I need to hear good things about the UK

Me for one! I want all natural, unsweetened, non-palm oil peanut butter.  I find some of the natural peanut butter here to have an odd texture.

But don't take what everyone says here as a reflection of their everyday life.  People come here to vent, or because they are worried about a big life change.  So yes, sometimes I get annoyed about not having mixer taps.  But then I get annoyed about things when I go other places as well.

Here is the peanut butter you would like:  At Sainsbury's crunchy and smooth
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/frameset/redirect.jsp;GROSESSIONID=Sf2h8BM2gJCPsGGppqTTMTnD27Jq4sQ7TJ6BQyJ33J3chTh2xvgx!1378110622?bmForm=deep_link_groceries_search_javascript&bmFormID=1386184378319&bmUID=1386184378319&screenWidth=1366

Can anyone on this forum help me understand how to make a post? I have registered but just can't figure this out.... Is there no Webmaster or email contact to get some guidence..... Thanks

Can anyone on this forum help me understand how to make a post? I have registered but just can't figure this out.... Is there no Webmaster or email contact to get some guidence..... Thanks

You just did make a post.

Can anyone on this forum help me understand how to make a post? I have registered but just can't figure this out.... Is there no Webmaster or email contact to get some guidence..... Thanks

Yes - you just posted as chary said.....are you actually asking how to initiate a topic? Try using the "Help" tab at the top to get some answers to questions you might have. Not being sarcastic, it just helps to read first, as I have found.

Having only lived here a few months, these are my thoughts:

 - England is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. 
 - The pace of life is very different if you're outside a city.  I am in a town and while it has a largish Tesco and several other markets, it is different getting used to closing times (at home there are none for many businesses). You'll quickly learn to plan ahead.
 - The library is tiny, but quite modern here in our town. They can do inter-library loans but there can be fees attached.
 - I searched for a couple of months in every shop I had access to for a back scratcher.  Finally my dear husband order one on Amazon.co.uk for me.  Get to know Amazon, it will become your friend.
 - Do yourself a favor.  Don't seek American grocery products until you've tried what's on offer in your local shops.  I've found many items I'd never have tried if I had a stockpile of my favorites.  Most of my faves are a pleasant memory now.  I don't feel the need for them as much as I thought I would.  My two exceptions are American mustard (The English kind is too strong for me.) and powdered coffee creamer. 
 - If you're a ways outside a bigger city or town like we are, you'll have internet frustrations.  The nearest cable internet to me is about 15-20 miles away.  If you're used to super-fast internet and can't live without it research where you plan to move.  If you're joining a spouse who is already settled here, you may just have to grumble a bit and deal with DSL like speeds.  I'm getting used to it...sort of.
 - Lasagna is made with Cheddar here.  I've not been to an Italian restaurant here, but if it's on the menu in a pub, it's probably cheddar.
 - English people will put sweet corn on/in anything.  It will be in pasta salads, on pizzas, on salad bars...  I like corn but not this much.  It's like the English say "American's will eat anything with cheese on it."  The English will eat anything with sweet corn on/in it.  LOL
 - Our local shops don't carry much Turkey coldcuts.  Very little Chicken too now that I think about it.  I don't know if it's a local bias or not.
 - Almost any American TV show you loved in the 70's or 80's can be found on cable here.  Since moving here I've seen Wonder Woman, The Streets of San Francisco, Kojak, Dynasty, etc...  They replay a lot of older British programs as well.  Plus the new stuff from the states is easy to find as well as shows from Australia and Canada.  If you're into TV, it's a wonderland.
 - Pizza chains here (Pizza Hut, Papa Johns and Dominos included) have unusual combinations.  Some are very good and some are just strange.  Be adventurous.  My hubby talked me into one I'd never have tried on my own and I love it.  I don't know why and I try not to think of the odd combo of ingredients, but it works somehow.

I'll stop before I write a novel.  Needless to say, I love it here.  Give it and yourself a chance and relax.  Treat your time here like a grand adventure.  That spirit will open you up to all sorts of wonderful things, places and people. 

Snowdonia

- If you're a ways outside a bigger city or town like we are, you'll have internet frustrations.  The nearest cable internet to me is about 15-20 miles away.  If you're used to super-fast internet and can't live without it research where you plan to move.  If you're joining a spouse who is already settled here, you may just have to grumble a bit and deal with DSL like speeds.  I'm getting used to it...sort of.

You're lucky you've got DSL! I've got friends who still have dial up!   We have just gotten 'fibre optic' broadband (we're not convinced!), but plain 'ole DSL speeds in any bigger place than here go quicker. Not to mention they surcharge us against any cheap deal just for living far in the North.  But I can't complain compared to others, who still have dial up or worse surcharges than we do! 

I had no idea that dial up was still in use!  Wow.  I'll try to curb my grumbling then.  I don't know that I'll succeed however.  I was a Netflix nut in the US. Now I have to pre-load short clips on You Tube.

Snowdonia

I think it's slowly getting better - and some of them may have actually made it onto broadband, but I'm pretty sure there are a few with dial up still.  

I do know what you mean about slow speeds though - and if you're a heavy streamer and  voip kind of person, it's definitley hugely annoying.  Grumble away, didn't want to steal that from you.  

Glad you are enjoying life in the UK Snowdonia.  Where did you move to?

