basically divided 70-30 against taking the vaccine, not that we are anti-vax, no, we just don't like this one. This is the RED apple.
The GREEN apple is Edinburgh, Scotland. I did my homework. I took an AVERAGE not a specific detail for housing, cost(s) of living, parking, transport, etc. I priced nearby boarding facilities and I considered their Christian values and politics to see if I would be happy living there. An apartment about the same distance from downtown would be about $1000 a month, all bills would be paid through a council tax of about $200-340 depending on what BAND your house/apartment was considered. I was told to only go with BAND D so that's about $300-340 for bills except for your internet, cable, phone, and insurance. Internet was $80 which included the cable, no phone line, but you can buy your cell service for around $40 and more if you want unlimited. The other costs were the transport costs. I would not have a car, so a monthly rail pass was $230 and a pass to ride the bus was $75. So far it's not that big of a deal really, except I would have to give up going to the store when I wanted to, and I would possibly have to walk in weather to get to a bus stop, and then stand at it, wait on a bus, ride to the store, get what I want, and not be able to get much. Boarding was out of the question! A horse facility with 80 acres will not be found near Edinburgh. There were private stables but I was told the price was $800 a month for pasture and I had to provide the feed. The religious views are about the same as mine if I attended a church, but the average person considered themselves to not be religious or spiritual, most would in fact embrace pagan ideals. Not a fan. (Pretty! But not Biblical)
The healthcare there has our healthcare beat by a 1000x, but I couldn't use it. I would have to have a private insurance contract, and I would not be allowed to even go to a hospital without it. They accept you sure, they don't turn you away, but they insist on you being vaccinated and even to get into the country you have to be vaccinated and that just doesn't set well with my American beliefs or my personal beliefs about the vaccine. Sorry, but I know too many folks who have been diagnosed with the C19 after being given the vax and even after being boosted. So, it doesn't work, why are they forcing it on us? Why can't we make our own minds up about it? They want to "Save the people" but are OK with abortion? Aren't babies people? It would just not be a good fit. They like to say they dogged a bullet by me not going - - so I went ahead and corrected that to "dodged" and called it fair.
Apples to apples and yes, I do love apples. I both love Scotland and pray for her. I want the country to be the best it could ever dream of being. I want people to visit it, I want them to have a great time. I want there to be peace, love, harmony, and good times for every single person there and here, but to be called out to explaining myself just felt like I was talking to a room full of teenagers with angst and piss wanting to be one-up, better, bigger, badder, braver, whatever. It was all "look at me" and showing off how big their ass really was online. I know we have those idiots here too, but it just reiterated in my mind that I can just Google map my way through the Highlands and I can visit anywhere and anyplace I want online. I don't have to spend $$$$ going to a place where my idea of it would be ruined the second I was asked to prove what I just said to a person who lives in a place where I am a GUEST. No thank you. The BIGGEST comparison I can show you is this; if any one of those online morons would come to Oklahoma and want to be shown what we have to offer I would not have treated them the way they treated me, and that includes anyone who has a different opinion, religious view, outlook, world view, or political view. I am not going to spit on someone for being different and think it's OK to brag about the spitting.
That being said, I have many friends (about 70) who are from Scotland who I believe would never treat another soul the way I was treated on the Facebook ancestor sites by native Scots. The people I know and have grown to love over the years are caring, kind, giving, and then again, they are born again Christians, every last one of them. THAT must be the difference, right there. You can't expect an unbeliever to act like a believer. You can't, and to do so is futile. I learned that the hard way. I left the group, and I deleted the blog. I decided to rewrite it in a different way. I should include links so the less than intelligent who like to call people liars can go and read for themselves. I should, but I don't have to. I can (because they can't) get into my car and drive to Braum's Ice Cream store and get a sundae. They may have ice cream, but they do not, and will not ever have Braum's. That's only for those of us lucky enough to live in this part of the big wonderful U.S.A. Oh, and my best friend wouldn't be there, and she wanted me to bring that fact up as well. She said to mention that we have actual football here too - - that's a point I'll give to Edinburgh, as American football is much more fun I think, but it should not be called "football".
OK, well, there you go. There is ONE more thing that I would have to give up if I moved to Scotland and that would be my firearms. I don't mind not taking my firearms to the UK. I get that, I do. I really do understand their reasoning, but a person can't even have a stun gun, a good knife for protection, or a can of mace. Seriously, a officer will take your three-inch blade from you if it is locked. It can be three inches if it is not locked. That's all you can have, and you can't have that knife out ready to protect yourself, you have to have it in your pocket until you need it. Oh, but the bad guy can have one right? Well, there you go, another reason to love the place from afar and just be the happy little Okie that I am. Boomer Sooner.
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