Raining, not snowing

It's apparent from the moment you step into our apartment that I'm not a tidy person...unless you're coming for a special event, in which case everything will be put away! Clean, yes, but not tidy, which is why it's been such a pain being sick off and on for the last month so that I can't summon up the energy to clean.

Yesterday I had a burst of cleaning fervor and scrubbed down the bathroom, living room, and kitchen. Vacuuming still needs to be done but ALL the crumbs are off my kitchen counter and my sofas can actually be sat on! I envy people who can keep that up all the time because I frequently can't find the energy to tidy although I clean on a regular basis. That old adage about putting things away if you pull them out is lovely advice but doesn't frequently get followed by me. But at least on an average day you know it's safe to sit on the toilet and the sink isn't growing pinkish mold.

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Finally got to see the new Wallace and Gromit movie yesterday! I've concluded that I desperately need a bunch of Plasticene rabbits, particularly if they're flying around in the air and squeaking cutely. I think the funniest part for me was watching Graham absolutely crack up at the beginning credits...don't ask me why he was but it provided him with a good few minutes of entertainment, which in turn made me laugh!

Then we went to the store and picked up a few quick snacks. Some sliced mango for me (I need to start buying mango again, if I can find ripe ones) and a sweet and sour chicken meal for Graham, from which I ended up with the spring rolls. Having gorged myself on popcorn at the movie I wasn't hungry for much but that mango hit the spot.

I did really appreciate the placement of our flat last night, though, it must be said. If you tromp up to the very top of the building (fourth floor) you can get out onto the roof. Yesterday being Guy-Fawkes-failure-to-blow-up-Parliament Day, fireworks were going off in wonderful 360 degree magic so we watched for about fifteen minutes until the cold and Graham's growling stomach convinced us to go back downstairs. It really was lovely--probably the first time I've appreciated it as a spectacle rather than as a "dammit, will they STOP with the fireworks already so that I can sleep?!" annoyance. If we're still in the same flat next year we'll have to plan ahead and bring some booze (or at least piping hot cocoa) upstairs while we watch!

A bit of good news for the day--it appears that my application for indefinite leave to remain has cleared and I can now stay, obviously, indefinitely!

Only £335 later...

Found on my friendsfriends list on the same day that I heard that all US soldiers stationed in the UK have been banned from traveling to London.

And this, my friends, is why people wonder what's happened to democracy in the USA.

Everyone here knew that an attack on London was *going* to happen, not because it is some hotbed of terrorist activity, but because Blair sides with Bush on the issue of Iraq. Hitting London is a symbol, the same way that hitting New York and Madrid was.

If the UK is so remiss on cracking down on its Muslim citizens, who apparently are presumed to be behind the attacks (not by any UK news source I've read so far), then why isn't the US also culpable for not cracking down on its white former military male citizens post-Oklahoma City?

Since I nearly got run over this morning (mostly my own fault) I decided to pontificate about the nature of driving here versus in the US...or at least in the parts of the US I've driven in!

The incident in question was as I was crossing the parkway next to our apartment--now, generally when the light turns green going the direction I want, it's safe to cross as long as there are a fair few cars going straight, because the cars turning right WAIT for the oncoming cars to get through the intersection and then go. Even though my little pedestrian signal is still red, I've got enough time to get through.

But that message obviously didn't reach the white delivery van this morning that accelerated at an amazing rate to CUT IN FRONT OF oncoming cars to turn right! I think one of them missed his tail by about a foot, if that. I also had to take a step back and glared at him, less because I was illegally in the intersection than because WHAT IDIOT turns right in front of oncoming traffic rather than waiting?!

Now, in the US, people turning left (again, into oncoming traffic) generally wait until all cars going straight have gone through the junction, then make their turn. Sometimes this sucks, particularly when there's no left turn signal, meaning that they have to scrape in between the yellow and red. But, except for the truly crappy drivers, they still almost invariably wait the way they're supposed to and occasionally squeak through just as the light has turned red. But here, oh no, that is not the case. Manchester drivers LOVE to risk death by making that turn against oncoming traffic THE SECOND THE LIGHT TURNS GREEN (facilitated by the fact that here, unlike in the US, the yellow light shows before greens and before reds.) They accelerate practically before the light has actually turned green to whip in front of the cars coming straight through the junction and make their turns inches away from the vehicles that are about to hit them.

Now, thinking about cars and insane British driving brings up the topic of roundabouts, something cynicaloptimist and I were discussing when she was over this weekend. She was mentioning that she was extremely unhappy about the American lack of the roundabout, explaining that not having them meant that frequently you had to wait for the next exit on a freeway if you discovered you'd missed a turn, and so forth. I, on the other hand, acknowledge that a roundabout can help things along that way, but am deeply suspicious of a system that depends ENTIRELY on drivers being smart enough not to cut in front of you.

Because frequently, they're not.

This leads me to conclude that the British system of driving is predicated on "freedom of the car" and the relative intelligence of the driver. The American system, however, is based on the awareness of one very important point, namely, that drivers are STUPID. I was taught to be a defensive driver by my father, which essentially means that I don't trust other drivers on the road further than I can throw them, so I ALWAYS leave lots of following distance, look both ways when going through an intersection even on a green light (except, obviously, when I'm a pedestrian about to be run over by an unexpected right turning van ;p) and am generally ready for drivers to do just about anything...something that has saved me more than once from either hitting or being hit by somebody like the woman in California who entered the freeway no more than twenty feet in front of me when I was doing 65 and she was going 40.

Siggy also pointed out that American drivers actually seem to be very "law-abiding" and generally follow the rules. I think that kinda floored me...I mean, isn't that what people are supposed to do?! Here you get the range, though, of people doing 50 and people doing 100--granted, that generally only happens in the US at night, at least in the places I've driven.

Now, that said, there are shite drivers in the US too. Austin is the only place I've been honked at simply for having an out of state license plate. Washington drivers can't figure out what they're doing--they're bad because they're unpredictable! California drivers are predictably bad--in other words, if you see that SUV next to you with the driver looking annoyed, chances are they will cut in front of you the second that space is an inch larger than their big-ass vehicle. The guy in the red sports car will weave his way through traffic leaving barely enough space to actually change lanes, and it's fairly predictable that if you see a car doing 60 in the fast lane, the driver's ethnicity is almost inevitable (yes, that sounds terribly racist...but I dare anyone who's ever driven in Southern California to debate me on that issue and I bet most of you can tell me which group I mean ;p).

I'd much, much rather drive in the US. There's just as much horrible driving, but at least I can predict it. I know that in So Cal, 2-3 people will invariably run the red light on a major road. In Washington people will generally let you change lanes if you signal, but they'll also tail you like MAD if they feel you aren't going fast enough, even if "not fast enough" is 15 miles over the speed limit and you can't get over because the lane next to you is packed. In Texas you just stay out of the way of the hick pickup drivers, because they WILL NOT SLOW DOWN in rain, shine, or pounding hail. I like predictable crappiness...versus insane bucketing around the roads as if you didn't realize that petrol here costs 3-4 times as much as it does in the US.

*Just to clarify...I am not insulting British drivers, merely expressing my own personal preference for the driving style I know ;)