Opinionated Bean

After much thought I have decided to forego the pleasures of the City of Lights and instead travel to the land of tea and crumpets — England. Not the United Kingdom, but England (I don’t plan on going to Scotland, N Ireland or Wales).

I shall avail myself of the opportunity to take advantage of Geeklawyer’s boudoir and Ruthie’s mansion. My hope is to also bump into my Deviant Chaperone, from last year, and continue with our escapades.

I am sorry to disappoint you Butternuts (you know who you are) but I shall not be munching on baguettes, & croissants, nor slurping plonk.

Mistress Ruthie of Ruthie’s Law came for a visit and hols towards the end of January, for about a week. Not really going to go into details, as Ruthie herself has posted her observations on Canada.

I couldn’t join her on the ski slopes so during her time on the hills I tended to amuse myself with reading materials. One of these was the International Express. Needless to say Ruthie laughed at my choice of reading material, declaring it to be slightly better than the trash rags found within the UK (Daily Express anyone?).

I did find an interesting article in there though - “Essential Advice for Tourists Heading to Britain: Don’t chat up the local women, stare at people in pubs or eat the kebabs” and my favourite paragraph was:

Everyone there knows everyone else there. They and their grandfathers have been drinking with each other for 500 years - if you touch one of them, they all get p****d off!

Now I did visit the UK just this past year and I found that I could stare at the locals. But is this because I am a woman? I did find that there were quite a few ancients in the pubs, so maybe they have been propping up the bar for the past five centures.