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AIBU?

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Original poster

My soul aches for England

232 replies

Supertatofortea · 03/12/2023 09:56

I live in another European country

Seeing all the snowy posts and the variety of fun Christmas things to do has made me pine for it more 😢

OP posts:
Mariluisa · 03/12/2023 12:57

My soul ached for England after many years of my adult life spent living in a European city with an exceptionally good standard of living. It’s hard to explain but the ache was real and deep

MagpieRest · 03/12/2023 12:58

I completely understand and would feel the same! Have you moved permanently or can you come back? If permanently, can you visit?

inamarina · 03/12/2023 12:59

whereaw · 03/12/2023 12:01

As someone who was not born in England, it is a wonderful, charming, unique, inspiring, historic, and cultural place to live and it makes me very proud. But of course the done thing by the Brits (and even immigrants) is to slag it off, and ignore all the monumental and great things the English people past and present have done, or how lucky we are to live in a free and tolerant secular society that cares not only for its own people but others too. There are opportunities and chances for everyone here in a way that is just not true in many parts of the world, it is not perfect but humanity is not perfect and so no country or government ever will be. But on the grand scale of things, we have it pretty good!

Couldn’t agree more. I wasn’t born here either, but there are many things I like about England.

AInightingale · 03/12/2023 12:59

That might be the case OP but just be thankful you're not having to pay for gas in the middle of this freeze. I love winter, but it's painfully expensive now.

bombastix · 03/12/2023 13:01

For example the fun bit; there are three men playing Christmas carols as jazz standards in the town here, they are totally over the top with it, every note is overdone but as a consequence it is very festive.

No one needs jazz carols. But once heard, you want them. That's England at Christmas really.

Littlelucas · 03/12/2023 13:02

London is fab this year. London is great reat of uk meh 😉

And you know this for sure as you have visited ALL of the rest of the UK hmm? I’m in the north west and confirm everything is lovely in my neck of the woods thanks! London is nice for a day of shopping and a show but Manchester is just fine too - went to see Hamilton last week. Do people like the above never venture out of London? Seems so small minded and ignorant to make such silly sweeping comments.

Eleganz · 03/12/2023 13:02

One snow day doesn't make up for the fact that it is increasingly expensive and difficult to live in these pleasant pastures green (particularly if your more local to the dark satanic mills).

I'd suggest sitting down and watching the Boris Johnson circus at the COVID inquiry. It'll be sure to cure even the most serious case of home sickness.

Ramalangadingdong · 03/12/2023 13:04

cardibach · 03/12/2023 11:12

Nobody sneers at the country or hates it. What would it even mean to hate a country?
I dislike the weather intensely between November and late May.
I hate the shit show of a government.

Show quote history

Intelligent post. I feel the same.

stepintochristmas1 · 03/12/2023 13:05

My soul aches for the homeless , for the heat or eat and for the elderly and disabled who are stuck inside for fear of a fall . There is the reality .

Eleganz · 03/12/2023 13:06

Littlelucas · 03/12/2023 13:02

London is fab this year. London is great reat of uk meh 😉

And you know this for sure as you have visited ALL of the rest of the UK hmm? I’m in the north west and confirm everything is lovely in my neck of the woods thanks! London is nice for a day of shopping and a show but Manchester is just fine too - went to see Hamilton last week. Do people like the above never venture out of London? Seems so small minded and ignorant to make such silly sweeping comments.

I once met a girl at Uni who had never seen a cow in the UK. The only cows she has seen were in Brazil on a gap year. Quite funny that she ended up at a Uni a long way from London, bit of a shock for her really. I can really imagine her saying that London is the only nice place at Christmas, it was all she knew.

bombastix · 03/12/2023 13:09

Eleganz · 03/12/2023 13:02

One snow day doesn't make up for the fact that it is increasingly expensive and difficult to live in these pleasant pastures green (particularly if your more local to the dark satanic mills).

I'd suggest sitting down and watching the Boris Johnson circus at the COVID inquiry. It'll be sure to cure even the most serious case of home sickness.

Never mind Johnson. The people who voted for this fool can reflect. He wasn't some sort of King. He got in because people voted for him.I love England but his trashing of our society and conventions is something that was wanted.

YouveGotAFastCar · 03/12/2023 13:10

Mine aches to be out of here, honestly. I lived in Spain for 2 years, and have just spent 2 weeks back over there working. It's bliss. I am so much happier. So is my son. But moving is so difficult now, with Brexit.

It's not snowy where I am, it's freezing cold, I haven't encountered any of the MN people who are already reading Christmas books or baking gingerbread... It's just cold, grey and wet. I can afford to run the heating and we could afford to take toddler DS somewhere to run around and play, and I'm grateful for that, but everywhere is manic because it's so cold. The usual activities we do are now "Christmas editions" that cost twice as much.

I would do just about anything to know that DH and DS would be happily settled in Spain; because it is absolutely where my soul feels at home.

Xenia · 03/12/2023 13:11

It is the best country on the planet however we have 18m more people than when I was born so I would be quite glad is 20m chose to emigrate - we have often been a country of people emigrating to Australia etc. Instead now we have more people than ever in our history moving here - 740,000 net immigration.

