Florida Greetings!! I'm baaacckkkk!
8:39pm Wednesday 28th November 2007
Hello from Florida. It’s been awhile since I blogged because in the move from the house we were renting to our own home I lost my password. I was going to give up on blogging here because I
felt that being 3,000 miles away no one would really be interested in what I had to say. . .what the heck, I didn’t think anyone was interested in what I had to say when I was there in Hereford
but Liz from the Times said she didn’t mind if I continued so here I am.
For the last 5 years I’ve had to get accustomed to the British way of doing things. The shoe is now on the other foot and hubby is having to learn the American way of doing things. He is
frustrated by the ridiculous way the road out to the beach posts a 25 MPH speed limit then promptly changes it to 35 MPH and then back down to 30 MPH. I can’t explain . . .it would appear that
it’s an attempt to add funds into the police departments coffers since they nabbed him for speeding. Fortunately he’s still driving on his British license and the U.S. systems don’t
know how to cope with that so he couldn’t be issued a ticket. This will all change soon as he’s now got to go through what I did in the UK and get his driving license. I hope he does
better than me since I failed the test 3 times before I finally got my license. He’s a bit nervous about it that’s for sure.
American drivers are not as careful or conscientious as British drivers, they often can be bothered to use their indicators and switch lanes with no notice as to who is affected. Hubby’s
biggest complaint is undertaking. . .it’s done all the time and I don’t actually think it’s illegal here. That said he ought to pass his driving test with no problems.
Something else that’s an adjustment is the American way of celebrating holidays. We tend to go over the top on the decorations and not always in a particularly tasteful way either. Just around
the corner from us is a rather run down house with a fenced in back garden where loads of unusable piles of rubbish can be seen. This family decorated for Halloween with inflatable monsters and
ghosts, lights strung all over the place, scarecrows and skeletons for all to see. My grandkids thought it was cool but then at 5 and 8 they would wouldn’t they. The day after Halloween those
decorations come down and the Christmas display is started. Here it is a month later and he’s not done yet. There are lights not only on the house but strung back and forth across the roof and
lawn. Let’s not forget Father Christmas on the roof with his sleigh and reindeer. Once this spectacle is complete I will take a photo one night and attempt to post it here.
So that’s the news for now from here in Florida. I will be missing the cold weather while I am Christmas shopping, something just not quite right about being out in sandals and shorts while the
holiday music plays in the background and you are hoping that the chocolates you just bought aren’t melting in the car from the heat!!