Going Home.......
 

Before anyone bites my head off, I know there have been many threads on homesickness. But we've been here a year now, and although we've had our ups and downs, I don't think we've actually felt homesick. We've missed people, but not 'home'. Until tonight, that is.

We went to see Mark Knopfler (not everyone's taste, but plays a mean guitar, or dozen), tonight. My husband's family is from the North East via Cambridge, and it was good to hear a geordie accent on stage. He played some of the staple Dire Straits hits and the whole of Prospera Place was up and dancing.

The final encore was the theme to 'Local Hero', 'Going Home'. That did it for us. Not a dry Brit eye in the house. Not sure if it's homesickness, nostalgia, or merely the haunting guitar?

Re: Going Home.......
 

Aww Sharon i hope its not homesickness, I live in Cambs area but don't have an accent or rather i do but not from here, Brought up on the solent ?

Probably a bit of nostalgia, music does that to you :wub:

Re: Going Home.......
 

Reckon you're right. We were also talking about when we saw Dire Straits, and Mark Knopfler previously at the Hammersmith Odeon and The Symphony Hall in Birmingham...happy days.....'Romeo and Juliet', 'You're So Far Away', 'Brothers in Arms'....

Tonight was a great concert though, really good night out. I'll put the suitcases back in the basement....we won't be heading back to the Tyne just yet!

Re: Going Home.......
 

This always tugs at my heartstrings -- and I'm not even British! :eek:
x

Re: Going Home.......
 

Wonderful link Judy.
I have always felt that this should be our National Anthem, much better than the dirge that we currently have.
Lorraine G

Re: Going Home.......
 

Music has the power to do that do you! Whisk you back to another time and make you feel all mushy...!!

Glad you had a great time - those tunes always remind me of my Dad and when I was lots younger! I didn't even know they were still around...!

If your suitcase is out....pop some stuff in and come have a holiday over here with me :)

Re: Going Home.......
 

Thanks, Amy. Might take you up on the NS offer sometime.

Mark Knopfler went solo and has been in a different band/s for, ooh, must be almost 20 years? He's a musician rather than a celebrity, which is refreshing, and you rarely read anything about him in the press. If he roamed around Kelowna he'd pass for your average guy in the street. I read the reviews of his Vancouver gig and that made similar comments. No posturing, no strutting, just fantastic, often haunting music. I loved it, which was a bonus as I bought the tickets as a present for my OH!

This is the "Local Hero" theme, an instrumental called, "Going Home".....beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh2WNXBOVNQ

It's Jenny's 13th birthday on Monday and we have her party with a mob of girls here today...best get on.:eek:

Re: Going Home.......
 

Awesome guitarist. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

He's one of my favourites, especially when he plays a piece like "Going Home" or one of my favourites "The Long Road" I love the piece but it always evokes a feeling of melancholy when I listen to it. :thumbup:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qx_QeO...eature=related

Re: Going Home.......
 

I know what you all mean, only been here 8 months, i am London born originally but brought up near good ole Pompey! My OH's brother is in Southern Ireland and i love it there, was ok here till i saw "P.S I Love You", the bits set in Ireland just brought tears to me wee eyes. How i long for a good glass of Murphys, a bag of tatoes, and a good ole sing song!!!!!!!!:D

Re: Going Home.......
 

Have to say I'm still here in the UK but this brought a tear to my eye - Not because I miss England as such, but because the England that was, the Land of Hope and Glory - the Country in which I was immensly proud - is NOT that country anymore.
The beautiful pictures that accompany the piece just represent Great Britain to me - peace, beautiful countryside, heritage, history, British pride etc. All I could visualise over the top was Overcrowdedness, violence, hoodies, stabbings, gangs, fear and recession - THATS what brought a tear to MY eye

Re: Going Home.......
 

Absolutely agree, we used to have to sing it at school. Jerusalem also has the same effect.

Re: Going Home.......
 

I'll second that. Still over in the UK from last August with my daughter of 17. Cannot believe the transformation of my country into what??!! Refused to acknowledge any of it at first because of my love for my home town of Sutton Coldfield but boy is it changing weekly and not for the better. I pray things will do a turnaround for all our friends here before I head back to Toronto. Britain will always be my pride but the Britain I remember before leaving for Toronto in 96. Tears in my eyes too, what is going on!!:confused:

Re: Going Home.......
 

