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

The NHS, especially when really needed. My father-in-law just woke up with bad chest pain and we've had 3 wonderful paramedics with us in seconds flat. They've now taken him to a really good hospital. I'm worried but not as worried as I would be if I was somewhere with poorer healthcare or care that I couldn't afford.

most people are friendly and civilised

Haha, yes magicpudding, QUeue ettiquette!

I live in sub-tropical climate and I MISS THE BRITISH cliamate soooo much! I miss the long summer evenings, the cozy autumn mornings, the windy storms and wrapping up warm in front of the fire after being out in the snow.
I miss PUBS. BRitain is the only place that has pubs. NOwhere else has anything quite the same. Bars and coffee shops are not pubs. I miss Sunday drives looking for a nice pub next to a river.
I miss the FOOD! THe british are not known for their cooking but I believe that the quality of the some of the ingredients are the best in the world. BRitain has the best milk in the world. BEtter than the US, CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN, FRANCE, SPAIN anywhere. Its so fresh and if delivered by the milkman (miss those too) it has that cap of cream on the top.
Its not possible for me to move back. I have bought a house with my husband here and am raising a family and will probably grow old abroad, but my dream before I die would be to go back to Britain for say a year or so and to just live there again, preferably while my kids are small.

Seriously you're all right of course but when was the last time some of you were in the UK?
When did you last call British gas to try and give them a meter reading never mind pay a gas bill.
Can I tell you about the time the local cashpoint swallowed my card? I wont give you all the details but lie after lie including the spectacularly bad 'we've ordered you a new one'. I eventually got out of work and went to the bank to report my new one missing in the post only to be told that they had never ordered me a new one and couldn't have done so anyway!!

When I lived in Australia I missed Marks & Spencers like crazy! Not that I go all that often but the fact that I couldn't go, made me want to go that much more!!

We also found that in Oz loads of everyday items cost a fortune! Even the cheapest of the cheap Shampoo (that we would never consider buying in the UK) was almost £4, books double if not three times the price!

Another thing - I thought we'd love a red hot Christmas but it was just SO wrong! Christmas should be wintery and cold so you can sit by a fire and drink Hot Chocolate!

We came back because we missed the UK so much, it made me realise how good we have it! I'm not sure we'd ever consider leaving again.

Now I want to go hooooome!

Brilliant thread and has just confirmed I have made the right decision to come back to the UK next year, despite most people wanting to know why and asking me if I'm mad!!

scones, cream tea, school dinners

the national trust
all our national parks

chaps going to lords/the oval dressed up for cricket on the tube with their picnic baskets

the outdoor theatre in regents park
city farms

Shitemum - I totally agree with you on the England issue. I refuse to be called English when I'm not, and have spent the last 9 years repeating no, I'm not English, yes I'm from Britain, no honestly, I'm really not English... no, Wales and Scotland are not just regions of England...

And just last week, after having been told millions of times, my MIL yet again called me English (talking to a 3rd person). Aaarrrggghh!

haven't read the whole thread but will do

happy eccentrics and acceptance of subcultures

reliably bad weather which makes the few days of summer oh so glorious

theatre and £10 travelex

gigs and thriving grass roots scene

punk, folk and everything in between

best museums

art galleries and gp appreciation

universities

pub lunches

christmas in the cold weather

Relatively polite drivers

queue etiquette

the tube and buses(i know - but it's MUCH better than other countries' transport)

daffs, crocuses and tulips growing on the verge

bluebell walks

we have footpaths so people can still walk without an eyebrow being raised

KItbit - Hate to say it but my Spanish bank is one of the things I will miss when we move back to Scotland this year. They all know who I am when I phone up and we're all on first name terms. The manager's mother has a shop next door to mine too! And his kid is at my DDs nursery. It's a town of 300,000 people so this is quite coincidental!

That said it does take them AGES to serve you, well one man in particular is excrutiatingly slow, but i am not looking forward to having to go through a call centre in Delhi everytime I need to do a simple transaction. Am thinking of keeping my cash under the mattress and paying all the bills in person to avoid this...although probably they don't let you pay bills over the counter any more?

