Still horribly 'holiday hungover' after returning from UK at the beginning of the month. We had such a wonderful time with my brother and his family, some reconnecting with my nieces, lots of shopping... I never expected to miss the UK so much - or to appreciate it so much. I remember travelling round South America only 8 years ago (is that right? Is it eight whole years ago??), I was pretty much hard-pushed to find a good thing to say about it to my fellow travellers. As opposed to the American, who while espousing counter-culture values actually threw a complete hissy-fit one evening because myself and some English friends were sniggering smugly at some very loud, very obnoxious Yanks.
I find so much to love about it now though, all of which comes from seeing it as an outsider, of course. And, if I am honest, it has in large part to do with the Shopping. However, I have totally fallen in love with Lincoln, to my astonishment, considering I practically risked broken limbs in my haste to get away from the place. But now it has changed so much with the opening of the University, it has a great, vibrant feel to it and just feels so safe and clean and middle-class!! I know, not a PC thing to say, but I am now looking at it with a mum's eyes and I would love to bring my kids up there. There are so many lovely large parks, both manicured and left wild, so many facilities for children, real pavements that aren't covered in dog-do, great schools - great FREE schools - and lots and lots of lovely houses with GARDENS!! Oh the joy and bliss of letting the kids play in the garden - even if it was only for a short while cos it was snowy and bitterly cold.
Which of course is the problem. Can't change the weather and it is not the best, let's be honest. Although, again with the benefit of experience - I can now probably safely say that I loathe hot weather and would be quite happy to live the rest of my life in sweaters and boots. (Ugg boots, for which I must surely soon become Spokesperson, such is the vociferousness and depth of my love for my most treasured of possessions. Toastie toastie toes.) The summers here are literally unbearable. 40°c every day for weeks, searing, baking heat that comes at you from all angles and no respite, no let up, till gone October. It is over an hour to the beach but even that is preferable to suffocating in the sweatbox of home. I have been known to take my pillow and sleep on the (only relatively) cooler tiles of the floor in the roiling heat of nighttime. The two foot thick walls absorb the heat of day and ooze it out again of an evening.
And as if that wasn't enough - even if you do manage to survive the nuclear heat outside, the mossies will get ya. Tiger mossies, evil little buggers, striped black and white and with a diamond-hard proboscis capable of penetrating walls that just add to the total misery of it all. Most Romans clear out during August, very little gets done from July really, using the excuse that August will be slow. The summers in the UK are rotten, rainy and gloomy often, I know that - but frankly, I would rather have the rain than be trapped in my home for months because of the fear of losing a layer of skin and getting eaten alive.
Chances of being able to move back there? Slim to non-existent. E is fairly adamant that he could not survive the weather, and he would have a hard time getting a job there (although I think the idea of a little cafe in the Bail is genius) however I think I have the trump card. Schools. Brits - well, OK, mainly just the English - love to complain about the standard in schools today but really, they don't know how lucky they are. Most schools have a playground and playing fields, for a start. Here our local Liceo Classico - which is supposed to be of a high standard for studying the Classics, Latin, Greek etc - is a graffiti covered hovel with half a basketball court sum total of outside space, which apparently is actually there for use by the teachers and most of the kids to have their fags during break time. We have a good friend whose son attended the school and he said he never ever went to the toilet there as they were in such a state. I don't think it's too much to ask that my kids can go for a pee in a clean loo if they need to while at school. And it could be said that it's the quality of the teaching that's important, however I think that the environment must have an impact on both the staff and the kids.
Yeaaahhhh... Holiday hangover showing no signs of abating... I can see I am going to have to bring to bear all my powers of persuasion for this one. And if that fails, there's always emotional blackmail to fall back on.
