Things to bring to England, vs things to buy in England

I'm told this place is okay although the review isn't all that good.

Hi - I wrote a blog post with packing advice a while back which you can find here: http://classroomcanada.blogspot.com/200 ... cking.html

Please let me know what you think & if I've missed anything!
Thanks!
Happy packing,
Victoria

If I bring my laptop can i get an adapter in England? I just bought mine a year ago so I don't want to get a new one already.

Depending on where you end up living in the UK, there are Costco warehouses dotted around the country where you can often find brands you'll be familiar with from Canada (or at least the US). Skippy, Ziploc, Oreo, Paul Newman products are always in stock, for example.
Membership is about £25 a year (if you're eligible - many jobs are), which comes with a 'spouse' card you can give to someone else so you could share the fee with them.
I was told a while ago that their bagel dough, for example, is imported from Canada. (I'd say they're more doughy/spongy than a Montreal bagel but way better than any English equivalent I've ever found.)
I became a Costco addict while living in Montreal and was so happy to find one near me when I returned home.
As for other things, it's more likely to bee the odd food items you'll find yourself missing as pretty much everything else is easily available here that you can find in Canada.

Just a bit of advice from my own experience, even if I'm a bit late to the party and lots of good advice had already been given!

Mobile Phones- Depends on what kind of phone you have. As has been mentioned, it's all about SIM cards here. I brought my Razr2 from Canada, thinking it could just be unlocked and get a new SIM, problem was, no SIM! So it does depend on the phone. The thing here is, there are SO many phone choices at so manyt plan options and cost options, getting one here isn't a bad idea.

As for specific elctronics, I'd say only what you need and at that, don't forget to shell out for adapters and whatnot. I brought 3 external hard drives, a little clock radio/ipod speaker thing (which not too surprisingly pics up a couple BBC stations), and that's about it. Since you're not moving here permanently as I have, you'll likely want to bring more of your own stuff, I would think. A laptop though, for example isn't THAT expensive to buy here for a basic one but if you have an adapter AND a converter AND are really attatched to yours Canadadian one, that would work too. You can get adapters here in England too.

Food- I've had some of the best pizza I've ever had in London! PapaDel's in Highgate, for one (with good prices as well), and any number of Italian places, as has been said, and there are a tonne. Dominio's is here, and is the same more or less, yes and the supermarket pizzas are pretty tasty. I've found much of the food here to be richer in general. Not necessarily more sugary or fatty, just....fuller. Hard to explain, even the Hellman's mayo seems to have a little something that it didn't in Canada. One thing I found was that depending on where you are, it can be hard to get a NON instant cup of coffee (assuming you're not near or don't like a Starbucks or Cafe Nero). That was rough when we first got here, where we were staying (Lewisham) had nothing like that, it was awful. I like tea but in the morning, I have to have coffee, so I moved next to a coffee shop!

One more thing on coffee, there is a Canada Shop in Covent Garden in London (canadashop.co.uk, I think, or something like that) that has a small selection of Canadian food, Reese's PB Cups, Pancake mix, etc, BUT, has a place for TIM HORTONS COFFEE. They still had some cocoa mix there but naturally, the coffee was sold out!

There are plenty of sushi restarants that are amazing as well, a good rule of thumb (as with Shwarma) here is, if it looks dodgy, it probably is. One thing though, good sushi here is not cheap. You can go to a 'Wasabe', which is a take away, pick your own type place that's pretty cheap, but you get what you pay for.

Hope that helped and your moves have gone well to those coming over.

GB

Hiya

As a Brit you are right, sushi here is rubbish but in Bristol there is a place called YO Sushi which is cool. Also, rolls are called rolls down south and baps up north, but if you say roll anywhere people WILL understand you! Never heard of Shake and Bake so we obviously dont have it! And Pizza is expensive but thats just the normal price to us.

If you have any questions feel free to message me!

Katie

I would not recommend bringing your cell phone to the UK... much less hassle to get one there. I got a cheap one at T-Mobile for 10 pounds and went pay as you go. Plus you don't have to use one of your adapter to charge your mobile, making it available for other items, such as an external drive.

Since a decent hair straightener is pretty expensive, I was happy I bought mine and used it with an adapter. I'd suggest you do the same, save some money for something else. As for the computer, it really is up to you. If you plan on using it a lot, I'd suggest you buy a new one. There's always the option of selling it back before you go via Gumtree.

What I missed: being from Montreal, I missed the poutine! Even though they have some in the Canadian Pub in Covent Garden it still doesn't taste as good. There is a Canadian Shop next door where they sell different Kraft products such as peanut butter and Kraft Dinner, as well as Tim Horton's coffee. They also sell Aussie and Kiwi stuff.

