Where ever I lay my hat...

...that's my home - an absolutely ancient song from Paul Young.

Germans always seem surprised when I tell them that no, we're not here on a short term or even a long term contract, but have actually sold up and moved here 'for good'. Actually that's not strictly true, although neither of us have a desire to move back to the UK, we're not planning to stay when there is no job tying us here, I want to live within sight and sound of the sea, preferably somewhere with a pleasant climate and no threat of tsunamis.

When we moved here almost four years ago I made a conscious effort to start calling this country 'home', because for me my home isn't just where my hat it but where my family is. That's not to say that there aren't things we all miss from our homeland, oh no. So whenever either we go back to the UK or someone comes to visit from there we put in requests for items that we absolutely cannot live without. Cadbury chocolate in all its various guises is always top of the list, followed by Ribena and salt&vinegar crisps. Things like that are relatively easy to carry and transport and for the most part we've learnt to adapt to what is obtainable here, but some things just don't travel and that makes any trip back to England all the more worthwhile...

- clotted cream, tricky to get hold of in England itself, but so divine that when in Cornwall for five days last autumn I think I managed to squeeze in three cream teas (picking up German habits you see, forgoing lunch for cake!)
- chinese take away, or better yet, delivery chinese take out. Am learning to make do with fantastic Italian food but it's hard. The first year we were here Si actually brought back an Indian takeaway, it was a delicious birthday treat but the towels that it leaked all over never recovered!
- Clinton's card shops, any card shop for that matter, with their shelves and shelves of funny and irreverent cards for any and every occasion. Cards here (if you can find them) are DULL and BORING and SENSIBLE. Thankfully there is now Moonpig, which is rapidly overtaking Boden as my favourite shopping website.
- decent TV, thankfully there is Sky, without which we'd have to rely solely on DVDs because I refuse to watch the trash that comes into our house via the German TV networks, complete and utter bilge.
- friends, tricky things to transport, have to make do with long chats on the phone and odd visits, sigh.
- bluebell woods. It was the mention of these in an online paper that sparked this particular blog. There just don't seem to be any here, sigh, I love the sight of the carpets of bluebells but I think I love their perfume even more, sigh.

And with that note I shall go and raid the downstairs fridge which is currently home to an impressive stash of Cadbury mini eggs, nom nom nom.


Word for the day; heimweh - homesick