You don't have to live next to me, just give me my equality

We went to this tonight. Its hard to fathom that this is a country where there were places where it wasn't that different to Apartheid South Africa in living memory. In some ways it was frightening to listen to someone who had to do what he (and hundreds of other like him) did, just to get people the right to vote. The right to go and put a cross on a bit of paper, something that we all have taken for granted since we were 18. I can't really get my head around the whole thing. Despite all of this, the talk was uplifting and how can you not be moved in a positive way by listening to someone who was at the coal face of history?

Oh, whilst buying a book from him after he said to me "I like your t-shirt, very nice". Can you guess which t-shirt I was wearing tonight? Yes, it was that t-shirt again.

Let me take you to the movies, can I take you to the show

We have just been to the pictures. To see The Town as you ask, very good film - go and see it. Very odd though, watching a film which mentions the town you live in and has a railway station where you have caught a train from and many other places that you recognize and none of them are in Britain. But this wasn't the remarkable thing about the evening. It was where we went to watch it.


We went here- our local drive in theatre. I now really feel as though I live in America. And it was everything that you would expect it to be. You no longer have speakers on poles to listen to the sound, instead it is broadcast over FM and received on the radio in the car. Other than that it could have been straight out of a film itself. Sadly next weekend is the last of the season. But I think we shall go again next year when it starts again. Its a bit of a bargain at 20 bucks a car. For that you get a double bill (the other film tonight being Machete, didn't really fancy it so we left at the intermission) and a real slice of Americana.

Spree I spraddle on the back seat

We are now a step closer to living the American dream and now own a car. And what a palaver it was.  Finding the car was easy - just go around a whole load of car dealers until you find one that you want. We ended up with a red four door 2006 Toyota RAV4 with just over 38,000 miles on the clock (for all you trivia fans) for a very reasonable price. Getting it was a bit more problematic.

Since we have been here we have had a variety of hire cars (they only let you have them for a month at a time so the first one had to go back, the second one overheated on the freeway so we ended up with a third on which the oil light warning kept going on and off). They all came from the Alamo car hire office at Boston's Logan airport so had to be taken back there. So on Friday morning last week we drove down to Boston and took it back. The plan was to get the bus back to Nashua and have the car dealer come and pick us up.

We were tootling down the freeway in to Boston when I had a terrible thought - I didn't have my passport with me. Now this may not sound like a bad thing but if you don't have a US driving license the its the only form of ID that this is acceptable. But why would you need ID anyway? I hear you ask. Well, if you want to buy a ticket on a bus or a train then you have prove who you are. Don't ask me why this is case but it is and its immutable (as someone many of us know found on a family holiday to California a couple of years ago...).

Now I didn't fancy a wait in Boston whilst Giselle (who sensibly had hers) went back, picked the car up, sorted out the insurance and drove back to get me. So when the bus arrived (for which we were the only passengers from the airport) we had a word with the driver, who understood my plight and said that he would vouch for me with the ticket agent at the South Station (where the bus also goes and where they sell the tickets from - a strange way of doing things but par for the course for America). Which is what he did.

So an hour later we were picked up from the bus terminal just off Route 3 by the dealer, handed an not inconsiderable cheque over and the car was ours - sort of. Firstly there was the matter of insurance. To get our insurance we had to go to the brokers office. But didn't you have to drive there without any insurance? Yes but do you know what? Insurance isn't a mandatory requirement in the state of New Hampshire. Yes thats right, you can drive around without any insurance at all and its not a problem (obviously it is when you have a n accident but I suppose thats the chance that you take.). You would have thought that in such a litigious country it would be the complete opposite but no, you are perfectly at will to have no insurance whatsoever when you drive. Don't know what the rules are in other states but I suppose its all part of the Live Free or Die ethos. All sorted then, no not quite.

In the UK when we buy a car (or a bike or well anything thats needs one) it comes with its registration plate attached to it. Not here though (apparently for insurance purposes all vehicles are identified by their VIN numbers). When we got it from the dealer it had a temporary (cardboard) license plate attached to the rear which was valid for 20 days. This morning we had to go to City Hall to get our real license plates. Which could have been interesting as we apparently are supposed to have a New Hampshire driving license to do this but remarkably a UK license works just as well (although we now apparently have to go to Concord, the State capital and get New Hampshire licenses).

The interesting thing about this is that the whole process (temporary and permanent plates) costs in the region of $500. And the permanent plates have to renewed every year for another approximately $150. So there may be no road tax here in the way that we understand but this doesn't mean that motorists aren't exempt from paying their dues.

