to Normal // John Hinderaker
After ten days in England, I’m somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. It was our first overseas trip since pre-Covid. We spent five nights in London: two in the Cotswolds and one in Oxford. Then we headed home for the final night in London. These are just a few observations to help you understand the situation.
* Everything is back on track. Flying is normal, bars and restaurants are bustling, and almost nobody is wearing masks. Covid seems like a bad nightmare from which we have woken.
* Our first morning in London began with a walk from the Carlton Club to St. James’s Park to Buckingham Palace. We were stopped by police officers and barricades as I wrote here. We listened to a band playing right next to us, and then watched mounted soldiers and marching in both directions until the official procession began. The official procession began with the passing of royal carriages, which carried King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla, then Prince William and Princess Kate, as well as lesser dignitaries such as the President of South Africa. I was just 50 yards from the Power Line reader when I received my post. It’s a small world!
* This is a great season to visit Europe. You don’t have to miss work if you are away over Thanksgiving. It is Christmas. The United Kingdom is more openly celebrating Christmas than the United States. This video was taken from Trafalgar Square’s National Gallery. It shows the Christmas Market.
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There are many Christmas references, but few to “holidays”. The streets are decorated and private businesses participate enthusiastically. Like the Ritz
Last night, we had dinner at Scott’s in Mayfair. This is how the entrance looked:
* I went to breakfast at The Carlton Club, the traditional home of the Carlton Club.
Conservative Party…
…and noticed a familiar face at another table. I thought, Mark Steyn? He looked up and said “John?” I replied, “Mark?” He was there filming his television show for Great Britain News. He can film the show from his U.S. home, but he sometimes travels to London to do it there. We talked for a while.
My wife and me had invited two friends from Minnesota to dinner at Carlton. They were also in London at that time. After dinner, we went to the Harold MacMillan bar at the club. After filming his show, Mark joined us at the bar. After filming, Mark joined us in the bar. We then moved to Margaret Thatcher Lounge where we stayed up late than usual.
Steyn is as entertaining as you would expect. Although I’m not sure if he would approve of this description, he is a pleasant guy, gentle, and a little shy. Mark’s show is amazing, though I don’t watch much television. How do you do that? GB News offers an app that allows you to watch live on your iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. You can also watch the live stream on YouTube. This is yesterday’s program:
Driving in the English countryside can be a lot of fun. Driving on the left is not difficult, partly because you are on the right side and in the middle. Driving on the left feels natural. There are other challenges, such as narrow streets and curbs where the shoulder should go. Roundabouts are also a growing problem in the U.S. It’s just a matter of remembering to turn left instead of right. Sometimes they make pretend roundabouts, which are places where roads from four to five directions meet in a wide open area. In the middle of this is a painted symbol for a roundabout. I have not yet figured out how to navigate these. One time, on vacation, I took a hard right and returned in a different direction. It worked well. When I return the car, there is always a feeling of accomplishment and relief.
* The Cotswolds have a rich history and are stunning. They are often crowded, even in the off-season, as everyone knows. Parking is the main problem in towns like Stow-On-the-Wold where we had a great time.
It is a nice option to live in a smaller village such as Lower Slaughter. The Slaughters House is a great option if you’re planning to visit that area of the world.
* Newspapers are filled with concern about the coming winter, and Britain’s ability heat itself. These concerns are valid, but we never heard anything about the energy crisis. Everywhere we went, the heat was on. here shows that the Brits were concerned about the World Cup and not the cold.
* We are entering a cashless society. When I first visited England in the 1970s, American Express Travelers Cheques were part of my daily routine. Who was the actor who played the role of policemen in their TV ads? “If you lose or steal …” In recent years, even though credit cards have become internationally ubiquitous, the first thing we do is get local currency.
This time, not. Visa cards were used to pay for every expense. We were given a machine that I could lay my credit card over and we were able to go anywhere we wanted, be it a restaurant, hotel or taxi. We were done. We had no cash left over after ten days. I did however spend the two five-pound notes I had kept in my wallet since our last visit, pre-Covid.
* Tipping has been abolished in the U.K. Hallelujah! We were charged a service fee of between 12.5% to 14.5% for every restaurant and bar bill. There was no expectation and, in general, no way to pay more. Only exception was in taxis, where there was an option to tip using the credit card format. I hope this trend will soon be adopted in the U.S.
* We travelled through Oxford, stopping and going, but we didn’t spend much time there. My wife wanted to see an exhibit at the Ashmolean Museum, so we spent a lot of time there. The museum is, like many others, irritated about the provenance of its collection, a remnant of the colonial era. Personally, I have no problem with colonialism–especially the British kind. It was a tremendous net benefit for humanity.
Oxford was otherwise boring. It has all the drawbacks of a city that doesn’t offer the benefits. Political correctness is a problem: Oxford banned Ubers so you will have to use a taxi. You can’t even get a taxi. After returning the car, we waited for a cab at Enterprise for more than an hour. It was supposed to arrive in ten mins. We were also told that Oxford is oppressive in ways that are more or fewer reminiscent of Xi’s China. Overall, I have found that my perception of universities has declined so much that I no longer enjoy the atmosphere in a university town. Sad.
Not being able to travel abroad in a normal fashion for two years was infuriating–although, compared with the damage we inflicted on our young people, it was a relatively minor effect of covid hysteria. It is wonderful that normal life has resumed. We must not allow authoritarians again to shut us down.
