Well, I've just spent two weeks in the UK and it was bloody great. I reckon anyone who is coming here from there for "a better life" or "for the kids" is seriously off their rockers.

As an aside - it was a bit of a road trip, coming in quite a bit more than 2000km. Not that I minded the driving - even though they were busy it was a pleasure to drive on roads that contained actual skilful drivers that know how to communicate with other road users properly - you know eye contact, indicating, letting you pull out etc. It's not all good though, there are lots of speed cameras every where now... sigh.

Welcome back, although you're probably still sorting out all your royal wedding souvenirs, you haven't missed much. The weather's been crap, they've been banging on about some dopey election that won't mean nothing to nobody, they're still playing ice hockey and the pubs are still shit, apart from that it's been brilliant.

It was 20C and sunny the whole time. Apart from the bit in scotland; those scotchies sure are friendly, but seriously, what a depressing place.

I read on the Canadian 'British Expats' forum that when they get homesick they take a holiday to Scotland as it reminds them of home. Maybe people should move to Scotland for a few years before they come to Canada to get them acclimatized.

Welcome home

(Got any Minstrels going spare?)

No tales of urban blight? Hoody related violence? Poor customer service, nasty neighbours, overcrowding and a curious obsession with Simon Cowell? Such as disappointment.

He went to the UK not Coquitlam.

Mate, that's lost on me. What is this Coquitlam you speak of?

Oh sorry. Its a suburb of Vancouver, think of it as Crawley just with a few more ****s.

No, but I got a squeezable marmite jar.

Actually, I was surprised by how busy the town centres were. I was expecting lots of boarded up shops and whitewashed windows, but I didn't really see much of that in the places I visited.

The south west of England in particular was lovely. Proper pubs - I know it's a BE cliche, but I'd forgotten how good it feels to go into a country pub and have a pint or two in the beer garden on a sunny day, with trees and bird song and stuff like that.

I'm not long back either and I had a lovely time. So green, glorious spring weather. Driving was a pleasure even in a Corsa. Lovely pubs, good food, shopping. My mum was telling me about all the foreigners in town but they weren't out the days I visited. Oh and London was fab, about 500,000 people came to see me and they even closed off some roads to make it easier to get around. The policemen were jolly friendly.

Couldn't find a decent cup of coffee though and there was nothing on TV apart from Midsummer Murders.

what no chavs? Not even a little chase around the town square?

am disappointed.

BE Cliche? It's the greatest single sacrifice in moving away from England.
I shall be renewing my acquaintance with the pubs of Norfolk and Suffolk in early July. Small person's nap schedule notwithstanding.

Hear, hear! When I went back at the end of February, I was privately worried that I might have built up unrealistic expectations - that I had rose-tinted glasses on when thinking about my local pub and that first pint of Woodeforde's Wherry....

... but no need to fret. It was even better than I had imagined! Cheers!

Will you be in Fort Mac or Suffolk in the first two weeks of July?

Incidentally and apropos to Woodefords Wherry......I had a cunning plan for my business trip to Europe back in Dec that saw me arriving from Holland to Norwich Airport late Friday afternoon to be collected by my folks and transported to the Fur and Feathers (Woodefordes brewery tap) at Woodbastwick for several pints. Sadly the December snows in Europe put paid to that.