(No snow in this bit of outer London and it is warmer today but solid rain which is more typical than snowy scenes...... and we have the highest tax burden of the last 70 years so we work at least half the year just to pay income tax NI and then move on to all the other taxes we bear..... unto death when the state steals 40% in inheritance tax)

LongAndWindingRoads · 03/12/2023 13:12

We live in the best county in the world, when you see what's going on in other countries count your blessings. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else, l love the seasons, the countryside, our traditional villages, beautiful gardens, the fact that most of us love our animals, and most of all l feel safe and secure here.

LongAndWindingRoads · 03/12/2023 13:12

Country

Maddy70 · 03/12/2023 13:12

I live abroad too. I'm back visiting the uk. I feel very happy that it snowed. I can't remember the last time I saw snow..

However. It's fuckin freezing, my uncle had to wait for 7 hours for an ambulance last week and has recieved such awful care from an over stretched nhs , everyone is grumpy , there are traffic jams everywhere and I can't wait to get back 3 more days...

Honestly Britain is broken.

(But the view from my window this morning was white and pretty)

Butterdoesntmelt · 03/12/2023 13:19

I feel for you OP. I can imagine this time of year does hit you hard when the country you live in doesn't do Christmas quite the same way as where you are from.

Can you pop over for a Weekend? Or add a few of the uk traditions you are missing to your Christmas countdown?

I'm the complete opposite. My heart yearns to get out of the UK and live in a warmer European country. I've learnt the language and go there as often as I can but my ex husband won't let me take the kids so I'm stuck here until they are adults.

Zone2NorthLondon · 03/12/2023 13:19

I see the usual flurry of whines and complaints. Yes,It is cold crack the fuck on.
and before anyone pipes up about being in London I have lived in waaay colder places in the uk and cracked on, continued to work etc
Imo cold is easier to deal with than extreme heat

VanityDiesHard · 03/12/2023 13:20

Isthisblocked · 03/12/2023 12:54

Your soul should ache for England …… so many discontented people failing to realise how lucky they are. And I am not rich….. I live in the north east of England in a small house, but there is a fire in my hearth and on my stove, lentil and vegetable soup, bubbling away to have with good bread and even better cheese when I return from a walk in the snow. We have many freedoms and opportunities in this great country….. there are many wonderful people from my very ordinary neighbours to artists and scientists of world renown. I am just an ordinary English woman and I know how lucky we are

Hear hear! I love England so much. I also love the USA, which shares a lot of England's greatest virtues and values, but the lack of free healthcare and the lax gun laws sadly make it unviable to live in.

VanityDiesHard · 03/12/2023 13:23

Eleganz · 03/12/2023 13:02

One snow day doesn't make up for the fact that it is increasingly expensive and difficult to live in these pleasant pastures green (particularly if your more local to the dark satanic mills).

I'd suggest sitting down and watching the Boris Johnson circus at the COVID inquiry. It'll be sure to cure even the most serious case of home sickness.

Oh good grief. A LOT of countries mishandled Covid. I can't stand this constant Britain bashing. At least we got our vaccines rolled out fast! And while our lockdowns went on too long and were too draconian, they weren't as bad as Australia or New Zealand's or even much of Europe (Sweden was the only country who really got it right)

Mikimoto · 03/12/2023 13:25

I think: "England: ah, soul!"

Fionaville · 03/12/2023 13:25

I always say I'd like to live in a warmer country for the rest of the year, but come back to England for most of December. There's no place like home at Christmas time (for me and mine anyway)
If it helps though, most of the snow has melted here and we're back to a damp, grey outlook 😆

LadyBird1973 · 03/12/2023 13:30

There's a lot wrong with this country for sure but I think many Brits underestimate how important that feeling of home and being in our own culture is to some of us. We find it hard to define what English culture is sometimes, because it's do heavily influenced by our history but it is a real thing and some of us feel deeply homesick when away from it.
Theres a thing in this country of automatically respecting everyone else's cultural identity and having no tolerance for our own. Hence all the sniffy posts saying there's nothing to miss about England!

Spottywombat · 03/12/2023 13:31

I seem to have lost how to quote pp but the person saying it's great as we have the NHS hasn't visited a hospital with an acute issue recently.

They might well see their loved one suffer/die in an ambulance or hours in the doorway of the hospital, followed by on a trolley, so whilst you might not go bankrupt with the NHS, you may well be traumatised...some whinging is justified.

Maddy70 · 03/12/2023 13:33

VanityDiesHard · 03/12/2023 13:23

Oh good grief. A LOT of countries mishandled Covid. I can't stand this constant Britain bashing. At least we got our vaccines rolled out fast! And while our lockdowns went on too long and were too draconian, they weren't as bad as Australia or New Zealand's or even much of Europe (Sweden was the only country who really got it right)

Show quote history

This always makes me laugh. Just because they got vaccines rolled out fast... (In flat yes they did but it was only a couple of weeks before the others , and the EU decided the astra zeneca wasn't safe enough and wanted further testing ...they went on to ban it in under 55s and used others in that age group

It's not the success story you think it is.

The covid enquiry . Proved how far the government have stooped in so many ways not just covid but their way of running a country