I remember my first day in the UK, I went to M&S and got a pizza to heat up in the oven at home for dinner.  I thought it was BAD (like off) and threw it away!  I wasn't used to a mature cheddar cheese on a pizza, that was for sure.  I was single (came for work) so I didn't have anyone to ask if that's what it was supposed to taste like.  Same thing happened with a ready-meal lasagna as the bechemel sauce threw me off.  Now I've adapted and think both are yummy, but it is an adjustment.

Oh, and I've learned I love sweetcorn on EVERYTHING.

I still laugh at "American Burger Sauce"... it's unlike anything I've ever had on a burger in America (probably depends on where you are from though).

Ohhhh have I got a freaky delicacy for you (NOT).  Last weekend my hubby and I were strolling around TESCO and found a disturbing canned good.  The brand is Ye Olde Oak and the product name is American Style Hot Dogs in Brine.  WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?  I know of no Americans who eat brined hot dogs.  Maybe they're from out east or west?  I'm from the midwest and lived the in south for a long time.  I've never heard of them.  Eww.

Back in the dark ages when I was a kid in North Carolina, everybody I knew ate Vienna sausages - these horrible little things in a small can. Salty, some brine, with discernible congealed fat. And, since no one I knew had ever heard of Vienna, much less knew how to pronounce it, they were called VI-een-na sausages (long I, emphasis on 1st syllable). And you either ate them straight from the can or with saltine crackers. 

That's about as close as I can get to those horrible looking "American style" hot dogs in a can. And far closer than I ever want to be to one 

DH tells me that when he was a kid here in the UK, most folks he knew wouldn't touch garlic, had never heard of pizza, and generally refused to eat 'foreign muck' even if they did go abroad for holidays (which few did), and definitely wouldn't eat such stuff at home.

Our thoughts on food are absolutely shaped by our environment!

But back to good things....despite the ridiculous price increases, we pay less for electric & gas, and far less for phone & broadband than we did in the US. I have a proper butcher just around the corner - not limited to supermarket meat. We know many of our neighbors. And the NHS is taking great care of my 74 year old husband....the list could go on and on.....

Back in the dark ages when I was a kid in North Carolina, everybody I knew ate Vienna sausages - these horrible little things in a small can. Salty, some brine, with discernible congealed fat. And, since no one I knew had ever heard of Vienna, much less knew how to pronounce it, they were called VI-een-na sausages (long I, emphasis on 1st syllable). And you either ate them straight from the can or with saltine crackers. 

Good lord I do like Vienna sausages. And that is the North Florida pronunciation too. I remember asking my father if he knew there was actually an Austrian city and that it was pronounced differently. But he always said of my generation that we tried to talk yankee too much.

But yes any fishing trip or what have you was accompanied by Vienna sausages, potted meat, sardines, saltines, yellow mustard, deviled ham and perhaps green olives if you were shooting for a bit of haute cuisine. All accompanied by the aroma of OFF mosquito spray.

I just remembered that getting the first vienna sausage out of the little tin was always problematic, especially if the suspension fluid was congealed.

Glad you are enjoying life in the UK Snowdonia.  Where did you move to?

We're in Northamptonshire.  I love it here!  Hubby works an hour away though in Bucks.  So we'll probably have to relocate sometime next year.

Back in the dark ages when I was a kid in North Carolina, everybody I knew ate Vienna sausages - these horrible little things in a small can. Salty, some brine, with discernible congealed fat. And, since no one I knew had ever heard of Vienna, much less knew how to pronounce it, they were called VI-een-na sausages (long I, emphasis on 1st syllable). And you either ate them straight from the can or with saltine crackers. 

That's about as close as I can get to those horrible looking "American style" hot dogs in a can. And far closer than I ever want to be to one 

My Dad was from Tennessee and he called them Vie-ee-nees.  LOL  It must be a Southern thing.  I agree about the hotdogs in brine.  Sooooo scary!

But back to good things....despite the ridiculous price increases, we pay less for electric & gas, and far less for phone & broadband than we did in the US. I have a proper butcher just around the corner - not limited to supermarket meat. We know many of our neighbors. And the NHS is taking great care of my 74 year old husband....the list could go on and on.....

I love being a few minutes walk to the surgery, pub, chippy and a shop!  We're a short walk from a country park too.  I'm amazed at the food prices.  It's much cheaper here for the things that are expensive in the states.  The veg prices are so much cheaper here!  Also you pay a premium for free range eggs in the states and they're the norm here.  The quality of the food is better and I've noticed that the meats have a shorter shelf life here leading me to believe they may have less preservatives than they do in the states.  Hurrah!

Snowdonia

Back in the dark ages when I was a kid in North Carolina, everybody I knew ate Vienna sausages - these horrible little things in a small can. Salty, some brine, with discernible congealed fat. And, since no one I knew had ever heard of Vienna, much less knew how to pronounce it, they were called VI-een-na sausages (long I, emphasis on 1st syllable). And you either ate them straight from the can or with saltine crackers. 

oh god... the memory of these vile things is making my stomach churn!

Ohhhh have I got a freaky delicacy for you (NOT).  Last weekend my hubby and I were strolling around TESCO and found a disturbing canned good.  The brand is Ye Olde Oak and the product name is American Style Hot Dogs in Brine.  WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?  I know of no Americans who eat brined hot dogs.  Maybe they're from out east or west?  I'm from the midwest and lived the in south for a long time.  I've never heard of them.  Eww.

I realize how old this post is, but I HAD to comment.  My husband picked these up for me on one of my first visits to the UK back in 2001. It is still a hilarious story to us because those are NOT American and NOT hot dogs. I am from the East Coast and have no idea if they exist anywhere in America beyond those strange little cans of Vienna sausages.