What do you miss about the UK today?

I'm having a particularly frustrating one today and am hating on LA whilst my mind plays tricks and tells me how much I miss England. So on that note, fellow repatriates, tell me all your "misses" about the UK! Our friends will get sick of hearing about it eventually so maybe here is the best place for it!

In no particular order:
1. wide open green or wooded spaces to walk, ramble, picnic, drink in. Whether in London or up north. Totally miss it and my photographs don't do it justice.
2. I wish I'd got to explore more around Yorkshire. I really loved it up there. The Dales are definitely on my next trip over and on the list of places to move back to in a few years time.
3. weather - I love me some rain. Maybe not the cold, but I'll take spring any day.
4. not having to drive. definitely miss that. and trains, no matter how overcrowded and expensive. my country for a train!
5. pubs. real ales. roasts. in no way shape or form will pubs here ever be the same. they are either too dated, selling bland "british faire" trying to be what they were 30 years ago when they first came over. I have high hopes for Gordon Ramsay's new pub opening in The Grove herein LA soon. Oh for a proper sunday roast!
6. shopping. I (shocker) really miss primark! And home shops like Habitat, Heal's, India Jane.
7. clipper decaf everyday tea. We are on our last box. And they don't sell it here or ship it! Soon it's back to Tetleys.

That's a few of the things I am grumbling about. Anyone else got something to add?

In no particular order:

1. Not having to pay $1200 for my son's vaccinations *with* health insurance (cheers, Aetna!)

2. Waitrose. The nearest we have is Wegmans, which is great but is also a 60-mile round trip.

2a. Not having to label-read every product in the grocery store to avoid high fructose corn syrup.

2b. The particular variety of baking potato sold in the UK -- starts with an "E', I think. They're perfect, slightly sweet and make the best baked potatoes. You can't get it or grow it here because Monsanto. Owns. Everything.

3. Public transport. It may be slow, it may be unreliable at times -- but it's there.

4. The sheer amount of cool things to do with my toddler. Play cafes, baby groups, etc. -- we've got nothing.

5. My horse. He's in the UK. I'm not.

Another one: Freeview! I'm literally forced into getting expensive cable if I want to watch broadcast television.

1. Not having to pay $1200 for my son's vaccinations *with* health insurance (cheers, Aetna!)

Ouch. Yes, health care is definitely going to be missed.

Basic, basic is usually about 15.00 mnth.  I'd get that and top it up with netflix or Hulu+. 

RCN has packages that start at 5.99/mnth. 

Still not free, but better than the 100/mnth my friend is paying.  She's nuts!

5. pubs. real ales. roasts. in no way shape or form will pubs here ever be the same. they are either too dated, selling bland "british faire" trying to be what they were 30 years ago when they first came over. I have high hopes for Gordon Ramsay's new pub opening in The Grove herein LA soon. Oh for a proper sunday roast!

dels...have you tried going to the *bleep* & Bull in Santa Monica on Lincoln Blvd?  When we lived in LA, DH and I used to go for Sunday roast.  He'd also get his steak & kidney pie and chips there as well.

Also, the Tudor House in Santa Monica on 2nd Street & Santa Monica Blvd sells a whole variety of meat pies which they make there.

Basic, basic is usually about 15.00 mnth.  I'd get that and top it up with netflix or Hulu+. 

RCN has packages that start at 5.99/mnth. 

Still not free, but better than the 100/mnth my friend is paying.  She's nuts!

We can only get time warner, and it's $49.99/ month for basic. Plus the $49.99 for our internet! We bought an antenna instead. All I want is broadcast stations. And we also have hulu, which frankly I find useless as most of the shows I watch can only be watched on the internet anyway, netflix and amazon prime. Plus our VPN for all our international needs. Sorted.

dels...have you tried going to the *bleep* & Bull in Santa Monica on Lincoln Blvd?  When we lived in LA, DH and I used to go for Sunday roast.  He'd also get his steak & kidney pie and chips there as well.

Also, the Tudor House in Santa Monica on 2nd Street & Santa Monica Blvd sells a whole variety of meat pies which they make there.

