Things I miss

[selenay]

Mum has been gone for a bit over a week and I'm now starting to notice the odd things that I miss about England. It's weird because a lot of them aren't things that I thought I'd miss.

Radio 2 - particularly Chris Evans while I'm driving home.

The Today show on Radio 4.

The Independent newspaper.

BBC dramas.

Private Eye.

I've found a way around most of those. I've finally got RealPlayer to work so that I can now use Listen Again on the BBC website. I'll be able to listen to the Today show while I eat brekkie (or at least a bit of it) and listen to Chris Evans when I get home from work.

I've found sources for BBC dramas (yes, that includes Holby City because I am a complete addict).

I've signed up for the BBC News email so that I can get some news every day that reports on things happening outside Nova Scotia. I'm struggling to even find national news for Canada, never mind world news!

The Indy has an on-line version and, if I can ever get it not to error, I'll sign up for their e-newsletter. I may also get Mum and Da to pop a copy in the post to me at odd times.

I can subscribe to Private Eye (https://secure2.subscribeonline.co.uk/PEYE/subscription.cfm) and I may treat myself as a birthday pressie.

When I was planning the move, I assumed that there would be other things that I'd miss: my old house, my library, the little local shops, places and people that have been around since I was a baby. I have the odd pang for those things, but nothing major and it's been much easier to adjust without those. Finding that I miss the news sources and the BBC is a bit of a surprise. Thankfully most of it can be worked around in some way and I'm very glad that I did this now rather than ten years ago when none of this Internet-based stuff was available.

Today I went up to the mall for a haircut and to buy a couple of bits for work (new coat, couple of new tops). I start on Monday and I'm very excited. October seems to have rushed by with me barely noticing. It's my birthday in four weeks - how did that happen?

Comments

[jhava.livejournal.com]

I totally understand what you're saying. When I moved from Canada to England, I so missed my CBC radio and television shows. What?! No "The National" telly programme at 10:00 every weeknight? No "Vinyl Cafe on Sundays at 12:00"? No "This Hour has 62 Minutes" etc. No, "The National" newspaper!

And like you, I found my shows and radio programmes online.

But now, I've happily adopted BBC Radio 4 as my conduit to all the political news I need to hear, and "The Times" and "The Independent" are my newspapers of choice. (Although I still find my super secret ways of getting North American telly as quickly as possible -- then again, I share the TW and DW joy as well :))

Here's hoping all is going well for you.

[selenay]

It's weird how reliant you get on having all that stuff - particularly news sources - and then realise that's the one thing you really miss. BBC Radio 4 is excellent, particularly for political news. I can't get used to CBC Radio 1 having such a bizarre mixture of music and news, with the heavy news focus in the week and the total lack of news at the weekend. And they never tell me what the hell is going on outside NS!

Thank goodness for t'Internet.

Ah, DW goodness. At least I already have my sources for that :-)

Adjusting to a new country is weird, isn't it?