Re: Missing the UK?
 

I've done some driving in Canada. I've done quite a lot in the US. I think this is often a result of many North American drivers just being a lot more relaxed at the wheel, and hence, more sloppy in their habits. No excuse, but a reason. I just saw it as a cultural thing and moved on.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

I guess that works both ways.:lol::lol:

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...rch_type=&aq=f

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Flashing your lights at another vehicle in Canada (at least in BC) means: 1) it's dark, turn on your headlights dummy or 2) there are pigs, a speedtrap, an accident and/or wildlife on the road up ahead of you or (if you're following someone) 3) move into the slow lane so I can pass you.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Which probably explains why it confuses the hell out of someone coming out of a side road in daylight....

Re: Missing the UK?
 

OoooH! You beat me to it. People keep telling me I can buy OXO CUBES (not sachets) and I can't find the things, so I was thinking maybe Calgary and Edmonton may have them......Obviousley not:rofl:

It's hard being a couple of days away from family when all of a sudden someone dies - and yes it is a couple of days! By the time you find a flight, get the dog in the kennels, pack you bag, boarded the plane and landed and it's + 1 day in the UK. It's hard when you phone your Mum and you say 'Mum! What's wrong?' and the reply is I've just been throwing up, you know she's been ill and it's been going on a long time and your wondering how long your going to be able to make those 2 hour long weekly phone calls - I don't begrudge those calls when I'm actually wanting to do something anymore - I did before I lost both in laws last year, but now I treasure them.

It's frustrating trying to buy Christmas presents in October to post by the end of October when there are no christmassy things in the shop.....My Mum's parcel still hasn't arrived!

I miss choice. I miss being able to watch a 1 hour 30 min film on any channel without it lasting 3 hours. Hubby is really bad for not checking scheduling legnths. I miss the architecture. Daughter misses the rain - sometimes I think a nice downpour would be good but after 2 lots of 2 weeks in the UK last year and 27 of those days it rained I thank my lucky stars we're somewhere sunny.

I miss school uniforms, proper words - it really isn't funner you know? Pork Pies, cakes tasting how a cake looks like it should taste and being able to cook something without hunting in 4 different supermarkets for the ingredients and being able bake and know it's going to turn out the way it should.

For all that, would I throw the towel in and go back. No Ta! Quite happy here thanks. I will never say never though.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

piccalilli, I know it seems small but I grew up in a family that put it on most of our sandwiches, so to go to a country where you cant get it well after a while you start craving it.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

I'm pretty sure you can get Cross & Blackwell's Picalilli in Calgary.

I used to buy it quite frequently but recently it's been very disappointing (looks like it was made with the scraps). Quite expensive too $4-$5 for a small jar.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Do you miss the UK?

I don't know, I haven't tried aiming at it yet. I need a longer-range missile!

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Things I have missed, on occasion, not always, not consistently.
Money
Ham
Good chinese take out
Good indian take out
Gammon
Money
Back bacon Wiltshire cure
Waitrose prawn cocktail
Waitrose
John Lewis
My lovely Renault Clio
Money
Decent cream, milk, butter
Money
Employment rights
Good health
A GP
Cheap books
Hairdressers that have moved on from the mullet
Smooth road surfaces
Cats eyes
Holidays
Money

That'll do for now

Re: Missing the UK?
 

You can get the equivalent of piccallili......it's a bit drier though:thumbup:

Re: Missing the UK?
 

also, google Dickens in Chilliwack...British goods and not too costly

Re: Missing the UK?
 

:ohmy:

I'm stunned!

Re: Missing the UK?
 

that would be your head hitting the car roof as you go over a pothole!

Honestly Peas, the road round here are terrible. Apart from the seasonal potholes you bump and wiggle all over the place as you drive over the uneven surface. You never seem to get a nice camber to help you zoom around that corner.

You have smooth roads in BC do you?? I'm on my way and you can show me.:p

Re: Missing the UK?
 

This reminds me of a talk I had with my youngest daughter. When we started to very seriously talk about emigration I told the kids to talk to me about any concerns they had.

My youngest said absolutely nothing at all about the move whilst the others all came to me with things like "I'll miss my friends" or "I'll miss my nan" etc.

A few weeks ago I come home from a late night at work and my youngest said she had to speak to me IMMEDIATELY and took me by the hand to her bedroom, she shut the door and told me to sit down.

So I duly sat down and she said that she had a question about the move to Canada. OK say I wondering what can be so serious that she looked so sad.

"Mum, you know you said I had to speak to you if I had a problem about Candad weeeelllllll .... I don't like the pickles out there, they taste different"

Erm, OK then ....

Re: Missing the UK?
 

I did find one jar of picalilli when I was in regina but it wasnt as good as the stuff at home, but I guess its better than nothing but next time I'm taking a jar over.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

lol, but you know its funny how things like that become important I couldnt cope living in america and one of the main reasons is because they dont have hp sauce. I have it with almost every meal if I was in the states I'd have to import it.

I can live without almost anything but food is the one thing I miss.

