Grass not Greener?
I've just returned from an enjoyable 3 weeks in the UK with friends/family over Christmas. Leaving aside the horrors of the flights with an 8 month old, what it did for me was slay a few demons - being from the UK, I constantly compared NZ to the UK and always thought it was generally a better all round place. Being fairly anal, I couldn't help but compare.
Biggest things I noticed was that:-
-Everything in the UK seems so small - houses, gardens, roads so narrow, towns, shopping centres, car parks.
-UK town centres - even Windsor and Maidenhead - are going the dogs very quickly. Shops being replaced by incessant pound shops, cash for gold, kebab shops, second hand shops and the flow of bookies. I only left Maidenhead in June 2011, and there's THREE new bookies opened in the town centre alone!
-The food in UK cafes is utterly disgusting
-UK beer - whilst there's the odd nice pub - is generally utterly dreadful compared to NZ.
-The very dark nights (I know it's winter), but from 4pm were pretty depressing.
-Everything was dead in the winter - trees, bushes etc. - that surprised me.
-I was under the impression (or had convinced myself) that food in the UK and NZ was pretty much the same and similar prices; it's not. I was shocked how incredibly cheap UK food was and with the selection, but also even more surprised to find that some deli purchases - even from Waitrose - were poorer in comparison to New World.
-The streets seemed filthy. Every other paving slab in Watford was covered in about 5 discarded gums.
Prior to the trip, I always thought "lifestyle" was just something people made up - and in reality, unless you spent all your days tramping or mountain climbing (not my favourite pasttimes), you just lived in a lesser version of the UK in NZ. Trip back made me realise - that's absolutely not the case.....
