Anyone relocated back?

nanna8

We don’t get that many ready meals in Australia,either. The ones they have are pretty ordinary and to be honest, I wouldn’t feed them to my dog. Fresh food is plentiful and quick to cook so why would you bother with fake fast food ?

Oh, they look awful, although I can't say I've tried one!

Now, some of the ready meals here are very good, for speed and laziness they are a good alternative to home-cooked.
I've ordered a Waitrose Meal Deal for Friday.

We don’t get that many ready meals in Australia,either. The ones they have are pretty ordinary and to be honest, I wouldn’t feed them to my dog. Fresh food is plentiful and quick to cook so why would you bother with fake fast food ?

Aveline

I was similarly busy with work and growing children but always visited my parents and grandmother at least weekly. It was just part of life. However, looking back on it, I do think we overlooked my MiL. She was a very kind person who'd played a large part in the children's early lives. DH didn't phone her or make any effort to keep in touch. She'd obviously be part of larger family events but I think she must have been sad between times. It was never personal, we were just busy. She never phoned us. We did look after her when she became very old and I'll but I still wonder how she must have felt during the previous decade or so. I'm sorry.

I do understand Aveline, and I wonder if it is relevant that it was your MiL. When we married, I said to DH that I would always welcome his family, close and wider, and attend any family 'dos', but that the day-to-day keeping in touch was down to him. It rarely happened.
Whilst the children were at home, I did keep in touch myself, so they were not disadvantaged. Once that was done, I went back to saying it was down to him, so we see his family maybe once a year. Fortunately our children are still close to their cousins and keep in touch.

For myself, I am very wary of calling busy families when they have a lot else to think about, and they almost never call us. I do if I feel much time has elapsed. I try to be helpful - say by taking a meal with us when we visit.

This conversation has many strands that have arisen. I too feel that Britain is broken in so many ways. I do my bit to mend it - but I think if you feel like a stranger it is difficult to know how to handle things. I don't know if Countess is still following this, I hope that some of it has been helpful.

We returned after 13 years in Middle Eastern countries (it was more like 15 for dh) in 1987. We had returned every summer for a few weeks, so any changes were gradual.

Since 1987, though, our local area has changed enormously. A lot more housing, familiar ‘landmark’ buildings disappearing to be replaced by blocks of flats, and there’s been a huge increase in immigration - at least half the languages I hear on the buses (which I use a lot) are not English. Please NB, this is not a complaint.

We are still very happy here, and in fact appreciate the local facilities even more now, but I can imagine that if we’d returned after 44 years away, especially if there had been no visits in the meantime, it would have taken quite a bit of getting used to.

I think half my post at 19.28 went missing .... where I was actually speaking about the differences and shopping habitudes of a very demanding food loving nation. There are packaged meals in their supermarkets, but they are no way as popular here as queueing up in the dailymarket or at the fresh counters which we don't have back home.
Anyway I'm off to fight my way round les Halles for my potatoes dauphinouses, the exact portion of which they will ladel into a pot. And then some fish caught this morning.
Along with hundreds of other self respecting french foodies of course!

I wouldn't expect a French supermarket, or a German, or Indian, or Nigerian supermarket to contain the same ready meals as a British supermarket.

French supermarkets all have large traiteur sections were you can buy ready prepared meals by the portion - roast chicken, paella, couscous, fish dishes, cassoulet, you name it, they have it, but every bit as much a ready meal as anything in a cardboard box in a freezer or chill cabinet in the UK,

And for most of the time we have been coming over here (30 years+) they have had a large section of shelving(20 feet or more) given over to meals in tins and packets, something that we do not really have in the UK: ravioli, spaghetti bolognaise, cassoulet, sausage and lentils, cuisse de canard, and too many single portion meals to even begin to list.

The French are in to ready meals, and always have been - they just do it differently.

Love the stuffed tomatoes. Once they’d eaten them in France, my family were happy to eat the ones I make. Also like the “1 minute on each side’ ham.

Being an unashamed foodie I took a visit to the supermarché today for some research (this should probably be in a separate thread, but anyway ....)

There was a whole central section of what might be called "ready meals" but they were nothing like we have packaged up in Tescos or Sainsburys. I counted 9 choices - dish of the day, or dish of the moment as they were called - stuffed tomatoes, chicken chasseur, paella,

halfpint1 same applies where we live UK for smoking. I don’t know about alcohol consumption, because it depends which report I look at. Probably the same in other countries.

Mollygo

M0nica we must go to different parts of France from you. There still seems to be so much more smoking there than where we live, and it’s the locals, not the visitors.

Very little smoking going on in my region now and none in my family, alcohol consumption on the way down as well, yeay

Joseann I write of Normandy, Manche to be precise. France is renowned for its regional differences. We both write of the regions we know - and they differ.

Sorchame

Callistemon21

Sorchame

Who mentioned children?

