What's new in the UK?

Leaving England today (27th) for Chicago. Every year I see different things in the UK. I'm not saying they're necessarily new; I may not have been paying attention. But this year I've noticed -

- Lots of Marmite and Branston pickle products, as mentioned in an earlier post. Heaven.....

- Large and small glasses of wine in restaurants. The small glasses always look ridiculously insufficient but the larger measures just make you look like an alchoholic! Not that it stopped me!

- A continuing probem with chip and pin - less credit cards. I have mentioned this on blogs and comment discussions before and am often told that I'm wrong, but I still have a few problems with my chip and pinless American credit cards. Although more and more stores seem able to cope with them, I still come across the odd place that simply doesn't have a machine that swipes the card. On one occasion I had to flick through the operation manual with the shop ower to work out how to process my card. In the end she called a help desk. Who knew I was a "help desk" case?

- Coffe bars and snack places. Wherever you are in the States, you can find something to eat at any hour of the day or night. Walking around shopping centres and High Streets in the UK, it now appears the same is true on this side of the Pond. In touristy places like London, York, the Lakes etc, there has always been a plethora of tea shops, but now, everywhere you look there's a Starbucks (don't mention the prices!), Pret-a-Manger or a Costa Coffee. Watch out Brits - you'll end up with the same obesity problem!

Anyway folks, I must start throwing things into my suitcase. I somehow now have more stuff than I came over with and had to run out and buy an extra holdall yesterday, so there's a bit of reorganising to do to stay under the weight limit.

Toodle pip!

PS. If anyone can tell me how to stop Blogger underlining random words in red on my posts I'd be very grateful. It's really irritating me!