Chewing the Fat – August 16

One thing I’m noticing over here is that there are very few grossly overweight people. There aren’t just a whole lot of waif looking people either, but I’ve only seen one person who looked like they might be out of breath after walking, slowly, the length of a football field. Not even walking, more like ambling or moseying. I’ve also only seen one person in a motorized wheelchair/scooter thing, which in the States are reserved for the disabled or the truly disgustingly overweight, and she looked genuinely handicapped. But I’m digressing. Soon I’ll start sounding prejudiced against fat people. Most of the people over here are in that very broad range between waif and heifer. They’re generally chunky people who look like they don’t miss many meals or they aren’t afraid to really tuck in. But I think they keep most of the weight off by doing a lot of walking. I see a lot of cars on the road, but I see a lot more people walking to catch the bus or the train. Oh, yeah… the teeth. Now after watching Austin Powers you would think that everyone has crooked, yellow teeth. It’s simply not so. Their teeth are generally just crooked. Maybe if they’re heavy smokers they’ll have crooked and yellow, but the ones I’ve run into generally just look a little snaggletooth.

I had fish and chips for lunch today, although it wasn’t proper fish and chips since it didn’t come wrapped up in an old newspaper. That’s what one of the accounting people tells me. I have to go to a proper fish and chips place and order "one of each, with scraps." The "scraps" are apparently the leftover pieces of batter. I don’t know why I have to have them though. Anyway, the fish and chips was good. Surprisingly good, as a matter of fact. Scratch that. The fish was good, the chips (that’s fries to all you yanks) sat out too long and had lost their crispiness. Very disappointing.

It’s been decided. I have no choice but to go to London this weekend. London is where my hotel will be and if I don’t go then I’ll have to sleep out on the street. I’m very excited. Now that I’ve got my credit card I can spend relatively freely, although anyone that knows my frugality won’t let me go overboard. I still have no idea what to get anyone as souvenirs. I understand that the boss found t-shirts with "mind the gap" on them. I’ll have to ask where. I know someone that would probably like that, although she’d probably be a little upset if that’s all she got. Now all I have to do is get my train worked out. Hmm, Stonehenge is still a possibility. It would be a much shorter trip from London to Salisbury than from York to Salisbury. I’ll have to think about that.
I’ve decided that I like taking the train to work every day. Even though the train from Leeds to York is a bit narrow and cramped, it’s nice to be able to just sit back and read a book while someone else worries about the driving. I wish I lived close enough to the DART Rail to do it at home.

We had to hike to dinner. Although Leeds looks bustling and it looks like there’s plenty to eat around the hotel, it’s mostly fast food (i.e. Subway, McDonald’s, Starbucks, etc.). The two guys from Blockbuster with me are a bit more high-class than that, so dinner has to be at a nice restaurant. We’re not having much luck finding one of those in Leeds, but at least we’re getting a good walk.

The last thing I did before bed last night was to bag up my laundry. The prices are, I think, insane. I had 10 pairs of underwear, socks, and shirts, and two pairs of pants, and it’s going to cost 51 pounds. I’m not complaining since I’m completely allowed to put that on my expense report, but I think the hotel probably makes a pretty high margin off the laundry service from guests who use it. I doubt a whole lot of them do though.