England

[Mags 112]

I am getting a TRIPLE bar bounty in Harrogate next week and dipping it in my mushy peas !

[*Snowdrop* 604]

I'm going back to the UK for a short visit next week and will be bringing back...

PG Tips teabags

Small tins of Heinz baked beans

Heinz tomato ketchup

Birds' custard powder

Crumpets

Digestive biscuits

Lemsips

Bounty bars

Treacle

Have I forgotten anything?

[Stinky Monkey 1]

I'm going back to the UK for a short visit next week and will be bringing back...

PG Tips teabags

Small tins of Heinz baked beans

Heinz tomato ketchup

Birds' custard powder

Crumpets

Digestive biscuits

Lemsips

Bounty bars

Treacle

Have I forgotten anything?

You cant get Heinz tomatoe Ketchup there???? Freeze some decent bread and take it back hahahahaha

[*Snowdrop* 604]

I'm going back to the UK for a short visit next week and will be bringing back...

PG Tips teabags

Small tins of Heinz baked beans

Heinz tomato ketchup

Birds' custard powder

Crumpets

Digestive biscuits

Lemsips

Bounty bars

Treacle

Have I forgotten anything?

You cant get Heinz tomatoe Ketchup there???? Freeze some decent bread and take it back hahahahaha

The ketchup doesn't taste the same - I swear it's a different recipe. I'm making my own bread so that's something I don't need to bring - apart from crumpets - they're too hard to make.

[Stinky Monkey 1]

I'm going back to the UK for a short visit next week and will be bringing back...

PG Tips teabags

Small tins of Heinz baked beans

Heinz tomato ketchup

Birds' custard powder

Crumpets

Digestive biscuits

Lemsips

Bounty bars

Treacle

Have I forgotten anything?

You cant get Heinz tomatoe Ketchup there???? Freeze some decent bread and take it back hahahahaha

The ketchup doesn't taste the same - I swear it's a different recipe. I'm making my own bread so that's something I don't need to bring - apart from crumpets - they're too hard to make.

I never noticed that before how about marmalade and marmite and mustard...............wow they all begin with a M hahahaha

[Rob&Dawn 1]

I'm going back to the UK for a short visit next week and will be bringing back...

PG Tips teabags

Small tins of Heinz baked beans

Heinz tomato ketchup

Birds' custard powder

Crumpets

Digestive biscuits

Lemsips

Bounty bars

Treacle

Have I forgotten anything?

You cant get Heinz tomatoe Ketchup there???? Freeze some decent bread and take it back hahahahaha

The ketchup doesn't taste the same - I swear it's a different recipe. I'm making my own bread so that's something I don't need to bring - apart from crumpets - they're too hard to make.

I never noticed that before how about marmalade and marmite and mustard...............wow they all begin with a M hahahaha

is the ketchup not different tasting because of the corn syrup?? i know it definately doesn't taste the same!

gotta take marmite and cadburys chocolate.

[Shannon ♥ Nick 0]

Def go woth Digestive biscuits and treacle, brought some back with me last time and the kids think its the 8th wonder of the world !!

[Captain Oates 911]

Holed up in Bramhope near Leeds in a hotel. There are rabbits playing outside. I have overdosed on cheshire cheese - timmy taylor beer- currant teacakes-pork pies - and haddock and chips with mushy peas

Bought beef bisto and branston pickle for return journey

Food in the US is total junk but I suppose a chicken is chicken - they sell pork chops that is loin cut in washington- - smells like it's off

Can buy it here in the UK but its almost dog food grade

Washington East of the Cascades is primitive in the exteme but 300 days unbroken blue sky and 8 inches rain pa counts for something

Parking spaces here are tiny and few

Everyone has cold and sneezes on me in the supermarkets... they are striking against italian workers as the Brits are losing jobs faster than the US.. so its not just the US who is not keen on aliens

the cold is damp cold - 20 degrees warmer than washington but feels colder as there is always a breeze and the damp chill goes right through ya

Everything on telly is childish toilet humour with gay inuendo and swanning around all the time

all the presenters are gay or pakistani or 19 or all of these - nothing wrong with that but i am non of these and not represented

I think US telly is ####### but this is worse and the lack of adverts spins it out longer

I reckon my homesick stuff should last another 3 days then i will be back to washington for my 3.5 lite V6 toyota and some wide roads and no litter - I wish I could say less tattoos but washington is at least as bad as england in that regard

The UK pubs are mostly trash along with their drugged, drunken, pierced, hopeless welfare dependant clientelle - but there are some solid alehouses with decent people

Well I hope I cured some homesickness with this assessment !

ps I have forgotten uk money ! the 5p looks like dime and the shilling looks like a nickel - i really have lost my money recognition ! so 5's look like 10's and 10's look like 5's

aaargghhh !!!!!

