Thoughts on England

Friday May 22

Jayne got up about 5am, and I got up about 8.15am. This is the first time that I experienced a long day light. Being in Ecuador the days and nights are the same length all year long because they are at the equator. It's starts getting dark about 6pm and light about 6am. Being in England, now, it's starting to get light about 4.15am and dark about about 9.30pm. The sun sets already but its still light. And it will get longer until June 21.

When I got up this morning to go to the bathroom it was about 4.15am and it was light.
Val came over about 9.30am to say that they are going to Kennelworth. This town has the computer stores and other shops that are cheaper and more variety. Val drove Lil's car and she pointed out where I turn so I can drive there myself.

We agreed to meet in two hours. Since it was about 10am, I noted that it would be about noon that we would meet. We went our own ways, whereas Jayne and I went to the shopping area where she went to the bank. While there I changed some euros so I could buy a computer.
We bought a cheap juicer to use while we are here. This cost 15 pounds. I hope it lasts as this is a cheap price.

Then we walked to some of the stores in the 'mall section' of town. The finaly stop was in PC World. I saw something there that I liked and Jayne saw something that she likes, too. She wants a small one but we both want a laptop.

Since we didn't have time to buy something as we were to meet the ladies at noon, we walked to the supermarket. They were not at the car, but they did put their packages inside. So, we went to the cafe in the supermarket. We went back to the car, got inside and waited for them. Finally, when they came, we asked if they had time if we went back to the computer store, which they did.

After waiting for someone to wait on us, I bought the computer that I'm typing this on. It's a Compaq Presario CQ60. It has 250GB of memory with 2GB of RAM, built-in webcam and microphone and a bunch of other stuff.

However, it comes with no programs to speak of. The microsoft program costs 100 pounds. However, I have a lot of programs on my external drive. I hope I'm able to transfer this to my computer as I had thousands of dollars worth of programs on my computer that was stolen (though I didn't have to pay for them).

This computer doesn't even come with Word, so I'm typing this on WordPad, which is the only word processing program that it comes with.

I wanted a computer that was lighter but that still has a DVD drive. I could have got a small one but I would have to have an external DVD drive.

Some observations of England

Thought this is not my first time in England, I would like to mention somethings that strike me strange. I know that England is famous for its narrow roads, but you’d t hink that they would widen the roads. They really like to drive down narrow roads and come close to moving and park cars. Well, the German in me says this is strange.

They would use the excuse that land is expensive here. Really! So it is in other countries in Europe and in the cities of the US, yet they have wide roads. Sure, I understand that you cannot or do not want to widen roads in ancient towns, but there is no excuse for doing so in the country.

But there is nothing to do but live with sideswipes, etc.

Another strange thing is, that Jayne told me today that Monday will be a bank holiday. All the banks will be closed. I asked what holiday it is and she said just a bank holiday. She said there is more than one in a year. I said, ‘’This is strange. Why have one business have a holiday? Holidays in the US and other countries are days where there is a big event in the history of the country or a religious holiday, like Christmas. If they want to be consistent, every business will want their holiday. There would be a holiday for supermarkets, for hardware stores, etc.’’
Jayne said that England is consider a dirty country in Europe. She pointed out some dirt that was on the edge of the sidewalk, mind you, on the edge where the dirt is, and she said you would not see this in Switzerland. I said that you’d think that the Swiss would find something better to do. They could make more Swiss chocolates or do work in the office. So, I think that the Swiss takes cleanness to an extreme. I think is England is clean enough, I like it. It’s cleaner than the US (because we have all these foreigners there). And there is no comparison to Ecuador. Ecuador being a very filthy country (where people live) but I realize that it’s not as filthy as most parts of India.

Anyhow, it’s a pleaser to walk down the street without stepping around dog poop, broken glass, trash and pee that some bum did on the city street corner. Also, to see walls without graffiti is a pleasure, too.

Another thing that enjoy is that the friendly people. People in the streets and in the stores are friendly. In fact, when we were in the supermarket, I asked Jayne if they have a cafe here. She didn’t know, so as we were turning our heads this way and that way, a gentleman in back of us over heard us and pointed to where it was. We thanked him.

You’ll never, never get this in Ecuador.

Like the experience I’ve got before when I left Russia and returned to the US and when I left Ecuador and returned to Cyprus, it’s such a good feeling to be where there is cleanliness, friendly people, and some kind of organization. It’s a good feeling you get emotionally. And this is what I got again when I returned to England.