I have had a few conversations recently with ex pats and I have just read a few online articles about how they are finding life tough.

 

I have read about how life was better 30 years ago and how we were all happier blah blah blah.

 

Of course we were happier, we were 30 years younger for a start.

 

But it is more than that, the UK youth of today are also less happy, but that has more to do with their expectations and reality. When we were the youth of today, we knew we had to get work, work hard and one day we would have the things our parents had. The internet and the media have somehow led them to believe that they leave education and they are somehow entitled to a BMW and home ownership. “If only my Dad could here me now.”

 

Back to the topic in hand. Life has been tough here in Portugal in 2011, although I have to say nothing like as bad for a few of my friends who live in Spain, and judging by the amount of people leaving France to come here, it is a similar situation there.

 

However most people I know who want to work are working and while wages are down on years before they are making ends meet.

 

Occasionally when I have been feeling a little blue I have called friends in the UK for a moan, I end up consoling them. Life may be tough in Portugal right now but it is everywhere.