clint

Following from the other thread and noting what a small world we live in I thought it would be nice to know where people came from originally and what they missed most about home.

Obviously I am Italian but as I more or less lived half of my life in London, I would have to say as regard to the UK London in particular Canning Town east London.

What I miss most is:

Take aways especially Chinese food. I would give 1 year of my life right now for a good roast duck chinese style, special chow mein, king prawns with salt & chillies well the whole menu really.

Yorkshire pudding and gravy (I am not that bothered about the roast meat that goes with it) I love the stuff and could it all the time.

Steak and kidney pie: I'd better get hubby to make me some

Cheese straws and homemade cheese scones

Pets at home I used to spend at least a 1/3 of my wages in there for my pumpered pets.

Debenham was my fav shop but too expensive for me

English breakfast at George's cafe (Canning Town market) before starting the usual saturday shopping

duffer

Tooting Broadway, South London.

Just a selection:

The peanut butter, chocolate & maple syrup milkshake from Ed's Diner, Soho.
Won Kei's chicken & cashew nut topped with their chilli oil, Wardour St.
Catching a movie on the cheap at Prince Charles cinema or the Brixton Ritzy.
Meeting my wife (then girlfriend) where she worked in Bayswater and having a picnic in nearby Hyde Park on a warm summer evening.
A beer or 2 with friends at the Selkirk, Tooting.
Browsing through the DVD section at Fopp, Tottenham Crt Rd.
Stepping over the drunks and blanking the smacked out ticket touts who insist on selling you a one day travelcard for 50p at midnight outside Tooting Broadway tube station.
Metro newspaper.
Starbucks cafe mocha with cream.

clint

I can't believe they are still trying to sell useless 1 day travel card.

Metro newspaper I used to love doing the crossword

CarrieW

Born in Lewisham, but lived in Barking & Dagenham (very elite huh?!) for most of childhood. Moved around Essex a bit before moving to West Yorkshire and then to Italy.

Things I miss....hmmm....being able to take my dogs for walks in nice country parks; knowing the supermarket will have what you want for more than two weeks in a row and being able to shop on a Monday morning or at lunch time if you want to; a good restaurant curry; BBC 2 television (a luxury not given to those without UK Sky); being able to use ADSL (up here in the hills we are in a small pocket where we cannot get it and suffer rubbish dial up).

Things I don't miss.....being shouted at by drunks and/or druggies in the street if venturing out after dark (or before dark in some places!); rude children; bad and expensive food when eating out, and having to tip; people moaning about the weather all the time (remember I lived in Yorkshire!); rubbish reality shows on TV.

There are probably loads more to add to each list....any one else out there with their thoughts?

clint

Carrie

Where about in West Y. did you live? I spent 1 year in Wakefield between 1994/1995 as I working in Leeds.

I have been missing a good saag paneer too since one of my mate mentioned having a currie 3 nights ago

BBC/ITV it is not possible to get them even with sky UK, people in Spain used to be able to watch them but the bbc and ITV have put a block on the signal now and only Ireland get them.

The shops closing at lunch time etc is a bit of a pain I must admit

CarrieW

We lived in Thornton, near Bradford and previously in Keighley.

How we miss the Agraah Indian restaurant! Thankfully I have found a really good curry sauce recipe on t'internet and satisfy my cravings with that now - I can even make passable naan bread and onion bhajis!

Raining here today in not so sunny Vicenza - that's my moan about the weather for today anyway!

Carrie

clint

Naan bread yummy

duffer

Hi Clint, are you saying that I will not be able to get any ITV or BBC channels using my Sky UK digibox and 1.2m dish facing in the correct direction (28.2E)??

I still have to get the dish...

Mitzyboy

It is still possible quite easily to receive BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 with a 1.8 dish with SKY+

BBC 1 lasts up till about 10pm and BBC2 goes about 6 ... we lose Channel 4 for about two hours in the afternoon. If we had a 2 mtr dish the reception would last longer apparantly.

clint

When we were looking at having sky a really good sat installer in the UK told us that BBC & ITV had blocked the signals on purpose. He told us how to set sky up outside the UK etc (using English sky card+box somethig that really we are not supposed to do as if sky finds out they will cut us off), and so far his advice has proved spot on. I might add that he never asked us for any money or tried to sell us anything in offering his advice.

I know in Italy there is the Italian version of Sky but I am not sure what you get with that

duffer

You get BBC Prime which is like a highlights channel but no BBC, C4 or C5. Most programs carry the original language audio signal. Do you have Sky UK or did you encounter any problems?

clint

At the moment we are living in Bulgaria but we are hoping to go house hunting in Italy in June as our house sale should be going through end of May.
We have sky UK and Bulgaria is right at the limit of the signal but we still get C5, C4 is hit and miss most of the time we get it till about 2pm UK time after that it is all scrumbled up or no signal at all. I must point out though that we have a 1.2mt dish and because BG is just within the signal reception we were advised to have a minimum of 1.5mt dish something we have not got round to do yet.

We didn't have any problems really, bought the digibox off ebay, got card from sky, we activated the card before living England. As soon as we got here we unpacked the equipment got a local company to come out to adjust the sat to the right frequency and that was it.

TestaRossa

We are from Manchester originally, then West Sussex and London (Shad Thames). My daughter was born in Sussex.

I miss M&S and clothes that fit!
Lemon curd - not found any here.
Charity shops!
My friends.
Nice, soft fresh bread - I'm in Florence where they make bread without salt and for fighting with !
Free museums and art galleries!
Ribena.
Tarmac - much underestimated until you have to push a pram over cobbles all day!

What I love is:
The weather!!
Florence.
The markets - who needs charity shops?!
The fantastic fresh fruit and veg.
My house and garden.
The free bus to Ikea !
The church bells that wake me up every morning and the eccentric times they ring!
My new friends.
Good, cheap wine.
And many more that wouldn't, at the moment, be enough to make me return to the UK!

clint

my best friend lives in Ashton-under-Lyne

The first time I went to Tuscany on school trip I thoguht the bread was weird as there is no salt in it, but it works well with parma ham though

TestaRossa

Been to A-U-L a few times. I was in Didsbury.

The bread is great in Pappa al Pomodoro and the other soupy bread recipe with cucumber that you eat cold.... Otherwise I buy the soft stuff in vaccuum bags thats been washed in chemicals (it says so on the bag!) to make it last longer. Tastes nice though!