Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Save for the great Ghillie Brogues ‘Good New Year Malta Tour' of 1991, this was the first time I’ve been outside Scotland for New Year. 

Like so many things its the same but a bit different.  Whilst we wait for Big Ben to chime or the Balmoral Clock to strike midnight, in America they like to watch a ball drop.  New York has a ball that goes down at 12, whilst other states like to drop their particular fruit down at the bells.  In Orlando it’s an orange whilst in Georgia its a peach.  To be fair, these are citrus fruits likely to slide down a pole easily, I imagine the great Scottish neep would stick a bit, so best for us to await the chime.  

Despite, and actually in part because of falling fruit, it was a great New Year here, however, I heard one piece of advice I never thought I’d hear and certainly wouldn’t want to ever have to give. That being “don’t shoot guns into the air to celebrate”.  Yup guns again!  The advice in Florida was not to fire into the air at midnight.  Unfortunately some idiot did.  Remembering what goes up etc, a poor woman was enjoying New Year when she collapsed having taken a ricochet bullet to the leg.  Madness.

The cold wind blows and we shall have snow

Well, I’d been told it snowed and got a bit chilly in DC and, lo it came to pass at about 0600 yesterday morning.  Now, a bit of perspective - it snowed, we had around 3 inches outside the apartment, but that was it, 3 whole inches of snow.  I looked out the window, as I drew on my thermal simmet and gave a nonchalant shrug.  Three inches? In Washington? No problem…oh how wrong I was!  It was like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’!  Now this weather was no surprise, it had been forecast for several days, so plenty of time to get ready for it - does that sound familiar?  It seems, however, Fairfax County, where I live, was all out of preparedness.  The roads were a mess, there was not a gritter or snow plough in sight and the pavements (more of which in a second) had not had a sniff of a gritter.  

There has been a flurry of protest today because the schools were open yesterday when many felt they should have been closed for the day.  I waited for the shuttle bus to get to George Mason University but when it was late took the normal service bus.  I arrived on campus an it was like a scene from the Marie Celeste.  There was not soul to be seen.  I later discovered the University had been shut due to the weather, hence no shuttle buses.  However, I was joined on campus by the estates staff.  What a job they did!  By 1030 all the roads and pathways had been cleared of snow to the point they were dry.  Thats one of the other things here, its cold but its a dry cold.  No slush, no residual wetness just hard, icy cold.  I must say, I really do prefer that to the wet cold we have in Scotland.

This all really surprised me.  I thought this part of the world would be ready and prepared for snow and would only go into melt down (brrrr doosh) if it was really heavy snow, which yesterday was not.  In all honesty this was no greater a snow fall than would befall Scotland and we, probably, would have been no worse in our response or ability to respond.  I have no idea if that makes Scotland better or worse than I think it should be, what I do know is it we would have coped with the the same amount of snow DC had yesterday just as well/badly.

What did catch me out however was the cold.  Did I say it was cold?  What I meant was it was FREEZING!!!!  Its hard to tell the temperature here as one of the things the Americans have is their own mystical system for telling temperature, it's called Fahrenheit. Try as I might, I can’t work it out and every time I hear this scale referred to I can’t help but think of Tubs doing the stocktake as it is a scale that means as much to me a twelvety!  

However, back to the point, it's cold.  In the made up scale its apparently 25 degrees…not a bad day in Scotland I thought on hearing that, then we were told it would drop to around 7 degrees, which is, to be fair, a bit cold.  However, when you convert that to real money that makes a high of -4 and a low of -14!  Its no wonder my hands look like chopped liver and my ears feel like frozen chicken fillets…hats and gloves all round.

One nation under…?

Our kids started school this week.  What a different experience that is for them.  First thing I noticed is class size, Gregor has 16 in his and Eilidh has 11 kids in hers which, I think, makes for a good learning experience.  The big thing they came home talking about was the "Pledge of Allegiance”.  Each morning all the kids and teachers stand and together recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States.  Unless you're my kids that is, when you just have to stand respectfully.  On one level this is, I think, a really good thing.  It sets out for all citizens at an early stage that they are Americans and sets out what the values of this nation are and how each and every citizen is part of that.  However, this is something that causes a bit of an issue in the States.  

First off, I wondered where this fundamental piece of American patriotism came from.  It does not, as I had assumed, derive from the Constitution, War of Independence or Civil War; rather it was written in 1892 by a left wing Baptist Minister named Francis Bellamy as part of a ‘Youth Companion’ which focused on American patriotism.  Given Bellamy was a minister you’d have thought the ‘under God’ part would have came from his pen, but no, he kept the pledge short

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The reference to God was not added until 1954 when President Eisenhower asked Congress to include this reference in response to the growth of communism.  (This was right in the middle of the McCarthyism era which ran from around 1950 to 1956.  So really pretty recently then!)