I had a thread like this some time ago but I can't find it now, must have been in 'chat'.

Agree with everything on everyone's lists.

Good weather isn't everything you know. Have you ANY idea how beautiful cloud formations are in the UK?

(Am slightly annoyed at MN headquarters for putting this thread under the title 'Ah, to be in England' tho, on the home page. But that's maybe because I've had to put up with people saying 'England' when they mean the 'UK', for the last 18 years...)

or how hard is it to get your mot done, or infact anything at all ever! its a matter of national pride to not really give two hoots i think!

Wrong again kiltycoldbum!

We could play Crap Bank Bingo!

kitbit is definitely with la caixa.

Littlelentil - I agree with the raspberries and the colourful flowerpots, but Jeremy Clarkson?! What is there to like?! I can't stand him!

purplemonkey - I have a great aunt and uncle in Winnipeg...if they are still alive

Goes to look for identical thread I started last year...

I'm from abroad, here's my list:
Best shopping in the world, bar none

Education/universities

Wiltshire ham

Raspberries!

Centre parcs

Cornwall

Dog friendly - dogs in pubs, love it!

Beautiful gardens

Colourful flower pots outside pubs in Summer

The thrill of a sunny day (u leave work early)

Protected green spaces

Laughing at politicians

Ugly but funny tabloid journalism

Jeremy Clarkson

Being anonymous in the big city

Cheap flights to anywhere

Different accents

Cheap supermarkets

I could go on and on and on......

The seasons
the variety of lovely countryside
London
Architecture
NHS
proper seaside
The weather (I'm not a big fan of sunny weather!)
libraries
pubby pubs
tea rooms
culture
music
fashion
tv
......
I don't think I can stop!

ooh, ooh, I have a positive about Spain (of course there are lots!) ...we can get decent imported Irish Cheddar. Tis nice. And strong. It's not quite the watch-the-roof-of-your-mouth stinky cheddar from home, but it's close!

Am going to kick myself off this thread now, it's a lovely positive thread and I'm being Mrs Negative-Pants! Sorry....

look, the best thing about living in the uk, is the cheese.

CHEDDAR CHEESE........ yes!

please accept this as fact.

Salmon...nope! They do have non smoking bars now (bars can choose to be smoking or non), but it's only a year or so since you went into a bank and the teller would have a fag balanced on the edge of the coin counting machine.

starkadder, no it isn't! But your question makes me feel better that I'm not the only one with a totally shit bank! Many of my friends have similar stories from theirs too. They really don't seem to give a bugger (exactly, SalmonintheLiffey!).

The other thing that really really bugs me is that if there's no news they just won't ring you. So even if they have promised faithfully to let you know an update on something, you'll get no phone call. Then when you ring to check they´ll say "but I didn't have anything to tell you". ARGH. I just needed to be called to be reassured you hadn't FORGOTTEN which leads me onto a whooole other rant...

But of course there are fab things here too, but sometimes the fantastic bits just aren't quite enough to outweigh the bits you'd like to change.

Did I mention that we are planning to move back to Britain????!!

Did they remember to look at you as though you were totally crazy for asking????

I remember in Spain having the same conversation many times. now this was 20 yrs ago, 1991ish maybe they are healthier now, but 'cigarillo?'
no, no fumo.
No fumas?
si, no fumo
en serio?
si
nunca?
no, nunca!

I swear every other bloody person I met smoked. They thought of me as some sort of looper that I didn't.

Are they any better now? I hope so.

SalmonintheLiffey - when I read "talk to the hand" you made me think of something else!

When you go to public services here, they're always smoking (all of them! Smoking seems to be a job requirement!) and chatting to each other and they don't get on with dealing with people.

I remember when I was 7 months pregnant and had to go to the social security offices for something. They sent me from one office to another, up and down the stairs (4 flights, no lift!) and none of them seemed to be actually doing anything. In the end, I marched into the director's office, sat down in front of him and refused to move until it was sorted. He glanced at my paper, signed and stamped it and that was all it needed. After several hours of fruitless hassle!