What do we miss?

Okay, so this is something we have been asked on many
occasions since we arrived.  Naturally everybody is different, but
here are some things we have missed and for those of you who
would also miss the things on our list get a good fix of them before
you come out, it may be a while before you have them again!

		Chocolate - The chocolate here is not the same!!! The packaging is the same and they are
		produced by the same manufacturers, but it definitely does not taste the same. However on a plus point they have 'Mint Twix's' which are out of this world and more than make up for the rest of the chocolate dilemma.

		Pudding, chips, peas and gravy from a chippy!!!! Just thinking about it makes me want to jump
		on a plane!  If you love this food you will miss it as they don't have it here!

"On a more personal note i think something you take for granted and that I hadn't thought
about missing is familiarity.  Whether it is walking down the street and saying hi to an
somebody you vaguely know, or chatting to a neighbour as you unpack your shopping from
the car, it's all familiar and it's secure, once you're here that feeling goes for a while but don't
worry it soon comes back once you start to get to know people.  Then slowly but surely you
feel more settled, and suddenly you realise that this is now familiar and now it feels like
home."

		Naturally your family and friends, but quite often you would mainly speak to them on the phone
		and now you're on the other side of the world you actually make an effort to speak to them more often or for longer periods.  I think with this one it was knowing they were there if you needed them and although they still are it's a bit further for them to come or for you to go to them, but it's manageable and when you do see them it's fantastic!  You certainly learn to appreciate people more and the time you spend with them.

		Buying wine from a supermarket - Here you can only buy alcohol from an off-license better
		known here as at bottle shop, or bottlo.  they also have drive through ones which are fabulous, and a quick tip...wine is much much cheaper if bought by the box and bottles of beer come in slabs  of between 24 - 30 at a time.  Bottles of beer are know as 'Stubbies'.

		Television - How bad is Aussie TV?????  We live in a rented house at the moment and the
		owners won't let us 'fix' anything to a wall etc that will leave a hole, so as we live in an area that requires a satellite dish to receive satellite TV it's out of the question for now.  We would give anything to get Fox (our equivalent of Sky), If anybody knows of a way around this issue please feel free to email your suggestions.  Our favourite programs at the moment are Parkinson, Enough Rope, Australian Idol and Jamie's kitchen.  These may all be good, but please bear in mind that it's only 4 shows in a whole week, Crikey I miss Emmerdale!

Particular items we miss are

• Fairy washing powder.
  
• Pampers nappies.
  
• Fry's Turkish delight.
  
• Emmerdale and Coronation Street
  
• Location,location,location and a place in the sun.
  
• Evening papers.
  
• English cheesecake and meringues (they're just not the same!).
  

		Help with Josh - This isn't even a baby sitting thing for going out at night, we didn't do it that
		often in the UK so that's definitely not a problem.  What we miss is if Josh is playing up in a particularly impressive style, we miss being able to go round to a grandparents and asking them to have him for an hour whilst we get our sanity back.  My mum used to have Josh one night a month for the whole night, quite often we'd stay in and relax with a bottle of wine and a takeaway and just enjoy the peace, we really miss this, it was one night of guaranteed sleep and a lie in!