TV Tax, Bills & Uggs

Truro Late Night Christmas Shopping

The past week or so has been relatively quiet for us here in Truro.  We spent this past weekend here, which was really nice considering how busy things will be for us in the next couple of weeks.  We did meet up with some friends Friday night for drinks in town.  It was great to check out some new pubs and just relax and catch up with friends.  Saturday and Sunday we spent finishing up our Christmas shopping, sleeping in, catching up on tv shows and just enjoying some down-time together.  Life is good!

This week begins a busy Christmas season for us!  We have a Christmas party in Truro tonight, another Christmas party in Falmouth Friday night, a Christmas concert next weekend and last, but not least, Prague in a couple of weeks!  So lots of fun stuff happening.

 

So as we continue to experience Cornwall over a longer period of time, here are some more random tidbits we are seeing:

- There is a yearly television tax here in England!  You pay based on if you own a black and white tv (the tax is less) than a colored tv (the tax is much more – around 130 pounds a year!).  Apparently the television tax pays for the BBC as well as allowing the BBC to not have commercials.  In order to be sure people are paying their television tax, there are vans that drive around and can detect if you have a television signal coming from your house or not.  Crazy!

- As we were setting up miscellaneous bills for our flat, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that you can pick which week of the month you would like to pay each of your bills (the 1^st, 8^th, 15^th or the 22^nd).  This allows you to pick when paying the bills works best for you and spread your bills out…..brilliant!

- We continue to be amazed at how cheap and accessible flowers and plants are here!  They are in the front of most stores and it’s not uncommon to walk down the street and see multiple people carrying home a bouquet of flowers!

- Women’s trends still fascinate me!  The look for winter continues with the tights and leggings with either dresses or long knitwear.  But now women wear dresses and knitwear with ugg-looking boots!  You would think the nice outfit wouldn’t go with the warm winter boots, but most every woman wears it here.  It seems no matter what country I’m in, those Ugg boots are everywhere!

- And no matter if women are wearing the comfy winter boots or great dress-up boots, they wear their socks underneath pulled up so you can see the tops of their socks over the top part of your boots.  Guess it shows they have warm feet throughout the winter!

- As most would expect, drinking tea is a way of life here!  When people stop over, it’s etiquette to offer a cup of tea (which most will take you up on).  At work, John has realized that it’s rude not to ask each and every patient if they would like a cup of tea (which again, most take him up on).  And most days when John is in the head and neck clinic, the team takes a short break from seeing patients to have a cup of tea.  Tea is offered in every restaurant and bakery in town.  The grocery store we go to has a little café in it and each time we stop in there, there are dozens and dozens of teapots with teabags stacked and ready to be sold. We even asked a friend how many cups of tea she drinks in a day and she guessed around five, which she commented she thinks is common here. Since moving here, I find that I make myself a cup or two of tea a day. When in Rome (or when in England)!