what's the best thing about living in the UK ?

oooh,and forgot - shopping on a Sunday.

And being able to wash my car/mow the lawn on a Sunday.

Actually, being able to wash my car in the driveway any day of the week in fact!!

i live in cornwall and i am very lucky

Radio 4
Front gardens
Green grass
Nothing much worse in the undergrowth than
stinging nettles.
Good curry
Sensible road signs and cats eyes. Roundabouts not 4-way stops.
Weather which is not mostly either too bloody cold or too bloody hot to do anything outside.
Not having to have mosquito screens.

[there's nothing like living in the US for a couple of years to make you appreciate the UK]

dayoftheweeks - oops, sorry, got it wrong! Not much good at this stuff and will stick to lurking in the future.

(slinks off to corner and slugs more Blackthorn)

Malt loaf!!
Fish & Chips
Customer service (I too live in Germany - you guys really don't know how good you've got it)
twiglets
Supermarkets: Home delivery, lots of tills and everything you want/one stop shop (had to go to 5 supermarkets just for Xmasdinner last year).

So glad I am repatriating in 3 weeks now! Was feeling dead wobbly until I read this thread.

When I first read the OP I wasn't sure what I could come up with to be honest but then after reading all the posts I am feeling rather glad to live here now!! Must put crumpets on my shopping list for tomorrow, too!!

I was agreeing with you shelling peas!

days of the week - your comment 15 Feb 23:39 - ?? as far I'm aware nothing was being directed at you specifically. My point was that no matter where you live there will be good points and bad points, things that piss you off and things that make you happy.

chuch bells chiming the hour and bell ringing practice.
chocolate
proper sliced bread
no giant poisonous beasties
cycling through the countryside on a summer day
P.Y.Oing in the summer
the W.I bake sale
country fairs
Whitby
Stately homes and country parks

DH keeps trying to convince me to move to the States but i'll never leave, i love blighty and i'd miss my family.

Yeah Earnest, and all the Alte Schachtels standing there with their one solitary canvas carrier bag, tutting and rolling their eyes becase you're buying more than a pint of milk and two Semmel and a packet of ham.

I could go on!

CHEDDAR CHEESE

ah yes, I remember the huge embarrassment of doing big supermarket shop, proferring my visa card and getting a 'look', and having to leave, shame faced and empty handed. Great, as it was 3.30 on Saturday and didn't have time to get home & back, so had to eat emergency crap till Monday when (some) shops reopened.

Orm, those are the times on the letter we've been sent from DT - our 1st letter was ignored, 2nd one given the option of calling (during office hours).

teeny shopping trolleys (no joke when you've got 4 kids) UK recipe books with all sorts of 'exotic' ingredients, probably standard now in UK that you've got no hope of getting hold of here.

Ernest, half my family is German, so I spend time most summers over there, and customer service does my head in. Totally. Especially the thing in the (tiny, relatively poorly stocked) supermarkets when you fill the trolley, and they need paying in hard cash (because Germany is the only country who still has EC cards and nowhere you want to go seems to accept Maestro or credit cards). Also loads of shops close for the whole of August and/or on Saturdays. It baffles me, all this.

ernest - usually you can contact them until evenings now. Not that you neccessarily get any joy when you do

Tea
Supermarkets are easy to use and well stocked, and do deliveries
Tolerance and respect for others
Appreciation and support of women in the workplace most of the time - not perfect, but getting there
Standard of driving is quite safe overall
People laugh and smile frequently
British telly is probably the best in the world
Banks and businesses more customer focused than many other places - again, not perfect but pretty good really
Disabled access is pretty good and people try hard to be accommodating
NHS is amazing - never have to worry about health insurance/excesses/get out clauses, and overall it does a great job considering complexity of the organisation
MPs less corrupt and cliquey than some other countriesI could go on ...

I'm leaving the UK, after living here 10 years, in six weeks.

I do not want to go.

There's so many things I am going to miss, but I am scared of having to start over again, I am going back to where I'm from, but I have no idea how the "systems" work, and I haven't lived there for 15 years. I've moved on from my school friends, and no doubt they have from me too!

I'm settled here, London's become "home".

dotw - BG = British Gas.

"efficient" ha.

I think it's improved in UK - I'm happy to be wrong, but eg contacting any service her, such as bank, telephone co etc, they're open Mon - fri, 9 til 5, so if you're out at work, it's a nightmare and total joke.

other good things -
Tea!
good indian food
breakfast cereal - shreddies

I'm quite surprised by all the milkman controversy on this thread. We have a lovely milklady who brings us full fat milk, in glass bottles with cream on the top. She doesn't whistle though.

proper pubs and pub lunches
Marks and Spencer food
Being able to get to Europe really easily
the countryside
the lovely old buildings
lovely villages and churches
being able to go to fantastic cultural things
the NHS
the particularly British sense of humour and people who get sarcasm
CHRISTMAS IN WINTER

gawd I've gone all homesick

The whingeing. It helps us bond.

cheapskatemum yes on more that one occasion you are of course putting me out of context with your ........ I did refer to the education system and universities in the same sentence

shellingpeas see my post at 16:15 on 13/2/09

Ernst I'm not sure what Bg is but I have no experience of customer service in Germany I would imagine it is v. efficient

Oooh yeah, your maternity leave is much better than ours in America, isn't it? When it comes down to it, your home's your home. Like being an American for me, even with all that's gone on (an insane former president just to touch on the tip of the iceberg) there are still so many things I love about home.

DH like GB because opportunities are genuinely open here. We may think they're not but he thinks it's amazing in comparison to Spain, where he is from.

daysoftheweek, I bet Bg etc can be a pain, but believe me, day to day customer service in shops is great, friendly, helpful compared with in Germany & CH. I am always struck by it every time I return.

I have spent last 10 years thinking of all the positives about CH (& now G) - better this, better that, now I'm returning to the UK, I need to radically erase these thoughts and focus on the positives of the UK. There must be some. This thread has show there are, thank goodness

I think I'd prefer the weather in UK too. Summer here is much too hot. Don't mind the cold but it is certainly a lot milder in UK.

Hi Ponymum I'm from NZ too (albeit almost 20 years ago now) and what I love about the UK is that you get...

proper villages, not 3 houses in a row, 2 hours drive from anywhere else

proper civilised pubs, not ones that have formica topped tables with those weird sunken ashtrays filled with dubious fluids (although those have long disappeared with the banishment of smoking,) and carpets that suck at your feet as you walk

wonderful long summer evenings

the public footpaths and being able to walk from one village to another and stop at a pub enroute without someone threatening you with a shotgun because 'you're on their land'

English cider (do I sound obsessed with drinking?)

My DH (he's English!)

And TBH those who complain about customer service, rudeness, slovenliness, etc etc, they're the same everywhere you live. There are always unpleasant people about regardless if you live in an idyllic location or not. And where you live, you have to get up, earn a living, look after the kids, do the food shopping, walk the dog. It's the people who you know and care for that make the difference.