if you had to leave the UK, what would you NEED to take with you?

[sansouci]

that you couldn't find overseas? Tetley teabags? Panasonic breadmaker?

eidsvold in NZ I got very excited when I saw 'Living' but it turned out to be home programmes etc. and not my beloved home of Most Haunted, CSI, America's Next Top Model etc. I was gutted! so think it is unfortunately not the same thing

am now off to have a marmite & cheese sarnie - yum, yum, yum YUM!

All those British brands of pickles, Worcester sauce , mixed spice and so on, you'll find in NZ unless you're really going to be living in the wops.

NZ lamb is delicious. In fact so are the eggs, milk and chicken. The milk is like cream. The top of the milk is like double cream (yum) and the cream is just delicious. Sigh. They have so much more flavour than anything I've bought in Western Europe.

You'll get the chocolate biscuits, chocolate bars, I think most crisp flavours.

Can't honestly think of anything I wanted and couldn't get there in terms of food. It was the clothes shopping I found difficult. I'd stock up clothes-wise but not with food.

Obviously it depends where you are moving to :)

I found that living in the USA, that what I wanted from the UK diminished year on year. On visits, I used to stock up on children's pyjamas for some reason - the US ones are just nasty.

We could get British food where we lived - well the kind that is dried, concentrated, tinned. Of that, I'd buy orange squash, Ribena, Marmite, Heinz baked beans, Heinz soups (when I was pregnant), tea. The food I missed was the kind I couldn't get there anyway - sausages, bacon, cream cakes, etc - but it wasn't a big deal to go without.

In the US, you can find most things anywhere (unless you are seriously in the sticks). Some people think that if it is not in Walmart or Target (such as a decent electric kettle), they don't exist, but there are plenty of specialist shops in the normal shopping malls and plazas.

Cheap French plonk was something I missed when I first arrived in the US - I really resented spending $8 on a bottle of Glen Ellen gut rot. I was very pleased to find Cotes de Gascogne at £5 a bottle in our local, extremely posh, wine shop (where most wines were in the $25 - 50 range) - I think he bought it in specially for me.

Baby stuff may be something that you are particular about. I could never find a decent buggy in the US - they all were made for people who were no taller than 5'1", so I did have a Maclaren sent over from the UK. Later on, these did appear in the US shops.

One thing that I remember asking people to send me - Christmas baking ingredients.

Nightynight - if you have a Lidl near you, they have Jaffa cakes - not the actual brand, but near as dammit. Well, I couldn't taste the difference.

You can get Tetley's here in France but it's made in France and doesn't have the same strength at all. We get people to bring us PG Tips. Any other bits and pieces are bonuses, I wouldn't say we needed them.

I think if you are going to live abroad you need to fit in with them and what they have "When in Rome..." and all that!

In the US, Jaffa Cakes are called Pimms and come in all sorts of flavours - orange, lemon, apricot, rasperry, lime etc. Orange is the best, of course.

Proper Pimms is harder to get.

We lived in Italy and missed

Branston
Curry (Mum used to bring mango chutney and poppadums for us!)
proper biscuits
underwear
shoes (am a size 8!!)
decent clothes for the boys that werent market or designer!

I soooooooooo dont miss living there!!

i just dont think there is anything i am that attached to anniemac

and besides i like the differences between different countries

marmite, essential toiletries from Boots, photos, contact details, passport!

I agree, Lou33. It's nice to hunt our local things that are good, or to find a supply of something nostalgic. And also to leave the cream cake fetish until you are on holiday in the UK.

I would say that food is the hardest part of being an expat SAHM though, especially in the USA.

shouldn't really contribute to this thread as I have never been outside the UK for longer than 3 months, but I did find during those periods that it was British bread I really missed. V odd. Bread lovely elsewhere but sooo wanted a fresh squidgy white farmhouse loaf/big granary tin.

But what will you miss from your country of residence if you go back to the UK?

I will miss French bread, the availability of sheeps and goats cheese, the brilliant school meals for dd, cheap corn fed chicken and cheap free range eggs, dessert wine and various brands of aperitifs, the wide range of red wine, friendly neighbours!

Salad cream

I've just returned to my childhood love of it after pretending for years that Hellmans was cool.

Egg and salad cream sandwiches, potato salad and salad cream.

Have a feeling that it's a Nigel slater thing too.

oh very well said Rhubarb

Never thought I would say this but what I really, really miss is sausage . Nothing fancy, just plain old max 15% meat sausage. I'd settle for supermarket own brand, I really would, just as long as it's a 'proper' sausage.

This obviously came as a massive shock to me as I rarely ate them when I lived in England.

Continental sausage = bollocks

oh, yes, I forgot sausages.
And russet apples.
And proper cooking apples.

franke, you can buy jaffa cakes all over the place here...but theyre not the same as British ones! They have too much fruit filling. I prefer Morrisons or Tescos cheap range ones any day.

What would I miss going back to UK?
the Italian ice cream, and thats about it. But I am in the land of Bier and Weisswurst.
I'd miss the clean, crime-free streets, thats for sure!

Californifrau you need to go to Whole Foods, they sell fabulous sausages, both pork beef and fancy ones for the grill. Blooming pricey but yummy. Scienceteacher you have a very very expensive liquor store near you. I can get a large bottle of excellent California wine for $12 or less. But then I don't like French wine :o. What do I miss absolutely nothing, what do I wish i could by Calpol for the boys. But with all the "different" kinds of shops here in Boulder, CO I can even buy bovril now and Golden Syrup and mincemeat and Xmas Pudding so no worries for next year.

okay. there's nothing anyone's mentioned that I can't "live without" or get here already. so that's a relief.

it's a bit of joke because I've lived most of my life here in CH (30 yrs this yr). my favourite things to eat & drink are bread, cheese, chocolate and wine...

OOh, I forgot about cooking apples, noone here has any idea what I'm talking about.

I'm excited at the thought of Lidl stocking something like Jaffa Cakes as I'm sure I've seen one nearby. Might take a look this afternoon, thanks franke!

Sansouci - Lemsip and Calpol. i haven't found alternatives for either in Switzerland.

We have a breadmaker! You can buy one in Switzerland! PILs have one that can make loaves and rolls, they got it here!