Back in the UK

One of the things I noticed very quickly about the UK was how expensive it all was. This was brought home when I had to get a couple of keys cut. They cost me nearly 8 pounds! I had mistakenly picked up some Aussie coins when I left and mixed them with my UK money as it is similar. This caused some shop keepers to rapidly reject the money I tried to give them and give me some very strange looks, especially as in trying to get some UK pound notes out of my wallet, US dollars fell out instead. UK money is so different to US money, the notes are all different sizes and shapes (they are totally different to Australian notes as well). There is no 1 pound note, it is a coin and there is also a 2 pound coin. The Aussie 20 cent piece is almost identical to the UK 10 pence piece which I remember always caused confusion for me (going both ways between Aus and the UK). The pennies are all much bigger than US cents (there are of course no 1 or 2 cent coins in Aus).

I was surprised to find that it was not as cold as I had expected (that changed very quickly) and that unlike the Pennsylvania, the range of colors on the trees was not great. I had become very aware of the wonderful spread of greens, yellows reds and browns in the North of the US; here it was not so extensive. It was almost as if autumn was a little latter. But, over the two weeks I was there, the temperature dropped and the colors changed. On that point, there were several places that got extreme weather. One, only a couple of miles away from where I was staying, got the entire month of October’s rainfall in just a few hours. What’s even more strange, it was restricted to an area of about 2 square miles. They had extensive flooding, but just a few miles away, no rain at all. The a couple of days later about 20 miles away, they got rain, hail and snow all at once. It was so harsh that cars were almost buried under several feet of what looked like dirty snow but was in fact hail stones frozen together. The pictures on the news looked like someone had dumped hundreds of tones of snow around these cars. The people literally had to dig themselves and their cars out. Once again, it was restricted to a relatively small area.

I also became aware of how much narrower the roads are, especially when driving around the countryside. This was really brought home to me when I encountered a double decker bus on a narrow country lane (needless to say I had to move out of the way pretty quickly as he was not taking prisoners!). The other thing I was reminded of was the number of pubs there are in England. They are everywhere and you often get directions based on pubs (i.e. go down this road as far as the Horse and Dragon, turn right and go along past the Rose & Crown, then at the Kings Head turn… etc.).

The motorways are different as well. In Aus and in the US, there tends to be a wide gap between the carriageways which may or may not have a crash barrier. In the UK, the opposing carriageways are right next to each other with a crash barrier dividing them.. I also saw a slightly different range of cars, with the overall size being smaller than either Australia or the US. I also saw real four wheel drives, as in genuine land rovers that have few luxury features and obviously are used off road. There were of course the yuppie four wheel drives (or SUVs and the Americans call them). I also noticed that Petrol (as in Gas in the US) was MUCH more expensive. It had just dropped to around 1 UK pound per liter. I also realized that parking bays in the car parks (parking lots in the US) are much narrower although a number of supermarkets also have their own brand petrol stations in the parking lot as well.

I have previously commented that US supermarkets seem to offer a deeper level of choice, i.e. not always more things but often more versions of the same thing. I found that UK supermarkets have changed. They offer a far greater range of things than I remember. They also often have cafes in them as well. I also liked the idea of being able to buy alcohol in the supermarket as well, something you cannot do in either the US or Australia. It was just another series of aisles in the supermarket. They also tended to have clothes and electrical goods making them more like the French Hypermarkets, but not as big. I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed buying things like pies, being it Cornish Pasties, or Steak and Mushroom, plus things like Pork Pies. They also stocked the cooking sauces I used to use in Australia and so was able to cook up various curries whilst I was there.

One thing I really enjoyed was watching some really good UK drama on TV. I had forgotten just how good some of it is. Whilst both the UK and Australia produce good shows, those made in the UK are somehow different, more down to earth and in some cases, very hard hitting. One show called Spooks really pulls no punches, something you don't tend to see in the US and not even in Australia. This is a counter espionage series that deals with very up to date topics. It has been running for six years but maintains a very strong following. By way of example, the show I saw was the first of a new series. It did the usual recap of the end of the last series where one of the members of the team (a woman) had been held prisoner by some terrorist group and had been very badly treated. Her boss had got himself caught (no idea how as I did not see the previous episode). He was holding the woman who collapsed unconscious just as one of the terrorists burst in holding a gun. The boss got up and tried to calm him down when the terrorist suddenly grabbed him and ran round behind him holding the gun to the guy’s neck. At this point armed UK police burst in through the door (looking like a UK version of a SWAT team). Lots of shouting and you notice that the woman has regained consciousness and slowly gets up. She attacks the terrorist and knocks him down and starts pulverizing him into the ground. Her boss looks at her, walks over to the armed police, ushers them out of the room and shuts the door. This series really does not mess about….

The first episode of the new series was equally hard hitting with one of the team dying and one of the women getting fed up with the Russian who is following her, ambushing him, beating the crap out of him, then dropping down on him (he is on his back) with her knees either side of his head. She gets a pen out of her pocket and holds it close to his eye and suggests he does not follow her any more. I looked up the series on Amazon and found that it is distributed as MI5 in the US with one reviewer describing it as THE best show not on US TV. I will most certainly be buying the series in the not too distant future as I am fed up of only seeing the odd episode or two when I travel to England.

I also enjoyed catching up on football (as in the real game of football, the one you play with your feet...) and was able to see several live games on TV. I also watched a NFL (US football) game that was played at Wembley Stadium and found myself explaining the rules to my brother in law (not that I fully understand them). However, I did miss the World Series Baseball where the Philadelphia Phillies managed to win what the US calls the World Title. How you can be world champions when only two countries play in tournament I do not know (it includes US teams and I think 1 team from Canada). They may well be the one of if not the best as the standard is very high, but I would imagine other countries where baseball is popular (such as Japan, Russia, Cuba etc.) would dispute the World Champion tag. Mind you, I have been unable to explain to my son in law how you can play a game for five days and it end in a draw. I have noticed that in NFL for example they play what is called overtime until someone scores what amounts to a golden goal. I believe similar things happen in just about all US sports. Imagine having that for all football(as in real football) or rugby games (league and union). Not sure quite how it would work in cricket though.