Question for expats (or anyone who has spent a lot of time away from the UK)

[Oldbear]

I got thinking about this the other night, we were having a discussion and the topic got onto what thing, as an expat, do I miss from the UK that I can’t get here?

Now usually people expect a list of certain food or drink items, and obviously I miss live RL (although currently watching any live sport feels like a far off fantasy), but the more I thought about it the thing I miss the most are the cats eyes that are found on UK roads and are such a friend on nights of poor visibility. We don’t have them in Western Canada, in fact our street lighting sucks too, so night time driving can get a little hairy, especially in BC where you don’t only have to contend with other drivers, careless pedestrians and cyclists with no lights, but also a plethora of critters which come active when it gets dark. These vary in size from skunks (try getting that smell out of your car tires) and raccoons right up to deer, bears and moose (hit one of those and it’s a trip to the body shop at best, hospital at worst). The funny thing is, when I lived in the UK I took the existence of cats eyes for granted, now I miss them. Please tell me they are still installed on new roads there.

So over to you, what do you miss about the UK (or did miss when you were away), that you never thought you would?

[Wholly Trinity]

Although I don't miss the cold weather and short days, I do miss the signposts of the annual transition. Living just 3 degrees south of the equator, the days are the same length and the weather is the same all year round, which make it most hospitable for humans. However, it really makes it difficult to keep track of the passing year and plays havoc with your memory of when things happened.

The obvious things are still relevant, missing family and friends (particularly children growing up), live RL & the traditional pub, but less so as time goes by.  I have a fairly short list of items that I bring from the UK which I can't get here: Yorkshire Teabags, Marmite, English Mustard and HP sauce.

[Bob8]

4 hours ago, Oldbear said:

I got thinking about this the other night, we were having a discussion and the topic got onto what thing, as an expat, do I miss from the UK that I can’t get here?

Now usually people expect a list of certain food or drink items, and obviously I miss live RL (although currently watching any live sport feels like a far off fantasy), but the more I thought about it the thing I miss the most are the cats eyes that are found on UK roads and are such a friend on nights of poor visibility. We don’t have them in Western Canada, in fact our street lighting sucks too, so night time driving can get a little hairy, especially in BC where you don’t only have to contend with other drivers, careless pedestrians and cyclists with no lights, but also a plethora of critters which come active when it gets dark. These vary in size from skunks (try getting that smell out of your car tires) and raccoons right up to deer, bears and moose (hit one of those and it’s a trip to the body shop at best, hospital at worst). The funny thing is, when I lived in the UK I took the existence of cats eyes for granted, now I miss them. Please tell me they are still installed on new roads there.

So over to you, what do you miss about the UK (or did miss when you were away), that you never thought you would?

It is a bit vague, but I remember my first Danish girlfriend thought I was slightly hopeless with day-to-day practicalities. When we went to the UK things were reversed, I just knew how everything worker and everything fitted about how I did things. I was suddenly always half a step ahead.

I never thought I would miss proper bacon in Denmark, but they export it all to the UK.

[gingerjon]

I'm not remotely an expat but, years ago, I stayed with a couple in Chicago as a way of affording to go there. (They were friends of my dad and had a spare room in a nice bit of the north side). One day they were off to work and I got up looking to make a coffee to start the day.

The kitchen had no kettle. None. There was no kettle in the building. There were the mechanisms for making coffee: coffee, cups and water but no means, as far as I can see, to boil anything.

Turns out, a lot of Americans see kettles as some exotic decadence. I'm not sure I'd ever get past that.

[Robin Evans]

13 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I'm not remotely an expat but, years ago, I stayed with a couple in Chicago as a way of affording to go there. (They were friends of my dad and had a spare room in a nice bit of the north side). One day they were off to work and I got up looking to make a coffee to start the day.

The kitchen had no kettle. None. There was no kettle in the building. There were the mechanisms for making coffee: coffee, cups and water but no means, as far as I can see, to boil anything.

