Scattered Strawberry Summer

 Maybe the cars shouldn't be allowed there, they run the whole view.


 Plenty of antiques shops in Rye

  These sheep are so cute!
   
  Though this looked a bit peculiar
   

After a rather filling lunch, we left Rye, on our way home, we stopped at Winchelsea beach. It turned so dark even though it was a middle of the day and it may look like it was cold but it was very hot still.


We made another stop at Hastings, so much potential there, where did it all go wrong?..

This post is somewhat prompted by recent Euro parliament elections. There was a lot of talk about UKIP in the media before elections and I had a very pleasant encounter with a UKIP supporter too.

A large percentage of the British population can’t stand foreigners. It’s all over the media and sometimes the way you’re treated changes as soon as they  spot your foreign accent. Last year before UK had to open the borders to Romania and Bulgaria every single day BBC breakfast and news  were talking about the upcoming  influx of immigrants. It seemed there was a report on it every single day. I'm afraid it felt rather xenophobic and it was unpleasant to watch the whole Romanian bashing on TV every day for a few weeks.

I don't get involved in  about immigration arguments, but sometimes I'd really like to suggest people to watch BBC documentary "The Day Immigrants Left" and consider the fact that: Immigrants to the UK in the last decade contributed £25 billion - more in tax than they received in benefits - and were less likely to claim handouts or live in social housing than people already living in Britain, a report has found.
 source
But there is also  a bit of double think- British are proud of their multicultural society and want to be known as a very tolerant country yet they want to close their borders and keep foreigners out.

Fortunately, most people I encounter are very nice and do not show xenophobic views, I love living in UK and I now consider it my home.

To end this post on a more positive note, I include some immigrant related funny and/or insightful British problems from reddit:

Two women in my toddler playgroup who live entirely on benefits and are not seeking work were complaining loudly about immigrants coming over and being "first in line for jobs."

My dad just complained about immigrants. We're immigrants.

My uncle constantly complains about immigrants, yet has plans to permanently move to Spain

I felt compelled to politely nod along to the car mechanic moaning about immigrants, despite being a Swedish immigrant getting my Volvo serviced.

According to numerous Facebook posts, illegal immigrants get put up in the Grosvenor Hotel and bathe in champagne, but if a British person loses their job, they are executed with a single bullet to the back of the head and have to pay for their own bullet. 

My aunt immigrated to Spain. She still complains about immigrants in the UK taking benefits and not integrating with the local culture.

Man in front of me in a queue was talking so vehemently about the exams, contributions and value immigrants should have to show before they 'earn' a British passport I'm beginning to feel like an underachiever for getting mine simply from being born

 

we all heard about public sector spending cuts, many vulnerable people affected, yada yada, but what surprises me at the time during this economic turmoil is that  my local council still manages to find  money on resurfacing roads and pavements that are perfectly fine. Our road was resurfaced  a few weeks ago (yes, at night time, thanks for sleepless night) and now they are doing pavements. there was nothing wrong with them, they were perfectly fine, just like the road, it didn't have potholes or anything. it was fine. way to go to waste  tax payers' money.

The big freeze started in November and today was the first time I saw some pavements being covered with grit. So far haven't seen any other effort to make this situation better in my town.  Last friday, my bf's journey from work lasted 6 hours instead of 1. Again, it was more because of the fear of  snow and ice than the actual snow and ice.  I was at work when it started snowing for the first time t hsi year, a colleauge  was afraid to  be snowed in. She actually feared she will have to spend a night at work because of no more than 5 cm of snow. and she lives 30+40 minutes walk away. Jeez.

Apparently, it costed 4bn pounds to British economy so far. and the argument for not buying enough equipment to deal with snow is that it might cost too much, especially because it doesn't snow that often. maybe, it's time to change this view.