British Expatriate Network

and my MIL can't bring when she visits

Oatcakes (the big flat crepe-style things)
Big Ben at New Year (eek;))
Pubs and pints of bitter
Brit humour
Newspapers, magazines and comics.

Can't/wouldn't go back (just coming up to 7 years here, kids know no other life) but these are the things I remember fondly occasionally.

You?

All of the above minus the oatcakes
An dbeing present when grandchild is born on th15th
Oh I am so tempted . . . . .

Bacon butties, walking places (Pub, mates houses, the beach), the british countryside. i guess i'm getting used to living here now, i don't miss half as much stuff as when i first got here and am feeling more at home.

Not too much any more.

Things-wise, I miss going to football every Saturday which was a large part of my life for a while.

I miss a few foods but not to the extent that I used to. I still feel I can enjoy them on my rare visits back so it doesn't feel like it's too much of a hardship.

I sort of miss not being able to just go for a walk round the shops every lunchtime or have lunch/a pint with my workmates. There are shops within walking distance of my office but they're not like Boots, WHSmiths or Bentalls and its probably a capital offense to have a drink during work hours here.

Miss....everything, good and bad. Would go back tomorrow, this afternoon actually there is a Virgin flight out of San Francisco at 525 !!

I would miss the kindness of the people here...and the the fit women, but my old bird makes up for it in so many other ways...best I stop there I think !!

Yep. Me too. Going to the footy with mates and drinking a few before and after is what I miss most. Well, that and a decent pasty and chips....

I miss the smoke in pubs (NOT)

The damp...

Lousy weather...

...although I'll be there most likely this year for a few days for MotoGP...3rd trip back to the UK in 18 years!

Andrew

We have radio 4 going most of the day thru the computers and stereo, we caught the celebrations, you could hear the crowds and the fireworks between the bongs. THE BIG BEN BONGS.
SO, if you're around at 4pm Ca. time, don't know your time diff. but you can listen next year. Then they tell you how cold it is and the weather and it's so much better than being there.

Still trying to think of something I miss, other than mates, family and such, not much comes to mind, but it is early and I'm only just awake. :roll: :D

I completely agree about the smoke in pubs, definitely something that has to change, as far as the weather goes I think I must be a bit weird, I always go back in the winter when it is cold and damp..I love it.

The damp kills me.

With the plates and pins I have in my lower body/pelvis/legs it renders me a cripple. It's bad enough when the temperature drops here, but it's not damp, so I can deal with it.

When we went down to San Diego to pick up Thor, it was warm, warm, and lovely and my knees went aaaaah.

It's the *only* thing that makes going to Daytona tolerable. The warm weather...

One thing I heard today, that smoking in pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants in France is now banned...the world is about to end methinks...

I noticed that in Spain it's voluntary, but it appears that people talk with money so the more places that are smoke free the public tend to frequent and thus the establishments fares better.

Andrew )

The pubs ( music sunday lunchtime )



The whole chelsea scene . restuarants , clubs , pubs/wine bars , football (at stamford bridge )
Portabello road ,hyde park ,wimbledon ,
the boat race , fish and chips , bangers and mash ,
sunday scandal papers .


Not missed
Crowds everywhere , bad weather , nilalistic attitude , high prices for consumer goods ,shitty service .
for everything missed there is a alternative

I miss walking along a dark high street late in the afternoon doing my Christmas shopping and seeing the Christmas lights in Regent Street. I miss hearing the Salvation Army band playing carols in the street. I miss singing Christmas carols to the proper tunes, tring to hold the long notes in Ding Dong Merrily on High, going to church on Christmas morning once in a while, getting dressed up in festive but not tacky clothes, and not having decorations in blue, white and silver being limited to Hanukah.

Then I miss Boxing Day as it used to be before the shops were open - when it was a second Christmas Day for sitting around and socialising, eating leftovers and going to the pub and visiting relatives who couldn't join us for Christmas Day.

Christmas 2006 I felt all nostalgic and made my Dad and Him attend a carol service with me - I love "The Holly And The Ivy" and all that old stuff.

Well....! :shock: There are no traditional carols any more! It was Christmas words set to a calypso beat from a keyboard or something. It was horrendous. I couldn't even sing along to it.

This year we will go back and I'll try the carol concert at Winchester Cathedral.


Like Pilgrim, I really don't miss as much. Food I can deal with now (whereas it used to be SUCH a big deal to me). I miss the telly, but that could easily be fixed if I got my sister to hook up a slingbox for me. Radio I can get whenever I want, ditto newspapers. I do like a good pub garden in the summer, and I'm sure when the infant arrives I will miss being able to walk places on a flat, well paved surface. But that's about it.

Stel.

Well, I read this thread yesterday and couldn't think of anything straight away so thought I would go away and think about it. I've come back and still can't think of one thing.

We have been here over 9 years now. We will be celebrating our 10 years next December and we will be celebrating. It has taken us, but me especially, a long time to settle and get used to life here but I can honestly say that there is not one thing I miss from back home that I can't get or have here. Family and friends that matter in my life are either already here or come and visit. The day that that will change I will go and visit back home more purely to see them and nothing else.

It has taken me a long time but I think I can honestly say I love it here )

There's not much I miss anymore, certain foods come to mind but I can pretty much get almost everything I crave from a Brits food store.

One thing though is good bread. Even making my own it doesn't
taste the same as home, I think it may have something to do with the flour over here. oh, and rain as we get so little of it here in California. D