[Kirsten UK 2]

Don't laugh, but its the sausages I will miss

[Missbollinger 1]

You know I suffered from homesickness for a long time but I can get all my home comforts at JJ's which is a 20min drive from my house. I am still very nervous about the birth of our son because none of my family can make it over. My sister might be able to come but nothing definate yet

[tom_g 3]

Holed up in Bramhope near Leeds in a hotel. There are rabbits playing outside. I have overdosed on cheshire cheese - timmy taylor beer- currant teacakes-pork pies - and haddock and chips with mushy peas

Bought beef bisto and branston pickle for return journey

Food in the US is total junk but I suppose a chicken is chicken - they sell pork chops that is loin cut in washington- - smells like it's off

Can buy it here in the UK but its almost dog food grade

Washington East of the Cascades is primitive in the exteme but 300 days unbroken blue sky and 8 inches rain pa counts for something

Parking spaces here are tiny and few

Everyone has cold and sneezes on me in the supermarkets... they are striking against italian workers as the Brits are losing jobs faster than the US.. so its not just the US who is not keen on aliens

the cold is damp cold - 20 degrees warmer than washington but feels colder as there is always a breeze and the damp chill goes right through ya

Everything on telly is childish toilet humour with gay inuendo and swanning around all the time

all the presenters are gay or pakistani or 19 or all of these - nothing wrong with that but i am non of these and not represented

I think US telly is ####### but this is worse and the lack of adverts spins it out longer

I reckon my homesick stuff should last another 3 days then i will be back to washington for my 3.5 lite V6 toyota and some wide roads and no litter - I wish I could say less tattoos but washington is at least as bad as england in that regard

The UK pubs are mostly trash along with their drugged, drunken, pierced, hopeless welfare dependant clientelle - but there are some solid alehouses with decent people

Well I hope I cured some homesickness with this assessment !

ps I have forgotten uk money ! the 5p looks like dime and the shilling looks like a nickel - i really have lost my money recognition ! so 5's look like 10's and 10's look like 5's

aaargghhh !!!!!

superb post!

Any lingering romantic notions of England can be cured by listening to Gordon Brown denying there is a recession, denying that its labour's fault, denying that the UK is badly hit, proclaiming that the government has been doing the best possible job, is standing up for British workers - the guy makes me sick. Almost makes me want Blair back, at least Blair would lie to me in a nice way. Brown is beneath contempt, beneath assassination even, i wish he would just melt away into an arrogant little puddle of lying blubber and everyone would shrug and carry on...

I miss English pubs. Well, some of them. Not the quasi-violent football supporter pubs, or the pseudo-posh "trendy wine bars", nor the faux-irish-oh-be-gar! drinking dens, nor the bland, DFS-chain-depression Whetherspoons, nor even the front-room local "you must be new around here" uber-locals. The other ones.. mmm.. this might be romanticizing after all. My apologies. It does, however, beat sitting around in the bar in Chillis or Applebies for the lack of anywhere else to sit with a beer, and the US has to develop the concept of The Pint further. Its close, its trying, but there is room for improvement.

Thoughts of England: Litter. Graffiti. Smashed up phone boxes. Parking fines. Smashed up bus stops. graffiti'd bus stops. Litter everywhere. Being charged to park in your own town center to shop in your own local shops. Graffiti on vans, buses, trains, anything that can't move. abandoned cars that have been smashed up, graffiti'd on then fly-tipped. Anyone with an ounce of compassion breaks down in tears - why would you do that? why would you drop that on the floor? what happened here? why do these people do this?

