What will you miss?

We're not moving back, just going to the US for a visit soon...  But the ONE thing we both miss the entire time we're there - CURRIES!  Now I know you can get curries over there in some places, and we likely will at one restaurant in Tampa if we're Jonesin' bad enough.  We eat our way across America - sampling every kind of American food you can imagine & having a great time but still we miss curries.

I'll miss being able to speak English, the TV programming, the great pubs on the river, being able to buy (good) cheese everywhere, the German bakery, the variety of vegetables and import foods, the light on summer nights, the mix of people, bookstores.. that's enough for now. 

bbc radio, the history everywhere, the architecture, the (free!) museums, cheap flights, greggs. selfridges, sainsbury's, tesco, all the groceries, the pubs, the potatoes, the markets, the theatre, the accents, the rain, the busses!, the tube, higher probability of running into famous people (cillian murphy, on the tube of all places!)

even the pound symbol makes me happy. also earning pounds instead of dollars. i miss that a lot.

Unfortunately I can't move back for if I could I would. The one thing I am surprised that no one posted was health care. That would be the no. 1 thing I would miss the most. As in the states every job I had no health care was ever offered and my mother got sick and she had health insurance from her job but the care was for cancer and health insurance ran out and they lost their home and everything they worked all their lives for.

Even though the weather sucks here and customer service doesn't exist here either now that I am older I would be scare to death to move back and get sick. At least here even though you pay a lot to live here if you got sick you won't loose what you worked for over it.

Hopefully all of you have good health insurance with your jobs when you head back for if you do not, living cheaper there will cost you a fortune if you get sick. I envy those going home though really. I will never fit in here and do not like it much. But I am thankful for having the ability to manage to afford to live here, and I know if I got sick I will be taken care of and I have no problem paying all the extra money for living here as it pays off in the end.

I have to agree.  I do miss the NHS.  Our DD was sick a lot last year and the insurance company is now telling us that we have used all of our "well-being visits" for her and will have to pay for any visit before her 2nd birthday which is in December.  The Dr. has been concerned about DD being small for her age and has requested us to come in about every 2 months.  It's getting costly.

I have to agree.  I do miss the NHS.  Our DD was sick a lot last year and the insurance company is now telling us that we have used all of our "well-being visits" for her and will have to pay for any visit before her 2nd birthday which is in December.  The Dr. has been concerned about DD being small for her age and has requested us to come in about every 2 months.  It's getting costly.

one of my uncle's had a heart attack and needed a bypass.  pretty routine stuff.  his 'share'/co pay came to nearly $20,000!

my mother, who has never lived here, keeps banging on about how evil socialised medicine is.

until i reminded her how it saved her daughter's life and this same daughter had a bankrupcy in the US because of the healthcare system in teh US.

Been giving this a lot of thought as the time gets closer for me to leave. I'm of such mixed opinions about it...

In no particular order:

M&S
Channel 4 news and Newsnight
TV with a lot less commercials
The proximity to the Continent though we've not been able to take as much advantage as we'd have liked while here
Easy access to rural areas (i.e. footpaths)
Lidl
English cheeses
The amazing gardens and hanging baskets
Being able to buy popadums already made at the supermarket
The NHS - bigtime
The beautiful countryside
My son's nursery
The old buildings (though living in them is a double edged sword!)
The British gift for understatment and some of the great words used here

I'm sure I'll think of some more....