Big Brother and ASBOs

Is it Thursday again already? It seems like I just posted that blog! lol

So, I'm trying to write a Christmas letter, and failing miserably. It seems that all my creativity gets used up in writing these blogs and I have nothing left! Maybe I should just cut and paste bits from past blogs! Naw, that would take too long. I'll keep at it.

So, what has happened lately. Let's see...

Weekend was spent shopping and cleaning. My friend, Steve, came over on Saturday night for supper (I actually cooked something healthy!) and we watched MI:3. Great flick. That and church the next morning were the social events of my weekend! Meeting more people every week at church, and people recognize me and come up to chat, which is nice. I feel very welcome and comfortable there, that's for sure.

Busy week at work. Lots of things to catch up on and projects to work on. Our choir concert is on Saturday night, so we had an extra long rehearsal on Monday night, have another two hour rehearsal tonight and another two hour rehearsal on Saturday afternoon! But, we're starting to pull it together; on Monday night we rehearsed with the soprano soloist and it was beautiful! They are recording the concert, so I will be able to hear it (because you can't really hear it properly when you're singing in it!) and will send a copy to mom and dad so they can hear it too.

I have two tickets to the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale, for Friday night. I got them from a supplier, so there is a small schmooze event beforehand with beverages and appetizers. Steve is going with me, since he was mentioning last Saturday that he really wanted to see it. I won't be home much in the next few days!

Hmmm...that's really all I can say about what I've been up to. An observation I made recently; England is going increasing "Big Brother". I'm not a particularly private person, but I don't like the fact that the average person is caught on closed circuit tv 300 times every day in London! There are cameras everywhere - ostensibly for safety. However, the crime continues seemingly unabated. And, now they're talking about monitoring everything that isn't already monitored. I just heard about a catering company that has tracking devices installed in all their vehicles so they know where their staff are at all times, and it won't be long until all the cars here have that. The government controls so much of life here, it's frightening - and I'm not easily frightened by things like that. Also, the youth culture here is disturbingly violent. Most adults are afraid to tell kids off about anything, because as often as not, they will turn on the adult and injure or kill them (honestly - its in the papers all the time!) Even parents seem to be scared of their kids. And, I'm not talking about yelling at or abusing the kids, I'm talking about asking them to keep the noise down when they are playing their music on the street because it's midnight and people are trying to sleep. Kids are targeting certain people they don't like and throwing rocks through their windows, vandalizing their houses, shouting at them on the street, hanging around outside their house and playing loud music. The police seem to be able to do nothing more than give them an "Anti-Social Behaviour Order" (called an ASBO), which has become a badge of honour amongst these kids. It's a scary time over here. It makes me realize how great it is in Canada and how luck I am to be able to move back eventually!

So, that's some of the bad side of England. But, honestly, I'm having a great adventure over here. I'm looking forward to skating at the Tower of London and going caroling at Hampton Court Palace! It will be a fun December and then I'm back in Canada for three weeks!! Yahoo!