I still love my country and have just come back from 3 weeks in Nottinghamshire

But those yob’s and hoodies and gangs and all the pub violence was around when I was a boy, the country really hasn't change much at all when you take the tinted spec’s off
We've just got older, young peoples fashion sense is just as bad and ugly as my old pictures would show it to be in the 80’s and all that really changed is our perception of the world we look at, now we sound like my parents used to when I was a boy.. and when talking to them how their parents sounded when they were young

Every generation seems to remember the good old days (that the history books show just weren’t that good) and each seems to think the new and up and coming generation are such a mess and the world is going to the dogs

It hit home when I was walking through the Arboretum in Nottingham looking at the students and thinking ‘my god is this the future of my country’ and then realising that 27 years ago that I was one of those hanging out on the grass with bad fashion sense probably having spent lunch in the pub… and that maybe some one else had walked by after a session of reading the paper and though exactly the same thing…..

I knew then which pubs were safe and which not, Friday night fight night existed back in the 80’s and 60’s and even the 40’s as much as it does now

(mini rant in defence of the youth of today)

Re: Going Home.......
 

Thanks for this link Judy. Katherine Jenkins is a good Welsh girl :thumbup: I saw her perform at a charity concert a few years ago. I only went to take my mother and aunt but came away a convert.

Re: Going Home.......
 

I agree Mike. Boozing to excess in the UK isn't exactly new, is it? What do think of when you picture 18th century London - Hogarth's "Gin Lane", binge drinking, fighting, murders, riots...

Re: Going Home.......
 

cock fighting, bear baiting, prostitution, opium rings.

Re: Going Home.......
 

You know what Judy? Some twit tried to get I Vow to Thee My Country banned - I think it was supposed to be racist or something. It was Princess Diana's favourite and it was around the time she died I think that this came up. You can probably Google it if you want to. I can't be bothered because its such total tripe.

Oh yes, I would pay big money to see Dire Straits and/or Mark Knopfler.

Re: Going Home.......
 

Vancouver? Last year?

<edit>
I must read the whole thread.
I must read the whole thread.
I must read the whole thread.
;)

Re: Going Home.......
 

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Re: Going Home.......
 

Calgary during stampede?

Re: Going Home.......
 

Absolutely agree with this.

Re: Going Home.......
 

I have to second that.
To those who just come over for a holiday couple of weeks or so do not get to see the real thing as to what is really happening over here, especially when you are told by a variety of people both in business and personal "Why on earth are you thinking of coming back here to live, are you crazy" I got very defensive on my homeland England on how could you say this but now I am can understand why. I have been over here since last August with my daughter and cannot return back for a while to Toronto. I get sick to my stomach with everything that is happening daily and locally to my beautiful country, and why I keep asking myself? Although living in the GTA I am used to crime happening but not to watching where I go on my own for a walk at night or day and here being told you are not going there on your own are you! I am used to leaving my doors open, bikes outside on the lawn, going to pubs with chairs permanently left outside not taken in each night just in case they would be gone the next morning. As I have said before I pray that things change and quickly but alas I cannot see that happening. Maybe for some look at statistics of stabings etc not through vacation sunglasses as I did when I first returned back , these things are real here sadly, I see things happening in Toronto also but nothing like this. So many of our friends are desperate to leave or trying to find a little haven away from it all wherever. Oh I miss my wonderful, sarcastic, witty dry humoured kind people of the UK but hey hopefully more of them will be moving over to Canada and I will not have to cross the pond any more for a fix. I know I will maybe getting peoples back up on this topic but please again this is just my opinion. O my Land of Hope and Glory. When it comes down to it we just have to make a choice as to what is most important to us in life and how we wish to live it.:(

Re: Going Home.......
 

In Toronto they don't bring the chairs in because they're either chained together or bolted to the sidewalk.

Re: Going Home.......
 

I feel more comfortable going to bars where the tables & chairs are bolted to the floor (inside might I add). It stops people from throwing them at each other.
god only knows what would happen if they were left outside.

Re: Going Home.......
 

