Remembering my time in the UK

I'm back. Back home in Singapore that is. It feels great to be back and able to bask in all that is familiar: seeing landmarks and favourite hangouts, eating local food (the first local dish I ate being a bowl of Yong Tau Foo) and hearing Singlish-laden banter when out in public. At the same time, everything does seem a bit foreign. No surprise that a little bit of reverse - culture shock has kicked in, I guess, since I was away for a good 6 months. I'll settle down to life in Singapore pretty soon, but while I'm still making the transition, I thought I'd reminisce a bit about my time in the UK while the memories are still fresh in my head. So, here're the 5 things (in no particular order) I will miss about the UK and life there:

1. British-style Fish and Chips. Fish and Chips as served in the country where it came from usually consists of beer-battered white fish (often Haddock, sometimes Cod), hand-cut chips and peas (may be whole or 'mushy'). A very popular condiment that is provided for free in most eateries where Fish and Chips are sold is malt vinegar. I will miss British-style Fish and Chips, especially the malt vinegar that often comes with it. Malt vinegar is MEANT to go with Fish and Chips. Sour with a hint of malt, it kicks the ass of the slices of lemon that often accompany the Fish and Chips sold in Singapore. I will also have to live with cravings for Haddock fish.This is a white fish that is similar to Cod but with a sweeter taste, and in my opinion, is more delicious than Cod. Haddock is now one of my favourite fishes to eat, but I don't know if I can get it in Singpore, where fishes like Tilapia, Red Snapper, Pomfret etc are more common.






2. My favourite British foods. Before I came to the UK, I read/ heard somewhere that British cuisine is one of the worst in the world. Well, I decided to keep an open mind and tried a big variety of British foods during my time in the UK and my verdict is that British cuisne is not all that bad, really! Okay, it is not one of my favourite cuisines (that would be Chinese, Japanese, Meditteranean and Italian). There are stuff I just don't get or don't like e.g. black pudding (a sausage made from dried blood and pig fat often consummed as part of the full English breakfast. I think it's gross.) and Steak and Kidney Pudding. But I did savour some really good British dishes, some of which are very popular worldwide and need no introduction: British-style Fish and Chips, Chicken Tikka Masala (yes, that's British. Chicken Tikka is an Indian dish, but Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Britain), Sticky Toffee Pudding, Steak and Ale Pie, Victoria Sponge Cake, Scampi and Chips, Scones and Ploghman's Platter. Special mention goes to the traditional English afternoon tea, my love of which has already been openly-professed and well-documented .






3. Travelling around the UK. I travelled a whole lot around the UK. I did quite a bit of travelling when I first visited when I was about 10 years old. In April this year, my Mum visited and she and I travelled a lot within Yorkshire county, then popped in at nearby Cumbria county to check out the Lake District. This month, after my exams, my whole family visited and we went to Wales, hung around a bit in London and even spent about six days in nearby Ireland. I enjoyed my travels around the UK, for I got to see the country quite thoroughly: little villages, small towns, huge important cities, the rural countryside, the moors, beautiful lakes, historical sites, mountains etc. Some of my favourite places would be Whitby (a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast that is said to have the best seafood in the UK. I think the battered Scampi I had in The Magpie Cafe in Whitby was absoultely heavenly) and Ribblehead (a hilly, almost uninhabited moor located in the Yorkshire Dales that has a haunting beauty about it). Also worth mentioning as part of my travels in UK is my going to London to see the Royal Wedding. I'm proud to be able to say I was there, outside Buckingham Palace, to see the historical and fairy-tale wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton!


4. The city of Leeds. Okay, to be absolutely honest, Leeds as a city is not that great. It is not as huge, vibrant and diverse as London. In fact, it is just a small city. The tourist attractions within Leeds are pretty ho-hum. But Leeds is the place in the UK I will remember most vividly and sentimentally because this is where I lived and studied during my semester-long exchange. And even though it's kinda small, I did have places in Leeds I loved to hang around, such as the Leeds Union Student Union Building (better than the UQ student union!), Kirkgate market (my favourite Leeds tourist attraction and where I often do grocery shopping), Headingley (a suburb near my residential college that has a big student population, and where J.R.R. Tolkein lived in when he was teaching at the University of Leeds) and my favourite eateries (The Olive Tree Greek Restaurant, Hansa's, Las Iguanas and Salvo's Restaurant & Salumeria).





5. Learning about British culture first-hand. In my travels and in my day-to-day living in UK, I have learnt lots about British culture. I'm not really talking about culture in the terms of history and heritage, though I learnt quite a lot of interesting UK history during my one semester. More like, social culture: British attitudes, social behaviour, daily practices etc. It's fun to observe what the British are like and compare their behaviour with Singaporeans. One observation is that the British, especilly older people, like to address other people as 'dear' or 'love', as in "Have you had a good day, love" or "That's 10 pounds and 50 pence altogether, love". Another thing I observed is the common practice of thanking the bus driver before alighting from a bus, a practice that is also quite common in Australia. This is not common practice, in fact, something never practised at all, in Singapore. Finally, there is the pub as the watering-hole for the Brits. The pub, which is short for public house, is a small house people go to usually for drinking with friends or eating. Pubs are also where one should go to try authentic British cuisine. Pubs are extremely ubiquitous in the UK, just as hawker centres and food courts are in Singapore. Drinking at the pubs is to the British what eating and shopping are to Singaporeans.

So ends the chapter of my life that was spent living in UK. When I look through the list, I realize that it is little things that make my stay in the UK so memorable. The tranquility of a traditional English afternoon tea experience, the joy of slattering my Fish and Chips with malt vinegar, being called 'love' by someone who is a complete stranger, a walk through the beautiful English countryside, a morning or afternoon in spent in University ... all these minute details make up the bulk of my stay and thus play a large part in defining it. There are, of course, the 'bigger' things, most notably the opportunity to be present in London to see the Royal Wedding in April. It was a semester spent deeply immersing myself in UK culture, way of life and I even got to be present at a key moment in modern British history! All in all, it was a time very well-spent and enjoyed, and that's what really matters.

UK, you will be missed. From the bottom of my heart.