CountessFosco mentioned moving back to be near her DS and DIL, so I presumed she was referring to that part of the family.

She could, of course, have meant very elderly parents who would be there to help them on a day-to-day basis, although they could be well over 100, I would think.

Never presume anything.

Sorry, I presumed that DaisyAnneReturns presumed that you presumed that I was referring to children 😂

Never presume anything!!

ill not I'll

I was similarly busy with work and growing children but always visited my parents and grandmother at least weekly. It was just part of life. However, looking back on it, I do think we overlooked my MiL. She was a very kind person who'd played a large part in the children's early lives. DH didn't phone her or make any effort to keep in touch. She'd obviously be part of larger family events but I think she must have been sad between times. It was never personal, we were just busy. She never phoned us. We did look after her when she became very old and I'll but I still wonder how she must have felt during the previous decade or so. I'm sorry.

Callistemon21

Sorchame

Who mentioned children?

CountessFosco mentioned moving back to be near her DS and DIL, so I presumed she was referring to that part of the family.

She could, of course, have meant very elderly parents who would be there to help them on a day-to-day basis, although they could be well over 100, I would think.

Never presume anything.

Sorry, I presumed that DaisyAnneReturns presumed that you presumed that I was referring to children 😂

I am sorry it has been such a shock and of course hindsight is a wonderful thing, obviously a test run would have been a good idea. I guess it is a big breath and join a few things, what did you do when you were trying to settle in the other countries?
Many years ago now my mum and dad moved down to be near us, in their 70's they thought they would see a lot of us and the grandchildren. Unfortunately in our late forties we were both working full time and the grandchildren were off to University, work and head down for A levels. I know my dad was disappointed.
I hope you do find a path through and start to feel a bit happier.

Sorchame

Who mentioned children?

CountessFosco mentioned moving back to be near her DS and DIL, so I presumed she was referring to that part of the family.

She could, of course, have meant very elderly parents who would be there to help them on a day-to-day basis, although they could be well over 100, I would think.

Never presume anything.

Not many smoke in Australia now but a lot of kids are vaping apparently. You are not allowed to smoke even outside cafes and restaurants now.

Who mentioned children?

Callistemon21

^No family around to help day to day^

That is not something we should ever expect.

I have to agree.

The most precious commodity our mid-life children have is time. I am grateful for every minute my children give me and remember well how difficult it was seeing my mother and father in my 40s and 50s, even though I would have loved to.

So lovely Joseann. I can understand why you live there.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202309/medium-324849-img-20230816-wa0004.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202309/medium-118453-place-du-marche-un-samedi.jpg

My own photo of the south Breton market I used in June and a random TripAdvisor one of the market where my appartement is in Northern Bretagne. Both these don't include the indoor, les Halles.
All local produce and still busy out of season when I visit. I see little difference 45 years ago which is part of the charm.

I beg to differ M0nica.
Plus de trois personnes sur dix, 31.8%, déclarent fumer.
Le nombre de fumeurs se maintient à un niveau élevé en France.
For those who understand French you will see the % is 31.8 and not less than 25%. This is taken from santé publique française. Also it says, the figure is worryingly high and has not dropped year on year, though there might have been more smokers 30 years ago.
Strangely, my differing observations are in Brittany, next door to Normandie. The Tues, Thurs, Sat. market here has 150 stalls, mainly food - fruit, veg, cheese, fish, breads, cakes, hot food etc. In summer this figure rises to 280 stalls. In the supermarkets there is never a queue at the checkouts and the bread section is piffly.

Our holiday home is in Normandy. We see very little smoking here. 12 million smokers is less than 25% of the adult population.and falling, so much lower than it was

Joseann the size of the bread department in our local supermarkets suggests lots of people buy their bread at the supermarket. What is more, most local bakers have their bread dough delivered in tanks and buy in most of their cakes and specialist goods. So much, that an association has been formed of bakers who make their own bread from scratch.

Local markets are still busy, but a fraction of the size they were 30 years ago, and less and less of what they sell is food. The local small holders who would turn up with a couple of bunches of rhubarb, some eggs and a jars of home made jam have completely disappeared.

Foxy I was making neither positive nor negative judgements on the changes, although it is nice to drive on pothole free roads past well kept houses, as for changes in eating habits, I merely observe.

Restaurants like McDonalds are definitely making inroads but there are still many independent restaurants and here we have seen the numbers go down and up. A lot when we arrived in the early 1990s, then many closed down and choice was restricted, then over the last 15 years numbers have grown again, but since COVID menu choices have been limited.

Fruit and vegetables have been difficult this year, mostly because of a series of weather events across France. We are also noticing that the more expensive brands are missing from our local supermarkets as shoppers deal with the increased cost of living. There are quite a few TV reports about diminishing footfall in supermarkets and many organic shops are closing. Aldi and Lidl are thriving. We still shop at the market and also in bakers, greengrocers, butchers and fishmongers in our local town.