Living in the UK

I've now been in the UK for 3 full days, a little over 2 more to go until I leave and I have to say that I'm ready to go now. Between the food, the lack of TV, things closing early, and the time difference from home, I could really do without this travel.

It's been good to see people I know, and talk with them, but overall this isn't my idea of fun. I would much rather be at home, even if I had to drive 40 or 50 miles each night to get home from our meetings.

I think there are a few things that really bug me. Not being able to sit down and watch some TV, some sports or highlights is annoying. I have kind of forgotten how much I enjoy watching a sitcom or two each night. And with bandwidth not being great, I can't even do that here.

That's another thing. I've had worse connectivity issues here in the UK, the office, the conference center at Cambridge, and the hotel, so that I can't get work done as quickly. Uploading podcasts is a huge pain and add to that the hassles of trying to get them done on the road, and I'm just annoyed.

Then there's the food. People drink a lot more, at lunch, dinner, etc. I can handle that, and I've been pretty good about not drinking during the day so that I can still run later, but the food is just not for me. By my standards it's bad, and it's not stuff I'd normally eat. I don't have high tastes, it's the opposite, my tastes are pretty plain, but the choices at most pubs that we've gone to aren't great for me. So I've eaten less, which is good, but it's not fun.

Tonight was my best meal, room service, a cheese pizza and Caesar salad. Anchovies were on there, but I picked them off. I'd forgotten to ask for them to be left off since most places in the US don't bother.

It's not been fun, but I think I'm going to go have another glass of wine and relax.