Missing the Land of My Birth and Tea

What is it I miss about the UK the most. It is friends and family of course and knowing your surroundings and feeling comfortable. That is a nice feeling being in your house snuggling up in front of the TV to watch a familiar program and understanding the language. The BBC is an institution that I really do miss, the programs are unequalled anywhere on the planet and if I could I would pay generously for a TV service to give me the BBC again. I think I could only get BBC America and I am not sure how up to date it is. That is a small part of life and a pretty insignificant part of life at that. So I miss only a small part of what I can do in the UK, what I cannot do in the UK is far larger, I cannot go to the beach all year round and eat exotic food and wear shorts and flip flops all year round. I cannot go into the garden and see interesting and exotic birds all year round and live an outdoor lifestyle, these are the major things that I can now do and really enjoy them, perhaps living in two parts of the world is the compromise but that isn’t normally possible, it would be greedy to expect to have such luxury of living in two nice parts of the world and still not pay tax anywhere. I even had my pension assessment for when I retire and I get an amount that I would consider a tidy sum if I am still in Costa Rica, plenty for eating and drinking in that part of the world, but if I was to retire back to the UK I would certainly be destitute, heating and living in the UK is expensive compared to Costa Rica, my weekly bills including Gasoline and water and electric and food even comes to about $100, this you would agree is tiny compared to my American friend who is telling me he heating bill for his house is $650 a month alone. Now that has got to hurt. So why oh why do I think about the UK so much then, it is the familiar that always spring to mind, the familiar faces and familiar language and the things you know, I spent 25 years learning the road system and it feels unfair to have to learn a road system that doesn’t have road names and street signs that mean much. You have addresses like, 250 mts passed the Galaron supermarket and then left for 400 mts more on right. This is silly as you can see. So familiarity is what I crave for. Learning a language is hard and isn’t a trip, luckily my wife is multilingual and does most things for me. So what else do I not miss, I don’t miss the expensive plumbers and builders, who are so very cheap in Costa Rica, I don’t miss the cold windy rainy days, even during the cooler months in Costa Rica the coast is always warm even during the rainy season and the air is fresh and clean and invigorating. Having so few people is nice to appreciate, not struggling with shopping and traffic and beach holidays is refreshing. So why do I still miss the UK, it is me inside thinking about long lost feelings that I wouldn’t get back if I were to return. Perhaps I am just feeling sentimental about the good old country but I don’t think I will ever return to the land of my birth. Life is funny but I cant go back to paying 50% of my money to the tax man, now that is a feeling I don’t want to think about.