Only 3 things I miss from California/USA. You?

Well, I would love the opportunity to get to that point. :-)

The first few times it is like being a superstar. The fourth time...."Oh god I've got to go to Eugene Oregon this weekend....with Larry....."

Have we mentioned the NHS in this thread?  In my 20s I scratched my cornea in Yosemite, requiring a painful ride back home to San Jose and a painful 8 hour wait in the emergency room for the uninsured.  I received care, but got a big invoice to pay off.   Here the NHS would have taken care of me.

I have a feeling that 8 hour wait was for the both the insured and the uninsured.

Anyway... in my original post, I merely said how I miss the local GP experience in the US, my intention (and I said it) was not to get into a pro-anti US/UK health care system exchange.

I too miss the variety of food I got in the US, especially the Greek food...and Wendy's

I miss being able to go nearly anywhere and get a pedicure, a proper pedicure with the big massaging chairs and foot baths! I have a hard time finding anywhere like that here! A pedicure here sees to just mean getting your toenails cut and painted.

Finally, I miss department stores like JC Penney's and Sears, although with that being said, it was so said to see how far Sears had fallen! They sold half the space to Whole Foods and had very little on offer. I remember going there for my Opticians but it just looked really run down :-/

I just thought of something else I like here:

Panel comedy game shows!

 Seems like every third show on TV here is one, yet they don't seem to exist in the US. Whose line is it anyway is the only one I can think of. Wish they did an American version of Mock the Week or Have I Got News for You.

The first few times it is like being a superstar. The fourth time...."Oh god I've got to go to Eugene Oregon this weekend....with Larry....."

Hey!! you can't go and start picking on my neck of the woods!! (well....maybe a 3 hour drive). However....Larry I can't vouch for......

Hey!! you can't go and start picking on my neck of the woods!! (well....maybe a 3 hour drive). However....Larry I can't vouch for......

Eugene is a running gag in my house. My wife had a nightmare trip back from there one time. God bless her, I think it was close to 40 hours door to door.

So now we can just say "Eugene", and that's all that need be said about the joys of business travel.

I have a feeling that 8 hour wait was for the both the insured and the uninsured.

Anyway... in my original post, I merely said how I miss the local GP experience in the US, my intention (and I said it) was not to get into a pro-anti US/UK health care system exchange.

Oh man, I thought I could get around your strict rules by mentioning it happened in Yosemite. 

Oh man, I thought I could get around your strict rules by mentioning it happened in Yosemite.

I hadn't noticed it was Yosemite. In that case... :-)

The first few times it is like being a superstar. The fourth time...."Oh god I've got to go to Eugene Oregon this weekend....with Larry....."

People go, "Oh such and such is an exciting place" - 10 hours on a plane, plus 10 hours to get to the north of Scotland (because it's impossible to get anywhere from here), and then I get there late on a Sunday night, straight into a factory for 8 or 9 am, then work until god knows what hour catching up on my day job, sleep a few hours (if possible),  repeat until I get back on a plane for an overnight flight on a  Friday night, losing two weekends in a row, having not seen a place at all!  So I live for food on a business trip, because its about the only thing you get to experience. If the food is rubbish, well, watch out. 

What is your hometown?

a little hell-hole called Norco...near Corona and Riverside (2 more hell-holes) in Southern Calif.  'Inland Empire' they used to call it back in the day.     Was that meant to try to make it sound interesting?  Miserable failure, if so.

Oh god I miss Target!

And I have to share this story: While out walking I ran into the Netball "Team USA," and I said hello and that I was from America too. The coach gives me this big hug and starts chatting me up for like five minutes. It was so sweet and so American, it just made my morning! I live in a pretty friendly part of the UK but I still miss American gregariousness sometimes.

and starts chatting me up for like five minutes.

actually chatting you up? 
or... just chatting with you?

actually chatting you up? 
or... just chatting with you?

I thought the same thing too! I think we've been in the UK (in my case, married to a Brit) for too long!

I've only been in the UK for a month, but I do miss good Mexican food. I'm from Southern California, so I think we take good Mexican food for granted. I'm going to have to brush up on my recipes and learn to cook some more of the things I miss. That being said, I am enjoying all of the other wonderful foods available here.

You know, you could get me going on mail slots.

Why is there a big hole in my door through which anyone can jam anything they like?

It seems like a small quibble....but there is a sinister undertone. Just this Saturday I was watching a documentary on French porcelain and I hear the slam of the mail flap. I am a bit skittish by nature and it made me jump.

But the thing is....now I know the mail is there. Well something is. Is it a bill? Has someone died? I don't know. The documentary was just getting to the part where they explained that different colours mean different things....like in early Renaissance art where blue is reserved for Mary. It's the key to deciphering French porcelain. Without this it's just a bunch of tea pots.

So I have to go over and check my mail. Hell it's right there in the hallway. It was a bunch of menus and things....our local "news" letter, which is really an ad sheet. It seems like an intrusion, like someone else is deciding when I should deal with the mail......because I can't just put it aside now. People shove stuff into my hallway all the time.

I too am leery about comparing the US and the UK, but a mailbox seems like a better way.

I've been living here for six months now.  Four and a half of which I was unemployed. Yet nearly everyday I hear the mail come through it startles me. I wonder how long it'll take me to get used to that noise. I think it also doesn't help that our mail deliverers run up the stairs in the flat and then shove the mail in forcefully.