Posted on March 17, 2008 - by Calvin L. Smith

Englishman Coming Home (I hope) (23)

Spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express near the airport. Their hotels over here offer so much better value for the money than back in Europe, where accommodation is ridiculously overpriced. But the first leg of my flight from Raleigh (pronounced `Raaaaahleeh’ here in North Carolina, sorry, I mean Carolaaaahna) has been delayed, which means I am really cutting it fine to catch my Newark-Gatwick flight. No doubt if I do make it my bags will not (the worse was when I visited Dave Royle’s in South Africa once and Air France lost my bags for five days… deliberately, I’ll bet). Anyway, I doubt I will post anything at Newark, unless, of course, I miss my connection and spend the evening there.

This morning I went shopping for some gifts for my children over at Southpoint Mall, near Chapel Hill, which must be one of the biggest and nicest I’ve ever been to. No poured concrete buildings and car parks here… it is all block paving (quite unusual in America), massive shops, and lovely gardens etc. But looking back over the past ten days I have mixed feelings about America. Once you get past the many excellent value restaurants, great shopping and pure convenience, for me the country has lost some of its sparkle. I think this is maybe because Europe has caught up so much over the past couple of decades. You still can’t beat some of the new “happening” places over here, where expensive developments in places like California, Las Vegas and parts of Florida (eg the Key Islands) are second to none in terms of how spectacular their visionary concept is. But I must admit I am looking forward to getting back to the UK, seeing my family and walking along the beach in East Kent (and of course paying three times the amount of money for smaller meals and poor service at restaurants). Frankly, I am a little fed-up of smelling vanilla, cinnamon and freshly-brewed but very weak coffee wherever I go. Time to get back to the grittiness and scowling faces which are England