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

I live here

Agree midnight express it's clear most of this lot havn't lived in UK since early '80s

Your answer to this thread absolutely depends where you are comparing it to (eg: comment above re: good recycling and eco-stuff, refuted by Ernest who lives in Switzerland, Germany).

So my list, having lived abroad in Turkey and in the States is:

Good re-cycling facilities and eco-awareness

Bacon
Sausages
Biscuits
Chocolate
The Guardian (though it's good to get it online anywhere now)
Supermarkets in general
Marks and Spencers

Decent holidays and employment/maternity rights - compared to US (not Sweden for eg!). SO important.

The NHS

Spring and Autumn...but not winter.

The NHS
Snow days.
London
Edinburgh
Village pubs
Dartmoor and Exmoor
Fish and chips on windy beaches
Spring and autumn

We have had a milkman in the last 3 areas we've lived in, and the milk came in bottles

not sure if he had a cheery whistle as he delivered the milk though

nkf-fish and chips on the beach-fab !!!

I stand corrected hazeyjane, though i am v disappointed that cheery whistle is no longer part of the job description (probably gone the same way as church bells, which were deemed 'too noisy' by incomers in my mum's village and muffled.

Milkman deliver milk in bottles in Wales too. I visited my brothers last year and they all had milkmen come to the house. And in Wales, you know its straight from the cow.

I miss Blighty so much.

Well...I'm American (I confess I've never even BEEN to the UK (blush)) but some English things I love are the humor (more witty than ours for the most part), most things on the BBC, and you've got such a rich literary tradition. More than anything, I guess it just depends on what you picture when you think of "home". A few questions: We don't have real cheddar in the US? Really? Now I'm sad, because if there's one thing I love, it's cheese! Also, I'm genuine and friendly, even though I an American- I promise!

daysoftheweek:
some of the hospitals...could give any third world country a run for it's (sic) money and access...is dependent on money.

Have you ever BEEN in a third world hospital???

Suffolk is getting a good rap here - yay for windy beaches, fish & chips, Adnams and Aspalls, oh and festivals - Latitude's the best IMHO. Our milkman delivers milk in bottles, but there's no longer cream on the top - what's that process it now has to go through that distributes it evenly throughout the pint?

The UK is a great place to live! DH and I are from NZ but have now settled in the UK, but the response we get from most Brits is WHAT???!!!

Well here's my list:
I think the weather is "just right".
It rains less than NZ, and I don't get so sunburnt in the summer.
I love the seasons, especially autumn in the countryside.
The fresh produce and local meat is fantastic.
Sausages from our local butcher.
The RSC and the other great theatre companies.
Marks and Spencer.
Footpaths and bridleways covering the most beautiful countryside.
Fast train to Paris for the weekend.
Walking to the Christmas service at the local village church, complete with bicycling vicar and hilariously bad musical accompaniment from local residents.
Glorious country pubs, especially when taking lunch en route a rainy hike in the country.
The buzz of London.
The quiet beauty of Scotland.

Last week we were granted permanent residency, and our baby girl dual nationality. We feel so proud and happy to truly call the UK home.

ponymum-lovely post

I think if you have lived somewhere else you can really appreciate what GB has to make it special.

What a great thread!
I want to come home now too
And my parents still get milk delivered in glasss bottles by a milklady(!)

Am going to show this to DP later to see if it makes him want to come to Bighty!

Hi Ponymum I'm from NZ too (albeit almost 20 years ago now) and what I love about the UK is that you get...

proper villages, not 3 houses in a row, 2 hours drive from anywhere else

proper civilised pubs, not ones that have formica topped tables with those weird sunken ashtrays filled with dubious fluids (although those have long disappeared with the banishment of smoking,) and carpets that suck at your feet as you walk

wonderful long summer evenings

the public footpaths and being able to walk from one village to another and stop at a pub enroute without someone threatening you with a shotgun because 'you're on their land'

English cider (do I sound obsessed with drinking?)

My DH (he's English!)

And TBH those who complain about customer service, rudeness, slovenliness, etc etc, they're the same everywhere you live. There are always unpleasant people about regardless if you live in an idyllic location or not. And where you live, you have to get up, earn a living, look after the kids, do the food shopping, walk the dog. It's the people who you know and care for that make the difference.

daysoftheweek, I bet Bg etc can be a pain, but believe me, day to day customer service in shops is great, friendly, helpful compared with in Germany & CH. I am always struck by it every time I return.

I have spent last 10 years thinking of all the positives about CH (& now G) - better this, better that, now I'm returning to the UK, I need to radically erase these thoughts and focus on the positives of the UK. There must be some. This thread has show there are, thank goodness

I think I'd prefer the weather in UK too. Summer here is much too hot. Don't mind the cold but it is certainly a lot milder in UK.

DH like GB because opportunities are genuinely open here. We may think they're not but he thinks it's amazing in comparison to Spain, where he is from.

Oooh yeah, your maternity leave is much better than ours in America, isn't it? When it comes down to it, your home's your home. Like being an American for me, even with all that's gone on (an insane former president just to touch on the tip of the iceberg) there are still so many things I love about home.

cheapskatemum yes on more that one occasion you are of course putting me out of context with your ........ I did refer to the education system and universities in the same sentence

shellingpeas see my post at 16:15 on 13/2/09

Ernst I'm not sure what Bg is but I have no experience of customer service in Germany I would imagine it is v. efficient

The whingeing. It helps us bond.

proper pubs and pub lunches
Marks and Spencer food
Being able to get to Europe really easily
the countryside
the lovely old buildings
lovely villages and churches
being able to go to fantastic cultural things
the NHS
the particularly British sense of humour and people who get sarcasm
CHRISTMAS IN WINTER

gawd I've gone all homesick

I'm quite surprised by all the milkman controversy on this thread. We have a lovely milklady who brings us full fat milk, in glass bottles with cream on the top. She doesn't whistle though.

dotw - BG = British Gas.

"efficient" ha.

I think it's improved in UK - I'm happy to be wrong, but eg contacting any service her, such as bank, telephone co etc, they're open Mon - fri, 9 til 5, so if you're out at work, it's a nightmare and total joke.

other good things -
Tea!
good indian food
breakfast cereal - shreddies

I'm leaving the UK, after living here 10 years, in six weeks.

I do not want to go.

There's so many things I am going to miss, but I am scared of having to start over again, I am going back to where I'm from, but I have no idea how the "systems" work, and I haven't lived there for 15 years. I've moved on from my school friends, and no doubt they have from me too!

I'm settled here, London's become "home".