Four Months in England!

My feet haven't set foot on English soil for over a decade and despite living in Australia since 2005 I still haven't got an Aussie accent!. So I finally bit the bullet and booked a four month visit to see my family & friends.

First port of call was the West Midlands, Birmingham & Worcestershire to be exact as that's where my eldest brother & nieces live. There's been some changes I noticed, infrastructure, demographic etc but the pubs are still the same and takeaway food is much better than what I can get where I live.

I then headed south West, Devon to be exact to visit my middle brother and sister in law who
moved there from the Midlands ten years ago. Now as a family alot of my childhood holidays
were spent in this part of the country, Saint Ives, Tintagel, Lynton and Lynmouth etc, its one of the
most beautiful untouched area's of England and I was happy to see it hadn't changed one bit!.

My Brother and Sister live in a small picturesque Village called Combe Martin, its a beautiful quirky place and the name 'combe' derives from, 'a wooded valley', Martin is from the Norman family who inherited the local manor from one of the followers of William the Conqueror.

As you can imagine with a population of around 2,500 people, not much gets unnoticed in such a small place.I found it hilarious going out with my brother in the car, every other person we passed knew him and cast a friendly wave. However, even though my brother & sister have lived there ten years, they are still considered outsiders, the name they give to these types of people are 'Blow-Ins', yeah I know, were a bunch of eccentric's!. Incidentally, my brother kindly pointed out that I was a 'Grockle', which means a tourist or someone from the north of England. I did mention that I now live in Oz but that didn't make the slightest bit of difference!.

During my stay my brother was very kind enough to introduce me to the local cider. This took some
getting used to as I'm usually a beer drinker, after several weeks I eventually got a taste for the scrumpy and can't see going back to drinking much else now!.

One thing I missed about England was its rich history and the pubs. Its only when you are away for a considerable amount of time do you appreciate what the place has going for it. This part of the country especially, you are always surrounded by a sense of history and erm... pubs.

My brother and I share a love for anything with a bit of history, so we browsed around alot of Antique shops while I was there, we also visited numerous places of interest.

First of all, this is Combe Martin:

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This is in Bideford an Ancient mariners town. The 'The Helping Hand' is sculpted by John Butler. I believe its a conker tree.

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Heddon Valley, Exmoor. More wooden sculptures in a Gardens of some Pub:

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This is Seaford house in Westward Ho, also called the haunted house!

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The Ancient Mariner Pub along with an octopus coming out of the wall!. The tables
start to look flatter the more cider you drink!.

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In a deep valley surrounded by a forest is a place called Watersmeet and behold,
they have another pub there:

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Anyway thats enough rambling from me, thought I'd just share this little adventure with you lads & lasses!.

I’m glad you enjoyed your trip back to the old country. I’m in Singapore on my way home from seven weeks in the UK and Ireland. It’s certainly a beautiful place and London was a blast as always. Brexit doesn’t seem to have had any negative effect as far as I can tell. The place is teeming with tourists.

But I’m surprised you didn’t mention the price of things. My observation is that dining-out is nearly double the price of Oz. My record for the trip was $8 for a coffee in Scotland. $60 was not uncommon for a pub steak. The beer was a little cheaper than at home. Petrol and diesel were $3.10 a litre. They’ve started adding a “voluntary” 10% or 12.5% tip to restaurant bills in London. It’s built into the total, so if you don’t wish to pay it, you need to make a scene and have a new bill issued. Very sneaky.

Oh, and flake (shark) makes much better fish and chips than cod or haddock. :)

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Originally Posted by jack620

I’m surprised you didn’t mention the price of things.

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Actually I'm a smoker so it worked out alot cheaper! haha!

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Originally Posted by jack620

flake (shark) makes much better fish and chips than cod or haddock. :)

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No argument from me there, you can't beat abit of flake!. When I mentioned that we eat shark in Oz, people were shocked haha!.

SWMBO has recently returned from an 8 week trip to the UK visiting family and school friends and she maintained the cost of meals was the biggest expense of all - virtually double our prices.

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Originally Posted by Chesand

SWMBO has recently returned from an 8 week trip to the UK visiting family and school friends and she maintained the cost of meals was the biggest expense of all - virtually double our prices.

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Ok I have to tell you, as far as takeaway food is concerned were ripped off for quality, price and service here. For example Indian takeaway over here will set me back about $40-$60, In England, Birmingham especially I'll get way better quality of food and service for 20 quid!, oh and most of the time they'll give you extra's!.

I've only ever got Indian takeway twice in Wallan and Craigieburn just to see what it was like, twice I had to chuck it away as it was not only putrid and stunk the place out but the portion was not enough to fill a church mouse, Its not just Indian takeaways either.

Does your wife's family and friends come from anywhere near London by any chance?.

We didn’t do much takeaway. Mainly sit down meals in a pub or restaurant. So I can’t comment. But I had the worst kebab I’ve ever eaten in Oban, Scotland. Absolutely no flavour and it was made by a Turk! Then again, the Scots don’t really like food with flavour.

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Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Does your wife's family and friends come from anywhere near London by any chance?.

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Family are predominantly in the south around Bournemouth and she spent most of her secondary school years in Worcester

Coincidentally I was born in Worcester, and grew up around Bournemouth/south coast. Been in Oz since 1988, so lived longer here than I did there. Good to see from OP pictures that there are still some nice bits of the countryside they haven't stuffed up yet !