Pick-A-Day

December 2008
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Where I am.

So my surprise December trip is to Cheltenham, England.

I’m visiting Cheltenham because a friend is quitting her job in order to raise kids and work with her husband’s firm. My appearance at her going away party this evening is a surprise—and the reason my suitcase was stuffed coming here was because I’ve brought her a German Christmas Pyramid—it’s not heavy, just bulky. Had it been any larger, I don’t think I could have fit it in my suitcase.

The pyramid was the first item I put in my suitcase, after that it was a careful jigsaw puzzle to put in shirts, underwear, pants, and socks to cover my five nights in Britain—I’m going to spend a couple extra days here in the UK to do some exploration before returning home on Christmas Eve.

Needless to say, the recent drop in the value of the £ has made this my first trip to England where the prices have not caused me to have a heart attack.

This morning at HMV I picked up the complete Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister, the complete Fawlty Towers, the complete Black Adder, and the first season of Life on Mars, to name most of my purchases—combined with the recent drop in the VAT, the weak Pound, and British merchants afraid that nobody will buy anything, it didn’t really cost me a lot of money. Down the street at a bookshop, I picked up a few books, including three children’s books for Weimar’s BabyAmerican and a present for Disenchanted Youth (one I hope she doesn’t already have). Nearby at a street market I picked up an adorable present for one of my sisters.

I also popped in the soon-to-be-deceased Woolworths—I didn’t spot anything I wanted, and it appeared that there were a number of people like me, although the queues at the tills were not short.

Right now I need to take a nap—one of my office colleagues gave me a cold—fortunately mild, but still obnoxious. It made flying yesterday a bit painful.

4 comments to Where I am.

  • disenchanted

    You’re going to have to tell me what you thought about Life on Mars. We tried to watch it, but the premise was in that spot between too weird and not weird enough.

  • @disenchanted: I saw the first episode of the British version a couple years ago–that was enough to make me willing to buy it. I just discovered that there is also (now) an American version–I presume its terrible.

  • Ah, another Yes, Minister fan. That’s unusual, for an American.

    One of the most brilliant bits of comic irony I’ve ever heard was Sir Humphrey explaining, with utter accuracy, the Troubles in northern Ireland.

  • @headbang8 – I’m a huge fan of Britcoms… i’ve never seen all of Yes, Minister, but I am excited at the prospect…