Welcome to the 21st century

It's been very interesting to me to see so many sites from "history." Coming from California, a comparatively young state in terms of the stuff you learn about in school, I was fascinated when I moved to Chicago, then New York, to finally be able to get a visual idea of what it might have been like for George Washington crossing the Delaware. So to come here, and walk across Tower Bridge to the Traitor's Gate, has been really interesting.

It does have its downsides, though. Some things are strangely antiquated. We light our stove with matches. One of the bedrooms has a coal fireplace.

Case in point: we're trying to get our internet connection at home set up. This requires a phone line to be rented from BT, which can't be done until you have a bank account with direct debit. Then it takes 2 days for them to magically throw the switch for your phone line to be turned on. Then you wait 5 days for the internet company to see your new phone line. Then you can call them, and they will send you something in the mail which you can use to turn your internet on. Sometimes you just wish for AOL to send you an unrequested CD in the mail!

The best, though, was this morning. Our electricity inexplicably wen't off around 3am. When we went to speak with our neighbors (we had no idea who to call), she suggested that to get ready for work, we "boil a cauldron of water" and asked if we needed to borrow matches. Maybe it's just the time of year, but I'm suddenly more concerned for our safety...