Tuesday 1 January 2008

Reading on New Year's Day

Town still trashy
I decided to cruise around city center to look around today, thinking the town would be mostly vacant. Turns out I was wrong, as many people were out and many stores were open. I still did a little exploring, and went out past the Broad Street Mall area onto Oxford Road. I turned for home quickly though, as there didn't seem to anything thrilling there -- the area was rather grim looking.

The above picture is just one sign of grimness. All that trash rests inside the fenced-in area of an otherwise attractive-looking church called Providence Chapel. It's obvious that people on the sidewalk purposefully toss their trash over the fence. Why?! There's no lack of trash bins, but apparently also no lack of people who think nothing of littering. I can't understand why anyone would choose to turn his or her city into a huge rubbish bin.

Horsing around



I also saw police officers on horseback on my little adventure around the city center. These animals were huge and made impressive clopping noises with their hooves. They also smelled and I can only imagine they left steaming "gifts" on the pavement. That kind of litter I can understand better than the human-made variety (usually consisting of bags and bottles rather than poo, I should hope).

Who says you can't get anything for a pound?


I also went by the 99P store (P is for pence); it was closed. This is the place my husband said would be our only shopping site -- except he never went back. I've never been inside, and do admit I'm curious about what they have. The store is also an example of how the cost of living here is roughly double that in the U.S. Judging from the items my husband brought back on his one visit, the store sells the same stuff you'd get at the 99 Cent store in the U.S. (or a Dollar Tree). And 99P is about double 99 cents. Even cheap junk isn't that cheap here.

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