Someone asked me the other day if there was anything I really missed about living in England...had to think for a while actually.
Pick Your Own Strawberries I said...she looked at me and I had to explain that you can go into fields of strawberries and fill up your basket for a nominal amount of money...don't they sell them in shops then? They do...but it's fun picking them yourself...Oh, she said.
And you can go pea gleaning as well...when the pea fields have been harvested you can go and pick out the left-over pods...mad altogether, she replied.
I do miss browsing through bric-a-brac on 'antique' stalls in the town markets...suppose no-one owned much in the way of interesting odds and ends here in the rural West...what is for sale is highly priced now the sellers know the true or their imagined value for stuff...those huge iron pots which were once in every cottage, fetch ludicrous amounts. We already have a collection...mostly missing their lids or a leg...I plant flowers in them now.
Those pots we have were found...one was buried in the garden, others we've come across jammed into hedges...
But she couldn't see the attraction in ferreting about among old bits and pieces...whatever would you be wanting with those old yokes she said, when I showed her our collection of shoe lasts.
I miss waiting for hour upon hour in outpatients to be seen...and I miss the god-awful Doctors receptionist who would ask you what was wrong with you and then decide whether she considered it urgent...don't get that from Peege in our surgery...she just smiles and asks how're doing and tells me the 'flu vaccine is in if I want to avail of it...or tells me my hair looks nice...
I certainly don't miss the hustle and bustle and stink of beef-burgers and sun tan lotion when we go to the ocean...remembering the times we went to Cromer or Hunstanton and had to battle through crowds of shouty people with wailing children waving melting ice-cream cornets and falling out of their jellies...
We smell the sea now...that tangy salty smell...I can pick up bits of polished sea glass and pretty pebbles and watch the Atlantic surf crash waves upon the rocks...sometimes there are Dolphins close to the shore and dozens of rock pools with Sea Anemones and tiny fish in the clear waters...we consider it to be crowded when there are six cars in the car park...
I told my neighbour that as well but she asked about getting a nice cup of tea and I said we take a flask and a picnic and she said she wouldn't care for it...she'd rather go to Bundoran where there are amusement arcades and you can have a proper sit down in a cafe and a bit of a feed. I said we couldn't go there anyway 'cos of Millie...but they leave their dogs at home so she already thinks we're peculiar for taking Millie with us everywhere.
If I had to make a proper list of whatever it is I miss about England it would be awful short...the West of Ireland isn't perfect...public transport is abysmal...the public libraries are poorly stocked...we don't have holes in the roads, we have craters. No-one seems to give a fig about littering...and day to day living is expensive and becoming more so.
But would we go back to live in England...we wouldn't. This is our proper home...it's where we belong.
You are right about our resorts these days, full of holidaymakers, who block the path by walking three abreast. Smelly kebab shops, Indian takeaways, Burger shops, you have to hunt around to find a fish and chip shop.
Really liked that Vashti. You found your place where your happy. Not everyone can say that. Is the weather and air quality better in Ireland? Here in new Jersey, we have the fields where you can pick your own strawberries. It is nice.
Interesting read Vashti. Your mention of shoe lasts struck a cord. I still have the one my dad used regularly when I was growing up during the war. He used to go to Woolwich market and on the leather stall he would select the piece of leather he needed to mend our shoes. He also used to fix blakeys to my high heels and when they had worn down they were sharp as a knife and if I wasn't careful when crossing my legs I would catch my precious nylons! Iris x
In many ways it's much like England...wet! Seriously though we lived in an arable area in Norfolk and the wheat and oil-seed rape was awful for my asthma...now we live in an area of hills with sheep and cattle...so I sort of tick over...lol
Take your meaning Vashti because Ireland is a lovely place as is Scotland and Wales.. BUT and a big but, I do love England once I get away from the traffic and crowds. No better place for me to be on a sunny day BUT you do need to look around. Big towns aint for me. There are still big open spaces in the UK although the swell in the population does bother me but at my age??? Visited Dubai so many times with the heat and the flies, it was so good to see England on my return. xx
There is something really special about knowing where you belong Vashti and I think to have found that is wonderful. We used to live nearer to London and I definitely do not miss that but we live on the South coast of England now and for all its faults, we wouldn't want to move. Mind you, having family very close by is great so that is another reason for staying put.
I do like my solitude at times though but don't seem to get much of that. May just have to pay Ireland a visit sometime.
Great story as usual Vashti, I like Ireland very much love to hear the accent, but then again i love Suffolk where i live now. Brought up in the north but no desire to live there now. xx
Years ago, Norfolk was a very quiet place, you would see lots of abandoned, derelict cottages. You didn't see rapeseed then, although you might see linseed and flax being grown. There used to be a lot of woods and high hedges, full of wild flowers.
Nowadays, the abandoned cottages and farmhouses have been done up. A lot of barns have been converted into posh homes. I haven't spent any time in South Norfolk which is very pretty. It is also in reach of London for commuters, due to the high speed rail link.
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DNR not sure what to do.
Must be doing something right!
Transferred to Respiratory unit & holed up there 
update: tomorrow I’m at the hospital for suspected head & neck cancer
So now I'm hobbling! 
