what do you miss about home?

1. Family and friends (sure, I have some good friends here but those at home I've known all the way from high school and uni)
2. Really good coffee (I would never go to S*bucks in Australia!!!)
3. The MCG - live footy in winter and cricket in summer
4. Listening to the footy or cricket on the radio in the car
5. Melbourne's Spring Racing Carnival - having a champagne (or, um, several) on the lawn amongst the roses all dressed up in a great dress and hat is so much fun
6. Clear, blue open skies
7. Grass to play on
8. Swings in parks (why are there so few swings in HK?)
 
1. The Zoo / Bird Park / Botanical Gardens (cheaper outdoor places for kids)
2. Clean & affordable cooked food (highend restaurants/food courts/hawker centre)
3. Cheap & good variety seafood/fish/meat from the wet market
4. Home space
5. Clean air...

I guess alot of it is repetitive but above all i miss..

6. Having majority of the people being tolerant & more accepting of each other's culture, race, ethnicity & religion; irregardless of you being local/expat
 
Fresh air, clear sky or clean raindrops plus:

1. My friends;
2. Australian lamb cutlets of superb quality on a BBQ;
3. Drinking fresh milk and 100% natural juice every day;
4. Having red wine with blue cheese in my backyard while watching
beautiful flowers and colourful birds singing in the trees;
5. Driving to a nearby beach resort with family staying in a rented townhouse for a week;
6. Free medicare...
 
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I am originally from Australia and here is what I miss:

1. safe and affordable fresh food - particularly salad ingredients;
2. BIG supermarkets where I can fill the whole boot of my car with provisions;
3. good coffee shops;
4. being able to go away for the weekend without having to fly (i.e. weekend driving holidays);
5. being able to go for long walks with my pram without encountering steps or having the footpath just mysteriously disappear on a busy road!

If we left HK I would miss:
1. my helper who is so lovely and kind to my son. At home in Sydney we have no family to help us out so I would have to "cope" on my own;
2. cheap taxis;
3. being able to go out for lunch with my husband while our son is asleep (see point 1 re my helper);
4. fabulous medical insurance paid by my employer (at home we ended up paying a lot for "gap" services);
5. being able to work without needing to put my son in childcare (see point 1 re my helper!!).
6. the more gentle culture here - I love the fact that I can go to social events without sharing my days with drunken yobbos, I have never had anyone yell something obscene at me out of a car window and I don't feel like I am the only one not drinking heavily when I go out to dinner with friends.
 
what I miss the most

Hi
Monty, I wasn't going to post a thing, but just enjoy reading everyone's list, until I read yours and may I say you made me very homesick!
Obviously we are from the same neighbourhood.

What I miss the most about home

1. Long standing friendships and family
2. The ease of familiarity and routine
3. Carlton coffee shops
4. Victoria Market - where I can buy everything I need at one place and enjoy the experience at the same time!
5. All the wonderful mum's I have met through my daughter through play groups, ballet, music
6. Princes Park and Curtain Square - two fantastic parks in Melbourne just up the road from home
7. Clean air
8. Public toilets that DO NOT have exposed side bins of used toilet paper!
9. Pram friendly footpaths and lots of parks with grass you can sit on!
10. My house, my neighbourhood and my work
11. Reasonably priced organic food
12. Size 41 footwear

Great post by the way Aussiegirl! Thanks.:flower:
 
Space and the ability to walk down the street without people bumping into me.
I also miss "excuse me"
 
I love this thread, I've been continually thinking about it for few days.
But I've found that it's the HK list that has more things I'd miss on it.

Strangely it's made me realise how much I love HK and that I don't want to leave anytime soon. ( which is good, because we've been here for 9 years and we'll probably be here for another 10!)

When we first moved here I was miserable, and couldn't wait to do my minimum years here and get back to Australia as soon as possible.
But after a couple of years it started to grow on me.

It's different for our family compared to some, as we now live in Sai Kung, with the big house with the garden, and at the moment with this gorgeous weather, we are loving spending our days with the kids playing on our grass, running through the sprinkler ( can't do that in Oz at the moment with a drought!) or the kiddy pool.
We spend some evenings sitting outside watching the sun disappear behind Ma On shan, while enjoying a wine as our helper baths the kids!

