Hello!
Well, we had a smooth journey over to England, despite the storm warnings - the snow held off just long enough for us to get out of Chicago! Phew!
It's fun and weird and lovely and strange to be back in England again... Always lovely to see my old home that I grew up in for the first 20 years of my life - it always shrinks every time I come back! It all seems the same at first, but then there are the changes that start popping out at you.
Like going shopping - After the kids were in bed last night, we went to Asda (it's the English Walmart) - one of the few stores now open 24 hours... Great fun seeing all my favorite stuff on the shelves - especially fromage frais, great cheeses for low prices, chocolate, crisps that I miss, etc... Weird seeing the changes too - they now have KitKats in 4 different flavors, for instance. Milk now says 2% like America, instead of just "semi-skimmed"...
Also, "queueing" up at the checkout was different - we were loading all our stuff onto the conveyor belt and the shop assistant was just sitting there, not scanning anything. She was just looking at us and smiling. Dave asked why she wasn't starting to scan anything yet, and she said, "Well, I wouldn't be so rude!" She was waiting so that our groceries didn't all tumble down the other side and get squashed, (because, of course, you pack your own groceries - there's no assistant to pack your stuff for you)... So she was waiting for us to finish loading the stuff from the "trolley" before scanning it all in, so that we could then hop over to the other side and catch it and pack it... When Dave insisted that she begin scanning so that we could get a move on, she did so willingly but incredulously, and offered to help us pack the stuff (which was very nice because it's not the norm!)
I also noticed the unhurried pace - perhaps it was partly because it was 10 o'clock at night, but... she scanned everything in very slowly and carefully and placed everything carefully the other side... Took a long time, but it was all done with a pleasant smile and polite small talk... The one guy in the queue behind us didn't seem impatient either...
And of course, paying with credit card is different - Here, everyone now has to enter a pin number for security (not just with debit cards, but with all credit cards too).. .There is no signature system anymore - this was phased out years ago... So it always throws them when we don't have a pin number and they actually have to check our signature (and photo ID of course) - it seems to make them a bit nervous!
Anyway, after stocking up on English sundries, we went out for a couple of pints at our favorite "locals" in Rusper - a sleepy little village in the middle of nowhere - first "The Plough", which has changed hands since we were last here - they now have a posh restaurant upstairs and a beer garden. Then "The Star" which was a bit more rowdy but fun...
Earlier on yesterday, we took the kids out to Ashdown forest for a long country walk! It's SO mild here - 50 degrees - feels balmy compared to Chicago! We took them to Winne-the-Pooh terrain and walked the Pooh trail... Ashdown Forest is where A.A. Milne set the original stories of Winne-the-Pooh, and this was where Christopher Robin actually played... We saw the Hundred Acre Wood, the Heffalump Trap, the enchanted wood, Eyore's gloomy place, etc... It's a mixture of wood-land with lots of tall pine trees, and open heaths and meadows with heather, gorse, bracken, holly + brambles...
Tristan climbed loads of trees, and came home proudly sporting a nice big scratch on his tummy.. Sophie was afraid of all the prickles and hated the rabbit, deer and horse droppings that dotted the paths... (Got to toughen her up!)
Today, we're heading off for another walk at Devil's Dyke - a big hill on the South downs, overlooking Brighton and the south coast... We'll probably head on to Brighton after that...
The only snag is the light here is even shorter than in Chicago - the sun doesn't rise until about 8am, and sets at 3.30pm!! Especially today of course - the shortest day of the year... Better get going!!
Thinking of you all... Hope you are enjoying yourselves....
No comments:
Post a Comment