My England travel log ended kind of abruptly so I thought I'd share some post-trip thoughts. We arrived back in Canada just before midnight on January 1st.
(Oh, and to back this story up a bit, I might add, I was not prepared for the fireworks and Chinese lanterns that decorated the sky as the new year was celebrated in England. In PEI, it's illegal for individuals to set off their own fireworks, and although it does happen you never have several big displays of fireworks happening directly over neighbourhood houses that are crammed side-by-side. My immediate thought (after jumping out of my slumber and realizing it wasn't bombs being dropped) was just how safe is this? I had visions of inexperienced drunks setting off fireworks in the gardens around us. And the
Chinese lanterns? Well, they were pretty but I was relieved not to be in a
thatched house. I really must be getting old.)
Anyway, I digress.
The trip back to PEI was pretty brutal. It was almost a full 24 hours of travel from door to door. I'd have to guess that making that trip too often with small kids would probably decrease your life expectancy by a few years. It was that stressful and exhausting. Our bed never looked so good. In fact, as much as I loved our time in England, it was very sweet to be home.
During my time in England I kept some notes on a few of the differences I observed between life in England and life in PEI. Here they are:
We’ve been quite comfortable here in the house but some things have taken a little getting used to on my part. For starters, the fridge here is tiny. When I first visited the UK in 2007 I was surprised by how small the fridges and ovens are in many homes. Also, it’s common to have a front-loading washer installed under a kitchen counter while dryers are rare. I have yet to see a laundry room or a home with a basement. Actually, Paul tells me in over 40 years of living in England he’s never seen a laundry room or a home with a basement. Anyway, we need to shop more often because it’s impossible to stock up on fresh food and we hang our clothes to dry on a rack overnight. Without a dryer I might be forced to iron for the first time in years!
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| The entire fridge! (The freezer is in the door below.) |
Some homes have the toilet in a little closet-sized room (called a water closet) while the bath and sink (but no toilet) are in a separate room. Another unusual thing about bathrooms in the UK is that the light switch is operated by a cord hanging from the ceiling. I suppose it’s a safety feature but I’ve never heard of anyone suffering a shock from a bathroom light switch! Tubs are generally narrower and deeper here.
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| Sorry Theresa, I'm putting your loo on the net. |
Open concept homes are less common. The kitchen may be behind closed doors and it’s not unusual to also have doors in the hallway separating the living space from the bedrooms. (I don't know how, but I think the fact that the English hardly heat their homes and this fact are connected. Us Canadians like to be toasty warm. The homes I visited were all a little cool.) Driveways and garages are often tiny and the houses are very close together by North American standards. Actually, the average family home is significantly smaller here. Two bedroom homes are quite common. Even the bedrooms would be considered very small –some are hardly big enough to fit a single bed and small dresser. Closets are hard to come by but wardrobes, sometimes huge, are common. Of course I’m just stating what I’ve seen and I’m sure there are plenty of large homes with open concepts, big bedrooms and closest –I just haven’t been in one yet! Most houses are built with brick not timber and I don’t think I’ve seen a deck since I got here but stone work is everywhere and most patios consist of stone slabs laid into the ground.
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| One heck of a wardrobe. This was Paul's parents' bedroom. |
The neighbourhoods are very well kept. The English obviously love gardening! It’s so pretty and green. Huge trees hundreds of years old are everywhere and hedges rather than fences provide privacy between many homes. And there are palm trees here if you can believe it! I used to think palm trees could only survive in tropical areas but apparently the climate is mild enough for them.
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| Quite the entrance eh? |
Of course there is the obvious difference of driving on the opposite side, but you’ll also be amazed by the number of roundabouts, lack of pickup trucks and roads that curve and snake through villages with stone walls and/or high hedges on either side. Sometimes I find myself taking a deep breath as we squeeze by another car on the road.
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| Yes, this is a two-way! |
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| Love them walls. |
A word about words: if you say pants in England people will think you’re talking about your underwear –pants are always called trousers over here. A back yard is a garden, an oven is a cooker, pop is a fizzy drink, a cookie is a biscuit, a truck is a lorry and candy is always called sweets. Rainboots are wellies, a sweater is a jumper and the toilet is the loo. A parking lot is a car park, a car trunk is a boot, a flashlight is a torch, an elevator is a lift. Fries are always called chips and chips are called crisps. Diapers are called nappies and strollers are called pushchairs. Costume parties are called fancy dress parties and Santa Claus is more commonly called Father Christmas.
As a final note, I want to mention how much I love the
New Forest. (Which isn't new at all!) It's a really special place to visit. You won’t find big supermarkets, malls, gas stations or department stores but you will find the gorgeous English countryside, small villages, pubs, cottages and plenty of animals: deer, cattle, donkeys, badgers, foxes, rabbits, pigs and plenty of ponies (there are several thousand in there!) all roaming wild. People put cattle grids in their driveways to keep the ponies and other animals off their property.
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| The New Forest. Can you see the pony? |
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| Cattle grid to keep animals out! |
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| Thatched cottage. You think Hansel and Gretel live here? |
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Yeah, England kinda rocks.
