I think I’ve finally figured out the one thing that really gets me down about living in the UK. The bad news. There’s always bad news. There’s never uplifting, inspirational, feel-good news. There may be a positive story now and then but it lasts for only a few seconds before it’s shot down with bad news. Here’s the good news: The Summer Olympics is coming to London. And now for the bad news: But it’s going to cost every tax payer X thousand pounds, and the roads are going to be too congested to drive anyway; and the public transport is going to collapse; and the taxi drivers are putting their fares up; and the cost of security has trebled; and the ticketing system is a disaster; and so on and so on …..
This morning the weather report predicted an early Spring, a lovely day today, blue skies, sun shining. Immediately followed by a drought warning, a hosepipe ban, a threat to the Olympics, a crisis for farmers leading to a shortage of crops and a rise in prices at the supermarket. So instead of just enjoying a lovely day, everyone is walking around with visions of tumbleweeds blowing down Oxford Street and carcasses of livestock scattered around the once-green countryside.
And you can bet your bottom dollar that if it rains tomorrow (it will be referred to as “bad weather”), it will be a disaster because something will have had to have been cancelled, public transport will grind to a halt, work on the Olympic village will be held up and homes will be flooded. I think the only thing to do is to stop watching the news, reading the papers, listening to the radio and surfing the net.
But no doubt someone, somewhere will tell me that’s bad for me!
You are so right with this one Grant and some good news is that I loved it!! Fellow South African living in Cardiff and missing home very much even after 17 years. x