British Expatriate Network

Do you know, white poo only comes from Poodles. There's not so many around these days, so, obviously, there's less white poo.

Well that explains the Great Dog Poo mystery then. My next door neighbour used to say it was poo laid by ghost dogs. It's probably just a change in the stuff dogs eat.

One thing I have also noticed since being back are slugs and snails. Any glimpse of rain and there they all are. Didn't really see many of them in the 4 years I lived in Western NY.

I was just looking at this website as a guest and this topic caught my eye. I thought this will bring a smile to my face as people mention all the good things about the UK. I was astonished to read all the hostillity shown.
I was so annoyed I signed up so I could make a comment.

I've lived in Australia now for 5 years so I can still remember the many good things about living in the UK. I understand that many expats live elsewhere so some things I miss wont't apply.

Here goes my quick list. I miss

Bird song
Reals pubs
Good fish and chips
Intelligent conversation
Sense of humour
Culture
Manners
Being able to lie in soft grass without being stung/bitten/eaten
Decent chocolate
Good Ale
The closeness of things
Cornwall
Prawn cocktail, beef, smokey bacon crisps
Pork scratchings with hair (after a few pints)
The country side
Good friends

I could go on.............

Now before any of you nasty people make a coment- I do still remember the bad things and why I moved in the first place, I'm not under 25, and I AM thinking of moving back. I also visited last year and it was the best time I had since moving to Oz.

I'm glad that so many of you have gone native or moved so long ago that all you remember is post war Britain. But don't be so harsh on all of us who still think of ourselves as British and who have very fond memories of home.

I have just returned from a short visit.
My once sleepy village, with little crime is now terrorized by hoards of 13/14 year olds that the police do nothing about.

I am not 75, or 25 but when I was young, the only crime was trying to open the sweet shop door without the bell ringing to swipe a penny chew, and cherry knocking.

I dragged my 6 and 10 year old kids here and sometimes thought I was wrong to separate them from their friends and family. At 19 and 15, they are fully integrated into their lives here, and never want to return to live.
Now I realize even more that we made the right move.

Oh and Martin, we for the most part are not nasty. This thread has no nastiness.
Other than me in a squeezeee bottle mrgreen

Looks like you've been to Capitola, Santa Cruz...

You can get all that here, oh and wait, you can walk after dark and actually forget to lock your front door, leave your garage door open and everything is there when you come home....

Oh, and I have Marmite close at hand too...

Andrew :)

We to have those attractions here in Ontario. We even have Cornwall.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/im...ada&sz=all

We've decided, even after this second go, that we both miss the UK. So we'll be spending the rest of 2008 in the US, but, after that, we're going back for good.

There is just stuff that you take for granted in the UK that can't be had here in the US. I miss having 20 days' holiday a year and getting paid what I'm worth, not having to worry about the cost of healthcare, Sainsbury's, proper pubs and the culture that goes with them, decent public transport, proper chips, and not having people mistake me for an Australian! lol

Granted, I don't miss council tax, chavs, £1.10-a-litre petrol, small houses and constant rain, but I'll gladly deal with those inconveniences to live there again.

It's now been alomost 3 years to the day that I moved back to the UK (having spent 5 years in the US) and don't regret it one bit....TBH I don't miss much about the US (apart from cheap gas), I've re-established life over here pretty easily, have made a whole load of new very good friends and have much more of a social life than I ever did in the US (not that it is an unfriendly place by any means), and actually get paid almost twice as much as I did when I was living there for doing a similar job (granted the exchange rate has helped some of that comparison ) )

There are good things and bad things about living anywhere - it's all down to personal choice and in the end I think I made absolutely the right one for me and my circumstances

I have been back over in England for a year (my hubby wanted to try it and we wanted to see where we would like to bring our two preschoolers up), boy the place has changed...

Positives
Countryside and pretty thatched cottages...
Close to Europe for holidays
Excellent Museum's all close enough for a day trip, history in general.
Public Transport (even though overpriced)
Family
Cream Cakes
Country pubs serving Sunday roast dinner.
Really good Indian restaurants.
Maturnity Leave if you are pregnant
NHS (sometimes!)
20+ days holidays per year.

Negatives
I won't even start....

Can't think of much else, must say we miss how easy life is in the states, and miss being outdoors with the kids, we have practically hibernated this winter (and its not even been bad!) we are planning on moving back to the states in 09 D