Turns out, a lot of Americans see kettles as some exotic decadence. I'm not sure I'd ever get past that.

Life without a kettle.?? ... the end of civilisation!!

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

I'm not remotely an expat but, years ago, I stayed with a couple in Chicago as a way of affording to go there. (They were friends of my dad and had a spare room in a nice bit of the north side). One day they were off to work and I got up looking to make a coffee to start the day.

The kitchen had no kettle. None. There was no kettle in the building. There were the mechanisms for making coffee: coffee, cups and water but no means, as far as I can see, to boil anything.

Turns out, a lot of Americans see kettles as some exotic decadence. I'm not sure I'd ever get past that.

I've heard about the USA not really having electric kettles as a standard fixture. I think it may be that the lower mains wattage means they'd just not boil fast enough to be convenient.

[MattSantos]

3 hours ago, Wholly Trinity said:

Although I don't miss the cold weather and short days, I do miss the signposts of the annual transition. Living just 3 degrees south of the equator, the days are the same length and the weather is the same all year round, which make it most hospitable for humans. However, it really makes it difficult to keep track of the passing year and plays havoc with your memory of when things happened.

The obvious things are still relevant, missing family and friends (particularly children growing up), live RL & the traditional pub, but less so as time goes by.  I have a fairly short list of items that I bring from the UK which I can't get here: Yorkshire Teabags, Marmite, English Mustard and HP sauce.

Are you in Indo? Agree on the seasons and how time just merges. 5+ years in Singapore and it's flown by.

I miss a proper pub with people who are funny. Live sport. Live music. Being able to buy a parsnip without getting a bank loan. Wearing a solid shoe. The NHS. People who can speak rate. TV randomly. Walking on a carpet. Customer Service with common sense. 6 music. 

 

[gingerjon]

2 hours ago, Bob8 said:

It is a bit vague, but I remember my first Danish girlfriend thought I was slightly hopeless with day-to-day practicalities. When we went to the UK things were reversed, I just knew how everything worker and everything fitted about how I did things. I was suddenly always half a step ahead.

I never thought I would miss proper bacon in Denmark, but they export it all to the UK.

In foreign, I have needed help to buy a coke and ham sandwich because it turns out voucher systems are standard at French sports venues - and without the help of a very kind and tolerant French family I would have been unable to understand how an unmanned Belgian petrol station worked.

I blame the foreigners. Who are wrong.

[George Watt]

Left England 53 years ago and really miss nothing there. I have more relatives here than in the UK. My wife and I have discussed the question of what each would do if the other died. My wife would move up to the coast to where our best friends live- we have no children and she has no relatives left in the UK. I would head back to England to where my closest relatives are and follow my rugby league and football teams as I did in the years I lived in England. The only thing I would then miss would be the Aussie weather!

[JohnM]

When I lived in France, could not get a decent cup of tea anywhere! 

When I lived in Switzerland 1972/3, kettles were unknown. The electrical installing our washing machine saw ours and commented that at 3kw it was "a bomb"!

[Robin Evans]

10 minutes ago, JohnM said:

When I lived in France, could not get a decent cup of tea anywhere! 

When I lived in Switzerland 1972/3, kettles were unknown. The electrical installing our washing machine saw ours and commented that at 3kw it was a bomb!

Tea in France is a strange affair. I've never known as much diversity of choice but with so little knowledge on how to make a decent brew. Occasionally, very occasionally, they get it right, either by practice or by accident. 

When we go to Amboise there is a SdT that get it right. We gravitate there just for me. The only decent tea in the loire valley 

 

[lionsfanusa]

6 hours ago, Futtocks said:

I've heard about the USA not really having electric kettles as a standard fixture. I think it may be that the lower mains wattage means they'd just not boil fast enough to be convenient.