Sadly the Tudor House has closed! I may pop by today to see if they really have, as it's rumoured they may stay open until the end of July. The Robin Hood in Sherman Oaks does the same, though I'm not up in that neck of the woods as often anymore... though I am tomorrow! Thanks for the reminder! DH does love his pies.

I've been to the C&B, though the last time we went we were scared off by the greyish colour of the peas! I can't get DH to go back there. So far the best roast we've had here is at the Waterloo & City in Culver West, but they've stopped serving during the day, so that means no more roasts. I'm going to try and get a booking for The Village Idiot, as they do roasts on Sunday... at $22 a pop they better be freaking fantastic!

Sleeping with the window open...even tho I moaned about it when I was there

Costa

Walking the dogs for hours off lead without the threat of a snake or alligator eating them

My step kids...even though they were just here for 2 weeks

My mum in laws Sunday roast

Good drivers on the roads

Definitely the NHS -- even with reasonable health insurance here it still has a lot of gaps.

The weather. I'll put up with rain and gray days in order to avoid the humid dog days!

The Times puzzles -- used to do the Polygon every day.

The weather. I'll put up with rain and gray days in order to avoid the humid dog days!

It's been really humid here too lately!  But of course not as hot as it probably is over there - but warm & humid nonetheless.

I walked down to Andee's today to feed the fishies, and it was raining by the time I was walking back up - had my waterproof on against the rain & got really sweaty, because it was really too hot for a coat, but too rainy not to have it on. 

2b. The particular variety of baking potato sold in the UK -- starts with an "E', I think. They're perfect, slightly sweet and make the best baked potatoes. You can't get it or grow it here because Monsanto. Owns. Everything.

King Edward? You can get seed potatoes if you look hard enough (http://www.potatogarden.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PG&Product_Code=77KNG&Category_Code=), but you'll have to grow them yourself.

I had a small dinner party last night and had to drive all over the place to get everything. I miss waitrose grocery delivery! Only place that delivers in LA is Vons, and I dislike them so. There are a couple of smaller delivery companies but they just don't have a good selection.

I just can't imagine why more supermarkets don't deliver here.

One word: Bacon.

Last week we went to The Counter where you can build your own burger. I really fancied some bacon. And when the burger arrived, I did a double take at the crispy streaky bacon on top. For a second there I expected back bacon.  It was just one of those moments, followed by a wistful nostalgia trip of Saturday morning bacon sandwiches.

So we popped into the fresh & easy and picked up some proper bacon to cure my bacon malaise. I am looking forward to a bacon sarnie this weekend!

I had a small dinner party last night and had to drive all over the place to get everything. I miss waitrose grocery delivery! Only place that delivers in LA is Vons, and I dislike them so. There are a couple of smaller delivery companies but they just don't have a good selection.

I just can't imagine why more supermarkets don't deliver here.

We miss Waitrose so much.  And walking everywhere.  Sure, I bitched in the rain, but the in and out of the carseat is driving me nuts. 

I miss it so much more than I ever thought I would.  I thought we'd come back and settle back in and we haven't, and there is zero chance of getting back for anything other than a vacation.

Also, our butter tastes pretty awful here.  It tastes really oily.  I saw lurpak in Harris Teeter the other day and it was $6.99.  Yikes!  Luckily, Safeway had Kerrygold on sale for $1.99. 

Borough Market. I miss it so much. Especially this time of year, when it gets cold. I love going there on a chilly Saturday morning and just wandering with a cup of mulled wine warming my hands.

And I miss the very autumn in season foods that I would never have been exposed to here in southern California. Like game pies, rabbit and guinea fowl. Pigeon is never on the menu here! I'm going to make a special trip to the farmers market this weekend to see if I can't find something similar.

Cold weather! Its so hot and humid where we live at the moment, but I am hopeful that we will be back in time for snow in the New Year.

Biscuits, cakes, Cadbury's Fruit and Nut, in fact all manner of food, and familiar supermarkets.

Women sized clothes, particularly stylish winter clothes.

Theatre, concerts, music festivals, National Trust properties, decent pubs.

I could go on and on but I'll console myself by watching "Vera" on the TV.