Do you miss England?

[Mich the Tester]

Someone just asked me if I miss England. Difficult one really, seeing as I have the feeling that the England I miss doesn’t really exist. I miss seeing good-soon-to-be-great bands in a pub or a club. I miss the English countryside, friendly pubs with good food, people battling on through life with humour and good cheer, going to the rugby and watching a first class game, having a pint or two and a bacon sandwich for under a tenner, a feeling of real freedom (what happened to that?) and well-mannered people. The Lake District, the Malvern Hills and so on.

Yes, I miss that kind of thing, but what would I find if I returned? On my last visit I got the impression that people have become more and more hurried and bad tempered, you can’t pick your nose without being entered into some government snot flickers database and taxed for it, rugby ‘clubs’ have become impersonal corporate entities with high ticket prices and stupid yankee names like ‘Sharks’, 'Warriors' and ‘Titans’ and the whole place seems to be full of authoritarian jobsworths with no care for the concept of liberty.

What good things are left for me to miss?

[BoredBloke]

I miss England - mainly because

1 - my wife and kids live there
2 - it's not Geneva

[d000hg]

Well the countryside is still there, and thousands of tiny towns or villages scattered amongst it. You can still find good pubs, although more and more are chain-owned.
As for big towns and government, I don't have much experience there. But liivng in Durham City as I do, I can tell you there's at least one beautiful town left.

[TheRefactornator]

Only when we get kicked out of the world cup in round 1..

What good things are left for me to miss?

1966..that's about it. Nothing to see here, move along please.

[BoredBloke]

Well the countryside is still there, and thousands of tiny towns or villages scattered amongst it. You can still find good pubs, although more and more are chain-owned.
As for big towns and government, I don't have much experience there. But liivng in Durham City as I do, I can tell you there's at least one beautiful town left.

In the village I live in there used to be a few pubs where you could get good food. All of them now are microwave jobs where they reheat stuff.

[Mich the Tester]

Well the countryside is still there, and thousands of tiny towns or villages scattered amongst it. You can still find good pubs, although more and more are chain-owned.
As for big towns and government, I don't have much experience there. But liivng in Durham City as I do, I can tell you there's at least one beautiful town left.

Ah! Durham; a fine city indeed. I think it's a bit sad that so many pubs are chain-owned. They seem to become standardised and offer the same beer and food from Penzance to Newcastle. If I'm walking in the dales I don't really fancy eating Thai chicken with rice; somehow I'd prefer roast lamb.

Perhaps the North-East has a strong enough regional culture to stay somehow different.

[Platypus]

the English countryside, friendly pubs with good food, people battling on through life with humour and good cheer, going to the rugby and watching a first class game, having a pint or two and a bacon sandwich for under a tenner, a feeling of real freedom

It can still be found - I live there, or close by.

[sasguru]

In spite of the moaning on this board, life is still good, in spite of Labour's best efforts. If you live in a nicer suburb of London, you can enjoy good pubs, a range of restaurants with cuisine from around the world, summer in the best parks in the world (or your garden), the British Museum (which will take you weeks to explore all its treasures), the National Gallery, music festivals of whatever typeand level of grunginess you want etc etc.

[SizeZero]

England's just not gezellig these days.

[DimPrawn]

In spite of the moaning on this board, life is still good, in spite of Labour's best efforts. If you live in a nicer suburb of London, you can enjoy good pubs, a range of restaurants with cuisine from around the world, summer in the best parks in the world (or your garden), the British Museum (which will take you weeks to explore all its treasures), the National Gallery, music festivals of whatever typeand level of grunginess you want etc etc.

All for £4.99 too!

Lets all move to the nice parts of London!