There’s no place like home.

I live in Canada and right now the birds singing outside my bedroom are delightfull. Wine is available in all our grocery stores across Ontario. maybe BC is different.I use a kettle everyday, walk on the footpath outside my house and regularly buy small packs of groceries. Buildings going back to the late 1800s are about as old as they get.
I would agree with all the positives apart from cheap restaurants ,eating out here has become very expensive now.I am happy to hear you had a great vacation, Canada is indeed a wonderfull country.I have spent half my life here, the other half was in N.Ireland. When I go back to visit I can’t wait to shop in Marks food hall, now that I really miss.🤣

I loved Canada when I was there and could have stayed longer. We were away for almost a month.
I didn't miss anything apart from a cup of tea in the morning.
It was good to get home though as what sago says is true. No place like home.

In the US, I missed:
Realistic portion sizes in restaurants (I was always given enough for 3 people, such a terrible waste).
Having to walk for miles, even in a city, to find a food shop within reasonable distance of where I was staying. (Low- grade fast food was available everywhere, of course.)
Being able to walk outside without being started at with suspicion. (Americans drive everywhere - I even met one woman who drove her kids to the school bus stop 100 yards from her home!)
The British sense of humour (you have to be SO careful what you say to most Americans because they just don't get ironic wit).

What I loved about the US:
Striking up conversations with strangers without being looked at as though I was a madwoman. (I had to get used to being called ma'am by every man I met!)
I loved the range of different foods that I can't get here in the UK (grits, strange popcorn & chocolate flavours, Nehi drinks).
I also loved the fact that they offer fruit in the self-serve salad bars.
In one particular pizza place, I particularly loved the jukebox which exclusively played bebop - some of those discs must have been there since the 1950s -- heaven for a jazz freak like me.
The cleanliness was stunning -- streets, Metro stations, shopping malls -- street sweepers worked non-stop all day.

In Iceland, I missed the variety of foods we have here - at the hotel, I was served a mysterious "white soup" every day, and the main meals were always some kind of meat with minimal vegetables (I'm a vegetarian, so a bonus of that trip was that I lost half a stone in ten days!)
I both loved and hated the quietness- no songbirds because there were no trees -- but the silence had a quality I've never experienced anywhere else.
I loved the smell of wild thyme underfoot and the icy, crystal-clear streams - also the fluffy-headed quaking grass that grew beside them.

In Paris, I miss courteous shop assistants and good plumbing.
On the other hand, I love French people, the smells, the morning bread delivery carts, the water running through the gutters (washing away the detritus of the day, which British cities would do well to copy) and the whole ambience of the city.

The dog, my coffee machine, and my garden - I worry about it being too wet, too dry or too windy for my special ones. I don’t really miss the things you mention, as I like the new, and discovering how other people live, the environment and the food, so I don’t wish I was at home when I’m not. I might if I had an uncomfortable bed though.

Be it ever so humble there’s no place like home! As I get older I appreciate both my own home and country more and more.
There are aspects of other countries that we would do well to copy tho, good service in shops and restaurants, cleaner streets and better manners to all around us.

When l lived abroad I craved pork pies and Branston pickle. I had rarely eaten either before moving abroad, or since returning.

CarrotTop Did you know that when you walk into a local shop, doctor’s surgery, etc., always greet everyone with ‘Bonjour, Mesdames Messieurs’ clearly. Also, when asking an assistant for something, whether in a small shop or a big store ‘Bonjour’ is always well appreciated before asking any question.
I miss this nicety when I shop in small shops in England, the assistants look as if I have gone mad because I have forgotten where I was., although it is in English.
When we leave a small shop in France we say ‘Au revoir’ followed by ‘Merci’ even if we haven’t bought anything, it’s just being polite, in France. 🇫🇷

I loved Canada, we went in the summer, but I couldn't put up with their winters. Even in temperate Vancouver, one of the waitresses we were chatting to told us the preceding year it rained every day from September solidly for 3 months. That North American Pacific coast is quite gloomy and dreary at it's worst, Seattle is well known for that. I did have one of the best steaks ever when my cousin took us to a restaurant in Calgary, not that I'm mad about steaks. Their weather in the winter is dire. Heavy snowfall starts in September and goes on until April or May. Stuff that! Generally both in the US and Canada, eating out is all a bit ubiquitous. We haven't been to either for a while now, I gather from family members food has got really expensive compared to here, it used to be the other way round.