I just don't think we could have a better lifestyle anywhere.
I know that not every one has the same options, but for anyone that is hating the apartment lifestyle ( we did midlevels for 8 years) maybe it's worth moving a little further away from the city. It's usually what we would do back home anyway.

P.S I need to add to my list of things I love about HK.

Octopus cards.
Not having to get out of the car to pump petrol.
 
i agree, since moving to sai kung, my list of what i miss has diminished somewhat...

found myself in melbourne recently lamenting the fact that my friend had a garden AND a playroom...then i stopped mid-sentence and said..."wait a minute... i have those things, too!"

what i'd miss about hk:
1) GOOD chinese food
2) our helper
3) our salaries (there is no way we'd make what we are making now, if we were in canada!)
4) easy short trips abroad
5) our helper
6) fresh seafood
7) our helper
8) good dumplings
9) our helper
10) owning my own business
11) did i mention our helper????
12) choosing your seat at the cinema WHILE YOU BUY YOUR TICKET!!! makes much more sense than the stupid n.american "run for it" mentality!
13) oh, yes.... our helper!
 
From a Sydney-sider...

1) parents, relos and old school friends
2) cheap decent coffee
3) the beach + the breeze + picnic rug + fish and chips (aaaahhhhh)
4) the sound of crickets/cicadas at night
5) Westfields (believe it or not)
6) down to 'earthness' of people
7) starry skies at night seen from the backyard
8) driving with the windows down

Feeling VERY homesick writing this. Maybe it's time to book a ticket.
 
or head to sai kung...

starry skies- check
crickets- check
beach-check

ummm..... sorry for the rest...
 
Things I miss about home
1) Durians
2) Multi-cultural environment
3) Sunny weather 365 days a year
4) Normal apartments which are REALLY over 1000 square feet and not just 75% because the other 25% is in the communal area!
5) Happy and relaxed people
6) Free education of a good standard
7) To wear flip flops everyday
8) Converse in a mixture of many languages and people still understand you!

Things I will miss about HK
1) My husband
2) Dim Sum
3) Roast Pork from Mongkok
4) Wong Tai Sin
 
sea princess said:
Hi
Monty, I wasn't going to post a thing, but just enjoy reading everyone's list, until I read yours and may I say you made me very homesick!
Obviously we are from the same neighbourhood.

What I miss the most about home

1. Long standing friendships and family
2. The ease of familiarity and routine
3. Carlton coffee shops
4. Victoria Market - where I can buy everything I need at one place and enjoy the experience at the same time!
5. All the wonderful mum's I have met through my daughter through play groups, ballet, music
6. Princes Park and Curtain Square - two fantastic parks in Melbourne just up the road from home
7. Clean air
8. Public toilets that DO NOT have exposed side bins of used toilet paper!
9. Pram friendly footpaths and lots of parks with grass you can sit on!
10. My house, my neighbourhood and my work
11. Reasonably priced organic food
12. Size 41 footwear

Great post by the way Aussiegirl! Thanks.:flower:
Click to expand...

Sea Princess, I apologise, I didn't mean to make you feel so homesick, I'm sorry! I'm feeling the pinch at the moment myself and so this post got me thinking about all of the things I miss about Melbourne. It does sound like we are from the same neighbourhood. Hubby and I used to live in Parkville and spent a lot of time in Carlton, drinking coffee and eating gelato (Brunettis - yum!) in the warmer months.

From what I read it seems there is a fare few Aussies missing things from 'home'. Matty thank you very much for also sharing all the wonderful things about Hong Kong (and Cara too!). It is always good to focus on what we have rather than what we do not have.
 
carang said:
funny... 99% of mine revolve around food! (no wonder i'm overweight! LOL!)
Click to expand...

Very nice! Hubby and I are going back to Australia in August and have already started discussing which restaurants we want to visit, what food we want to buy from the markets, where we are going to go to get coffee and cake and where we are going to get cooked breakfasts from. It seems our trip will revolve around meals (with a touch of family)!
 
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