In 2014 I packed up my life in the UK and moved halfway around the world to Perth, Western Australia. There were a lot of things I wish I knew when we moved; I even wrote a blog post about what it’s really like moving to Australia but I didn’t realize how many little things I’d really miss about Britain, so here I am now writing a post all about it for you all.
001. Music festivals and gigs.
If
you grew up in the UK I’m pretty darn sure you’ll have gone to (or wanted) Reading
/ Leeds, Isle of White, Glastonbury, Radio 1’s big weekend, Bestival, Download,
Slam Dunk or some other big music festival. I also bet you’ll have spent a
chunk of your teenage years begging your parents to buy you tickets to McFLY/Alexisonfire/The spice girls for Christmas. There are of course festivals but
they don’t come close to what the UK has to offer. Music gigs also cost a
fortune and seem pretty rare; we only get super super super stars and they play
for 3 nights if we’re very lucky.
002. Proper English tea and
biscuits.
Is there a brit in the world who doesn’t take immense joy in dunking
a chocolate digestive in their cuppa of an evening? No, there is not. Of course
we have tea and chocolate biccies here they just don’t taste the same.
003. Chocolate.
They put stuff in
it to stop it from melting, and it just tastes horrible and waxy, also no Galaxy. Each year I wait desperately for the celebrations tubs to hit the
stores for a little Galaxy hit. Also, no Dairy Milk with Oreo, which is
possibly my all time favourite thing.
004. Tesco.
Whilst I have a lot of
love for the other British supermarkets I have a special place in my heart for
Tesco. I used to waste hours (normally mid late night study session) wondering
the aisles deciding if I wanted to buy shoes, clothes, CDs, DVDs, cameras, a new
mobile phone, food, beauty supplies, homewares or alcohol. I didn’t realise how
much I took this for granted, most stores here aren’t open 24/7 (in fact you’re
lucky out of the city centre to find one) and they pretty much just sell food,
it’s a whole other store for all the other bits!
005. Twitter.
Blogging here is so
so different to back home (that’s almost a whole other post), but one of the
things I miss most is using Twitter! Twitter almost feels forgotten in Australia
which is weird because I love using it to engage with readers and other
bloggers. There’s so few active on twitter and we don’t have any twitter chats, and can't take part in the UK ones due to time zone differences.
006. British Comedy.
Name your
favourite comedian. I bet it’s Lee Evans/Michael Macintyre/Sean Lock/Jimmy Carr/Peter Kay/Jack Whitehall/Noel Fielding, someone from the UK. We
don’t get their DVDs, they rarely tour Perth (and like music, when they do it’s
expensive!) and they’re never on TV (8 out of 10 cats does countdown anyone?!).
Have
you moved away from the UK at any point? What were the little things you
missed?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | Hannah is the author of we are dannah, a lifestyle and travel blog written by a Brit living in Australia. The perfect blog to escape into, Hannah shares her thoughts and experiences of living on the other side of the world, with beautiful imagery that'll leave you lusting after the perfect beaches and peaceful waters that Hannah gets to explore. I'm often left with life-envy when reading we are dannah! You can also find Hannah on Twitter and Instagram @_HannahBC.
Hannah is one of my lovely guest bloggers helping out whilst I settle into life as a new mum! I hope you enjoyed Hannah's post on things she misses about the UK, it's certainly made me appreciate a lot of things we take for granted that we can easily get hold off or enjoy here in England. I for one am a huge fan of festivals and gigs, what about you?
