I’m finally back from England. Needless to say, I’m a bit tired. The 8 hour time difference can really take a toll on you. My two year old daughter is no exception. She got up at 2:00 am this morning, walked in to our room and said, “Good Morning”. NO, NO! It’s not morning. You need to go back to bed. She didn’t understand, because her body clock was telling her it was 10:00 am. Oh well. We’ll just deal with the sleep deprivation for a couple days until we get back on west coast time.
I had a ton of interesting experiences while in England. I think I was finally getting used to driving on the other side of the road, or should I say, being in a car that was driving on the other side of the road. (I chose not to drive as a “life preservation” tactic).
One thing you notice as soon as you arrive is that most cars are VERY small. The smallest cars I saw were the “Smart Cars”. They are extremely small vehicles (basically two seats and metal wrapped around them), but they were kind of cool. Would I want to get in an accident in one? NO. When I was talking to one of my wife’s relatives, he mentioned that he spends anywhere from 70 pounds to 140 pounds a week on gas for his car. It’s an SUV, but certainly not the size of the American SUV’s. Translated in dollars, that’s somewhere around $130 to $260 a week on gas. It was TERRIBLY expensive over there. If you think gas is expensive in the US, think again. If the US gas keeps climbing, I bet we’ll start seeing smaller cars that look more like what everyone is driving in England.
Well, I’ve got tons of interesting tidbits to share. If my England observations bore you, I apologize. Much of it will center around the costs of things in England, and how heavily they are taxed there.