The usual question

St Antoine-Marie Zaccharia
Yesterday's weather: Sun and cloud, not very warm

It is an unwritten rule: 'Where expats gather together, so shall they asketh the question: What do you miss from home?

So, here is a list of what we miss:

• Family
• Friends
• Banter (you can't rib people you've only just met)
• Choice of restaurant food - we are making our own Indian, Thai, Chinese etc., but you can get the occasional Italian meal. Luckily we have found a little shop where we can buy almost all the spices we need (loose) and they even do (for a price) Pataks curry sauces although we haven't resorted to that yet.

As for food stuffs, we try not to miss the usual things that people seem to bring with them: Marmite, we are weaning ourselves off but still have quite a stock; Cheddar I haven't missed although I would love some now and then because this country which is famous for having over 350 varieties of cheese just don't make anything as wonderful as a nice Cathedral City cheddar, or even a Wensleydale (that comment especially for Robbie - to check that he's reading from time to time); baked beans we can live without. We have heard of people bringing gravy granules and even suet and Trex but none of these bother us at all. We even deride people who say they have to bring stocks of back bacon, and any of the above because we feel that since we have chosen to live in a country that doesn't have a ready supply of these things, then that was our choice and we have to adapt to using what is available to us and we happily do that most of the time.

BUT (you knew there'd be a 'but' didn't you?), the one thing we cannot live without, the thing we would go to the ends of the earth to obtain is a decent English tea bag. Twinings English Breakfast is favourite but even an Asda cheapie would be better than the tea bags we find in France. We cannot start our day without a nice cup of tea, I need it to wake up and Jon needs it to help him mentally organise his job for the day. After that, we're fine and often don't have another cuppa until the next morning.

We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.

~Rudyard Kipling