The better half of the UK

While we were back home over christmas, I think it's fair to say that there was alot we didn't miss about the UK. I've said it before before and I'll say it again: The minute I stepped off the plane, people just seemed to be a little happier and much more efficient. I have a number of theories about why people seem a little more 'stretched' here, but I think most of them boil down to climate. It may not be as cold as Canada, but most UK-ers live farther north than most Canadians (who all huddle around the US border for warmth) and we find that the lack of sun in the winter is actually quite tough. In Northampton, on the shortest day of the year, the sun is right down at about 3:30 pm. Combine that with omnipresent cloud-cover, and you have a recipe for depression. And how do the brits respond to this? Well, with three things: Beer, dogs and cigarettes. Smoking, drinking and walking the dog are as much national pass-times as football.

But you've all heard me whining about this stuff before. What I'd like to do is point out a few of the things that we did miss while back in Canada. So here they are:
1) Open air markets/high streets. Jane and I have gotten into the habit of going down to the market on Saturday for a coffee and a walk around. In every british town of significant size, you will invariably find two things in the city center; a 'high street', where you'll find stores of every size and description, and a market, where you'll find everything else. The thing is that high street are, compared to where Canadians shop, much much prettier. The streets are usually cobble stone, there are no cars and the buildings are invariably reconstructions of victorian (sometimes pre-victorian) buildings with all kinds of nice architectural features. Especially the pubs. This ends up being more efficient and infinitely more attractive than the closest Canadian equivalent, which is the strip mall (yuk). By the end of my trip home, I was feeling a nostalgia for the Northampton market that rivaled that I had for Tim Hortons before I arrived (gasp).
2) The trains. Brits complain about their current rail system all the time, and justifiably. That is because, about ten years ago, the british government privatized (read: sold) their trains and tracks and, in spite of whatever controls they put in place, the inevitable slide in quality for the sake of profiteering has begun. Nonetheless, the rail system in this country is a million-fold better than Canada's (which barely exists). The commuter trains are integrated with the London underground, which is itself an amazing system. I never really understood how the brits managed to 'get back on the horse' after the attacks of July 7th '05 until I came here. Now I see there are two reasons: A) You can't scare Brits with bombs (the terrorists could have saved themselves alot of trouble/death by asking the Germans if that works). B) The underground is massive. You have really have to experience it to appreciate the immensity.
3) Really old buildings/castles: For the first year of our bring here, Jane and I went to visit a whole lot of old houses/buildings. We did have English heritage passes, which got us into all sorts of sites for free, but these have since expired, and, having to travel ever farther afield to find new sites, we have slowed down enormously. We are planning a major trip up to Hadrian's wall, Edinburgh and Glasgow in April, but we won't be doing nearly as many little trips over the next month or two. I should add that English heritage is a truly excellent organization. We really enjoyed having those passes! For 40 pounds they were well worth it.
4) Movie passes: One of the major cinema companies here (Cineworld, the other major one is VUE) has a program of 'see as many movies as you want for a flat monthly fee'. Up until just before we left, we had these passes, and it was really great just to be able to go see a movie whenever without 'paying'. I'm thinking cinemas in Canada should follow suit: They make most of their money from concessions anyway.
5) A housing market that keeps going up and up and up. OK, there's no good reason to like this, except that it motivates brits to be very intense about their property market. Which results, in turn in lots of high quality shows about house buying/house renovations etc.

There's probably plenty of other stuff... I'll keep adding things as they come to be. But you can see that, the longer we stay here, the more 'balanced' our view is becoming of the differences between this home and that home.