Postcards From Across the Pond

Having recently returned from our sojourn in the USA, and having settled back into UK life, I think it’s time to make some comparisons concerning my erstwhile and current abodes.

The US remain coffee champs. But I’m talking about bog-standard coffee from a big coffee pot, tipped into your half-filled cup by a middle-aged waitress with scarlet lipstick while asking, “Warm that up for ya’, hon?”

The other stuff—double decaf Frappuccino with almond milk and cherry-flavoured sparkles—is not coffee; that’s a coffee drink, and we have those here, as well. What we do not have is bog-standard coffee. The best we can do is a white Americano, and I’ve already written about what happened when I ordered one of those in the US.

Over here, I mostly drink Flat Whites because—for some unknown reason—they only come in one size, so I don’t have to give a long explanation to the barista about small, medium, large, goat milk, oat milk, sprinkles, or anything else. It’s just, “Flat White, please,” and I’m done. Getting a filter coffee from a coffee pot is a rare treat.

Tea, on the other hand, is well beyond your scope. At the Nero café in Concord, I ordered tea. The young lady gave me two cups of hot water with tea bags in them. I took them, thinking the milk would be around somewhere. It wasn’t, so I had to go ask her for some, which she gave me in a small cup. Perfect.

When we went back, the same young woman took my order and noted, “You want milk with your tea, right?” I said I did, thinking she would give it to me in a cup as before. Instead, she simply poured the milk into the cups along with the water. I had all I could do to not gasp. Being more British than American these days, I simply took them, and my wife (British by birth) and I just drank them, dire as they were.

Another thing you excel at is cars. Perhaps too well.

Whenever we visit, my wife and I always remark on the amount of time we spend in the car driving from place to place, and mostly because there is no other option. The distance from my son’s flat to Panera Bread, where we traditionally have breakfast, is only a little bit father than our walk into town, yet it is impossible to get there any other way than by car. Likewise, the house my grandchildren live in is a similar distance from the shops and restaurants they frequent but, again, driving is the only option.

I know getting one’s license is a rite of passage, and it represents freedom, but I’m afraid you’re mistaking being shackled to an automobile as being free. Where we live, we have options. We can walk into town, ride bikes, or drive. If we wanted to go to a more distant town, we could take a bus, or a train, or drive. In short, we have options, you do not.

And that’s what always hits us at some point during each visit: we’re in the car all the time because we have no choice.

Another surprising, though controversial, choice we have in the UK but not in the US is Universal Health Care. I realise a large portion of Americans regard a National Health Service as communism, but the fact is, the United States remains the only country in the developed world without a system of universal healthcare, and not all developed nations are communists. Just sayin’

And I admit I was dubious about our National Health Service (the NHS) when I first moved here, but it didn’t take me long to realise it was a game-changer. In addition to being able to see a doctor when we needed to, and not only when we could afford to, it allowed me to retire early. If I had been in the US and quit my job when I did, I would not have been covered by, well, anything, meaning I would have to spend thousands on private health care.

This was driven home by a remark my brother made about now being able to go to the doctor because his wife got a job that included health coverage.

Our choices in the UK include private health coverage (it’s cheaper than in the US, so not ridiculously out of reach) or the NHS. In the US, the choices seem limited to private health coverage (which I understand is quite expensive and going up), remaining sick, or going bankrupt.

But you do you.

And you can always take solace in the fact that restaurants still provide free ice water with your meal.