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Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Old Oct 24th 2011, 8:02 pm
  #61  
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Brown shoes with a navy suit. Black with grey or black.

No exceptions surely?
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Old Oct 24th 2011, 8:02 pm
  #62  
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by dbd33
Oh, come on, dangling wires are the dominant architectural feature of urban Canada. You'd have to go to a shanty in Delhi or Brazil to find somewhere comparably untidy.
Urban, perhaps; out here in the suburbs they're all in underground conduit.
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 4:41 am
  #63  
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by Oakvillian
I went for a lovely one yesterday, thanks

depends entirely on the location, doesn't it. The trading estates of the A303 in Andover are much less attractive than the commercial buildings in Old Montreal, for example. or, for example, like much or rural Britain. Utilities are buried in the area where I live here; they are not where my sister lives in the UK. again, depends entirely on where you are. Roads round here are pretty good.
Kippers and smoked haddock both available in Supertsore hereabouts. Back bacon in many independent butchers/delis. Stones ginger wine in the LCBO. Fruit cake in the oven when OH feels like making it. Sure, good cheese is a little pricier, but there are many ills the Milk Marketing Board is responsible for - just ask a former dairy farmer who's been put out of business by the big industrial operations the MMB espouses. I'd rather have dearer cheese than fewer local dairies.
Not absence, but I'll give you there are fewer in the UK. On the other hand, you don't get fume-spewing Ford Transits to the same extent here.
that says more about the company you keep than about Canada in general

that's true, imx, although I have no view on how many are dangerously mentally ill.

Really? stats quoted here passim ad nauseam would disagree with you. Crime rates are broadly similar in Canada and the UK. I don't get this one at all. Where have you experienced this in either the UK or Canada? Drunken stabbings with a knife recently bought for the purpose are not a fewture of Canadian life I'm familiar with even from news reports.
Now I've lost you again. Whose police are you indicating are thick and corrupt - and what is your evidence for either claim? I simply don't recognise this as a characterisation in either country.
this depends so much on the particular shop that it's just silly. I would prefer to be asked if I needed help, and be given the opportunity to decline assistance, than be left bewildered by an array of choices with nobody seemingly willing or able to assist.
I don't remember the last time I spent more than about 40 minutes on a weekly grocery shop. Maybe an hour, tops, if I go at a peak time and there's a big queue at the till. This is no different from my UK experience.

as a consumer of library services both here and in the UK I disagree with this. Library services (certainly in the three boroughs I have most recent UK experience of - Hounslow, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Salisbury) are comparable to those in Toronto or Oakville where I have more recent Canadian exposure).

Huh? Where is there no granola? This, like much or your post, is nonsense.

I know it's been said many times before and will probably be said many times again. Parts of Canada are better, or worse, than parts of the UK, in certain respects; vice versa in other respects. Your Canadian experience seems to have been very unpleasant compared to many on here. Whereabouts are you that you have no access to the countryside, smoked fish, reasonable supermarkets, honest coppers, or decent roads?
Lucky you, living in Ontario, then. I'm in Alberta. The questioner did ask us for our personal experience.

However, I'd disagree on crime rates. Homicide rate in 09 for Canada was 1.85 per 100,000 of population. In UK it was 1.17. That's 58% less. I would not call that "broadly similar". But, again, I live in Edmonton, homicide capital of Canada. Homicides so far this year 44, and at least half of them caused by knives. So, living where I do, I have every reason to be concerned about knife crime.

Maybe knife crime is lower in Ontario, but if you've never seen any on news reports, that says more about your attention span or the standard of news reporting than crime statistics. If there is really no problem where you are, it is a mystery why Ontario MP Gord Brown went to so much trouble to put a bill through imposing a minimum sentence for knife crime in 2009. The news reports still on Google suggest that not just he, but the Kingston police chief were very concerned about knife crime at the time.

