LVSteve
Member
I'm not long back from three weeks in the UK. Primary reason for the visit was one of my aunt's 80th birthday party. A few thoughts on family and friends:
It was great to see family again, including some I'd not seen in 25+ years. We have all got older, and in some ways we have all changed, leading to changes in the dynamic between family members. Not all these changes have led to greater harmony within the family. The family Queen Bee (my aunt) hates that, but she has had to begrudgingly admit that certain individuals have done some nasty things over money through the years. That one of them has raised the BS flag on this to put a stop to the nonsense was never going to be easy, but it had to be done.
What does the family think of the changes in me? Some kept their own council, others expressed their delight in my demeanor since I remarried, but some have expressed disquiet at my non-woke laser focus on certain world issues. On that last point, tough. Interestingly, one cousin said it was like I had never left and he harked back to the days when we hung out in the bars together. This got a major eye-roll from his wife, and a "Maybe Steve won't be doing that anymore" from mine.
As a side note, my wife has been a huge hit with the family. One family friend described her as "delicious", to which I replied, "Why do you think I married her".
While over there we visited a couple who were family friends that we saw often when I was a kid. I had not seen them in nearly forty years, I think. We stayed with them for a couple of days in a small rural town in the county of Suffolk. Were it not for the number of modern cars, it could be 1972 there. The pace of life made you wonder about the rest of the Western world. Both of them are now in their 80s, and as we left, the guy (86) said, "I hope to see you again".
A poignant moment, especially given their age and health and that of my aunt. I am pretty sure she will be in some kind of sheltered accommodation in less than a year. I think the more familiar term here is "assisted living". I fear that in the coming years, I shall be the grizzled "old one" of the family. It is a role I do not relish.
Some observations on life and attitudes in the UK:
The press of people everywhere you go in SE England gets old quite quickly. 30+ million people in a space smaller than a couple of Nevada counties will do that. My wife got to see it fullbore in one of the major railway stations in London. It flat out frightened her, especially when I pointed out that it wasn't even the real rush hour. Even in the rural areas there always seem to be people about and 24/7 traffic. Peace and quiet can be hard to find, but we did manage it in one peculiar spot. It's an old industrial area next to the river Thames. The buildings are gone, and the whole site has been going back to nature slowly, probably because in a few years it will be indefensible to flooding. I'll post some pics of the butterflies and stuff we saw there.
The grinding down of personal freedoms continues. The full-on assaults on car ownership and use are no longer disguised as anything else than what they are. There are also certain matters regarding law enforcement and the TV news media that disturb me, but further comment takes me beyond forum rules.
Within the rules I can tell you that the road infrastructure is crumbling along with the national health service. Mind you, the treatment received by my old friends at the hands of a private doctor did not bear close examination either. On the bright side, the major rail line into London from where my aunt lives is first class. Mind you, a big row has broken out about all the railway companies' wishing to close all manned ticket offices. How does that work for the technology challenged and the disabled? The lack of an open ticket office screwed me and my wife at one point when an automatic machine for the London Underground (The Tube) refused to take my credit card. We declared defeat and went "home" to auntie's. On another trip into London we had tickets that also worked on the Tube and the journey was fine. My wife was quite impressed with the Tube as a system.
I am both amused and saddened by the reaction of many under forty in the UK to straight talking. It can lead to much hand wringing together with muttering about showing respect and not being aggressive. I was not too popular with the rejoinder, "If you think I was being aggressive, you need to get out more." Quite honestly there were times I thought that "Great" Britain was false advertising. The place needs to grow a pair again. An example of the political correctness gone mad is a road near my aunt's that has single lane working with traffic lights because the road has been undermined by badgers. The local paper said it could be more than a year before the issue is resolved because of the badgers' protected status (ha! bloody things are everywhere) and the environmental studies that will be needed to remediate the street. WTH, over.
One more thing, the weather. It was typically British while we were there. We got spoiled last year in what was a fantastic summer. This year there was always the threat of rain in a day or less and the wind only quit on a couple of days as I recall. Our planned trip to Duxford Air Museum got rained out, largely because driving the required distance in heavy rain unnerves my wife intensely. On a UK motorway the traffic density and the spray can get on your last nerve when trying to get somewhere in a reasonable time. Those of you who were based in the UK during your time with the military are no doubt nodding sagely at this point.
