Back in the UK

At last I have found one the right size!
I don’t really enjoy going back to England any more. Last year it was RTD’s memorial service and last month I went back to try to sort out what to do with my lump sum from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. 

 Well, why don’t I enjoy going back to my own country? First of all, I think that it is because I just do not belong there. Bulgaria is my home and therefore, more and more, I feel that my roots are in my adopted country. Bulgaria is “home” now. Secondly, there are the practical issues of going back, as I have no place of my own in the UK, no car, no nothing. 
Peter hard at work in the kitchen
My old friend Peter Adams was very hospitable, as usual, and we certainly enjoyed some splendid scoffing: lots of roast beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pud and all the trimmings! This was then followed up with the inevitable crumble and custard. Then we also had a good lunch with Peter’s mum (fish and chips), followed by a delicious Chinese meal. But food leads on to my next anti-British moan: the outrageous cost of just about everything.
We went for a splendid walk in the photogenic Dedham Vale, famous because of Constable’s paintings, those most English of artistic creations and the supreme glorification of the English countryside. What was not so splendid were the obscene property prices. Just in case you fancy having a rustic home, a rural idyll that will cost you the best part of a million. Or two. 
Quintessentially English, a bandstand in a park in Colchester
And then there is the traffic, the cars upon cars, the congestion! Even in the so-called “countryside”, there will be queues of cars, traffic lights, roundabouts and endless speed cameras and restrictions.
We went to a branch of Barclays in Colchester and then wandered about. So did I manage to sort out some investments or deposit accounts for my TPS lump sum? No, I didn’t. You cannot open any sort of bank account or savings account if you do not have a residential address in the UK, so really the whole trip to the UK was a bit of a waste of time.   

Comments

  1. pauljoecoe22 November 2020 at 10:10

    Interesting you complain about the cost of everything in the UK. I have just returned after 3 years working in Hong Kong. I still get excited by how cheap everything is in the supermarkets!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the hippopotamus29 August 2023 at 11:12

      Well, I do not think that you get excited about how cheap everything is in the estate agents.

      Delete

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