The internet is full of ex-pats banging on about what they miss about Britain. Indeed, importing Persil and Bisto gravy granules is something of a competitive sport here in Oz.
There are of course some things I miss about the UK.
My pining for H&M is well-documented elsewhere, and I will no doubt revisit the subject here sometime.
Following the Persil theme, I haven’t found any washing powder without optical brighteners. For now, I have to put up with the double-bleaching effect of the washing powder and then the sun hitting the washing line. I may wear less black in future (and more grey).
Dairy products have proved problematic, not because you can’t get them but because the Australian descriptions of what they are tend to be rather odd. Cheese of the non-mild variety is described here as ‘bitey’ or ‘tasty’. They’re not even very good at giving their cheese brands sensible names (I hesitate to say inoffensive names as I have a friend with the very same surname, and the presence of a popular ice cream known as a Golden Gaytime suggests Australians are not too concerned about what connotations their brands have).
My famous lemon and lime cheesecake has suffered due to a lack of double cream. I am sure it is available – there are too many overweight Australians for it not to be – but it will be called something so utterly unrelated that I fear I will never find it. I think it’s a conspiracy to make me eat Tim Tams instead.
And prawn cocktail crisps just don’t exist here (outside the Harry Enfield ‘I saw you coming’-style shops for ex-pats), despite the huge quantity of real prawns consumed. Which leads me to think that there may not be any real prawn in prawn cocktail crisps.
Down under, out west 