Carl Tyler's Blog

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So been home for a couple of days now. Have my Dad's new computer setup, have his DSL working with a DSL modem/router/firewall box rather than going via a USB modem straight into the back of his PC, and have my vonage telephone service and wireless hub plugged in. So to all intent or purposes if you call my office number you'll never know that you aren't calling me in the states as it all just works great.

I hadn't been home in over a year, and this time I really noticed some of the things that are different, so here are a few of the key ones:

• People are much fairer - in the sense that there are very few sun tans going around,..The Tesco staff almost looked ill they were so pale.
• Parking spaces are bult for European cars - i.e smaller, this makes total sense as space is such a premium over here.
• Roads are narrow - A complete road in England is typically about the same size as a lane in the US, although that isn't our fault, we can blame that on the Romans who built most of them.
• I can see stars! - Living near Boston I don't get to see many stars in the sky because of the ambient light, my folks (and where I grew up) live in a village that has no street lights and could pretty much be considered almost in the middle of no where, so stars even the teeny tiny ones are crystal clear here.
• There are no trees - Well no trees is unfair, but as many know England was once a great forrest, and now it is pretty mcuh farmlands, which when you're driving around you notice how few trees there are, lots of hedges but not many trees, this is really noticable when compared to New England which is pretty much trees and lakes. Now if I lived in Vegas my opinion would probably be different.
• Television news is so so so much better - Please fellow British people, never get rid of the BBC! especially Radio 4
• National Health is great - no matter what anyone says, there is something very nice about going to the doctors and not having to pull out insurance cards, checking your coverage or checking your credit limit, you just go in, give your name and be done with it. Some Brits take this for granted and think that the grass on the "100% private" health care in the US is better, for somethings I am sure it is, for many others it is no different. Coverage for everyone though is a priviledge all should be thankful for, damn I sound like a lefty. Oh and prescriptions, that will be a 10 dollar flat fee please.
• My sisters kids have grown - Holy cow, my niece who turned 13 last week is 5foot 7, she must have grown about a feet in the last year.
• They have black pudding - ok I know this grosses people out, but I love black pudding, my first shopping trip was to Tesco for Black Pudding and what I call real sausages and baco. So for breakfast this morning, and fully conforming to Atkins, I had my black pudding with sausages and real bacon, it was fantastic!

More as I find them.