What can you not live without that you can only find in the UK !

[tiredpom]

Inspiration needed everyone, I have lived overseas for 8 years. Parents are coming to visit again in a few weeks and normally I have a huge list of things for them to bring ..... but this year, maybe it's the years away from home I am losing a bit of nostalgia for UK centric goodies. So far I have Liz Earl cleanser, soap and glory body wash (can get it here but it's expensive), cheese and onion/ prawn cocktail walkers, robinsons juice and diet Irn bru. If you lived abroad what would you crave/miss/couldn't live without ???

I'm not sure what isn't available abroad... but I’d hazard a guess on Twinings or Yorkshire tea and Marmite.

We used to take cadburys chocolate, smarties, body shop smelliest and m&s knickers to my aunt in the states!

Erm... my husband? He’s generally only found in the uk

My husband misses Muller Twin Pot Yoghurt - not very practical to pop in your suitcase though. I miss M & S food - nothing comparable here. I also miss cheap paperback books - so expensive in NZ.

When I lived in the Netherlands it was literally only Yorkshire Tea I missed! Maybe Cadbury's giant buttons too. There was much less than I ever thought tbh!

I lived overseas for 10 years, and ultimately the only thing I really needed was tea. In all 3 countries I lived in I found a local tea that would do. Actually Holland was the worst.

For the rest, well, it is nice to have a familiar flavour, marmite, or decent marmalade, but i adpated a lot to what was around locally, and didn't miss it much.

The things I used to get my DM to bring when we lived OS were:

My favourite magazines
The most recent Sunday Times
Bovril
Pudding rice
Large boxes of Lady Grey teabags

Living overseas makes you nostalgic for a whole heap of stuff that you wouldn’t nor ally touch if you were living at ‘home’.

Just make sure it is legal and can be imported

Decent cheese (Stilton, really strong cheddar. Even in a supposedly cheese-mad nation (Netherlands) I really missed them)

A proper British pub (though that might be difficult to pack)

When we lived in eastern Germany friends would bring marmite, Hellman’s, Cadbury’s chocolate and oxo cubes.

If they’d been able to bring perishables, I’d have asked for a suitcase full of humous!

I lived abroad for over ten years and like you said, I kind of learned to do without some things. However I loved my parents bringing me newspapers and magazines. They'd bring me everything from Take a Break to Glamour! I'd binge on them with some Fry's chocolate! Don't you want some Easter eggs? They should be coming in the shops soon and cream eggs are here already.

Thorntons chocolates, curry sauce and starbucks gingerbread syrup. Ooohh and proper Yorkshire tea 😍

Barry's feckin' tea- gold blend, all day long. Best tea ever. Irish tea!

I don't/can't eat chocolate, sweet stuff so don't miss that ! (But know lots that do miss it) 100% agree on the pub ... but doubt they'd get that in their bags ! You get tetley here, it's not the same but that's more the water. Already had a marmite shipment as DH discovered you could get big squeeze bottles x

I know you said UK but I'm thinking 'British Isles'.
Anyway yeah, Barry's and sticky toffee pudding. And rich tea biscuits. Don't H8. The rich tea is a quiet storm.

I've lived abroad nearly 2.5 years now and the only things I really miss and can't find an acceptable substitute for are monster munch (all flavours), prawn cocktail walkers (and I actually prefer the local salt and vinegar) and dad's bacon butties with builders tea, but seeing as how the bacon and (I think bread) are illegal to import and the water is decidedly eucalyptus-y I'm shit out of luck on that one!!

Totally agree with you on diet irn bru, i would miss that soo much. Other than that, probably some walkers crisps!

An do can live without them....just. But I have colleagues in the UK so they bring me out ridiculous goodie bags when they come, it's become a bit of a standing joke now!!

Oh yes,crisps abroad are always a disappointment. You can't get many different flavours / varieties / styles.

I love crisps

Most things I can now do without but at first I'd ask for:

teabags
my facewash
a trashy magazine eg Hello
Chocolate
Custard
biscuits

My dogs. But I might be missing the point

Yes living abroad years ago I missed Watsits and decent tea

Clotted cream

But it's probably not legal

oh, totally contrary to what I posted above

BOOKS, bags and bags of BOOKS, my brother used to buy and read stuff and then package them all up and send them to me. It was amazing.

Hard cheese, bizarrely I find myself bringing cheese to France, but can't make macaroni cheese for the kids without cheddar!
Stocks of thing that are much cheaper in the UK like nappies
Curry sauces for cooking (not the jars, the gourmet ones)
Mince meat for mince pies - could be a bit early in the year for that!
Cake decorating stuff - sprinkles and icing
Power lounging magazines...
And of course tea bags!