Positivity x 6

You’re right, I’ve read it back over and the last list was a little bit negative.  No list that has pork pies in it can be all negative, you’ll agree, however; come on, Simon, you must be able to find six things to write positively about since you’ve come back to the UK…surely?

Six?  OK – and no, there are not numerous other edits of this blog with a variety of numbers falling and falling to get to the number six.  That said, I am happy I didn’t decide to do a top ten!  Stop it, Simon.  Positivity.

Right.

1.     Chinese Takeaways

Thank all that is wok’d for the unhealthy option!  In NZ a chow mein is a healthy dinner.  There it’s steamed/flash-fried veg, noodles in a broth and whatever variety of meat you’ve decided to eat that day.   Here is it a glorious melange of noodles, minimal veg, meat and beansprout, either with a hint of soy/oyster or in a gloop of wonderful MSG.  That is a welcome guilty pleasure NZ has yet to properly get the hand of…although, they do have Noodle Canteen, so they are catching up.

2.     Affordable Books

Simple.  Books in the UK are cheaper than they are in NZ.  There may be all manner of reasons for this – distance, market size, etc – but for all the reasons, books in NZ are so expensive.   You can pay up to 50 bucks for a paperback book, that’s about 25 quid.  And when you can see £15.99 on the book cover itself...well, that’s all so very annoying.

3.     Libraries

To deal with the silly prices, you can go to a library.  These next two are shared positives.  Both NZ and UK do libraries well.  The one in Stroud is superb.  The staff are quite magnificent, the selection is varied – and it’s easy to choose books from other collections to be picked up from Stroud too – and the facilities are comfortable and conducive to reading and working.  Lovely.

4.     Second Hand Book Shops

This is another thing NZ and UK both do brilliantly.   In Stephen Fry’s The Liar, he refers to a room belonging to Professor Trefusis as a librarynth.  I have now found the bookshop that most resembles this.  There were elements of it in the local second bookshop in Picton, NZ, but Moss Books of Cheltenham is the winner.  Piles and piles of books and boxes and boxes of books obscured the double shelved books on the shelves themselves.  Fragile pathways wend through the shop and then up the stairs there are rooms and further rooms of tomes to investigate and discover.

5.     Vinegar on chips

Heaven.  For some reason, given that NZ was a colony and is a member of the Commonwealth, broadcasts Coronation Street – or Coro, as they call it – drives on the left, etc, and has fish and chip shops coming out the wazoo. They don’t do vinegar on chips.  Salt, yes, plenty of salt.  Ketchup for dipping? Of course, help yourself.  Mayonnaise or Aioli, naturally.  Vinegar? No – well, one pub in Blenheim that I’ve found…and returned to a number of times.  To have a vendor say, “Salt and vinegar?” is to hear the angels sing and the gods declare that ambrosia is on the menu.  That glorious burn and sharp-sourness is divine with the tang of salt and the smooth pulpy potato under the crisp skin of the chip.  Delicious.  So, so welcome.

6.     Confection Affection

A proper sweet shop. You an buy by the measure…loads of sweets in jars on shelves: bonbons of wonderful flavours, aniseed balls, barley sugar, cough drops.  Packs of Refreshers and Fruit Salads.  Popping Candy.  Magnificent.  A glorious trip for the tastebuds and for the maturity levels.

As I may have alluded to with the previous list, finding my feet again in the UK is proving to be very difficult.  It’s a curious place to be at the moment; whether from the wider perspective of what Britain actually is in the world, or from the very narrow perspective of the type of town you live in, the type of street. Still, I am glad I was able to compile a list of six. Hopefully, the list will grow.