England, what a trip. I just returned last night from a week-long work related adventure through Great Britain. Most notably we did not make it to London, although we flew in and out of Heathrow. The country itself is beautiful, like Pennsylvania dotted with castles, keeps, and ornate churches (well, more churches, anyhow). Hoping to escape the brutal heat of Maryland, I was actually looking forward to overcast and/or cool weather. That didn't happen. And no, no air conditioning to be found. Theakston's Old Peculiar took the edge off, to be sure.

Driving on the "other" side of the road is easier than catching on to local slang and the entire country's insistence at using different nouns for common objects. Lorrie = truck, hired = rented, petrol = gas. By way of example: We needed to call a lorrie to tow the hired car to the garage after I filled the petrol tank with diesel. Hey, in the US the green handle is diesel, everything else is normal gas. In the UK it's the other way around... I'm a very visually oriented person.