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Home Sickness
Sep. 15th, 2011 10:14 amI've lived away from where I was actually born for almost all of my adult life. I've lived abroad at times and, in fact, still do. So, with all that, I can actually say that I'm not all that prone to home sickness. I am lucky in that I've been back to the UK at least once a year, sometimes more, since we moved over here. M has a larger problem, in that, her home is quite literally on the other side of the world from where we are now.
That said, I've been having some interesting twinges - and it's weird what the triggers have been. Most recently it's been minor stuff in a couple of British TV shows. They're cop shows, one being Law and Order: UK (an interesting example of shoe-horning US concepts into a British setting) and New Tricks - a fairly light-hearted version of Cold Case with retired police officers coming back to the Met to work on Unsolved and Open Cases.
The home sickness? In all of these shows there will be the following:
- Tea and Biscuits - a work place cup of tea and a business from a selections box... something unknown here
- A bacon sandwich...
- The Curry... I could write volumes on how I miss good Indian Food, and not just the food - but all the little parts of the ritual of a British Curry that's not made it in America. Getting a range of side-dishes, plain popadums, a nice big nann the size of a pillow...
- The Pub... Now, don't get me wrong, Seattle does very well for bars and places where you can get decent beer. But none of them are really pubs. Very few of them, even my local, are places where you feel you could slip in, stand at the bar, have a swift pint while contemplating the universe and then head off. In Law and Order last night, one of the barristers gets cornered by another barrister in the pub, the site of him standing there with a full imperial pint made my mouth water...
So... there you go. Odd triggers and all them food or drink related. I wonder if that's just me or common in ex-pats?
That said, I've been having some interesting twinges - and it's weird what the triggers have been. Most recently it's been minor stuff in a couple of British TV shows. They're cop shows, one being Law and Order: UK (an interesting example of shoe-horning US concepts into a British setting) and New Tricks - a fairly light-hearted version of Cold Case with retired police officers coming back to the Met to work on Unsolved and Open Cases.
The home sickness? In all of these shows there will be the following:
- Tea and Biscuits - a work place cup of tea and a business from a selections box... something unknown here
- A bacon sandwich...
- The Curry... I could write volumes on how I miss good Indian Food, and not just the food - but all the little parts of the ritual of a British Curry that's not made it in America. Getting a range of side-dishes, plain popadums, a nice big nann the size of a pillow...
- The Pub... Now, don't get me wrong, Seattle does very well for bars and places where you can get decent beer. But none of them are really pubs. Very few of them, even my local, are places where you feel you could slip in, stand at the bar, have a swift pint while contemplating the universe and then head off. In Law and Order last night, one of the barristers gets cornered by another barrister in the pub, the site of him standing there with a full imperial pint made my mouth water...
So... there you go. Odd triggers and all them food or drink related. I wonder if that's just me or common in ex-pats?
