Things I Miss

I just read a post by a fellow travelling Australian in which she listed all the things she loves about being overseas, followed by all the things she misses about Australia. I feel like I only ever talk about the things I love about being here (which is pretty much everything) and the things that I emphatically do not miss about Australia (bugs, hot weather, long distances).

Perhaps then it's time to acknowledge that there are one or two things that I miss about my home.

**Post-publication update: I should add that these are frivolous things I miss and that other important things like family and friends and compulsory voting I genuinely deeply miss as well**

1. The sun. Having said which, I don't really love either the sun or summer - I get burnt and I don't like being overheated. I love the winter and its potential for snow. But there is something lovely about sitting in the backyard with a cup of tea and a book, with the sun on your face, on a Saturday afternoon. I've been pretty lucky here - it hasn't rained too much and the sun has been visible a lot of the time - but the English winter sun just isn't the same.

2. Coffee. I'm sorry. I know that it's poor form to be a snob about this when the problem isn't that Australia is better, it's just the English coffee is different. Having said which, Australia is definitely better and coffee here is, in general, extremely poor. I miss knowing that every single cafe in Sydney makes a genuinely good coffee, and the only difference is between good and excellent. Costa is not a substitute for Campos.

3. Standard dancing songs. You know when you go to a wedding, or something similar, where there is a standard list of songs that everyone dances to? The list is different here and it's confusing. I'm very happy to dance like a fool if everyone else is, but there's extra fun in dancing to a song that you actually know.

4. Dairy milk chocolate. It tastes different at home. And for different, read better (however Terry's Chocolate Oranges make up for this 100 times over).

5. The metric system.

6. Living near Sydney Harbour. I never really made the most of it, but Sydney Harbour is amazing! Catching a ferry to Manly on a sunny day with a few big fluffy clouds in the sky has to be one of the most beautiful things you can do in Australia. Also living just up the road from the Bay Run was amazing.

7. Wildlife. I've actually been missing this ever since I left Adelaide, because we lived in a very wildlife-rich area. I miss driving home and worrying that a kangaroo would jump in front of me. I miss the occasional koala sighting (in the main shopping street, along the side of the highway, wherever). I miss that time I almost ran over an echidna but very importantly let's all remember that I didn't hit the echidna. I miss the sound kookaburras make, except when you're trying to sleep. I almost miss possums. But actually I don't because when they're outside your window it's like having a heavy breathing stalker outside your window and that's just creepy.

8. The way that eucalypts smell after it rains.

9. Summer dresses.

10. Not having to wear a coat.

11. Food that isn't packaged in seven layers of shrink wrap. Why can't you just buy a capsicum separately? And refer to it as a capsicum, rather than a pepper? In fact, I miss knowing what fruit and vegetables people are talking about because I can't come to grips with any of the following: satsuma, tangerine, squash, pumpkin, pepper, courgette.

And then here is a quick list of things I like: the word 'faff' or 'faffing', Terry's Chocolate Oranges (yes, I really really do like them), mail on Saturdays, regional accents, green grass, deciduous trees, Europe is right next door, cottages that have been around since before the first fleet, and lots of other things.