Stray Thoughts And Observations

There are a few things I've wanted to mention here, but mentally I feel drained. Doesn't everyone these days? Our area is still very much all about the devastation left by Hurricane Helene, and now here comes Milton hot on her heels. We're not expected to see any weather related impact from Milton, but some of the linemen and other folks skilled in disaster recovery and relief, working so hard to get NC up and running, will need to shift their immediate focus to Florida. 

Add to that war in the Middle East, the heartbreak of Israeli families whose loved ones continue in captivity or worse, and the most contentious election cycle the US has experienced in a long time and whew. It's a lot. 

Is it any wonder people are feeling like their emotional bandwidth is full? 

When everything feels huge writing helps. And writing about nothing is okay too. Life carries on in an everyday kind of way even as it teeters on what feels like the edge of a precarious cliff. 

Our trip feels like it happened a million years ago but of course we've only been home a week. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and it's made me extra grateful to have had the opportunity to live abroad in an era before the internet took over and everyone decided they needed to see the world. 

And pose in front of it. 

There are lots of what used to be little out of the way places that are now filled with tourists. I'm not suggesting people shouldn't travel, I'm just saying it's a different experience than it once was. If you could see the queue of people standing in line for an hour just to snap a photo of the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 wall in Kings Cross you'd know what I mean. 

There's less discovering something for yourself with the world in the palm of your hand. 

We opted not to go back into London after the day spent there because there were just so many people. Throngs of people. And protests. And then more people. In 2024 the world feels somewhat less stable than it did even right after 9-11, and I have a greater sense of caution in big crowds than I did fifteen years ago. My teenagers used to hop around London with friends and honestly it felt fine. 

There were no Iphones, but they did have a 'top up' phone and we'd put money on that so they could call in an emergency. Mostly though, my teenagers learned how to figure some things out for themselves and that most certainly helped shape them into who they are today. 

Timetables were little printed cards you held in your hand. You checked the tube maps (actual maps hanging on the wall) to figure out what line you needed, and you had a paper ticket you entered at the gate to get to the correct track.

There's an app for absolutely everything now so all your travel related documents, questions, and needs are right at your fingertips. So long as your phone is working I mean. 

The countryside is where it's at. It's beautiful and ancient and green, and in every little dale and borough there is something to see. Not with your camera, but with your own two eyes. To feel a sense of history and place and wonder as you stand where others have stood, and see what people made centuries before you were born with rough hewn tools and their bare hands that still stands today. 

We did a lot of driving, mostly on small roads with high hedges opening up into big vistas. We crossed many a roundabout, and hubs and I both say that in general we think people in the UK are better drivers than Americans. I know the narrow streets and multi-lane roundabouts and single track roads with oncoming traffic in your!! lane all feel a little bit crazy to those of us who learned to drive on this side of the pond, but somehow it works. 

People seem to obey the rules of the road, and this of course helps. The passing lane is for passing. Keep up with traffic. If you're approaching a roundabout the highway number is painted in the appropriate lane so you know exactly where you need to be. 

Also roundabouts. Just go round again if you somehow ended up in the wrong lane. 

There's very little honking. 

One thing that felt especially odd to us was how fast the speed limits were on some of the smaller roads. We were on a 2-lane road with high hedges on either side and I kept asking hubs how fast he was going because it felt like we were literally flying. He was going 45 and the speed limit was 60!! In the US you don't find two lane roads with hedges on either side with a speed limit of 60. 

Hubs loves driving in the UK. 

You see very few police officers/speed traps on the roads in England, but there are speed cameras everywhere. So many cameras. And there are signs telling you there are cameras so no excuses. 

Driving in the UK is definitely easier with GPS, but you miss out on the feeling of accomplishment you get when you navigate a place on your own. When we lived there we carried pages of printed instructions off of Mapquest and also had a huge atlas book in our car. We used it too! Actually I like an atlas because it allows you to see the whole of your trip which I find helpful. We're all about verbal instructions from our devices now, which I'm not complaining about exactly because my sense of direction is pretty much nil, but driving around England was more of an adventure before GPS. 

And we always carried a 'torch' aka flashlight in the car back then too, so we could read house numbers or house names as the case may be. Now we all have phones with flashlights at the ready. You don't have to figure out as much on your own or learn by doing like you did in the early 2000's. It was nerve jangling fun and I'm so glad to have had that experience. It helped shape me into who I am as well. 

We rode a lot of buses while visiting my daughter, and unless you live and commute in a major metropolitan area of the US chances are you never ever ride a city bus. When we'd have visitors and  suggest a bus they would usually recoil at the idea. But in England everyone rides buses. 

My daughter has a bus stop very near her house and this is most often the easiest way to get around her area. Like everything else bus lines, timetables, and tickets are all on your phone and she had it all figured out before we ever got there. She knew which bus we needed to be on (there are many many), where to catch them, and where to get off depending where we were going.

My daughter. 

She treks all over her city with three kids in tow, usually 'wearing' one while the two oldest each grab a hand to hold. Sometimes she's carrying shopping bags too. Y'all. It is something. She weighs about as much as a feather and it's no wonder.  Her youngest of course can walk but in general you're moving at a clip so as not to miss the next bus. Plus safety is a factor and it's just easier to have the littlest one contained when they're moving from home to bus to town and back. 

The boys always want to ride up top (a lot of the buses are double decker) so it's get everyone on board, show your ticket on your phone to the driver, schlep three kids up a flight of spiral stairs and then find a seat. Her boys act like they've been riding public transport all their lives and one of the cutest things you'll ever see is my almost two year old granddaughter, with an arm outstretched at the bus stop to let the approaching driver know he needs to stop. 

One thing I've been thinking about a lot since arriving home in the wake of a hurricane is cash. We still have a large supermarket chain in our area that is cash only because their servers are underwater in nearby North Carolina. We found on our recent trip to England so many places would not take cash. Most places it seemed were card only. 

Helene (and also Hurricane Sandy several years ago) have shown me we don't want to be a cashless society. At least I don't. When there's no power your card won't work and you need cash. 

When we travel we like to keep a very loose schedule. We don't want to book every minute before we even set foot in country but in 2024 booking some things ahead is sometimes necessary. We love to go where the locals go and eat where the locals eat and we love to meet people along the way and think about all the ways our lives are different, yet the same. It's not as easy to get off the beaten path now because it feels like people have a giant check list and they are going to check it. I get it but I don't love it. 

We always make room for spontaneous side treks and unexpected finds. For sitting in coffee shops and plazas and on park benches to watch and taste and learn. We did a lot of that this trip and it's our favorite. 

Add grandchildren to the mix and it was pretty much the perfect holiday.