I use to drive 1000 km a week for work when I was in the UK.......I seriously dont miss the UK motorway driving.

So you went on holiday and enjoyed it......does that not happen on every holiday??

I'm not. I've got a big house.

Home is in Ottawa, the UK is where I'm from and my parents are. However, there masses of fabulous music festivals in Ottawa.

??????

You obviously haven't heard of the fabulous festival of celine dion tribute acts or the brian adams 'robin hood theme' mega music-athon.

It wasn't that, I just didn't see the relevance of the post which seemed to come out of left field and have been posted on the wrong thread ?!?

It was obviously a reference to post #28

Surely you're seeing the UK though the same rose tinted specs as you first saw Canada? Yes, I liked my short trip back in March and can't wait for my two weeks in August, but a short trip re-living the best bits is quite different from actually living and working there again.

The situation in the UK is going from bad to worse. Just wait till they f^*k about with the NHS, which they will do (they're just waiting for a "bad news week" first). Arts, culture, education, public sector employment - all being reformed or destroyed by those tories. But yes, the pub gardens are lovely in springtime with birdsong.

Not a lot the government can do about that is there, the birdsong that is.

I knew that Steve, but fail to see the relevance of mentioning Ottawa when the thread is discussing the UK, and the post in particular is talking about festivals in the UK.

If you look at both posts again you can see the relevance.

Oink said "Does anyone go to any music festivals when they go back home?" the response was sarcastically Ottawa is home and it goes from there.

I thought it was typical UK sarcasm (humour) I'm surprised you didn't see it that way.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Of course there is a bit of that. The fact that it was warm and sunny whereas in Vancouver we are currently heading for the coldest april on record didn't help either.

Honestly, I like where I live now - but going back shined a light on the things that I have given up to come here. Some of those thing (such as sitting in a beer garden having a pint with my brothers on a warm sunny day) I miss at an almost visceral level.

But Bruce Forsyth is still on the telly. How did you deal with this?

What's wrong with Bruce Forsyth? Not that I watch that dancing crap - mainly because I'm not gay.

I went to The Fur and Feather In February (It was my Friday night local when in lived in Norfolk ) when i went back ........a couple pints of Wherry and some Nelson's Revenge . "bloody marvellous' although i was like a walking methane generator the following day ! .