Impersonal Shopping and Monopoly Housing

In the UK, there seem to be even fewer independent shops than in Australia. And an enormous number of Charity Shops. There is a store called Argos which sells Everything ( non-perishable). You can order online and have items delivered to the door, Pronto and for less than the busfare into town. At least it's pronto in P'Boro, - may be different in London. There are Argos shopfront Stores too, where you can go in, look at the catelogues, order and pay on the terminal, and have it brought out from the warehouse. Is this the Way of the Future......?

It sort of makes sense for boring stuff you don't need to see, like DVD players or irons.

J

By far, the majority of housing is extremely uniform, throughout the country. Now I understand why those Monopoly houses look as they do. It is perfectly adequate and Australians could learn a lot about not having unnecessarily large houses. Britains could learn a lot about individualising their dwellings. But they seem to like it this way. Whatever! Brown bricks, brown trim and brown tiled roofs just make me want to dash around pots of coloured paint.

Busways, walkways and wide paths for bikes and gophers make street life very pedestrian friendly. Peterborough has won Awards for this...not everywhere is the same. It takes longer to get to the local shops by car than to cycle, because of the way the roads are designed, giving built-in incentives to avoid driving.

Yes, the UK has discovered Al Fresco dining too, along with the rest of the world. We have a voucher to dine here, and had better use it soon, as I leave for Perth soon.

Of course you can get a more expensive version of a Monopoly house with its own garden, in an outlying Village.