Walkable cities, fast transit, plentiful libraries, and good farmers markets alone represent nearly 75% of my lived experience. There are definite concerns and deficiencies politically and economically, but life is still good. A lot of Brits I talk to seem to think America might be better, and I try to let them down gently. This is a good country to live in.
I live on the foothills of Bannau Brycheiniog having moved from silicon fen and I'm so grateful for the countryside we have all over the UK. The right to roam is a cherished right 😀
NHS. Despite people complaining about it and funding problems it is still amazing. My sister in-law is in Asia and has cancer. Even with health insurance from her job it's still insanely expensive. She basically can't afford treatment. Getting sick is bad enough but imagine that with the worry of money.
On Friday night, on the way back from a night out with mates, one of our buddies starts having complications regarding his diabetes. He takes care of himself but his sugars spike either up or down occasionally. We were worried and called for an ambulance, and I kid you not it was here in maybe 2-3 minutes or so.
His levels got sorted with the right stuff, had an IV drip of something, and by the next morning he was at home.
If he was in another country, he'd have insane difficulty paying for medical. As a mate I'm grateful for the NHS.
The weather, it gives us something to talk about or we might start discussing our feelings.
5he compactness if the country as you can usually be somewhere nice relatively quickly. You get a better perspective on this when you talk to Americans. "We're just nipping out to see Stonehenge." "It's hours away you mad Yank." "So just a short drive then." I was invited to an art exhibition in Istanbul, all the Brits I told rolled their eyes at the idea and the American I mentioned it to went "so did you go? I'd fly that distance home if I had nothing else planned that weekend."
Our sense of humour, because of we weren't laughing we'd be crying and that's not the done thing.