Around The UK

I forgot to mention renewing my driving license whilst I was in the UK. Unlike Aus, you get your license and it runs out when you are 65. Mine was the old paper type (and the address was somewhat old as well). I discovered I could renew and update it on line. I went to the DVLC site and managed to apply for a special passport into the web site. I entered my details and was able to update the address to where my sister is and where I stay when I go over there. I entered my passport details and they were able to retrieve the photograph from there but also wanted new photos sent for their records. All in all painless, free and I got a new (pink) UK license within a few days. Who says the Brits are lagging behind. I have not seen anything like this in either the US or Australia!

Driving around the UK was fun. I realized that they do not just have speed cameras they have average speed cameras. They use number recognition software to check your number plate (License plate on the car) and note where you are. Another camera further along uses the same technology to check your location and then they calculate your average speed between the two points. So it is no good slowing down for the camera and then speeding up again. I also saw a program where they use a slightly different version of this type of software. This was a police car on a motorway. They have equipment that automatically scans the number plate and then checks with the central database as to whether there is any insurance on that car. If none is shown it alerts the police officers who can run more thorough checks from their car (whilst traveling behind the suspect vehicle) and if it comes up with no insurance showing, they pull the driver over. All very clever. The example we saw the guy had his car impounded and had to walk, needless to say he was not a happy Vegimite.

I also noticed how many shops carried Halloween items. They had the obligatory costumes (unlike the US, these were only for children) plus of course numerous orange items including pumpkins, fake and real. However, I also saw my first ever Halloween Tree! It is like a Christmas tree, sort of, but totally black and bereft of life (or so it appears). There were all sorts of Halloween sweets of course. On the night in question we got visited by several troops of children, all suitably dressed up, with escorting parents who were not. I gather that in the US, parents who go with their children also get dressed up, but I wont see that until next year.

I also noticed that there is a mixture of imperial and metric measures in the UK. Milk for example is still delivered to the door by the pint and can be purchased at stores in pints. They also use yards (unlike the Americans) and the good old British Postman still walks his rounds and puts the mail in the letter box in the door (unlike the Aussie Postie who uses a moped to deliver the post to people’s post boxes at the edge of their driveways or the US Postal Service that seem to deliver in special vans, not leaving the vehicle as they just lean out and put the post in the mail box).

I also became aware of the type of housing, which is predominantly brick and the wealth of history in the country, which you tend to take for granted when you live there. I visited Haddenham where my father’s ashes are interred. This is a Saxon church with the first priest residing there in 1060 (i.e six years before the Norman invasion of 1066 brought William the Conqueror to Great Britain). On another occasion I had a pub lunch in the Red Lion at Chalton, Hampshire’s oldest pub. It dates back to 1147! I saw numerous churches that were 500 years old or even older, it is just part of the landscape over there.

I was also reminded of the fact that where my family live is and army town. Mind you, the armed forces are supposedly moving out but they have been saying that for as long as I can remember. On one occasion, as I was about to turn on to the main road, traffic was stopped by the police as a tank drove by with an L plate on. This brought back memories of when I was last in the area several years ago. The main road out of the town runs through a thickly wooded area that is predominantly military land. On one side there is a wide track and I can remember driving along in traffic one day when I suddenly became aware that I was being overtaken by a Tank. This was driving along on a lane in the wooded area to my left. The vehicle raced ahead of me and then disappeared into the woods, never to be seen again. I must admit, it is a little disconcerting when you are driving, to find your self being overtaken by a battle tank…..

I also remembered what northern winter is like, i.e. getting darker earlier, the cold wet and damp days. I walked around Farnham one afternoon and found I was getting cold, or rather, my hands and face were tingling with the cold but under my coat I felt warm. There is really nothing quite like it in Australia and so I had forgotten what it was like (mind you, upon returning to the US I have started to discover similar things here). Just make you appreciate what a wonderful climate there is in Aussie, although I must admit I did hate the periods of very high temperatures, the days and days of over 40 Celsius that seemed unbearable. Distant memories now I am afraid.