Coming home

I never thought I would come back to England ... I left in 1977, married a Frog in 1978 and started a new life. I possibly became more French than the French and still tend to think in French. Having only been back here a couple of months, I find my English slightly stilted and old-fashioned, I use quite a bit of franglais and there are words that I learnt in France that I am incapable of translating into English without a dictionary. I have also noticed my spelling is quite bad at times - me who used to be able to write faultless English!
I moved to Brussels three years ago after having met GW and although I had 'instant' friends through him, living in a city is definitely not my idea of heaven. Although we lived in a lovely house near the University and had all the basic shops on our doorstep, there was always the hum of traffic, sirens, people shouting at 3am, street lights etc. and this is not for me. Although Brussels in mainly French speaking, if you go to the Flemish speaking areas, you do not speak to them in French (I cannot speak Flemish) but always English. The language problem in the country is causing an uncomfortable undercurrent in a country that is basically rudderless.

I can remember saying to an English friend in Brussels last year that the idea of going back to England filled me with horror and I would never contemplate it - a year on and here we are! I know that we live in one of the most lovely and desirable areas of England but coming home has been a joy so far. I am aware of the terribly depressed areas of England with their knife culture, drug dealers and binge drinking (and know that this also happens down here to a lesser extent), but our reintroduction to England has been marvellous.

Getting ourselves back into the system after having been away so long is quite complicated, but all the people we have dealt with so far have bent over backwards to help us - possibly we seem as though we have stepped out of a time machine or are starting to lose the plot, but the system works efficiently and things get done. After my dealings with the French civil servants (always out to lunch or on strike) and the Belgians (go away, you are bothering us) it would appear that here we are welcome!

I am not a shopper; I don't feel the need to buy a new pair of shoes every week or fill my cottage with the latest gadgets, so I am rather amazed at the English necessity to shop all the time. People seem to buy and buy and you see them struggling from one shop to another laden down with bags seemingly desperate to spend everything they have in their purse (or don't have as the case may be). However I am falling in love with the English supermarkets! Aren't they wonderful? Such a choice! If you can't find something a query to a person stacking shelves sees you being lead to the product and then being asked if you need any more help, at the check out I am asked if I would like to be helped packing the bags (okay, my hair is white and I am wrinkly but I don't feel offended!) and then waiting until you are ready to leave before turning to the next customer.

My supermarket experience in France was of oldies queueing for the supermarket to open, fighting to be first through the door, boring, unimaginative food, vegetables that had been in the cold room for a couple of weeks and when asking where something was, given vague directions which invariably were wrong. Belgium supermarkets? Don't make me laugh! Customer service? What is that? Get in, get your stuff, no-one to direct you and the check out ... right, let's push all this stuff through at break-neck speed, see if we can break her eggs by crushing them with a 3 litre cubitainer, give us your dosh and f*** off - oh, and whilst you are scrabbling frantically to bag up your purchases, let's see if we can send the next customers' stuff through so they can give you a dirty look as you are still there and if we can muddle up different purchases, even better ...

Perhaps I shouldn't sing the praises of the British supermarket - they do get a bad press with their buying tactics, building in already over-subscribed towns - but like everyone I do use them. In my defense I do buy fruit, vegetables, meat and fish from our local town shops and the farmers in the area. Bridport still has 'real' shops and hasn't been overrun by the multinationals and although the main shopping areas seem to have a load of charity shops, there are still people proud of their trade and a clientèle who support them.

Off to clear the garage as the last load of our removals arrives with GW this evening - hopefully including my winter clothes and kitchen things!