h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry got to dash -shopping etc. Catch up later.

Could I live in 'OlBlighty again - no, I don't think so. One I have lived too long in tropical and subtropical climates and I cannot abide being cold and having to wear all those clothes just to stay alive. I am not saying thet there is no dishonesty or corruption in any of the countries where I have lived and worked but - in an odd way it is honest dishonesty and you know where you are. The bribery and corruption in the UK sickens me. Here ministers take their bribes almost openly - ministers in the UK wait until they stand down and take them in the form of 'directorships'. There is another aspect, which is that when I do come to the UK, I feel a total stranger and within a week I feel desperate to escape. In Nigeriaa they would say that I 'had gone bush' - nothing whatsoever to do with G Dubbya.

They used to say 'gone native' in colonial times. I can understand the comfort factor, the 'honest dishonesty' and the dislocation going back.

Do you think of Blighty as home though?

Yes - in a way. I have a strong affection for where I was born (Devon) but it has all changed out of proportion. God gives you your relations - than God you can choose your friends. I am an 'etrangé' here but this is my home and I have to speak an odd mixture of three languages - most of which I do badly - but I survive, am happy and still manage to learn something every day and if I am proud of anything, it is that the beggars on the street say hello to me - even though I have never given any of them 1 Dirham - just say the Arabic of 'hello' - we do give them food in Ramadan.

Even I feel like a stranger sometimes as the familiar gives way to 'progress'. I do wonder what it will take to shrug off the legacy of WW2 - baby boom, guilt, over indulgence, media hype, wanting it and having it now debts etc. Still there is much to be thankful for. I am lucky.

I agree about the 'wanting it and having it now debts' society and I now live in an entirely 'I have what I've got in my pocket' world. It took years to divest myself of bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages and the like and ceased to exist in the electronic credit world where just too much is known about you. It has other advantages - such as - it is impossible for me to use things like e-bay and buy things on the spur of the moment, that I don't really need. There are few disadvantages, a few minor inconveniences, but overall - a far simpler life. Fortunately Morocco is pretty much a 'cash society' although it is beginning to change. Here it is impossible to borrow any money from a bank unless you have more than the amount already lodged with them - totally daft as , if you did, you wouldn't need to borrow it.

Its a bit tricky now to revert to cash. Some retail outlets only accept cash because they have to, but are now refusing cheques. ID fraud is now big time. Have to shred almost everything - still it composts better that way. Off to bed now.

It IS a bit tricky reverting to cash. The entire electronic world seems hell bent on monitoring everything we do. Yo cannot make a telephone call without 'them' knowing where you are within a few meters. The plastic cards don't just tell 'them' where you buy but what you buy. I have never been committed a crime and have nothing to hide, but I object to snooping. I should add that I once built a VERY high security building. In order to do so I was put through a security check that went back to my childhood. No problem - but I was horrified that authorities in a foreign country could find out more about me than I knew about myself. I didn't mind being watched or having my phone tapped - I was doing nothing wrong and and knew both who was watching me and why. I do object to 'them' monitoring everything I do.
I once hired a car for a day in the Middle East and paid for it by credit card. When I returned the car in the evening I had the embarrassment of being told that the card was blocked - fortunately I had enough cash to pay. When I got to my final destination and rang to ask 'why?', I was told, "You don't normally spend money in Abu Dhabi!" What the hell business of theirs is it?