Okay Tina it's show time - Yes it is - Must be another video day
so what shocked us going back to the UK as expats oh why do we do this Tina
why do we dig a hole for ourselves with these what shock us anyway before we get into this
controversial subject about going back to the UK - We are Tina and Norm and we talk all things
retirement - We do we appreciate each and every one of our subscribers and thank you very much
so the first thing that shocked us when we went back to the UK for a visit
to see our families there, was surveillance cameras it was big brother it's everywhere
- It was quite amazing wasn't it Norm - It was because when we left in 1992 there was
hardly any surveillance cameras but wow - Everywhere we went just walking down
residential streets we'd look up on the lamps and cameras everywhere - And coming from
Canada where we don't really see surveillance cameras (no,no) so that was a big shock
that the UK England had changed so much surveillance cameras everywhere
- Now another thing is we actually went back and visited the town where Norm grew up
and there wasn't a supermarket a grocery store - No it had gone
people obviously didn't eat anymore - So what we found they had a Tesco in a petrol station and
- I've known this petrol station all my life it was a Vauxhall dealership and
lo and behold they put a big gas pump in there and there was a tiny supermarket and that
was the supermarket for the town and it's big town - That was quite a surprise to us wasn't it
- But an amusing one was you might not know this but we don't really have cell phones
we actually do have cell phones but we use them to take photographs and we use them for wi-fi
so when we're traveling we try and get wi-fi so we ended up
in Manchester Airport and this also happened in Costa Coffee as well which is another story
so we tried to get the wi-fi at Manchester Airport and it said that they would text us
a code to our cell phone but if you have a cell phone do you need wi-fi
- Yeah we kind of thought that was totally ironic - So we couldn't get on the free wi-fi
in Manchester Airport as a traveler because we didn't have a cell phone we thought that was odd
coming you know the comparison is we can go to any fast food place in Canada and
it just says do you want to log on we say yeah and you're on no texting codes so
that shocked us that England wasn't quite as progressive in dishing out free wi-fi
- No and because we travel a lot hey Norm we're used to that everywhere aren't we
another thing we found was that traffic was - Oh my gosh - Was so busy - It's insane - It's like we
just and we'd forgotten how narrow the roads were - But if you go back to the town I grew up in
I would walk down there and it was like rush hour all day long - It never changed did it was just
this big solid line of traffic - Now another huge shocker to us was Tina they shrunk the taxi cabs
- They're so funny - The black cabs now are just a shade of their former selves they've been on a
diet - Oh yeah you could say they've shrunk - The black cabs the London style taxi and then they
wrapped them in advertising never seen that before leave the black cabs black - Another
thing we found Costa Coffee is everywhere when we left we didn't know about Costa Coffee - We
had never heard of it - Now they're everywhere so that was a big shock to us wasn't it - It was
another thing bakeries what have you done to the bakers in the UK there was lots of little regional
bakeries we remember Haines or something like that now they're all Greggs and Gregg's are
everywhere not complaining because Gregg's really have good stuff but the other thing was
we were in Edinburgh and wanted a coffee and we saw that this shop had vanilla slices and
that's one of my favourites - Oh it is Norm loves this vanilla slice - They wanted £2.95
for a vanilla slice so we did a rough translation and that is $5 Canadian - It's just amazing isn't it
- Yet we can go to a dutch bakery local to where we live and they bake them fresh every Friday
how much are they there - We pay $1.50 Canadian dollars (yeah) so we're talking about their price
they're being like over 3 times the cost - I know - Just one cake oh but Norm there was one thing
can no longer get my favourite yellow top buns - Yeah what did they do with them was the one
thing we really fancied our family growing up would on Saturdays that we would have
cream cakes and one of the ones that we always got was the yellow top bun - And it was kind of
like round wasn't it stuffed with cream with all yellow icing on the top was one of our favourites
- It was we couldn't find them anywhere so there must be a conspiracy against the yellow top buns
and then what did they do with sales tax in England - Ooh that's gone up from when we
were last there Norm - 20% V.A.T - It's a good job it's kind of hidden isn't it - It is give me a heart
attack every time I would see that so yeah they've snuck up the sales tax which is really naughty
- Another thing that we was very surprised about - No we were shocked !
this is YouTube - Yeah we were shocked that we saw pound stores everywhere we'd never seen
a pound store before - No when we were in England there was no pound stores
but once again the the amusing thing is that a pound store is basically $1.71 Canadian
- So technically it's not as good as our dollar stores is it (no) because our dollar store is a
dollar - But I'm sure the pound store has really helped low-income people in the UK with making
things available at cheaper price so it's a great idea - Yes it is - Betting shops oh my
it was just basically Ladbrokes when we left now (yeah) there's like 6 on a high street
- We found that shocking didn't we - It was and brands we'd never heard of before
and then surprise surprise we see a National Lottery - That was new we didn't know
for us yeah that wasn't there was it when we were there wow - And then this is right at the
top of the list of things that were totally shocking is they stuffed Dolly the Sheep
- We went into the Scottish National Museum - In Edinburgh - We were quite shocked - We just
walked into this room there was a sheep and it turned out to be Dolly the first
cloned mammal it was funny - It was funny but it shocked us at the time - So it was good to be
able to see that and it was a great achievement for Scotland to have the first cloned mammal
towards the end of our trip in the UK coming back to see family - We felt like foreigners - We really
did the UK had moved on extremely quickly - Yes it had hadn't it - Almost to the degree that
- We didn't recognize it anymore did we - Half the stores we were used to were gone and there
was a whole pile of store brands - We never heard of had we - No so yes unfortunately one of the
downsides to emigrating when you go back from where you came you do feel like a foreigner
- And we definitely did didn't we - We did anyway that's what shocked us going back to the UK
- And we hope that everybody is staying safe - Keeping well - And until the next time bye-bye