Thinking all things England....

It usually starts a few weeks before any of my planned trips to London...I start gearing my mind towards the UK. I normally tune my radio to BBC news broadcasts several times a week anyway but this goes WAY beyond that. Usually the first sign is when I dust off my copy of Bill Bryson's book Notes From A Small Island. To give you a bit of back ground, Bill Bryson is a Yank who grew up in the Midwest, visited the UK when he was 20 something, fell in love, married and raised his family there for 20 years. He has another great book about his move back to the US called The Lost Continent.... but that is a whole other story.
Bill Bryson's "day job" is writing for National Geographic magazine where is stories are extremely detailed and informative in keeping with the magazines format. But Bill's own books are a study in sarcasm, totally brilliant and a true study of the differences between the American and British cultures. I've read his books dozens of times. The very first time I read this book I remember actually laughing so hard out loud that I disturbed my children. I had such belly laughs that I couldn't physically read the book and had to resort to the audio taped version. I've since fell in love with audio books because you can enjoy them AND knit.

Then theirs music! I shocking realized a few years ago that my entire music collection is basically British. This is in keeping with my theory that God played a serious joke on me and planted me at birth on the "wrong side of the Pond" (aka the atlantic ocean).
So I start to pull out all of my beloved tunes...
First obvious choice...The Beatles...but then it continues to spiral out of control...
Herman's Hermits...H'enery the 8th
Jerry and the pacemakers "Ferry cross the Mercey"
The Rollings Stones
The Who
Trex
Led Zepplin
Queen
David Bowie
Sting
Van Morrison
Coldplay
And...when I pull out my collection of Scottish bagpipe tunes and start playing Scotland the Brave repeatedly, my husband steps in and usually says something to me.

Then there are TV shows!
I LOVE Netflix.com because I can get all the BBC shows that I love...
Vicar of Dibley
AbFab
Monarch of the Glen (Brian and I honeymooned in this manor house!)
MI5
Keen Eddie
As Time Goes By
Mr Bean
Monty Python
Black Adder
Wallace & Gromit
Faulty Towers
Are You Being Served?
Last Days of Summer Wine
All Creatures Great & Small

Next Installment...we'll talk about favorite Movies!