Moving on and looking back

It's official, announced, booked, approved, .... happening.

On 3rd December I depart the damp shores of the motherland for a new adventure.  One that begins with a friends wedding in NZ, Xmas in the Canterbury sunshine and culminates with my (our) arrival into Melbourne at the end of Jan.

Now moved out of our flat we are officially squatting above the kitchen at another friends flat on the other side of Manchester city centre... and it makes me think:

So here is my list of things I have loved about England:

• Manchester: What a sensational city. The centre of an historical industrial universe.  Bygone inventions and discoveries that have shaped the modern world (The first computer.  The splitting of the atom.  The first coal powered factory.  The start of the industrial revolution.  The first 'test tube baby.... and then some).  Music. History. Architectural splendour.  The Northern mentality of mucking in and getting on with it.  Epic and enchanting.  Hardening and cool.  Grey, brown and brick-red.  Chimneys and arches and big soggy puddles.  Small glowing windows of dingey traditional pubs.
  This city has carved out a distinctive space for itself in my soul.  I will love it for always.
• Massive epically wonderful international music gigs: I can't claim to have been to the biggest and best... but Snow Patrol, Elbow, Kendal Calling Festival, Ray LaMontagne, Fink, Mumford and Sons, Arcade Fire, Iron and Wine - they were all pretty darn cool.
• Really (really) old buildings: "this building was here before there were white men in my country", she says, with great regularity.  Pubs that have stood for 400 years.  Gorgeously captivating narrow little alleyways.... when I remember to look up and out each turn presents something more awe-inspiring.  Something else that makes me wonder: what happened here? When did this begin?  What did this spot look like 200 years ago?  Being from NZ, I'm not sure this feeling will ever leave me.  Our roots trace back here, to these streets and these spaces.  And the people from around here just walk past them without acknowledgement of how special they are.  
• The shopping: Oh Em Gee. wow.  I'm not sure anything will ever cut it again (!). I'm not going to pretend I ever handed money over at a (swanky!) Harvey Nichols or Selfridges counter top.... I never needed to!  The middle-priced market is saturated and satisfying and salivation-inducing enough.... Zara. Mango. Vero Moda. FCUK. Aldo. Office. Oasis. Warehouse. River Island. Next.... and even the cheapie standards like H&M and Primark.  I haven't had nearly enough money to fully participate in this stuff as much as I'd have liked to.  My overwhelming feeling around it is one of constraint and frustration..... if I was more flippant with my credit card we'd have been in serious trouble.
  I leave with a swollen trendy interesting wardrobe.  Never as much as I would have liked but more than I would have had otherwise.
• Football: yes, really.  I've fed off the passion and the fire, and have grown to appreciate the maniacal stuff.  Each match is presented with such drama and build-up  and I must confess to liking it more when someone is in a race row, or someone has slept with someone else's  girlfriend or the no one is sure whether the fans will be respectful of the recent enquiry into a high profile disaster....- tension! Intrigue!  Disrespect! Passion!     ...Brilliant.
• Clubbing: Makes that thing we do under the same name in NZ look like child's play.
• Pub Food: Cosy. Warm.  Carbohydrate-laden.  'nuf said.
• Buildings with trees growing out of them: This has become one of my favourite things. Old buildings which undoubtedly once held so much splendour and purpose... now decrepit and deserted with trees growing out of their ledges and nooks.  The more blown out windows or squatter proofing or warning signs not to enter due to liability to collapse, the better.  I'm officially enchanted.
• So close to Europe! Pity we never quite had the money to do all the jaunts we wanted.  But long weekends in Paris and Barcelona aren't to be scoffed at.  Cheap flights. Carry-on only.   Such fun.
• Sunday Roast: Yorkshire puddings. Gravy.  3 ways of potatoes.  YUM.
• European wine: So cheap over here! So good.
• Chinatown: LOVE.
• Canals, bridges, massive brick chimneys, barges tooting along the river with a cocker spaniel bouncing around impossibly narrow boat-edges......the driver is wearing a flat cap.
• Having lived here long enough for brick buildings over 2-storeys not to make me nervous (In NZ you take one look and walk away quickly.  An earthquake will bring that bugger down like a pack of cards and I don't want to be near it!
• The Olympics!  A 'home olympics!'. Claimed and thoroughly enjoyed.  Sport has never been my forte, but I totally bought into this lot.  Fabulous.
• Accents!!  OMG, they're hilarious.  Scouse especially - what the HANG is up with that??!  So bizarre that you can go 10miles down the road in any direction and the whole dialect changes....  I've been in Manchester 18 months and all the things they say still crack me up.  Variation in turn of phrase is a fascinating thing.  I've got quite good at mimicking it as well.  ... which brings me to:
• Being the one with the accent:  I spent my whole life wanting to be that girl!  I'm not sure it's quite lived up to my expectations, but it's made for some funny stories and has been something different to enjoy.
• Getting to see where the boyfriend grew up: Not only do I have a nice squishy picture of where he went to school and what his childhood home looks like.... I now understand so much more of him.  The very context that created his views on life, his wants and desires and the things he appreciates.  It's something I don't think I would've got if we'd just come back to visit, no.  I think the depth that this adds to the things I know about him and how I can connect to who he really is - is beautiful.  You couldn't buy this stuff.
• Space for reflection about myself: Once you step out of the bubble of your own country for an extended period of time, and away from the comforts of familiarity, close friends and family ...a different type of contemplation takes over.  There are things I understand about myself now that I hadn't before.  There are changes in my understanding of the world.  A softening  (or hardening?) of the youthful idealism I set out on.  Some beautiful things come out of solitude and loneliness.  Different things happen to your insides.  Abstract but true.
• The budget life: Necessity is the mother of invention, they say.  I've been broke before! Hell,  I lived as a student for a hundred billion years. But it wasn't like this.  Not like this.
  Having very little money and very rubbish weather carved out opportunity for other things to develop....  I make a mean loaf of bread now, doing it by hand is a lovely way to pass a wintery afternoon.  Homemade pita breads are a completely different thing to those dry horrible things that come out of a supermarket packet.  I make a brilliant steak pie (slow cooked and thick and stewy).  I run 10km in a good time - a free way to get active and fit and fresh air (once you're wet you're wet.  It's cleansing).  I'm also very good at staying in my pyjamas all day, watching the telly and cracking my boyfriend up.
  Life skills, these are.

There are other things... they'll come to me.

Yes there are plenty of things I've loved about England.