Frankly, if you think there is no police corruption in Canada or the UK, or you perceive no problem with poor Canadian policing, you are doing more than wearing rose tinted glasses. Presumably every time there is a news broadcast that you can't avoid hearing, you put your fingers in your ears and go "la la la" until the nasty facts go away.
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 5:25 am
  #64  
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by Alan2005
This just isn't true at all. A large number people on this forum still have access to UK TV and watch it regularly. I know I do and I say Canadian TV is shit in comparison. Sure most UK TV is shit, but the shit ratio here is much much higher.

For example, I've just watched a documentary series about the history of electricity on the BBC and it was bloody great - informative, concise, and well presented. Nothing on PBS or discovery that I've seen so far comes close to shows like this - in fact pretty much every documentary made here that I've seen seems to be aimed at people educated to 6 year old level.
There isn't a single Canadian TV programme I would make any effort to watch at all. News on CBC maybe but that's it. Actually the Tudors was good and a Canadian production I think so there are exceptions but few and far between. BBC generally is pretty sound - there is some rubbish also but generally the content is well worth the licence fee or myexpat subscription.
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 8:31 am
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by snowshoveller
UK= Lush green landscape. Sense of permanence and history.
Road that have curves in them and a decent smooth surface.
Culture.
Excellent supply of curry houses, decent bacon and sausages and fresh fish.
The ability to walk out of a pharmacy with a bag full of prescribed medicine without having to get a loan

Traffic congestion
Villages, Steve Wright in the afternoon, golden oldies, Food is cheaper here and lots more variety, the food is healthier. - not full of salt and sugar.

Road discipline, people dont hog lanes, they indicate more and thank you when you give way.

Some good house prices at the moment.

Petrol £1.34 per litre
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 8:45 am
  #66  
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

[QUOTE=Oakvillian;9692654]I went for a lovely one yesterday, thanks

depends entirely on the location, doesn't it. The trading estates of the A303 in Andover are much less attractive than the commercial buildings in Old Montreal......

.....I agree with you about the trading estates in Andover! We used to have manufacturing, but now the trading estates are either 75% empty or service only industry.
We seem to have way more youngsters and very young single mothers hanging around the town centre looking bored. Something which I never saw when in Vancouver.
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 4:32 pm
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by Miss Clinique
Villages, Steve Wright in the afternoon, golden oldies, Food is cheaper here and lots more variety, the food is healthier. - not full of salt and sugar.

Road discipline, people dont hog lanes, they indicate more and thank you when you give way.

Some good house prices at the moment.

Petrol £1.34 per litre
But not the safest place to drive in.
http://www.aneki.com/safest_roads.html
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 6:54 pm
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

It would be an interesting exercise to cross-reference comments here against how long posters have been living in Canada. In my first 5 years here in Canada, each time I went back to UK I was full of positive sentiments about the place, but after 5 years here, things changed. Dunno if it is time itself, or just that feeling of being settled and content - but each time I went back, I couldn't help but focus on the negative quality of life in the UK - be it housing, traffic, poor customer service and general urban decay, plus the whole obsession with social class.

British TV is no longer the viewing experience it once was, and besides, with Youtube you can practically go back in time to any era.

In fact the only thing that links me back to my past life, is that I still enjoy watching rugby league, drive a manual transmission, read the Guardian online and have a weakness for Walker Crisps.
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 6:57 pm
  #69  
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by Cyan
It would be an interesting exercise to cross-reference comments here against how long posters have been living in Canada. In my first 5 years here in Canada, each time I went back to UK I was full of positive sentiments about the place, but after 5 years here, things changed. Dunno if it is time itself, or just that feeling of being settled and content - but each time I went back, I couldn't help but focus on the negative quality of life in the UK - be it housing, traffic, poor customer service and general urban decay, plus the whole obsession with social class.

British TV is no longer the viewing experience it once was, and besides, with Youtube you can practically go back in time to any era.

