Weird things I miss about living in in the UK

[Internationaltraveller]

Okay, the following strange things I miss about living in London

1. People know how to queue
   
2. On any given day I could get a cappucino in less than 10 minutes from Eat/Pret/Starbucks etc.
   

I do like living where I am living but sometimes its just SLOW and everyone randomly gets on the bus, there is no queueing for it.

Anyone got anything to add?

[Astelia]

I like where I live but I miss all these:
real fires
frost
hills
fields
sheep
snow
seasons
daffodils
country pubs

[Internationaltraveller]

Lovely stuff astelia
Thanks for posting such positive reinforcements about the UK everyone.

[BewitchedBotheredandBewildered]

I loved living in the tropics but eventually really missed the changing seasons.
And marmite

[MooseBeTimeForCoffee]

Where are you International?

[Rosa]

My family

[surroundedbyblondes]

Ooh yes. Proper sausages and pork pies!!

[superfluouscurves]

Where are you BlameitontheBogey?

I am glued to the Today programme though Internet radio (in mainland Europe)

[idlevice]

I moved back last year & am really enjoying rediscovering things I didn't even know I missed. Agree with papers/tv/radio, food, footpaths/places to walk & weather. Also crunchy grass after a frost, squirrels, snowdrops & bluebells, fields with or without cows/sheep & most weirdly, the lazy drone of a small plane overhead on a fine day.

[thanksamillion]

Ahh idlevice I dream of pavements. When it rains here it's just mud everywhere, nothing stays clean and you just feel like staying in. The freedom to walk outside when it's raining and not get muddy feet..

[Missymoomum]

I miss greenery, it's so brown here as it hardly ever rains. I miss decent, clean, bright and airy supermarkets and the choice of wonderful food you get in them. On a food note, i miss lovely cheeses, sausage rolls, proper sausages, meat joints, roast dinners, low fat options (currently trying to do Slimming World online and it's very hard as i can't get the no syn options), decent fruit and veg that aren't covered in terrifying pesticides and food that you can be sure is organic when it says it is, fresh milk and fish (again, food safety issues). I miss fresh air and being able to go for walks in the countryside and rolling hills and daffodils and other spring flowers. I miss shopping centres that have 'normal' shops in them and not full of ridiculously expensive designer shops. I miss John Lewis, Next, Boots, children's animal farms, feeding the ducks.

I'm feeling very very homesick at the moment, so i could go on and on..........

[DolomitesDonkey]

Hate hate hate processed scotch eggs, sausage rolls, Cornish pasties, sausages etc. used to love them but now all I can taste is "filler agents" and grease.

But yes, country pubs, walks, drives. Would be considered quite crackers to simply go for a drive on a Sunday afternoon and see where it takes us.

Would like a newspaper will all the supplements without a 3 hour trip to get it!

Horse riding competitions which don't require being a member if a national organisation or passing an exam to join. My husband would like to play a round of golf without being asked for his golf exam papers.

Petrol stations with enough stock to do a weekly shop.

[ripsishere]

I'd just like an English newspaper. bugger the supplements (although they would be nice).
You can't even get the daily mail here. Every other country I've lived in you could.

[NinaNannar]

i have never and never do pub gardens on a summers day - cant think of anything worse, fag smoke, idiots being drunk

nope - its rose tinted!

[DolomitesDonkey]

Oh to be a fag-smoking drunken idiot again.

[itshothere]

Family mostly, especially when there is an occasion or event you can't attend . Real fish and chips, and battered pork sausages. TV programs, it's getting better here though must admit . Funny (humorous) work colleagues (was in the nhs). Sarcasm, someone else said that, but I miss the banter. Mmmm think that's it for now?

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

Being able to afford a joint of beef.
Fresh lamb - where the heck is it in Germany/France and Switzerland. Wales is closer than NZ!!
Reading the paper from cover to cover on a Sunday.
Going shopping on a Sunday because you have space and time to browse.
Sh*t white bread
Sausages made with sawdust not 100% meat Wurst
Rissoles
Random mindless banter with the checkout operator in the supermarket.

[mummytime]

Ninanannar as you have never done pubs on a Sunday, you wouldn't realise that the naice ones have little smoking, and no one is drunk. It's sitting in the sun (when the UK gets it), eating a leisurely meal (pubs are more about food than alcohol), and kids having some freedom to play so giving adults more time to chat.

[DolomitesDonkey]

Wally Pssst - Makro is where it's hidden! And, almost at UK prices although it's Irish lamb and not Welsh.

[Dontbugmemalone]

My family
YY to queing at a bus stop- here it's just everyone for themselves
Spring, it's never going to stop snowing here
Ethnic/Nationality diversity- I'm so fucking sick and tired of people staring at me like I'm a scary monster.
Open mindedness
Choice in supermarkets
Free family friendly activities
Food- curry, chinese etc. Veggie friendly food other then cereal :)
Smooth roads
Shopping centres (there are some here but too far away)
Being able to buy cheap anything, especially books
Primark

[WallyBantersJunkBox]

Dontbugme - Where are you??

Agree there are some amazing pub gardens for families in the UK - last time we were over we went to one in Tilford Woods (where they filmed bits of "Gladiator") with a beautiful shady garden and a climbing frame, playhouse etc. Great healthy kids menu and fab service.

Think more "gastro-pub" than "sticky carpet".

I don't really know where you are Nina but the country pubs in our old haunting ground were very family orientated and quite upmarket, I never saw any drunken idiots there tbh.

[NinaNannar]

I know what a pub is you loon.
I'd not choose to spend Sunday there.

[eslteacher]

Mature cheddar
British sausages
Take away curries
Pubs, esp food-serving ones on a Sunday afternoon
Regional accents
Politeness and self effacingness
Piss taking and ribbing
Sunday newspapers with supplements
High street shops, especially the near-constant sales and cheapy places
Being able to fully understand all the conversations you hear around you and make inferences about the people involved
British telly
London: parks, buses, the diversity of all the different parts of it, the massive range of amenities even in the outer zones
Fish and chips: the smell more than anything
Smiling old ladies
Feeling like you belong and are at home


I live in France now, just outside Paris

[blackcurrants]

I did live in Manhattan, where I was barely ever homesick, and now I live in the NJ suburbs, which feel much more American and foreign.

I miss:
the papers, (mainly on a Sunday, as that is when we would read them all day)
People to talk politics with.
Radio 4&2, in my car not podcasts.
Good tea
biscuits, not cookies
Ribena and other types of squash.
Pubs, and friends who want to go to pubs.
Lamb.
An assumption of atheism/secularism.
Good Telly. Individual series are very good here, but the general stuff is not.
Banter. People are extremely nice here, which I like, but the sheer amount of sincerity seems cheesy. Sarcasm and banter are so like home!


I can get very cheap books, clothes, etc, which is great, but I miss UK style.

[blackcurrants]

Oh, and definitely sausages, bacon cut the right way, and that much cheese choice.

[blackcurrants]

Oh, and being that close to mainland Europe. My siblings leave their children with our parents and take occasional long weekend breaks in Paris or Prague or Rome. Being an expat means our chances of even a visit to Toronto would involve taking two small children. Not romantic!