We were away for a few days last week only in England, but I'm like others here now, it's good to be back to everything that's familiar.

I love to travel but I also love to come home. We spent a month in NZ a few years ago, I enjoyed it and it meant we missed a lot of winter weather but I loved being back at home. I do a few city type breaks most years, four or at most five days away, I don't expect it to be like home and enjoy the difference but I am so pleased to be back home, in my own bed and living my usual life. tbh I feel the same when we stay with friends, always enjoy it but enjoy being home.

Sago I'm interested why you couldn't get wine with a supermarket shop there ? Is it only available from liquor stores or something ?

mokryna

CarrotTop Did you know that when you walk into a local shop, doctor’s surgery, etc., always greet everyone with ‘Bonjour, Mesdames Messieurs’ clearly. Also, when asking an assistant for something, whether in a small shop or a big store ‘Bonjour’ is always well appreciated before asking any question.
I miss this nicety when I shop in small shops in England, the assistants look as if I have gone mad because I have forgotten where I was., although it is in English.
When we leave a small shop in France we say ‘Au revoir’ followed by ‘Merci’ even if we haven’t bought anything, it’s just being polite, in France. 🇫🇷

I always offer and generally receive similar niceties in British shops.

When I was in the US I missed decently priced meat that wasn’t pumped up with steroids. US meat and produce standards are much lower than here. Pay an arm and a leg and you can eat organic, but it was/is very expensive. It’s also very fatty. The produce there is massively exposed to harsh chemical-based pesticides. Food standards also tend to lower when Republicans are in control since they love deregulation. Trump’s decision to allow the meat farming industry sell meat with higher levels of bacteria is a recent example. It makes one miss the generally more stable food standards here. Sticking with food, I missed simple British cooking. I desperately missed yorkshire puds. My experience even mentioning them is that Americans have no clue what they are. I missed British strawberries in season. I missed decent tea. I missed free healthcare. I missed having a variety of cheeses. US cheeseboards are a pity to behold.

Now I also have some things I miss from the US. I miss cheap petro. I miss relatively cheap home heating and cooling costs. I miss having more physical distance between my home and my neighbors/ larger front and back gardens. While I still prefer the moral economics of UK healthcare, I miss high-quality, high-tech, low wait US healthcare. At its best, I feel more comfortable receiving treatment there.

Sometimes I question if I occasionally suffer ‘grass is greener’ syndrome. But I couldn’t imagine living anywhere but right here at this point in my life. No place like home!

We had been out of the uk for a year. Coming into into Dover and seeing those cliffs done me 😥
There was a time on that trip where I was so homesick it physically hurt.

Rocketstop2

Sago I'm interested why you couldn't get wine with a supermarket shop there ? Is it only available from liquor stores or something ?

In BC wine is only available in liquor stores.

When we came home from Canada last year, after our first trip there for three weeks, we loved absolutely everything about the place and when got home we wished we were still there!

Vancouver Island
Vancouver
Then Vancouver to Banff, on Rocky Mountaineer. Stated in Banff for two nights and our friends from Saskatoon came and stayed with us.
Then coach to Calgary.
Calgary to Ottawa week with family.
Calgary to Toronto then coach to Niagara, two nights Niagara.
Home.

Absolutely loved Canada.

Welcome home Sago. Glad you had a nice holiday.

How come no wine? Do you have to go to a liquor store?

Sorry sago you did answer further up 🙄