What’s The Difference?
We all know that part of the joy of travel is that it opens the mind. New cultures, experiences and even if you are only returning to your roots, as tenuous as they maybe, hopefully there are insights and knowledge to be gained. And not just about this big world we live in but ourselves as well. Even five nights on a day bed beside a pool in Noosa is a different experience from the same in Bali or on the French Riviera.
Of course this allows the human brain to use one of its most useful but also problematical characteristic. The skill of comparing and segmenting has been very useful as an evolutionary tool but it also provides us with the ability to set humans up in a forever judgemental cycle of difference, distrust and hate.
Not on holidays though. Instead on holidays we get to feel inferior or superior and have a giggle or a frown, depending on the subject, by comparing the quality of our beaches or the size of the houses or the attitudes towards the elderly and on and on ad infinitum. I would like to say that I didn’t do such things during my trip to Europe. Why? Well on a lot of levels it is silly. I mean why would you even travel if where you were going was exactly like where you are? Also who died and made me the judge as to who has the best this or that? And after all, with a large amount of time spent in the UK how really different could things be?
But alas, I am a human and there were a few things that struck me and stuck with me and I am going to tell you about them. Don’t worry, almost everybody comes out just fine and I may exaggerate for effect anyway.
Especially the Scottish who win the price for if not for the craziest drivers we saw, they were the fastest. [The craziest that I saw were food delivery scooter riders in London. Far more faith in their fellow road users’ vision and skills than I have.] Speed limits in Scotland are routinely ignored by everyone, I mean everyone, especially on the highway south towards England. Make of that what you will.
And if you are on the roads in Scotland you never see a cop. Police seem to like to stay in the big cities only. Signs warn of radar of the average speed variety only and there are far less ads on the TV about the dangers of drink driving or using your phone while driving or not wearing a seat belt.
On the subject of TV ads there seemed to be a lot of ads using jingles written for the ad or advertising copy set to well known tunes. The golden age of “Good on ya Mum, Tip Top’s the one” and Spray and Wipe ad copy sung to an Ian Dury tune are long gone here in Australia. But in England, not so much.
But the thing that bugged me the most was the UK approach to showering. We are not going into all the tropes and old jokes about the English and bathing in general. Lets now accept that the UK is now enthusiastic about personal hygiene, perhaps they always were and circumstances being circumstances just made it difficult…
Anyway, the problem is they now love a bath so much that the provision for those of us who prefer showers is often half hearted. See the attached as an example of what I mean. No separate shower stall, so you are standing in a narrow, old and slippery bath, a curtain or only half a glass screen to stop water spraying everywhere from either a handheld or detachable shower head. Some may think it twee and delightful, not me. Commit to showers or champion baths by replacing tubs that Oscar Wilde put his well-used bottom in with tubs big enough that you could, if necessary, paddle across the English Channel. Come on England make yourself great again.
Its not all whinges, though let’s face it a good whinge is fun and also very British. Along with all the obvious attractions of the UK for a tourist, there are others that deserve more acclaim e.g. fantastic scones and sponge cakes, the upper story of double decker buses, country pubs, being just three that should be mentioned more often.
How England approach the management of their parks and reserves is kind of cool too. Not all the large parks feature only manicured garden beds and mowed grass. They let some areas go wild, allowing them to return to meadow and juvenile forest, you can see it in some of the cemeteries too, though that maybe more through council budget cuts than an environmental plan. Apparently the former PM Rishi Sunak’s government had plans and funding to increase the wilding of English parks. A rare highlight for that government.
Either way, a bloody good move having not just some greenery into the city but a sense of wildness and country. No doubt the squirrels, foxes and the homeless love it too. When you look at all the parks in inner city Melbourne only parts of Royal Park look like what might have been there before white man came along so it could be great to see a little less manicuring just like the English have embraced.
So there. Just a few observations to get you thinking, I’m sure I will receive some feedback on some of your own thoughts on these matters. Unfortunately, already the pleasant holiday memories are slowly receding.
