Overpriced, Overdone but Beautiful

So what am I talking about with a post title like that?

The United Kingdom actually.

I left the UK in 1992 and emigrated to Texas where I spent a good 17-years before returning to Europe and settling in the Czech Republic. Periodically, of course, I get to go back on business or a for a family visit.

Over priced – The UK is expensive. How do people there manage? So far as I can tell, salaries have gone up incredibly since I left but despite the fact that people seem to earn what I would have thought of as ‘silly money’ back in 1992, prices appear to have risen even faster! Being in the West Midlands this last week, I paid over four pounds for a pint, had toast, eggs and a coffee breakfast for 15 pounds and all I can say is thank God I gave up smoking last year! Meanwhile, I was told that some remarkably ordinary looking homes were fetching 600,000 pounds and that people at getting mortgages of 10-12 times their income…. a recipe for total disaster. So, yes, over priced and by a long way too. By comparison to other parts of Europe, the UK is simply incredibly expensive.

Overdone? – too crowded, too full of people, too many cars, airports too small. The UK is full to overflowing and I fear it will eventually sink (south east first) under the weight of that steaming mass of humanity. The result is stress, aggravation and very rude people….

But something must be going right because I passed home after home in Birmingham that must have cost 500,000 GBP or more with 2-3 cars (BMW’s and such) parked all over their front yards. Somebody is doing well.

No, you can keep the UK. I don’t much miss it if I am honest except for the football, the beer, nice little country pubs, English gardens, Yorkshire, the west cost of Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Fish n Chips, Pork pies – pies in general actually, sticky puddings, treacle pudding, shepherd’s pie,the east cost of Yorkshire, York, the moors, the history, little English villages,small churches…. Well maybe I do!

Englands-green-and-pleasant-land

Coming back its the greenness that always amazes me. From the plane it simply is a brighter, richer, deeper shade of green. Its a beautiful country.

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Given that, I should visit more often but live there? I could not afford it.

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