Frost

So, it's getting colder by the day. Some bloody American traveler commented that it wasn't very cold over here so they turned the country's heater off. I had to scrape ice off the car this morning. Not a little bit of ice. I'm talking a layer of ice. It's going to be interesting. Let me tell you what I'm currently wearing (queue the lounge music); 2 pair of socks (one pair is a sock liner I brought for the hiking boots to wear under the wool socks), boxers, layer one pants, slacks, layer one shirt, a golf shirt and a fleece sweater. When I was outside, I had another outer jacket on as well as two pair of gloves. It's not that I can't see the sun while I'm outside. On the contrary, the sun is visible almost all day long. That's the problem. There's no cloud layer to trap in the heat.

I've decided that I'm going to move hotels. The spartan room that was provided would be fine for a couple days. I just think that it's a little too monkish. I'd like to iron some of the clothes that I've got. I'd like to change the temperature in the room. So, I'll head over to Basildon (or Bas Vegas as they've been calling it). It's near a larger mall with all kinds of restaurants. Although, damned near all of them are American restarauts (T.G.I.Fridays, Outback, Macaroni Grill, Chilli's, etc). There is a small lake outside the hotel I'm looking at with a restaurant next door called the Quay (pronounced Key).

The lunch truck that came by here everyday has apparently had the parent company go bankrupt. So, a couple days ago we headed over the Friday's for lunch. The burger that I got was 9.50. That's in pounds. It didn't dawn on me until Frank mentioned the price of food over here and said that each of our burgers were near $20 each. Holy Crap, Batman! That will be the last time I hit that place. Hell, I got a nice roast beef dinner the other night for 6.95. And on the beer front, I added a pint of Greene King Ale (a bit watery in my opinion) and a pint of Rudder's Best.

Oh, speaking of beers, Guinness comes two ways here; Ordinary and Chilled. I was a bit taken aback when I was asked how I wanted my pint. They explained that the chilled version is extra chilled on the tap as it comes out. I ordered it ordinary. I'll order it chilled next time just to taste the difference.