Reminders

I struggled to come up with a suitable title for this post. I wanted to talk about a couple of things this last week that have made me think about the UK, and I would normally think about this as being homesick. However, that's the wrong word because I don't particularly miss the UK (the people there for sure) and being homesick implies that we're here temporarily, to return one day. While that may be true down the line, we've set up home here and the UK is now somewhere we'll visit on holiday, rather somewhere to return back to. Therefore, I can't be homesick in the traditional sense of the word. This is why I chose "reminders" as these things reminded of our life in the UK and made me smile in remembrance.

The first was a British tea party hosted by one of my new friends at school. For clarification, the tea party was held by an American with a strong British affiliation, and the decor and little touches were fantastic, right down to the white bread cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. However, the reminder that stirred me was the sausage rolls. There's something visceral about pastry and meat together, but had you asked me before to name a food that I missed from the UK, it wouldn't have immediately come to mind. However, as soon as I bit through the puff pastry, my mind raced 3000 miles away into Greggs, and I realized that good sausage rolls and pasties would be hard to come by over here.

The second reminder came as part of a long winded saga with our new doctor's practice over here. We've been trying to catch up Sophie's immunisations since she turned one, but trying to convince them to use the little red book that everyone gets in the UK with their baby has been hard. I ended up having to call our doctor's surgery in Leeds and was greeted by a lass with a broad Yorkshire accent. Now, I've had to make calls to the UK before, but always ended up in some Scottish/London/Indian call centre. I've also talked to my friends and families multiple times, but there's something instantly soothing and smile-making about the Yorkshire accent. It made me smile for the rest of the day, and I had to use my best Yorkshire voice when relaying the story to my wife.

There will be more reminders as the months and years go by over here, and each of them will make me remember different parts of our life in the UK, and hopefully each one will make me smile as much as the first two.