I drag myself around the supermarket in the middle of the night buying huge foods, enough to feed a small pod of whales. I remind myself that it's really four o'clock in the afternoon for West Coast Americans but my brain is still mid Atlantic, awash with minutae.
I have mislaid my sense of perspective and everything seems too big. There again, after 22 days in England I have regained the ability to use a stick shift and parallel park, so it's all a trade off.
I think fondly of my beloved ex sister in law. She would scoff with derision at paultry English coupons, but we ignored her as she was a barmy American. I decide to entertain the checkers as they pack my bags with expertise. It's the very least I can do as they hand me a wad of money off vouchers as thick as a house brick. I use my own highly honed skills of international exchange rates, imperial/metric comparisons, and trans-Atlantic language differentials. "Do you know the price of petrol in England?"
"Gas? Yeah, real expensive."
"That's right, it's $10 a gallon or thereabouts."
"Shoot! Is that for real?"
"Really real. What's more, when I went to the supermarket there, they had an offer on."
"What kindofan offer?"
"Spend 50 pounds, which is 100 dollars in the store and then get 5 pence, which is ten cents off a gallon of petrol." I skip the bit about litres to avoid any further confusion.
"Geez. Kinda makes ya think!"
Doesn't it just.
3 hours ago
6 comments:
I have to admit, it's fun on the bb, when they complain about fuel to do the conversion and.... geez... it's not nearly as expensive as ours.
Ok, I admit it.. I have a petty, flippant, annoying streak that I pretend to keep hidden :)
Welcome home.
S.
With petrol (and plane ticket) prices so high, it's going to be a hwile before we get back to the UK :-(
My local supermarket here on the East coast used to have a gas deal - spend over $50 and you get 10 cents off per gallon. They just improved the deal - now for every dollar you spend, you get one point. Earn 50 points and you get the same 10 cents off per gallon, but earn 100 and you get 20 cents off, 150 points and you get 30 cents off, and so on. I paid $3.86/gallon last weekend :-)
Wow, it's not so long ago that I would have horrified at paying that much per gallon, and now it seems like a bargain!
Yep, I keep telling the Americans who blog about the price of petrol, that they have nothing to complain about!
Oh, and I got one of those voucherd from tesco the other day! lol
Out of curiosity, what is the exchange rate between dollars and pounds? I know that the American dollar is worth just about zip-zero-and-zilch these days.
Not to complain too loudly but I'm paying over $4.30 a gallon here in Connecticut - which is one of the highest prices in the country. Were I in England I'm sure it would be even worse but from where I'm at in the States, it's pretty bad as it is. And nothing for nothing but a lousy 10 cents off a gallon isn't much to get excited about. Sadly.
That's why I don't complain too much about the gas prices. We're so lucky it's not worse.
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