fulwood

Scout like what you wrote..

elfman

Possibly my wife's biggest pet peeve when we lived in Britain was so many of the sinks having separate hot and cold taps (even in quite new build houses). She still goes on about it eight years after we moved.

Bob

You've just described Massachusetts

Bob

Mixers common here then? Our apartment has them in the kitchen and one of the bogs, but our last place didn't and I can't say from what I've seen in Maine and MA for there to be much difference on that to the UK.

Beedubya

And that was all she found wrong with the UK? The taps?

Mummy in the foothills

If you go read over in UK-Yankee apparently it's quite a big deal, the lack of mixer taps

Beedubya

Sheesh!!! If only that's all the Brits who live in the States had to worry about!

Desdemona

Me too We were in England on holiday last June/July for a month and just loved it. My hubby is English but born and raised in Singapore by his English parents just like I was by my American parents but that's another story. We've lived stateside for the past twelve years.
I think you're going to love the experience -- the people are lovely. I love the pub culture and how happy-go-lucky the people are. Everything is smaller and more contained, I love that aspect. I just felt much more at home there so much more than I have ever felt here in the States on moving here. I think Scout says whatever I've not said in her post.
Personally I think I could be very happy there. Funnily enough it's my hubby who baulks at the prospect. He's thinking of the practical aspects like finances etc. and I think I know where he's coming from. So I guess it ain't happening for us, not in the near future anyway. But who knows maybe someday....
Good luck my dear. Just go ahead and take the plunge I don't think you will regret it. From what you say here, I think you will be very happy in good old blighty

dunroving

I think you need to trade in for a new model (I'll let you decide whether I mean the sink or the wife).

AmericanCountrygirl

Thanks for replying everybody! Those websites have been very helpful, I actually didn't realize they existed. Stupid American! Ha!

It's funny.. In the last few days, I have ran into people at work that have either lived or visited the UK and they all have LOVED it. My boyfriend and I traveling to London in about 3 weeks for a two week vacation (he claims it won't be a holiday for him but an adventure for me) either way, 2 weeks off of work no matter if your rear is plastered to the couch, is a holiday to me!

We will be staying in Central London for 3 days, including Valentines day! I don't know ANY of my American girlfriends that can say they've done that!! Then I think we're going to travel a bit to Oxford, Bath, a couple of other areas and then we're going down to Southhampton to meet his family.

My boyfriend is paranoid that i'm going to not like England and we will have to go our separate ways. No way, I say! I'm going to love it. All your posts have really given me insight and I feel the puzzle pieces are starting to come together. What a journey I'm about to begin and I honestly can't think of anything more exciting!

Lothianlad

My parental west Edinburgh home has mixer taps in both the kitchen and the bathroom (bath and sink unit) and so does my flat, much closer to Edinburgh city centre, and which I moved into last March. If you visit the average sales rooms specialising in brand new kitchen and bathroom units you will find that mixer taps are now the norm - at least in this area they are, and I would reckon everywhere else in the UK as well.

Bob

Take the coach, it's every 15 mins from Victoria station and a bit over an hours ride or so...much easier than driving in, and the train station is a bit of a naff walk in tbh, plus Bottley, who'd want to end up there

Definitely if only staying a day, do the bus tour of the city, it's cheesy, but you'll see pretty much all the major sights.

Go to the Covered Market, it really is donkeys old and a proper old school market and the best place to sample cheeses etc, and see a proper butchers and get stuff for a cheap ploughmans lunch, which you can eat at University Parks, which is right by Keble and a few mins past the war memorial and Ashmolean Museum, which if you only visit one museum in the city, this should be a must, it'll easily take a day to do it properly, so only check out a wing that covers a part of history you are interested in, or a guest showing because it really is very cool.

Pubs, they're everywhere, plenty of good ones, but head down St Aldates, just past the police station, across the bridge on the river, it's not the best pub in the world, but it's a great view and well priced for lunch.

The Lamb and Flag and the other one across the street in St Giles, JRT fame, they're shitty tourist traps and have no room.

Must go up Carfax Tower, it's bang in the middle of the city centre, can't really beat the views of the skyline unless you go on a helicopter.

If you're staying the night, you'll find much better deals at a B&B up the Banbury Road towards Summertown, it's a 15 min walk, but buses are 24/7. Also Jericho is a two min walk and not a bad place to stay either. If you fancy something a bit different, the old prison in the city centre is now a hotel, it's supposed to be pretty good and they sometimes do good weekend deals.

Oh yeah, Market Day is I think Wednesday, it's in Gloucester Green, where the coach terminal is, it's fantastic for cheap lunch too, or picking up a snack in the afternoon. Same location, next day is another market, less food and farmers, more flea market, still fun.

Lothianlad

I loved reading all that! I'm Scottish/British and have lived here (Scotland) all my life - sometimes I love it, some times I hate it - it all depends on what has bugged me at any given time. What I really DO love about living in the UK - one of the many things I love about it - is our very close proximity to Continental Europe and the huge variety of cultures, languages, lifestyles and foods etc all available there just a short hop away across the Channel/North Sea. I often nip over to Amsterdam and back again over a weekend....friends live in the Netherlands.

We see loads and loads of Americans here in Edinburgh, along with practically every other nationality on the face of the planet, so we do not really resort to stopping dead in our tracks and grin as we pin point Americans in supermarket aisles!

It hasn't rained here in Edinburgh for several days now - well, none that you would really bother about - a wee bit of a drizzle maybe at some stage, but it's not been blazing sunshine either but it is late January after all - we're promised snow and ice again later this week.

Aye, the countryside is pretty much as you describe it - it varies a great deal from one part of the country to another, and it does not take long to travel from one to another as this American lady hoping to come over here (is she that crazy??? ...just joking...) will soon realise that nowhere here in the UK is all that far from anywhere else as distances here are nothing like as the scale they are on over in America. There is no place anywhere in the whole of the UK which is more than 70 miles from tidal water....some village in Warwickshire, England is supposed to be the place which is furthest away from a sea shore, which Americans would regard as almost diddly squat.

Narrow roads - here in Scotland we have plenty of "passing places" all at regular intervals along the roads. You see another car approaching so you nip into the space provided and allow the other car to pass, with the driver of that car giving you an acknowledging wave. Down in the wilds of the Yorkshire Dales they may just raise a single finger oiff the steering wheel by way of appreciation of allowing their car to pass. I know that to be the case as I was at uni in Leeds - best fun time of my whole life so far!

I'm familiar with the flirting of British men...pretty much.....

Cheers!

PS: Get used to the word "cheers" in the UK - it can mean several things.....like when you raise your glass by way of a toast in the pub, like when a spotty faced lad of 18 or so says "cheers" when handing you your change over the counter at Dixons or wherever, or merely a means of saying "goodbye"!

Cheers - again - and guid nicht!

beachgal21

I believe that's Meriden also known as the Heart of England. I enjoyed your post very much. Cheers

Beedubya

Me too.

And it's good to see Lothianlad on the up beat again.

And Bob I will put Oxford on the tourist bucket list now too.