The weather? beautiful looking clouds - granted - impressive 10,000 foot high monoliths of moisture towering, belittling, but by GOD it can rain. I remember the summer before last, my final summer in the UK. We had sun all the way through May, then rain through to September, then some nice autumn sunshine, then rain again till I left in January. Enough even to make a grown man think its Not Fair!. Not after the bay area's near constant heart-warming warmth that lets me wear only a light jacket even today, in early Feb. And if I want real weather? 200 miles away and 6000ft up i have all of Lake Tahoe's snow to play in

there are many things i don't like about the US: I'm being forced to grow a gut from too much food and lack of exercise. My pregnant wife and potential son's next six months will cost us about $6k - albeit for stellar care - but if i lose my job? my god, we're in trouble. Big, brown, sticky trouble. Trouble that will be painful, lingering, worry-stricken. But if I keep my job? Happy days - merry middle class grilling-on-the-deck-days. Such a strange balancing act over here: If you perform - and if the right people see you perform - life is sweet. but fall off the log and - seriously - no-one will catch you. The upside - again - is that everyone knows this. This is the American dream: That you, and only you, hold the key to your future. Whether thats a good or a bad thing determines whether its a good or a bad dream

When I'm finally a naturalized US Citizen, we'll move back to the UK for a few years, so our child gets a chance to see two cultures, (and thereby, hopefully, learning that there is more commonality in humans than there is difference), but the USA is where I consider myself happiest now.. I feel I'm doing now what my fore-fathers should have done 200+ years ago when people first talked about America. Its not a dream, as such, its just a very nice place to live

Sorry about the long post, not many people care for the rantings of an Englishman about England. Certainly not on Superbowl Sunday. but its nice to be able to rant to people who might get it. And after saywhats refreshing dose of reality I couldn't hold back

Tom

Edited February 2, 2009 by tom_g

[annelizabeth 1]

What's this better life-work balance that people talk about? All I know is that when I started working in the USA I had to work a whole year before I was entitled to any vacation and all I get are two measly weeks per year, which isn't long enough to justify spending it all on a trip home. I always wondered why americans took 4 day weekend breaks to Mexico and the Caribbean - (to eke out their miserable vacation time!).

That's my main bugbear, apart from the health insurance rip-off of course.

[JeremyR 8]

The ketchup doesn't taste the same - I swear it's a different recipe. I'm making my own bread so that's something I don't need to bring - apart from crumpets - they're too hard to make.

You're absolutely right, Heinz ketchup is different here. It has 'onion powder' in it here in the US but in Britain, there's no trace of onion anything in it. That's the taste difference. I'm allergic to the wheat flour that's in the British version of 'onion powder' - it took me a very long time to work out that American 'onion powder' is not the same stuff and doesn't have the wheat, so I can still eat the Heinz stuff over here but you're right - it's not the same.

Also, totally agree on the Lemsip! 'Theraflu' is just not the same stuff!!

As for the OP and whether I would move back to England - yes, in my heart of hearts, I'd love to. I love living here in GA for a multitude of reasons, not least the lower cost of living, the weather and the fact that young people actually call me 'Sir' (I'm 25!) and don't hang out on street corners drinking White Lightning. That all said, healthcare should be a right not a privilege, the foods available in supermarkets are broadly just not as good as I'm used to and ultimately, this country just isn't Home. But the stepkids are too young to transplant to the UK at this point, so we're probably looking ten years+ before a move back to Blighty is a real possibility. Hopefully the economy will be fixed by then too, huh?

Whether my wife will be able to consider Britain as 'home' is I guess, something we won't know until when/if we get there.

Note to self: Never post on VJ after knocking back several Strongbow (Kroger and my local Walmart, btw!) you tend to ramble when inebriated

[Welshcookie 17]

Note to self: Never post on VJ after knocking back several Strongbow (Kroger and my local Walmart, btw!) you tend to ramble when inebriated

:o You found Cider here???? I'm going to start campaigning my local Walmart

[JeremyR 8]

:o You found Cider here???? I'm going to start campaigning my local Walmart

Yes! You have Kroger in Florida, don't you? It's available in most of my local Kroger stores and in my local Walmart at $7.50 to $8 or so for 6 12oz/355ml glass bottles. You can also get Newcastle Brown Ale and Boddingtons (both in Walmart) and Stella, Grolsch, etc (Kroger) for about the same price in the same type of bottles.

Check the bottled 6-pack beer section of your supermarket, it's normally hiding there somewhere