Saturday

Did not have anything on today, I have just been trying to catch up on things at home.  

I am also making an effort to get an Oklahoma driving licence, and  in preparation for the driving test have been practicing the test questions which I can access online.   I presented myself a couple or so years ago for a driving test and couldn't take it, because I didn't have my social security card, I'd lost it and was waiting for a replacement at the time.     We don't have to send away for test appointments here, we just turn up and wait in line, so as soon as I can answer all the test questions a bit better than I am at the moment, I will go along.

I wonder how illegal immigrants get by in this country without social security cards, because they are needed for driving licences and motor insurance.

When I got back here from my trip there were all sorts of scandals going on.   One of them, which seems to be dominating the news at the moment, is the fact that it has emerged that phone calls and e-mails are being monitored by the government - a national security agency - and it has been explained that this surveillance is necessary to combat terrorism. It doesn't worry me, but then Americans are far more hung up on their civil liberties than we are, and there are all sorts of angry debates going on.

But on the subject - I don't think they are just looking at e-mails and listening to phone calls, they are reading blogs as well.   I have been very taken aback at the number of people reading my blog.  I don't know who they are, I just get the statistics, and they are astonishing. Far more people are looking at the current blog, than the previous one.   And there are more people in the US reading it than in the UK.   From June 2nd until the 9th there were 70 people in the US, and 57 in the UK and - get this - 15 in Russia!!   I think it must be because I am the new kid on the block and they will soon give up, my loved ones might like to know what I am doing but I can't imagine the rest of the population, especially in Russia, being very interested.

From the holiday snaps......

 Tim, Nicky and Marie at the lunch Tim hosted for me.

Jeremy at Naseby, the decisive battle in the Civil War.   I think this was taken from Fairford's lookout, the Commander of the Parliamentarian forces.   Then we went on to Prince Rupert's lookout.

 The Star Inn at Alfriston.   I hadn't realised it was one of the oldest inns in the country, built in the 1260s, it was originally run by the monks of Battle Abbey - and called The Star of Bethlehem - for the pilgrims travelling between Battle and the shrine of St Richard at Chichester.    I think it became an inn in the 1520s.