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.
1 comment:
Hi Rachel, your dad e-mailed me your blog and the link to it. You should have been a journalist!
I have to say, as one who lives and works in the UK and who has experienced life in other countries only as a holidayist, you should be careful not to confuse long term living with your holidays. Your whole outlook whilst enjoying a holiday is through rose coloured glasses. Your experiences whilst on holiday are different from your everyday existence, there is no pressure or stress from having to get up at a set time to go to work, or pursue the everyday things we all have to do. Oh and your holiday was at Christmas, that time of year when even the most cold hearted and cynical sorts mellow and chill.
Believe me, Britain has got a lot of problems also, not to mention the awful weather for most of the year. I think that is the most depressing thing about our country of origin. During the summer, if it is not raining, it can be quite pleasant, green most of the time, reasonably warm during the day but with a chill that prevents outdoor activities at night, and not too warm to get a good nights sleep. But, for most of the year October through to May (over 50% of the year) it’s cold, wet, windy and downright miserable. That tends to wear you down. Even in summer, you can’t realistically do any kind of forward planning if it involves outdoor activity; the weather is just too unpredictable.
Your comment about Lincoln being safe, clean and middle class. Did you visit on a Friday or Saturday night after the pubs and clubs turned out, I bet you there is no difference in Lincoln to Sheffield or Rotherham, have you ever watched ‘Booze Britain’ or many of the other police fly on the wall programs on Satellite TV. Yes I know they are TV programmes and are subject to sensationalism, but if you go to town centres and watch the people that populate the towns at night (my favourite pastime) you wouldn’t be so confident to say that our towns are clean and safe. We have a big problem in the UK at the moment with alcohol consumption. The press is currently full of articles on binge drinking and the social problems this is causing. And as for safe, how about the recent news about the two young lads from Edlington who nearly killed two other small children in Doncaster. Certain places in and around Sheffield and most big cities are no go areas for ordinary people, you could get attacked for just looking at someone (that actually happened to a friend of ours in Harrogate of all places). Just walk around any sizeable town in Britain during school holidays if you want to see the problems we have with attitude amongst the young generation (really on my soapbox now!).
I can’t comment on the education system in Britain as it is a long time since I had anything to do with it, neither do I know anything about Foreign schools. However, if the calibre of trainee that I interview for apprentice positions is anything to go by then we have big problems in the education department. You would be surprised at how poorly these 16 and 17 years olds are equipped for adulthood, barely able to write and do basic maths, and I’m not joking. Oh and with regard to facilities at British schools for ‘Play’ or ‘Sports’, well most of the school building programmes involve the conversion of the green spaces into car parks for the staff and visitors. New schools are literally factories (wriggly tin sheds clad with sheeting materials) forming smart new learning places but which will eventually turn into characterless, boring, dirty shells in which we try to stimulate some interest in learning.
If you think about it without your holiday head on, there is probably good and bad about all the countries you have lived in or visited for long periods, all I can tell you is that if you were to move back to Lincoln to live, I would give you one year before you were longing for the sunny weather and bemoaning the greyness of the British climate. You said it yourself; ‘the environment must have an impact’, and that must include the weather surely.
Regards
Terry
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