Actually it is nice being able to walk to places instead of being dependant on people for rides.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Oh, I know.... :tounge_smile:



I drive by braille! ;)

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Yup. Nothing consistent there.

Cat's eyes. I'd forgotten them.

What's Waitrose?

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Flashing your lights on the motorway in the UK is NOT recommended! A great many drivers use their headlights to intimidate the driver in front into moving out of the way! They drive right up to the car in front (almost sitting on the fender of the car in front) and flash their lights repeatedly. This usually take place at 80+ miles per hour.

There is no official rules concerning the use of headlight flashing - I think the Highway Code specifically condones the practice.

I have found the drivers on Vancouver Island to be much more polite - they do let you out but do it by a wave of the hand. And there is very much less "fender driving".

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Grocery heaven.


John Lewis' food dept. As you are a Geordie you will not know the finer points of life :p;)

Re: Missing the UK?
 

I thought John Lewis sold school blazers and such. Just shows.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Nah....that was Keith Pople.;)

Re: Missing the UK?
 

:eek:WHERE I can only get the stupid packets and they are rubbish, Please tell me where, I used my last oxo cube for christmas dinner sob sob

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Awww. PM me your address and I can mail some to ya!

Re: Missing the UK?
 

this one?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/76344.stm

Either way, right over my head.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Keith Pople was The shop for school uniforms, ties, blazer badges etc. Maybe it was just a Bristol store.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

I have two types of piccalilli in my fridge - the chunky type (Bicks) and a cross and blackwell - it says Picallilli Chow Chow on the jar:eek:
Both readily available.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Calgary Co-op carries OXO cubes, Piccalili, Branston pickle, Robinsons jam, Salad Cream, Twinings tea, Pataks curry stuff, Lemon curds, Marmite, all that stuff.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

John Lewis is the shop.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Ruby, not sure how to tell you this, but...... this is not the UK, therefore we are not likely to have any/some of the "rules of the road" in the UK. We flash or dip lights for other reasons, not necessarily to let someone out from a side street. If I do that, I slow down, make eye contact and wave them in. Much easier.

As for schooling, can't speak to that as my kids have long graduated, but I never had any complaint about the schooling here, in fact the opposite. There seems to be quite a bit of disagreement on that topic, some find it ahead, other behind the UK system. But again..... this is not the UK.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Oh yes. You can buy it here but it's expensive, so I stock up with a jar or two on every trip back.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

I also like that that its a worker's co-operative, and all those Daily Mail and Torygraph readers shop there. That puts a smile on my common face.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

omigod, blast from the past - Poples. I'd forgotten about them.

I must admit I think school uniforms are a good idea, and I wish public schools here would adopt them, it would eliminate a lot of problems, I think, and probably work out cheaper in the long run for parents instead of having to kit their kid out in designer clothes for school.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Do you remember that the shop they had (opposite Bridewell as I recall) became Aunt Jemima's Kitchen.....a pancake place?

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Can't argue with money money money and money, but we get really good chinese take out here (not indian though) and the best fish and chips, far better than any I've had "back 'ome), and my hairdresser is good, though from Korea.
But road markings - when will they put some in that you can actually see at night?? We do have cats eyes here and there, but not enough.
Oh, and cream, real Devon cream - I really do miss that.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Oh god yes, you must be as old as me then :rofl::rofl:

It was quite the place to go, for awhile. Didn't last too long though. There was a fabulous Chinese restaurant just along from Bridewell, too. Oh and remember Berni Inns? Those greasy chickens, we always went there after a night at the Llandogger.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

Cora's serve something with "English Style" Cream and I was led to believe it would be 'clotted' cream.

It wasn't.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

My first restaurant experience was a Berni....The Posada, off Baldwin St.

The Llandoger Trow is still there.

Re: Missing the UK?
 

We are too far from TO to get decent Chinese or Indian food. Apparently the Korean takeout in Ptbro is good, also the Thai but I havent tried them

Fish and chips in our village is indeed very good, we also have pizza and burgers etc.

Road markings, before we moved house my drive home was on a county road which was good, white lines at the side of the road, but it's not always ploughed so I used to use Highway 7, aka Trans Canada Highway, Its dreadful, potholes, no markings. Nightmare. My current drive is rather bumpy and goes round hilly windy roads, no lines, no barriers by the edges so you can fall off into the valley. Scary.:eek: I was told that cat's eyes are useless here as the ploughs would scrunch them all up each year.

Sobeys have Devon cream in a jar, not quite the same, and it costs dear too.

I have given up on hairdressers. I am a fat middle aged woman, who is going to notice if my hair is ok or not! :rofl:

I don't actively miss things, occasionally i have a yen for something. Since we moved house though I am happier and so don't see alll the scabby stuff anymore, and when I do it usually washes over me.

Happiness is a lovely house. :D

Re: Missing the UK?
 

We do have cats eyes here and there, but not enough.

For most of Canada cats eyes are not feasible. They were tried at one time in parts of Ontario but, as you can imagine, they were soon ripped off the roads by snowplows, causing considerable damage and expense.

The small bottles of Devon Cream are sometimes available in Loblaws.