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

[hez011]

I have made the momentous decision to return to UK after 20+ years overseas,bringing my twin ds with me who have only once visited UK.Some helpful friends/family have been quick to pour cold water on the idea so please can I have some personal good reasons for life in UK ? Thanks

Waitrose
Private schools
Creativity
The NHS
The BBC
Humour and general insight into human nature

Lovely thread. Am probably repeating but:

500 year old pubs with roaring fires
Pints of Aspalls and/or Adnams
Cheddar and Stilton
Sunday roast with yorkshire puddings
Sense of humour
Rain
Day off work every time it snows!

food - honest! farmers markets, regional produce, the apples, strawberries, gooseberries are the best in the world

the architecture - market towns, funky cities, beach huts

beaches - wild scotland, dorset, witterings, suffolk coast to name just a few

fantastic walking - lake district, coastal paths

best city in the world - london - and many others are fab too

fab primary schools with traditions and very high standards, yet funky and creative too

fab theatre

best music in the world

education - the universities are world-known

fashion is best in the world - accessible to all

gardens

blue sky days, bluebells, snowdrops

baking - great cakes not too fancy (!)

family if you are lucky

free healthcare which can be fantastic - has never let us down

your neighbours can be from anywhere in the world

I have moved back to my country after 10 years in London and I miss:

The multicultural food
Fashion
Sense of humour
Customer service
Sunday paper
Pub Lunches
M&S raspberry triffles
M&S underwear

I still watch only UK TV so I don't miss it and I listen mostly to english music.

I have to say I am astonished at the number of times customer service has been mentioned - where the hell are you people living??

Bubbaluv, we're in Spain! And yes, it is. In some ways.

Customer service, let me give you an example!
The bank cocked up a payment, they paid it twice effectively clearing out my account and not leaving enough to pay the mortgage and end of month bills. It was entirely their fault, an administrative error in a payment being made to a third party.

When I noticed via online banking I rang them. They said in a nutshell:
They already knew, they just hadn't got round to correcting it or ringing me to let me know
They were very busy, was it urgent that I needed the funds back now?
It happened because her colleague was off on holiday thereby doubling her workload and it wasn't her fault that she'd been too busy to double check everything
...and then in the same conversation she said "did you know you don't have enough funds to cover the payments being taken today? We'll have to transfer some from your deposit account so you'll lose the interest. I need it in writing, please come today otherwise there will be financial penalties."

I kid you not and this kind of "I cocked up but it's not my fault and it's your problem [shrug]" attitude is everywhere, it's not just one bad bank employee. I know it is said that having a bad attitude yourself attracts bad attitude in others, but I am easy going to the point of horizontal and a very easy customer so I really don't think it's me! Noone wants to help in shops or go over and above the call of duty whereas in London last weekend the woman in Paperchase fell over herself to be lovely. Ditto Waterstones, WHS, Boots, sandwich shop, bar, shoe shop and tube ticket bloke.

Interesting thread. We lived in Germany for 5 years and then moved to Holland last May. We're loving Holland and don't really want to leave, but DH got made redundant 2 weeks ago.

My gut feeling is for us to find a job ANYWHERE other than the UK, but this thread has given me food for thought...

Been close to Europe (obviously wouldn't work if you're moving back from Paris, but if from Oz the a tick).

I like living in a small country - I can go to London for the day or the Lakes or Scotland/Wales for the weekend.

Music festivals.

You can call me saddo if you like but i really miss the british weather.

I am in Cyprus and we had a very long and humid summer and very little rain. Missed the rain and the smell after it , in london.

Also i echo the other posters about the wide choice in supermarkets. And the charity shops.

Oh yes, and shops and Banks beeing open all day in uk. Here you have to do everything by 1.30 pm

kitbit - is your bank sabadell atlantico by any chance?!

Lovely post, newgirl, agree with everything you say.

Pre dc, we moved back to the UK after only 2 years living in the US. It took us about 6 months to get over how old-fashioned & staid this country is (and small), but after that it was good to be back somewhere with such depth of history & culture, familiar humour, nhs etc etc.

Now we have kids, would not swap the school system & family network for another country.

things get done in Britain, they don't just shrug, raise their hands and hope the problem/ you will go away

gooseberries

blackberries

rhubarb

nice apples that aren't Granny Smith

cheddar that isn't rubbery

decent teabags

humour

proper motorways where you don't have to pay tolls every twenty minutes

proper green countryside (as opposed to dried out yellow)

puddings

availability of English books in bookshops (it takes ages to arrive when you order on Amazon)

daysoftheweek. UK isn't ripoffshire compared with Ireland. You have to pay ?60 for something that costs £40.

Kitbit, I used to live in Spain and I agree with you. Your deepest distress could be met with a shrug.

They do know how to enjoy themselves, and in many ways I think they have their priorities right, but that talk to the hand stuff would wear you down after a decade! If you weren't brought up with it. It obviously slides off their backs.

I was only there a year. Even a 17 yr old old being paid 5.40 an hour to pretend to give a shit about your electricity bill being wrong seems like heaven.

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!

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.

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????!!

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.

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

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

please accept this as fact.

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....

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!

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......

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...

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