A Quick Word While I'm Away

I promised updates, but this will likely be all I can do, and I've got about fifteen minutes to do it. So, an inordinal list:

• Dublin has some things to offer the teetotaler. But not much.


• The Kinks have never sounded better than when heard on an iPod while walking through a lower-middle-class residentail neighborhood in London.


• Given the current state of the dollar, both cities are crazily expensive. A paperback book can cost $30 in London, and a small set price dinner at an Indian restaurant cost me $24. I took my suitcase to the laundromat, and they took me to the cleaners: $32 to wash all my underwear and t-shirts.


• On top of which, one or two of the hospitalible shopkeepers of Bloomsbury have passed me unusable change. Romanian coins, innit? This is somewhat like the jerks who used to pass off Canadian coins in Boston.


• Service positions in both countries are almost entirely immigrants from the newer EU countries -- Bulgarians, Romanians, etc. The Polish seem to have moved up the relative ladder to occupy most of the construction and manufacturing jobs. As in America, this influx of immigrants into un- or low-skilled positions has led to the prevailing idea that the Unemployed (about 4% in Ireland, 6% in the UK) "don't want to work."


• Packer games are incredibly fun and engaging when seen from a UK bar. Even more fun when we win so handily. Like a one-sided snowball fight, that one. (Expatriate Patriot fans, though, aren't much fun at all.)


• All things considered, I'd rather be in this picture:

See you on Friday!