And I have seen the tiger smile, I spit in the bamboo viper's face

The state of New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles have seen fit to grant me a driving license. They made me work for it - I had to do a theory and a practical test. The theory test without the aid of revision. We went to get our driving licenses over a week ago and were expecting to get whatever the equivalent of a provisional license is.

We took our sheaf of required paper work, all in order. The lady behind the counter (who was nothing like either Patty or Selma) said "Right go to booth four and take your theory test" Er, what now? Apparently yes. So more by luck than judgement I reached the required pass point. We returned this morning to do the practical part. I now know why there are so many shit drivers on America's roads. I didn't even have to do the parallel parking or three point turn elements like I was lead to believe that I would. For the record, Giselle passed hers too.

So I too can now go and make the slip roads of America chaos too.

When the Brooklyn boys begin to take the joint apart and tear it down

Well I can report that the Midfield Cafe does indeed serve a fantastic breakfast, perhaps the best one I have had since being America. They may take a little time to get it to you but they can be forgiven that, especially as they were so busy today. But according the pilot (who was flying the P-51) who was sitting next to us at the counter, every airfield diner in America has tardy service.

The planes are impressive and the people there more so. We spoke to a guy (and bought a book from him) who was a Flight Sergeant on B-17s in Europe until he was shot down over France. I asked him where he was stationed. "Have you ever heard of Kettering" he said.....

The amazing thing is that they just let you walk through the planes, somehow I can't see them doing that in the UK. Having walked through them I can only conclude that they grew 'em smaller in the '40s. The bomb bay walkways certainly weren't designed for fat boys.

That is the view looking back to the tailgunners turret in the B-24. They are tiny inside, it really does make you admire the people who got in them night after night.

For all you mechanical freaks (you know who you are) -

the innards of a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp 1000hp 14 cylinder radial engine.

And finally some lucky bugger who is the best part of three and half grand lighter on his way back from a ride.

although I am sure that there is probably an argument with the claim on the poster that the P-51 was the greatest fighter plane ever.....

Thats the way we fly, five miles off the ground

I'll agree that the above pictures don't look very exciting (especially the last one) but they are. 

They are a B-17 Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator and a P-51 Mustang flying over our building on their way to land at Boire Field (which is just behind the trees). They are on display there all weekend - thats tomorrow morning sorted out. They apparently they do a good breakfast at the airport, I'll let you know if this is true.Oh and for a mere $3200 you could have an hour long flight in P-51 (for those who aren't aware this is like offering flights in a Spitfire - something that people would pay a lot of money for). 

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.

In the spring of '48, Mao Tse-tung got quite irate

American Television, where do you start? Its another one those dichotomies. One one hand some American TV is the best TV you will ever see (for example Mad Men, The Sopranos, yes even the Wire). They do cop shows better than anyone else (NCIS, CSI, Bones the list goes on). The animated series' (The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, South Park) are some of the funniest, most cutting satire around. And yet some of it some of the direst drivel you will ever see - daytime TV is full of chat shows, soap operas, judge shows, tabloid talk shows.

We only have the most basic cable package (you can't get TV through a normal ariel anymore as far as I can tell) which gives us NBC, ABC (x 2 New Hampshire's and Boston's), CBS, Fox, three PBS channels (I'll come back to them), a god bothering channel, a shopping channel and a Spanish language channel (which is the only one that I can watch s***** on, I never thought I would care about the Mexican 1st division but there you go). So we don't have the hundreds of channels because quite frankly there are too many channels with too much choice for too much money.

There is a better way - we don't have AMC the channel that shows Mad Men. However there is a way round this, buy it from iTunes. Okay it cost 35 bucks but we get it the morning after its shown. $35 is a lot cheaper than having to subscribe to AMC (and I'm sure that there is nothing else on the channel that would be of interest anyway).

Tonight was the start of the new season of shows on all the channels. It goes on all week, on all the channels. Tonight we had the Event on NBC, followed by the remake of Hawaii Five-0 on CBS. The Event? Not sure about it but will try it again next week. And Hawaii Five-0? Refer to the comment above on cop shows. No Jack Lord though (but he is dead so....). Of course the other thing about all the channels is the adverts - oh the adverts, the interminable adverts. They are worth a post on their own. So I will talk about them another time.

But if you tire of all this, what to do? Then turn to PBS. The Public Broadcasting Service, the nearest you will get to the BBC in America (unless of course you have a subscription to BBC America but we don't). There are no adverts, sort of. Not in the programmes but before and after the programmes you are told who has "supported" the programmes (they look like adverts to me but there you go). We are lucky enough to have WGBH as our local PBS channel, the premier PBS channel and they make stuff as good as the BBC. They also have a lot of stuff from the BBC (even if some of it is Keeping Up Appearances, ahem). It has proper news on it too which talks about things outside the state, let alone the country.

But better than all of this is the radio equivalent of PBS, NPR. That sounds so like the BBC because a lot of the time it is. Every night when I go to bed, I get to listen to the World Service. being broadcast on our local NPR station. If they had Sailing By and the shipping forecast, it would be like being at home....

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.

Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?

Rather stupidly we just went to a BMW dealer and now I want my bike......