Why is it that people in England are constantly asking each other "you alright?" On my first trip, I was asked "you alright?" so many times that I became sure that I must be coming down with something. Is it because noone over there actually says how they are feeling, so people have to keep checking? "you alright?" "well, actually I seem to be experiencing some acute angina. Thanks for asking."

Towel warmers. Those damned hot metal racks the Brits hang their towels, socks, etc on. And the showers. What's wrong with a little water pressure now and then?!

Now, I would have thought that when your cream clotted, you threw it out. No! It's a delicacy, and I love it too!

My wife's sister had us over for Spaghetti Bolognese. What a let down! It's spaghetti with tomato sauce! And a nice lovely gammon steak- it's a piece of ham, fer crying out loud! And who came up with mixing beer and apple cider to make a "shandy"? yeeeuucch. And by the way, pickles are green items made from cucumbers, not this sweet, brown unidentifiable vegetable mash. And why make pies out of kidneys, if you have any other options?

And while we're talking... what's up with Gollies? That kind of thing passed out of favor in the US in the 1930's, but in England you can still get your very own racially stereotyped puppet of some mid-1800's black person if you save enough Golden Shred labels.

End of rant. LEJ