8 September 2014

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote and having had a week in the UK it seems a good time to record my latest observations so here goes.

Before the UK stream of consciousness begins I thought I would round out our US trip:

• After many years of visiting the US I have only recently discovered ‘salt raising bread’.  Now don’t be confused, the reference to salt raising does not mean there is a lot of salt in this bread, in fact it probably has less than normal bread; the name is a mystery.  The bread starter comes from corn flour rather than wheat flour and I am guessing uses wild yeast rather than bread yeast, not unlike sour dour bread.  Salt raising bread can only be found in western New York and parts of Pennsylvania.  It is the best particularly when toasted.  A word of warning, it contains no preservative and goes off very quickly if not used.  A very yummy bread!
• The word for all shoppers BOGO.  I thought it was a brand name that was on sale in a shoe store.  Maybe an inexpensive shoe.  I then discovered another BOGO sale, in another mall in another town.  It turns out BOGO stands for Buy One Get One free. Who would have thought.   Actually it makes more sense than EOFYS!  A challenge for the American readers – do you know what EOFYS means?
• The Upgrade:  Yes, we got another variant on our eight hour flight from Chicago to London.  Actually we were given the crews seats since the flight was over booked.  The seats had their own space and they reclined a lot.  Unfortunately the crew were left to sit on boxes when they needed to rest.

And to UK:

• We are now in the land of toilets not bathrooms or rest rooms.  None of those ‘Gents’ and ‘Ladies’ here its gentlemen and ladies.  Love it, it’s so genteel.  Of course you still come across the WC which reminds me of the Australian ‘Comfort Station’.  There aren’t many Comfort Stations left. The only one I can recall is in Frankston, Victoria.
• I always thought the beeping noise at pedestrian crossings was to assist the vision impaired to know when to cross the road; how wrong I was.  It turns out the beeper is to assist smart phone users so they don’t have to lift their eyes from the screen when the light turns green and it’s safe to cross the road.
• Road signs in the US are big, plentiful and in your face; very easy for the unfamiliar driver.  In contrast the road signs in the UK are small, discrete, low and often hidden by the flora.  It takes some time to develop the skills of ‘finding the road sign’.  If you have downloaded the Interpretive Language app into your head you may be able to decipher the road signs with only minimal letters visible.
• Added to the road sign challenge, the country lanes are narrow and picturesque.  Around every corner is a new vista of a stone cottage or ancient farmhouse.
• Your attention is focused when rounding a bend you come across a pair of horses being ridden side by side on your side of the road, with a truck coming toward you.    Of course it is important to remember that the road is sufficiently narrow that you need to be side swiping the hedge row for the car coming toward to you to get by.  It seems to work but if you come to the UK do not rent a big car.
• Everything is built from stone.  The town planning regulations must be pretty amazing since they assiduously retain the look and feel of the old villages.  In our local village even the car wash and petrol station is built from stone!  Yep, here it’s a petrol station not a gas station – I feel like I am home.
• In Australia we walk on footpaths, in the US it’s the sidewalk and in the UK it’s the pavement.  However there are also footpaths in the UK.  These are ancient path ways that cross farmland and villages without impediment.  Everyone has the right to walk the footpaths and it’s a wonderful experience as you walk through the countryside crossing through farmer’s fields, checking to make sure the cattle are cows or steers and not a territorial bull with his nostrils flared.  These pathways are a wonderful way to explore the countryside.
• Along your footpath you will come across squeezers.  They may be a Derbyshire institution and they are truly new to me.  Squeezers are two or three large stones in the stone fence designed to allow walkers to get through but not stock.  You can plot your course across unmarked fields by looking for the next squeezer across the field.
• Warm beer – need I say more.
• We have now arrived in Scotland and the accent is so broad it’s almost a new language.  Today we head for the island of Arran and then Kintyre, Mull and Skye.  The countryside is more open and less populated.  Fewer trees and vast landscapes.

That’s it for now or this will get too long.