sine qua non

There were things I missed when I moved from Ireland to England, but then I moved from England to Canada and guess what?
Canada is a great country but I had even more crisp related problems. First off, they don't have cheese and onion flavour as routine. And then there is the pack size. You know those silver heat reflective things they give to runners when they finish a race? When the runners are finished with those they are sealed down the sides and made into chip packets.
Canadian content refers to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requirements that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by persons from Canada. What this means is that it takes a long time to find a decent radio station. Far too much Rush and other 70's rockers. When I did finally find a good station the Canadian content rule meant the same song would be played 32 times a day. I never thought I miss Radio 1 but there you go.
I missed the variety and price of wine in England. There was less choice and what there was was much more expensive than in England, something to do with taxes I think. I missed double gloucester cheese.
Most of this was balanced by the things I didn't miss about England. Like chavs. I saw no chavs in Toronto. Really, none. I didn't miss people thinking I was Canadian, like almost eveyone I ever met in England and I didn't miss being called 'love' by strangers.
Millions of pounds every year are spent on travel guide books and television shows but none of them ever tell you the good stuff like this you know. You can't buy this advice folks and really you can never have enough shoes, Thornton's chocolate or life lessons.