So, we're about a month-and-a-half from departure date. I was sitting here watching the clouds float by and thought of everyday things I know I'm going to miss. These are in no particular order.
1) Being able to walk to shops. Having grocery stores deliver. Being able to walk out around after dark, without having to be constantly paranoid I'm going to be mugged. There being lots of other people out walking. There being sidewalks everywhere. And crosswalks so you don't have to take your chances. Not needing to own/maintain a car.
2) Cheap utilities and a ridiculously large slate of companies to purchase energy/tv/cell service from that are in competition with each other. I know that where we are going I'll have a choice of two internet companies, one electric, one gas, & one water company. At whatever rates they choose to charge. (Cell phone will be slightly better - we'll go with Ting.) There just isn't the choice there in the USA that there is here.
3) Cheap rent. Seriously, we're in a really nice place here for 1/3 of what we would have paid for it in California.
4) Quality of food. As in the kind we get from the grocery or the butcher. Here I don't worry about the conditions in which the animals were raised and slaughtered, unlike in the USA where the animals are raised in horrid conditions and so they chlorinate the chickens (etc.) after butchering them to get rid of any residual microorganisms. And then there's the antibiotics they routinely feed them there. We will be able to get around all that, but it's going to be pricey to source organic, hormone & antibiotic free, etc., food. It's also nice to be able to keep eggs in the cabinet instead of the fridge.
5) That it's the middle of July and I just had to go put a sweatshirt and sweatpants on. A couple of days ago the furnace (boiler) turned itself on in the middle of the day, too. Going out for walks and having it be in the 60Fs and breezy. The really clean, cool air that is blowing in off the North Atlantic all the time. (Of course, that is a bit intense in the winter, but it's a fair trade.) Having come here from basically a desert, it's nice to have the air not be so dry that it sucks the moisture out of your skin... or the sun be so bright that it gives you headaches. The light here is really lovely, during those months when there is light.
6) Not having to tip every delivery man or repair guy who shows up at our door. Having so many shops deliver, too. The guy from the Majestic Laundrette came the other day to pick up two big piles of laundry (items that don't fit in my machine at home) and will bring it back in a few days all clean and folded for no extra delivery charge. Sure beats schlepping it all the way down there and back again in big Ikea blue bags!
7) Being able to walk out the door (Before Covid) and hop a bus and go anywhere in the country (Scotland) for free.
8 ) Having the GP's office manage my medical stuff. Not all that thrilled with the GP, but it's nice not having to check to see that all the labs or other medical professionals take my insurance (as I will when I return home) before using them. Or dread getting hit with a balance-bill. Of course, the GP care here has quite often been 1950s medicine, but I've never been subject to lots of batteries of tests that really weren't necessary - as happened all the time in the USA.
9) All the trees & the green everywhere. The masses of daffodils that come up every spring. The Blue Bells. The Snowdrops. The big bumble-bee looking bees. The bird that sings all night - even in a blinding gale with rain going by sideways he's out there singing. Being able to hop a bus to Argyll and spend a few days out in all that green and quiet. It'll be green and pretty where we are going, and the autumn will be spectacular. But there will also be mosquitoes and heat all summer. (And, thankfully, air conditioning and window screens.)
10) Living in a building made of stone. Walking around in neighborhoods that are well over 150 years old and well-kept, instead of being torn down and replaced every twenty years with some form of the latest ghastly style of architecture.
11) The insanely soft water here. It's really nice for baths and washing one's hair, unlike heavily mineralized water we used to have.
12) Companies giving you "compensation" for your inconvenience. I went into the bank lobby a couple of weeks ago to ask a specific question. They said nobody there could help me, but took my name and phone and promised to call later that day. After a week of no phone call I sent a complaint to the bank asking that someone call, and ended up getting an email and a £50 credit "for the inconvenience." Sure, I'll take free money!
13) The mix of people from all over the world. Of course, anywhere there's a really good research university will have some of that, but we are likely going back into "whitebreadland" where the culture has been pretty insulated from anything else. Where they think Taco Bell is Mexican food. 'Murka. That kinda place. I'm going to miss hearing all the different languages out on the street, and the various immigrant friends we both know (none of whom are American), and the restaurants/cafes. Especially Non Viet and Chai Ovna.
14) Having there be talk radio that isn't insanely right-wing. And that does dramas and gardening shows and stuff. The shipping forecast. The Saturday night bells concert. Having an incredibly large number of freeview channels on TV. Being able to hear "Romania Today" English broadcast on the shortwave at night.
15) The Botanic Garden and the Wood Pigeons. Especially the Pigeons. (Pigeons on Steroids, they are!)
16) Pound and two-pound coins, instead of paper money. It's really handy.
17) There being more than two viable political parties. And fractional/proportional representation.
18) Being settled in one place, knowing the neighborhood, knowing basically how "things work here". I've just gotten well and truly settled in, and have to go and do it all over. Again. Never-mind all the packing and unpacking! It's been nice being unpacked.
~Sigh.~
Well, I would imagine there'll be good things about the next place, too.