Rather boringly we went for the standard number plate with the next number and not a vanity plate as we couldn't thing of anything suitable to put on it. Answers on a post card please........

There'll be one mad dog and his master, pushing for four with the spin

The new football season has just started. Obviously by football I mean the glorified Rugby that America calls football and not real football (hereafter to be refereed to as s***** - believe me its easier). I amazed by the complete frenzy that this country gets into about its sport.

Take football. The AFL (the equivalent of the Premiership) is only the start of it. I find it hard to believe that of a Friday night, one of our local TV stations shows High School football live. This is like Midlands Today showing Dunsmore 1st XV play Sheriff 1st XV on a Saturday morning - complete madness and probably not the greatest entertainment. Yesterday the New England Patriots quarterback was involved in a relatively minor car accident. It happened during the TV breakfast programmes and the amount of coverage of it was unbelievable. If your thought the English were obsessed with s****** it is nothing compared to America and football.

And that is nothing when measured against what is known as "the American pastime" - baseball. I have quite warmed to baseball. I know its just glorified rounders but there is something quite compelling about it. Its really not that far from cricket, it certainly shares the need to know what the statistics are all about - its all about the stats. Something that I find quite amusing is everyone seems to agree that it can quite rowdy at the ball park, especially in the bleachers. I was told by someone - "you wouldn't want to be in the bleachers at Fenway Park when the Red Sox are playing the Yankees. Its the fighting Irish in the Bostonian - give them a drink and they like to rip it up"! Superb.

I think though that both are sports that you have to grow up with to have a full understanding and appreciation of. I have watched both and whilst I can watch them I don't have the investment in either to get passionate about them. Which is why I shall carry on listening to the cricket on 5 Live Extra on the web and go to the pub in Manchester when the six nations starts. Thank god the Rugby will be at a sensible time, I still haven't quite worked out when the Ashes will be and how much sleep I will lose (literally and metaphorically) .

I'd quit my drinking and work on a building too

I went for a walk downtown to do some stuff this morning (including joining the library - I felt like Lisa Simpson, although unlike Springfield's library Nashua's seemed to be in rude health and full of patrons). As I was coming back I saw something that made me smile.

There was someone replacing the putty, or as I found out last week when I had a conversation about ours (don't ask) its known as caulking here, in one of the windows of another apartment in the building. Being me, I was wondering how this feat would be achieved, given that we are five floors up. Well it appears that it is done by the use of a bit of rope and a length of wood. No need for a full scaffolding of the building here (as you would have to do in the UK), just dangle the guy over in a seat attached to a girder on the roof - superb. Though I really must remember to take my camera out with me.

Come senators, Congressmen please heed the call

A week on Tuesday is Primary Day in New Hampshire, a uniquely American piece of democracy. I'm not entirely convinced by it. I can see in theory why its a good idea - each party has a number of candidates who they put forward and then the people go out and decide who the candidate for the general election later in the year is going to be. It is a good way to avoid having the party candidate just foist upon you like we do in the UK. And I like the idea of being able to vote and decide on the other sides candidate (as I understand it everyone gets to vote for all parties and no parties candidates but I understand that this differs from state to state, like most other things). I think that though that there are definite drawbacks.

I read the other day for a successful candidate to get through the primaries and onto the ballot paper for the election in November cost between two and ten MILLION dollars. My understanding is that there are two Congressional districts in New Hampshire - which means that the successful candidates in NH will have spent upwards of $40,000,000 to get on the ballot paper. I am not au fait with how many seats are up for grabs in November (I don't think its all of them) but if you multiply that over the country thats hundreds of millions of dollars spent on just trying to get the chance to be elected.

Most of this money seems to be spent on adverts slagging off your opponent. Now the interesting thing here is that your opponent at this stage is member of the same party as you. I find this very strange - surely these people are on the same side? I understand that even in the same political party there are varying shades of opinion but still, some of the adverts are just plain nasty. I can't wait to see the ones for the election in November when they will be having a go at the other side.

The other thing is that its not just just get on the ballot paper for Congress but everything - school board governor, sheriff, alderman, Governor , the lot. Not in all places at the same time but I think that its lots of things that get voted for at the same time. Can democracy go to far? One of the TV stations have candidates debates every night this week. I shall watch them, not that I can do anything with the information as we are not allowed a vote. We are only non-immigrants residents so don't get a vote (but have to pay tax) - now what was it that one of the early thinkers behind the Revolution said? Oh yeah, "Taxation without representation is tyranny".