We have an electric kettle at our home here in New England and at our vacation home in Florida. They work just fine especially with the Yorkshire tea bags we get from Amazon. We've lived in seven different locations and always had electric kettles with no issues, none!

[JohnM]

Tea in one of Vichy's best tea Rooms: if it had come from a horse, I'd have had it shot!  Cakes, though? Mmmmmmmmmm!

[Futtocks]

5 minutes ago, lionsfanusa said:

We have an electric kettle at our home here in New England and at our vacation home in Florida. They work just fine especially with the Yorkshire tea bags we get from Amazon. We've lived in seven different locations and always had electric kettles with no issues, none!

Just wondering if, when the electric kettle first hit the USA market, they weren't very efficient (due to power issues), so they never became an ubiquitous kitchen item, even if modern models are perfectly good on 110w mains power.

[Oxford]

RL apart from that and the Family I missed nowt.

 

[Marauder]

8 hours ago, Robin Evans said:

Life without a kettle.?? ... the end of civilisation!!

they build our tanks around the kettle 

[Shadow]

57 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Just wondering if, when the electric kettle first hit the USA market, they weren't very efficient (due to power issues), so they never became an ubiquitous kitchen item, even if modern models are perfectly good on 110w mains power.

Is it because that America being uncivilised doesn't drink tea like decent folk but prefers coffee, and usually pretty rubbish coffee as well so has never had the requirement to have boiling water available at short notice?

[lionsfanusa]

1 hour ago, Futtocks said:

Just wondering if, when the electric kettle first hit the USA market, they weren't very efficient (due to power issues), so they never became an ubiquitous kitchen item, even if modern models are perfectly good on 110w mains power.

We've had electric kettles since the 1970s!

[lionsfanusa]

9 minutes ago, Shadow said:

Is it because that America being uncivilised doesn't drink tea like decent folk but prefers coffee, and usually pretty rubbish coffee as well so has never had the requirement to have boiling water available at short notice?

You have obviously never tried Green Mountain Dark Magic coffee brewed in a Keurig single shot machine. It heats its own water and you have a really good cup of coffee in a couple of minutes. 

[lionsfanusa]

11 hours ago, Wholly Trinity said:

Although I don't miss the cold weather and short days, I do miss the signposts of the annual transition. Living just 3 degrees south of the equator, the days are the same length and the weather is the same all year round, which make it most hospitable for humans. However, it really makes it difficult to keep track of the passing year and plays havoc with your memory of when things happened.

The obvious things are still relevant, missing family and friends (particularly children growing up), live RL & the traditional pub, but less so as time goes by.  I have a fairly short list of items that I bring from the UK which I can't get here: Yorkshire Teabags, Marmite, English Mustard and HP sauce.

Possible sources: Yorkshire Tea bags-Amazon. Marmite-Amazon. English Mustard-Amazon. HP Sauce-Amazon.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, lionsfanusa said:

We've had electric kettles since the 1970s!

The first one went on sale well over a Century ago. And, apparently, it performed significantly worse (on 240w mains) than a stovetop kettle.

[Futtocks]

55 minutes ago, lionsfanusa said:

Possible sources: Yorkshire Tea bags-Amazon. Marmite-Amazon. English Mustard-Amazon. HP Sauce-Amazon.

You can't buy real haggis in the USA, though.  

[distantdog]

Wherever I lived away from the UK, I missed sod all!

[Oldbear]

9 hours ago, Futtocks said:

I've heard about the USA not really having electric kettles as a standard fixture. I think it may be that the lower mains wattage means they'd just not boil fast enough to be convenient.

We have them in Canada, same wattage, decent T bag choice too, London Drugs has UK brands, as does Save on Foods in Western Canada. I think it’s partly because of the crazy amounts of herbal teas you can get these days, plus our fairly high Asian and South Asian populations generate sufficient demand for retailers to sell them, and if there’s demand there’s usually supply.

[Shadow]

13 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

You can't buy real haggis in the USA, though.  

Not all bad then