In fact the only thing that links me back to my past life, is that I still enjoy watching rugby league, drive a manual transmission, read the Guardian online and have a weakness for Walker Crisps.
I can't express how sad I felt when, having read this post, I saw that you live in Mississauga. Are you from the north of England?
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 7:00 pm
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by dbd33
I can't express how sad I felt when, having read this post, I saw that you live in Mississauga. Are you from the north of England?
Oh please, the rugby league reference was such a give away.
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 7:01 pm
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by Cyan
It would be an interesting exercise to cross-reference comments here against how long posters have been living in Canada. In my first 5 years here in Canada, each time I went back to UK I was full of positive sentiments about the place, but after 5 years here, things changed. Dunno if it is time itself, or just that feeling of being settled and content - but each time I went back, I couldn't help but focus on the negative quality of life in the UK - be it housing, traffic, poor customer service and general urban decay, plus the whole obsession with social class.
My experience is the opposite. My earliest trips back to the UK coincided with the most negative feelings about the UK, my most recent trips it seemed to have more going for it. Still wouldnt want to go back though.
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 7:04 pm
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by dbd33
I can't express how sad I felt when, having read this post, I saw that you live in Mississauga. Are you from the north of England?
Thanks for the sympathy...alas, someone has to live here and experience the pain of a 5 minute commute to work...lol.

No, not from 'oop norf' but I did spend a few years in Hull, followed by time in rainy Lancaster.
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 8:20 pm
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by Editha
Lucky you, living in Ontario, then. I'm in Alberta. The questioner did ask us for our personal experience.

However, I'd disagree on crime rates. Homicide rate in 09 for Canada was 1.85 per 100,000 of population. In UK it was 1.17. That's 58% less. I would not call that "broadly similar". But, again, I live in Edmonton, homicide capital of Canada. Homicides so far this year 44, and at least half of them caused by knives. So, living where I do, I have every reason to be concerned about knife crime. .
You are concerned about odds of less than 20 in a million?
The difference between 1ppm and 3ppm is a whopping 200%, but its still also only a difference of 0.0002% too and the two numbers are "broadly similar". The devil is in the detail.

For me absolute crime numbers are not really a factor in day to day living. Whats important is the perception of crime, and whether you live in fear of it impacting you and the people you care about. I cant speak for anyone else, but I cant even remember the last time that happened to me here. They still report broken into cars on the local radio news here. Thats not to say we havent had some high profile murders here in recent years too with Russ Williams on the prowl, but that had nothing to do with my life, so I didnt let it bother me, we didnt suddenly start to install double deadbolts on all the doors as a result or put bars at the windows.

Last edited by iaink; Oct 25th 2011 at 8:28 pm.
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Old Oct 25th 2011, 11:29 pm
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by Tangram
Oh gawd, what IS the world coming to.... brown shoes and a dark suit ? TUT.
hilarious!!!
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Old Oct 26th 2011, 12:41 am
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Default Re: Your observations when visiting UK from Canada !

Originally Posted by Cyan
It would be an interesting exercise to cross-reference comments here against how long posters have been living in Canada. In my first 5 years here in Canada, each time I went back to UK I was full of positive sentiments about the place, but after 5 years here, things changed. Dunno if it is time itself, or just that feeling of being settled and content - but each time I went back, I couldn't help but focus on the negative quality of life in the UK - be it housing, traffic, poor customer service and general urban decay, plus the whole obsession with social class.

British TV is no longer the viewing experience it once was, and besides, with Youtube you can practically go back in time to any era.

In fact the only thing that links me back to my past life, is that I still enjoy watching rugby league, drive a manual transmission, read the Guardian online and have a weakness for Walker Crisps.
I am with you there Cyan - whilst YOU are in a changing new place, your 'old' place isn't standing still and is also changing. I left England 25 years ago, and still 'miss' things that I 'perceive' to be English, not JUST Marmite, but every time I visit the UK, which is probably once every two years, I return home glad that I don't live there, but thinking how very nice the people are. The last ten years for me have been in France, but the 15 previous to that were in Libya, which was super, so I suppose everything is relative. I LOVE the BBC, and can now live ANYWHERE as I can take Radio 4 with me! I think the UK has the 'best' decently priced,Good quality shoes that didn't come from the ark and are made of leather.
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