Sorry to ramble on, but I just needed somewhere to get some of this out of my head and see if it made any sense. What say you?
It was great to see family again, including some I'd not seen in 25+ years. We have all got older, and in some ways we have all changed, leading to changes in the dynamic between family members. Not all these changes have led to greater harmony within the family. The family Queen Bee (my aunt) hates that, but she has had to begrudgingly admit that certain individuals have done some nasty things over money through the years. That one of them has raised the BS flag on this to put a stop to the nonsense was never going to be easy, but it had to be done.
What does the family think of the changes in me? Some kept their own council, others expressed their delight in my demeanor since I remarried, but some have expressed disquiet at my non-woke laser focus on certain world issues. On that last point, tough. Interestingly, one cousin said it was like I had never left and he harked back to the days when we hung out in the bars together. This got a major eye-roll from his wife, and a "Maybe Steve won't be doing that anymore" from mine.
As a side note, my wife has been a huge hit with the family. One family friend described her as "delicious", to which I replied, "Why do you think I married her".
While over there we visited a couple who were family friends that we saw often when I was a kid. I had not seen them in nearly forty years, I think. We stayed with them for a couple of days in a small rural town in the county of Suffolk. Were it not for the number of modern cars, it could be 1972 there. The pace of life made you wonder about the rest of the Western world. Both of them are now in their 80s, and as we left, the guy (86) said, "I hope to see you again".
A poignant moment, especially given their age and health and that of my aunt. I am pretty sure she will be in some kind of sheltered accommodation in less than a year. I think the more familiar term here is "assisted living". I fear that in the coming years, I shall be the grizzled "old one" of the family. It is a role I do not relish.
Some observations on life and attitudes in the UK:
The press of people everywhere you go in SE England gets old quite quickly. 30+ million people in a space smaller than a couple of Nevada counties will do that. My wife got to see it fullbore in one of the major railway stations in London. It flat out frightened her, especially when I pointed out that it wasn't even the real rush hour. Even in the rural areas there always seem to be people about and 24/7 traffic. Peace and quiet can be hard to find, but we did manage it in one peculiar spot. It's an old industrial area next to the river Thames. The buildings are gone, and the whole site has been going back to nature slowly, probably because in a few years it will be indefensible to flooding. I'll post some pics of the butterflies and stuff we saw there.
The grinding down of personal freedoms continues. The full-on assaults on car ownership and use are no longer disguised as anything else than what they are. There are also certain matters regarding law enforcement and the TV news media that disturb me, but further comment takes me beyond forum rules.
Within the rules I can tell you that the road infrastructure is crumbling along with the national health service. Mind you, the treatment received by my old friends at the hands of a private doctor did not bear close examination either. On the bright side, the major rail line into London from where my aunt lives is first class. Mind you, a big row has broken out about all the railway companies' wishing to close all manned ticket offices. How does that work for the technology challenged and the disabled? The lack of an open ticket office screwed me and my wife at one point when an automatic machine for the London Underground (The Tube) refused to take my credit card. We declared defeat and went "home" to auntie's. On another trip into London we had tickets that also worked on the Tube and the journey was fine. My wife was quite impressed with the Tube as a system.
I am both amused and saddened by the reaction of many under forty in the UK to straight talking. It can lead to much hand wringing together with muttering about showing respect and not being aggressive. I was not too popular with the rejoinder, "If you think I was being aggressive, you need to get out more." Quite honestly there were times I thought that "Great" Britain was false advertising. The place needs to grow a pair again. An example of the political correctness gone mad is a road near my aunt's that has single lane working with traffic lights because the road has been undermined by badgers. The local paper said it could be more than a year before the issue is resolved because of the badgers' protected status (ha! bloody things are everywhere) and the environmental studies that will be needed to remediate the street. WTH, over.
One more thing, the weather. It was typically British while we were there. We got spoiled last year in what was a fantastic summer. This year there was always the threat of rain in a day or less and the wind only quit on a couple of days as I recall. Our planned trip to Duxford Air Museum got rained out, largely because driving the required distance in heavy rain unnerves my wife intensely. On a UK motorway the traffic density and the spray can get on your last nerve when trying to get somewhere in a reasonable time. Those of you who were based in the UK during your time with the military are no doubt nodding sagely at this point.
Sorry to ramble on, but I just needed somewhere to get some of this out of my head and see if it made any sense. What say you?
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