Do bring a very warm and waterproof jacket. Winters are rarely under 0, but it still feels very cold because of the humidity. A light waterproof jacket is also useful. In fact I found waterproof jackets to be much more handy than an umbrella since you don't have to carry it around in your bag (especially when wet) all the time.

I think the real problem is what you should have brought back from England when you're back in Canada. Had I known I would miss things so much, I would have made provisions!

With cellphones, or mobiles as they're called in the UK, the main issue will be whether or not the phone is tri-band. This is because different frequencies are used in the UK and Canada.

Generally, though not always, the tri-band phones are the more expensive ones.

Then there's unlocking - though I'd think that would be less of an issue. SIM cards are easy to get in the UK (you can even get them for nothing sometimes on promotions) - and PAYG (pay as you go) rarely has time limits on use of credit.

All computers *should* be OK. Laptops can usually run with just a socket adaptor. With desktops, there's usually a voltage switch somewhere on the back. Remember to switch to 240V *before* turning it on, otherwise you could blow the thing up!

I guess all legit phones in Canada are locked, so how do I unlock it? Of course since I will be staying in a hostel until I find a place, I would like to travel light.

There are companies in Canada and in the UK that will unlock phones for a fee. They're much more common over here than at home though, since almost ALL cell phone provides - sorry - mobile phone providers - use sim cards, where as at home sim cards aren't quite as common.

You can buy a lot of the same brands of personal hygiene items over here - toothpaste, face wash, shampoo, etc. I'd recommend unless you're VERY particular about shampoo just packing enough for a couple of days.

You can definitely find decent pizza here - just DO NOT whatever you do, order Dominoes. I'm serious. It was so terrible that my boyfriend (who is more than capable of eating 3 big mac meals in a sitting) and I could not finish a single 12" pizza. It was awful. I mean, Dominoes isn't great in Canada, but they really take it to the next level here. Anyway, we've found decent pizza from tiny local shops... we've just been going to justeat.co.uk and picking a random pizza place after checking out several menus, which has worked out moderately well. I mean, its not Panago, or Papa Murphys, but its solid pizza. The Asda by our place also had a Pizza counter, which makes fresh take-and-bake pizzas to order - again, good, and pretty cheap too. Like, 4 quid for a 14" pizza.

If you don't like artificial sweeteners, be prepared to read the label of everything you buy. At home, sweeteners really only appear in products that are marketed as low-calorie, diet, or sugarfree... not so here. A lot of companies will use part sugar part sweetener, to compensate for the higher cost of sugar. We've also been unable to find juice concentrates. You can get "squash" which is juice mix, but its not 100% fruit concentrate, and makes more of what's marketed as "punch" at home with added flavourings, water, and sugar.

Hey ya'll
I've been in England for 9 months now, and you should definitely buy electronics over here, laptops are fine from canada, but speakers, chargers, radios, pretty everything else, you might as well buy in the UK. The only things I miss from home are powdered drinks, like ice tea, they have 'squash' here which is basically the same thing, but its in liquid form, and I don't particularly like it... and Tim Hortons!! Omg I miss Tim Hortons!! When I went home for Christmas I brought back powdered drinks, lays (they have their own version of lays called Walkers, but you cannot buy a big bag of chips here, they also call them crisps, you can buy a big bag that is filled with small bags of chips, but not a big bag of loose chips, its quite frustrating!), clothes are also cheaper in Canada, with the exchange rate and all, but if you go to Primark, you can some pretttttttyy cheap clothes!!! I wouldn't bother bringing furniture, they do have Ikea here and it is fairly cheap. You can also get cheap stuff at Argos! If you have particular brands of things you like in Canada, like Tylenol or Tums, bring it with you, because they have their versions here, but its just not the same! And be prepared for LOTS of rain!! Also be prepared for public transport costing alot more, trains and buses are quite expensive if you have to use them every day. Their pound stores sell tons of stuff though, so you can get alot of household things there very cheap. Also, be prepared for not knowing what in the world the Brits are talking about.. they have different names for alot of things! Pants are underwear, trousers are pants, jumpers are sweaters, fleecies are sweaters, a brolli is an umbrella, a rubber is an eraser, a johnny is a condom, a folder is a binder, a fag is a cigarette, spotted dick is a type of dessert, squash like I said before is a type of drink, not a vegetable.. uhm thats all I can think of for now... And everything in England is small! The houses and the rooms and everything!! You will feel claustraphobic at first.
Hope that helps!!