So before I start spouting interesting anecdotes or historical facts about England I first want to say that we are now living about 10 miles from George Clooney. Yes George and Amal are now neighbours. And while I’m at it – Theresa May also owns a house nearby, although as she is currently abiding at number 10 – it’s probably empty at the moment.
We have been in England for a week now – living in a small town called Caversham not far from Reading. Reading is incredibly well located so it’s easy to get to all parts of England from here – be it rail, bus or car. To get to Reading we stroll along the river Thames, passing swans, ducks, geese and longboats. It’s so quintessentially English we pinch ourselves in disbelief.
We went for a country drive the other day – passing fields of bluebells, thatched cottages, locks and iconic pubs before stopping to have an English cream tea at a National Trust Property. This property also located just down the road just happened to be the former residence of William Morris – inventor of the Morris Minor and an amazingly generous philanthropist. The house was decorated exactly as when he inhabited it – with most items being originals. It was crazy to just stumble on such history.
Some interesting things we have discovered about England.
You can be standing at a station when suddenly a high speed train comes thundering past at a ridiculous speed scaring the crap out of you. They go past so fast and so close that it should be illegal.
It is ridiculously easy to access a doctor for free here. We had need of a script to which a visit to a medical drop in centre provided us with one within the hour. This service (seeing both a doctor and nurse) cost us not a cent! We had heard that many Brits had decided to Brexit based on the state of its National Health Service. We can’t help thinking that it probably would have been easier if they had just started charging people such as ourselves rather than go the whole Brexit hog.
British coinage has either no or very tiny numerical numbers. This means that you have to memorise the coinage shapes to value pretty quickly or look a right dork when trying to count change at a counter.
The Queen apparently owns all the swans on the river Thames. As we saw a dead one floating by yesterday we were pretty concerned as to how one goes about letting her know one of her charges has died.
Tomorrow we head closer to London (before heading over to Europe). – staying for a few nights at a pub in Twickenham where Pierce is currently working. It’s going to be the first time in nearly two years that we will be together as a family as Paige flew in a few days ago. Although Mothers Day in Australia tomorrow – both kids are trying to weasel their way out of it claiming Mother’s Day was in March over here.
