Where we are?

Monday morning and jet-lag remains.  Jet-lag is an insidious thing if you are expected to do anything. That's even if you expect to do anything for the first couple of days after 

arriving at your destination.  As a tourist expectations in this regard may be relatively modest.  Therefore we temporarily lapsed into tourist mode last evening.  It got us out of our room, into the sun, and exercising, however modest that may have been.

Kristi planned well for us, having been in this rodeo a few times before.  When I started driving yesterday things seemed to be going well for the first bit.  Jetlag hits me like someone threw a rock at me and hit me in the head.  I'll be innocently firing a rocket down the local motorway, alive with the moment, ready to take on the world when suddenly this rock hits me in the side of my head and I want desperately to go to sleep.  I'm in my rocket, in control and know that if I don't remain conscious I will fall out of orbit and find myself wandering in space for eternity.  "Steve to mission control - I am fading, afraid that I've taken too many Gs.  Please take remote control of my ship.  Mission Control, Mission Control I am falling out of orbit.  We are headed for the planet.  Someone help me!  Mayday!  Mayday! We are out of control."  Suddenly.

I have discovered energy drinks, but it would seem that they are only good for one round.  The next one doesn't have the same affect.  The first one, however - first 

"Monster" drink brought me around only to find that the thugs had me tied to my seat and were giving me a break from beating me into unconsciousness and soon enough they were hitting me again and the race car I was driving was suddenly shaking and threatening to spin out of control in the long curves as my competitor came up on me and threatened to take my winning spot in the lineup.

The last time we stopped before reaching our destination I would swear I fell asleep on the exit ramp.  I managed to bring the car to a stop in a reasonable parking place and knew that if I just held out for awhile longer the thugs would tire of their game, untie me and let me rest for awhile.  It does hold some serious danger for those who believe that they can operate a motor vehicle.  So far I have survived.  Like I say, it isn't my first rodeo.

Not a pretty sight to see

When we first visited the UK in 2001 we had read Rick Steves and made an effort to not stand out from the crowd.  With every return to this country the world becomes smaller and similarities in dress and mannerisms are notable.  As the mega corporations gain a larger, and larger foothold in world society we become a picture of the same person everywhere we go.  Like the visual homogenation of

America you see the same McDonald's, Burger King, and in the UK Marks and Spencer signs everywhere you go.  I have to admit that Mark's and Spencer is a breath of fresh air compared to their American brethren.  It reminds me a bit of Trader Joe's only classier. I've been watching this metamorphosis here since 2001 now.  I loved coming into a town that was still uncorrupted by the big corporation in the sky.  There would be a high street with the "butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker".  There was a charm and as an American you knew that you were someplace foreign, strange, and beautiful within that strange.  I sometimes wonder if people see the changes happening around them.  Does the caterpillar know that he will sometime be a butterfly?  Does it just happen and then one day the lifespan of the butterfly is over, used up, and the creature vanishes from the planet?  Is that where we are headed?

I've been communicating with my UK friends and I'm anticipating catching up. Soon.  People ask us why we make these journeys.  If we look closely we see the grim reaper slowly walking in our shadow waiting for his moment.  I whistle as I walk, ignoring him, trying to be as disdainful of him as I can, hoping to offend him and send him off to follow someone else.  I am alive and I am doing my best to remain vital in this life.  Tonight will be our first performance here.  Our phone woke us up with a text from our phone provider.  Kristi told me she had only slept for two hours.  She has gone back to sleep and I'm hoping that she isn't jet-lagged like a drunken sailor tonight.  Hell, I feel pretty good and slept through the night but I know that the gremlins of a clock turned on it's head will take their toll as they please and I may not be able to fight them off.  

The truth is that the UK is still very much a foreign country to me.  You'll never find an American bragging that he is still living on land that has been in his family has for 600 years.  Whether that person is being entirely truthful or not is pretty much irrelevant.  The point is that people who look like me have been living here for thousands of years.  There is some psychological connectivity that goes on and I feel like I have a better awareness of just what it means to be human just by being in this different place.

Kristi is up now and it is checkout time here.  I am in a foreign country.  Life is good.
You have a simple task.  Keep the home fires burning.