From the UK to Texas to Florida: what 10 years in America taught him

You think, alright, it’s the same language — but it’s not the same language. I remember one of my first, if you like, meetings with one of my clients. After about five minutes I realised that this person didn’t understand a word I was talking about.

Tell us about your move to Dallas. Why did you decide to go there from the UK?

Well, kind of the timing was right. I had an offer to go work with someone in the States. My youngest daughter had just got married, and so, if you like, I felt that she probably didn’t need me around, if you like, anymore. And so, yeah, it was right.

And how much did you know about Dallas before you went there?

Er, not loads. A good friend who I was going to work with lived there; he’d told me a lot about Dallas. I’d been to Texas previously, although that was Houston. I knew Dallas was an up-and-coming city, but other than that, not too much — and I knew JL lived there.

And what would you say was the biggest adjustment then?

Although you’re talking English, my particular accent has changed very dramatically to fit in with how the people in Texas would talk, if you like, and so that was very different.

Texas is mainly very hot, but it also gets very cold. There’s probably a couple of months of the year where it’s very cold, and there’s a couple of months of the year when it’s, I would say, regular temperatures, and then you probably got eight months of the year where it’s somewhat hot, with probably four months of that being really hot. So that was an adjustment.

Texas is incredibly friendly, much more so than really anywhere I’ve lived in before. I mean, I always thought — I had visited in the States a lot of times, and I always thought the States was very friendly compared to England, but nothing like Texas. I mean, Texas is incredible.

Is there anything that’s changed in Dallas, or was it that your priorities changed?

Yeah, I think that my priorities changed. A tough thing about Dallas: my work is mainly outdoors, and a tough thing about Dallas is, in the summertime, how hot it is. And so I had already started doing some work away from Dallas in the summertime.

So you’ve ended up going to Jupiter?

I have, yep. Yeah, Jupiter in Florida.

And how would you say that that’s compared to Dallas?

Very different.

Growing up in the UK, you can never think that the UK is an island, but it’s not until you go to a huge place like America that you realise how small the UK is.

Growing up in the UK you’re probably never more than, I don’t know, two hours from the coast, whereas in Dallas you know you are so far away from the coast, and I kind of miss that. I always liked eating a lot of fish, and so, Dallas — you’d have to have everything flown in, and I’m not a lover of that.

Jupiter is great for me in that respect, because you’re very close. I mean, it’s literally on the coast. I love going for the ocean walks. There’s some great river walks there.

If you like, if that was the one thing that I didn’t like about Dallas, it was hard to walk anywhere. The road system is unbelievably good, but I would say that the walking system isn’t. I particularly, when I moved to Dallas, chose a place where I could walk to the shops, do the daily groceries, if you like. Whereas most people — there’s very few people who walk to the shops.

It’s so much bigger that from that point of view you tend to be jumping in the car everywhere. We in Europe are used to being in much smaller places, and so we tend to walk everywhere.

Is there anything else that you’d say that British people don’t understand about living in the US?

Yeah, I would say that people don’t realise that each state is a little bit like its own country, and they’re very different to each other. Some of them are similar, but they’re not the same.

And I would say probably the easiest thing is to look at England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and say: view them as four states in comparison, and view the UK as America, if you like, but on a much smaller scale.

And so each state governs itself. Each state has its own tax system. When I moved from Dallas to Jupiter, I had to register my car, so whatever — all my number plates etc. changed moving to Florida, so I had a Florida plate. All my tax system changed. My business I had to register.

And so you think of it as one country, and it is, but it’s very much 50 countries too. And I never knew that, certainly when I first viewed America.

So is there anything that surprised you about Florida so far?

The very first time I visited the States — I’m gonna say that would be back in the 90s — I visited a trade show in Orlando, and actually said I’d never go back to America because I hated it. And when I was looking at first moving to the States, I said I’d never work in Florida.

But the part of Florida where we are, much further south, is just unbelievably beautiful. It is so unlike anything I’d seen in Florida previous. You know, because of the size of each state, you know you can visit one place, you think, oh yeah, I mean that, that’s Florida — but it isn’t. And so, yeah, I mean it is very different.

So for anyone looking to — I’d say, hey, make sure that you know your area. Don’t think that I’m going to Florida, I’m going to Texas. You mean, Texas is so different from place to place, and it’s the same as Florida.

I’ve only been there maybe six, seven months now, but I really enjoy Florida more so than Dallas. I think that I made a lot of friends in Dallas. It’s an incredibly friendly place, but I would say that Dallas never felt like home to me. Whereas I would say that, where I am now in Jupiter, feels like home.

So if you were to recommend Dallas to somebody, who do you think it’s best for?

Dallas is great for travel because it’s a hub, and so it’s much easier to travel out of Dallas. And so I’d say if your work involves moving around the country, then I would say that being in a city where it’s a hub and you need to fly direct is, I would say, it is beneficial.

I would never not recommend Dallas to anyone, other than the fact that if you’re working outside you need to understand how hot it gets. If you’re working inside it doesn’t matter, because there’s aircon — you don’t need that. That doesn’t matter at all.

So who would you recommend Jupiter to?

I think that Jupiter is — I would say it’s an older demographic, but there are still young people around.

Jupiter feels much more like England than Dallas, and yet someone would go there and think that it’s not like England at all. But then, having seen the extreme, if you like, the difference, then you can see the likenesses.

Jupiter is great if you wanna go on walks. I walk alongside the river. I walk alongside the ocean. I’ve yet to come across an alligator. I say that — I’ll probably lose an arm or something.

And so over this 10 year journey then, from the UK to Dallas and Jupiter, what have you learnt about the place that works for you?

Stuff that you don’t think that you need, you might need. And just be open to things. Just because you’ve grown up with something doesn’t mean to say that that’s correct, and so be open to seeing new things. The way that you know isn’t necessarily the best way. And so, yeah, I would say that.