It's not common for Toronto bars to have the chairs bolted down inside, the only places that immediately spring to mind are The Duke, the Crossroads and the Canada Tavern. (Also the nameless bar on the south side of Dundas by Jarvis). McVeigh's has them fixed together with a wire thing, like bicycles for sale on the pavement and The Stables has chains and handcuffs attached to them in a sort of non-functional sado motif.

When I lived on the Esplanade (a big street for bars) all the patios had the chairs and tables chained together and they took the umbrellas in at night. Nonetheless, one night, someone stole two picnic tables and about 30' of patio fencing. When we lived in the Beach someone stole two battered chairs and a bag of stinky hockey stuff off the front porch.

Toronto's not a wild place but it's not some paradise where you can leave half decent furniture laying around outside.

Re: Going Home.......
 

My stag night started at McVeigh's....great place.

Is the Canada Tavern still around? (I haven't lived in YYZ since 1994)....that place was like stepping back into a time warp......I would have thought by now it would have been knocked down for condos etc.

This 'Stables' place wouldn't happen to be on Church Street would it?

Re: Going Home.......
 

Closed within the past year. The sign's still there but the bar's closed. Now I think though the place next to the pool opposite the Welfare Mall has the chairs fixed down on Karaoke night. Maybe it's The Maple Leaf. The Chinese run place at Greenwood and Gerrard has some fixed chairs and so did the Paradise Cafe on Queen east of Sherbourne. Indoor fixed chairs are in all the best places.

There are still a surprising number of bars like that, places where you order a tray of four ounce glasses instead of pints. Places where the few women have more tattoes than teeth. Lots of them along the ungentrified bits of the Danforth. I suppose the Brunswick House was a sort of upmarket studenty version.

Yes, it's the place with the large mural of the Marlboro cowboys, one feeling the other's butt.

Re: Going Home.......
 

Christ, a veritable crime spree.
What about getting your drink in a plastic glass? Or do the bars trust their patrons with proper glassware? There's something to be said for drinking wine out of a plastic pint glass.

Re: Going Home.......
 

You can't leave the premises with a drink in Ontario so it's a bit different. In many places even to step from the bar to the, fenced, patio, you have to hand your drink to a staff member as, otherwise, you'll have stepped on a public sidewalk with a drink. Generally drinks are served in actual glasses though after my companion dropped one in the Duke she was served in plastic for the rest of the evening.

One thing that's a hint as to the nature of the bar is what people do with their glasses when they go out to smoke (even when smoking was allowed in bars people commonly went out for a toke) if it's any kind of a meat market they drain them so as to avoid the chance of a drink being spiked. If it's an average sort of neighbourhood place they leave them on the table, if it's a real regulars place the bartender tips the drink into a coffee cup so the patron can, gasp, have a drink and a smoke at the same time.

Re: Going Home.......
 

Not sure I could ever bring myself to leave a drink unattended :eek: Just wouldn't happen.

You've shattered my illusions of Canada now, the country has clearly gone to the dogs.

Re: Going Home.......
 

You don't think people actually drink Tim Horton's coffee do you?

Re: Going Home.......
 

I naively assumed so.
As a right of passage I intend try it out. I may even walk down the street holding the cup.

Re: Going Home.......
 

Hi mkmurrays,

We also went to see The Great One of the Guitars.
Out of this world, not bad for a 58 yr old.
Well done on the 1st year.

Re: Going Home.......
 

Was tempted to go to the Mark Knopfler concert but saw Dire Straits in Manchester about 15 years ago and was v disappointed - I'm a big fan but live they just didn't connect with the audience on that occasion.

Glad you had a good time MK and hope the nostalgia has passed...

Re: I vow to thee my country, I loved this when I first heard it as a child at Di's wedding. I always found it very moving and since her funeral it has become even more poignant.

Jerusalem is one of my all time patriotic hymns and brings back some good memories. At school we had to march into assembly to Land & Hope of Glory and on my homesick days I YouTube it and have my 5 mins of nostalgia.

I do like it here but sometimes there are days when I miss the British outlook on life and sense of humour, history and culture. I've started watching Corrie again just because it reminds me of 'home' and makes me feel understood - for some reason here I have to say everything twice most times before they tune into my accent.

Re: Going Home.......
 

Here's a link you might enjoy if you're feeling nostalgic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWY_P...eature=related