Sainsbury's

Sainsbury's is a complete grocery store almost the same as Safeway. It even has petrol and diesel pumps like we are used to. All shopping carts in the UK have 4 wheel steering. I'm still having trouble driving these even after a year's practice. Every time you turn a corner the cart keeps going straight. It gets harder to turn the heavier it gets. With a full cart you need a person pushing and a person in front steering to avoid a wreck on every corner. Now here is a service I really like, as you park your car you can have it washed while you shop. These small self contained car wash carts are pushed around where ever the dirty car is. What a great idea for a small one man business, with each car wash costing 5 pounds and up.

War Time

Still we see signs of World War Two in England. This is a picture of Anti Tank Defense blocks that were installed in 1942 by England's Royal Engineers. This is only a 5 minute walk from our flat. This was to protect a train station from a potential invasion. During the war when Germany was lobbing rockets into London, many of the children were sent to outlying villages to live with other families. I met a lady who is 70 who told me of being sent from London to a Guildford church at 4 years old. She then was raised by a local family who stayed in contact with her parents. With a current war going on it brings back memories for these senior citizens of the difficulty in living under these conditions.

Happy New Year

Here we were caught bringing in the new year 2009. With a fun group of friends we celebrated with dinner at a restaurant next door to our building. As usual it was a very festive time with horns, party poppers, loud music and a lot of laughs. We closed down the restaurant at 2:30 AM and brought the party to our house for another hour, so we're a little slow today. It seems that the Brit's are a little more private and harder to make friends with but we got that all worked out now. As we start the new year we wish good health and many new friendships for everyone.