Friday, October 28, 2005

The Meadows

I took a little walk across town (not too long) to the only store I have found that sells chipotle chilis in adobo sauce (I put them in the scalloped potatoes tonight. YUM!). I took a diversion on the way back, expecting to get lost, but then I realized I knew exactly where I was. I had stumbled upon the large grassy area south of us called The Meadows. This would be much like Grant Park (but greener!) with trees lining its borderd and the pathways through it. On a nice day you will see families lingering, children running around, dogs fetching and sometimes games going on. It is a very peaceful walk through the city. I had not been this far west though, and I remembered something I had just read earlier today. I was looking at an illustrated map and on this particular part of The Meadows was written 'The land undulates because over 10,000 plague victims were buried in pits here.' I knew that this was the place when I looked at it because it was very hilly, and not only was it hilly, it looked like it had all kinds of pock marks or something. Hard to describe. I paused for a minute to take in these sobering thoughts. It reminds me now of the tombstone I saw last week of parents who had lost their children at ages 11 yrs, 8 mos, 7 yrs, and 25 yrs. As I walked on I could tell that there was something strange going on here because the rest of the landscape of the Meadows was completely flat.

TV LICENSE

We just recieved a piece of mail threatening that if we didn't pay for our TV license we would be slapped with a £1,000 fee. They threatened that there would be an investigation and we would get a visit from one of their officers and WARNING: we can detect within 20 seconds if you are using a TV. Funny. We don't even have a TV. Anyone who owns a Telly here has to pay for a TV license for each TV (£125 per year) which pays for the 5 BBC stations that you get to watch. When you buy a TV you are registered, and if you do not pay for the license "they" come after you. I think what we recieved was just something they send to any address that has not bought a license. Good thing English is our first language because the letter was very threatening and I can see that it could cause some people a fright!

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