But the banks are made of marble, with a guard on every door

Monday is Labor Day, a bank holiday that apparently traditionally marks the end of the summer. Something concerned me about this holiday - its name. Its a bit, well, socialist. And surely America couldn't be celebrating something socialist could it? Turns out they could. Labor Day has been around since the end of the 19th century and was instigated as celebration of the achievements of workers.

Its the one dichotomy that I find time and time again here. On the face of it America (or probably more accurately some Americans) cannot countenance the very idea of socialism. Its an anathema to everything they hold dear. You just have to listen to people talking on news shows about the idea of healthcare reform. News channels, such as the one owned by everybody's favourite Australian are full of people who just seem to be, well the only word I can think of is foaming. (Not necessarily on topic but my personal favourite in this category is the mild mannered pastor who, with some of his mates, next weekend plans to burn the Koran in a protest against Islam.  He truly was the voice of reason)

There is an anti Obama bumper sticker I have seen that says "United Socialist States of America, 2010 - 2014" somehow equating the mild reform that Obama is doing to the USSR. Personally I don't think that socialist is a label that I would ever have put on Obama, liberal democrat perhaps but socialist? The very idea of state intervention to some people here is just selling their birth right. (Again, slight away from the topic but still on it, I was wearing this t-shirt when I was accosted by free thinking local who pointed to the hammer and sickle and asked if I knew that that was a symbolism of being a communist. I of course thanked him for putting me right on this information that I was previously unaware of.... Can't wait to see what happens when I wear this.)

And yet, and yet.......

I am constantly reminding myself that this is the land that gave the world Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Its the land with radio stations that are full of moderate voices who say "hold on a minute....". Its the country where they celebrate the worker and actually name a day after them - something that we aren't allowed to do in the UK, ours just becomes May bank holiday. For gods sake, our electricity is supplied by the Public Service Company of New Hampshire, I don't think you could get much more socialist than that.  So I shall stop worrying about the nutters and celebrate the progressives. Remember, you have nothing to lose but your chains.

So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies

So having been here for nearly a month and a half, I think I am now in a position to make sweeping generalizations about America.

The first is that I am shocked by the people who I have met and spoken to at length. I had always had the impression of Americans being positive and believing whole heartedly and unquestioningly in their country. Almost to a man (and woman) the people who we have spoken to have have all said "I love my country but...." and there then follows a litany of things that they think are wrong with America. And its not the things that you would expect (taxes, weather etc etc) but things like "why can't we have a health service like yours?" or "why does all our food have to be so full of shit/be supplied by huge corporations/be so processed?" This isn't what I expected at all. It may be because we are living in the liberal north west of the country and that the residents Boise, Idaho are different but it has rather wrong footed me.

The most interesting example of this was a guy who was talking to whilst watching a game of junior baseball in a park near our hotel. We were discussing the relative merits of US/UK sports. He completely from nowhere stated with complete irony "Ah thats the problem with us in America - we look at the rest of the world as a third world country" . I was taken aback (not only by his command of irony) as I never expected to hear an American be so candid as to "failings" of their own country. And he wasn't some screaming radical or conspiracy theorist, just what they would describe here as an ordinary Joe. Have the events of the last decade make Americans re-asses their self image?

The other odd thing is that America projects itself (certainly from what I have seen and read - remember this is generalization) as the world's cutting edge country, bringing the world innovation. So why can't we pay our rent online and have to do it with a cheque? And before someone says, no thats just where you live, other people have said the same thing about where they live. The concept of direct debit seems to be something unknown here.

But enough of the negativity. What is fantastic is the attitude of people when you deal with them in business. Two examples - when we came to get our apartment we had to pay the deposit by cheque, no other way was possible and we didn't have any as we had no bank account. Not a problem, the person we were dealing with took cash from us and wrote a cheque from her own bank account at her instigation.

Yesterday I had to phone our cable company to get a router. Its free but when I tried to order it via their website it wanted to charge me $150 to install it. As I can do it myself, I didn't want to pay this but there was no way to get rid of it from the order. The person I spoke to just took the payment off and let me know when it would be here. There was no "computer says no" or stroking of chin and intaking of breath at all. Just an attitude of getting things done with a minimum of fuss.

Coming soon - impressions of food, media, sport, transport and politics (not necessarily in that order).