There has, over the last wee while, been a bit of a tug of war going on between patriotism and freedom of speech, which is reflected in the First Amendment.  In California, one student gained an apology from his school having been ‘intimidated’ into standing’ to take the pledge, which was, as he saw it and to which the school later agreed, a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech.  I get that he should not have been made to take it, but, for me, rights come with responsibilities.  The pledge is a big thing here and just as I would never sit during another nations national anthem as that would be disrespectful in the extreme - its also something that would certainly cause a hugely negative reaction here! Similarly to sit through the pledge strikes me as disrespectful of others rights and beliefs.  Just stand, even if you don’t say the words.

Another issue was in Massachusetts where the States Supreme Court ruled that the words ‘under God’ does not discriminate against atheists, rather they took the view that the pledge is a mark of patriotism which citizens need not take.  This strikes me as being a bit of a strange mix.  Surely patriots can be atheists too?  

However its chopped up, this is a very different way to start the school day.  Despite the issues around semantics I think this is broadly a good thing.  America is a proud and independent nation, perhaps recognising that and introducing this concept at an early age develops national confidence, if it is managed in a positive way.

Drugs are expensive here

Our little girl, Eilidh, is not so hot around nuts.  She is at the mild end of the allergic continuum but nevertheless she is on it.  We have epipens for her at school in Scotland and have one, somewhere at the bottom of a bag.  Its not something we think too much about as she has never had a sever reaction and we all stay well away from nuts.  Now I have justified my poor parenting, its worth reflecting on how that impacted this week. At our meeting with the school administrator we realised we had forgotten to pack spare Epipens to give to the school. This meant getting a couple.  Consequently, we have had our first and, hopefully, our last direct connection with the US health service. 

First the good.  We needed to see a physician.  Round the corner from where we live there is a pharmacy and for the price of $59 or about £40 you can wait in line and see a doctor in about 15 minutes, its called the ‘Minute Clinic’.  I thought this was great, no waiting days to see a GP and having to come at a time convenient to the doctor rather than the patient.   We were seen and sorted in quicktime.  That said it did cost.  We then got the prescription, this was the less good part.  

What we needed cost $509.88 or about £330.  Oof.  A bit of a sore one, which we may or may not get back on insurance when we return.  The pharmacist was extremely sorry about the cost when she realised we didn't have US Health Insurance and hunted out a voucher for us which took the price down to $338. These devices which have the ability to keep my daughter well so they are worth the money, regardless of cost.  

We were lucky too, we could afford it.  When Rhona handed over the prescription the pharmacist was sorry to hear we had no insurance and was apologetic about the cost.  How devastating it would have been had we not had the money or been from one of the many American families who earn little and/or have no medical insurance cover?  I’m certain these devices cost the same in the UK, the difference is the NHS picks up the tab.  One of the things I have come to respect more since being here is the NHS we are lucky to have it and need do all we can not to lose it.

No car?  Really?

People have looked at us a few time this week with either pity or incredulity in their eyes which they followed up with the line ‘you haven't got a car? Really’?  Yes really we don’t and its okay!  

We live 0.9 miles or a 20 minute walk from the school.  However, this is not something that Americans seem to get, they judy don’t do the whole walking thing.  Hats, coats gloves and boots on…twenty minutes is a skoosh.  

This is one of the real cultural differences in the States.  The whole of society geared up for car users not walkers or people that want to take public transport.  For example, I have to visit a place called Roanoke in a couple of weeks and its a visit I am really looking forward to.  Its about 226 miles away so its an overnighter.  I can drive it in three hours, which is fine, but I looked at alternatives.  To fly it costs around $1000 otherwise its bus, walk, train another train, bus walk taxi which, if I hit it at  all the right times will take just shy of 8 hours!  So I’m in the car which will be quickest and, with petrol around $2 a galloon, the cheapest way to get there.  This is not a situation I really recognise in Scotland.  We do, of course, have out of the way places, but Roanoke is a reasonably big town within the State of Virginia so I’m surprised its so hard to get to without a car.

Back to the pavement, this morning they were such that the Washington Capitals could have put in a good session on them!  Not a grop of salt or grit to be had, this kind of summed up for me that the pedestrian is a bit of a rare breed here, which is, I think a shame.

You say tomato

We went to get the kids some boots yesterday and caused a wee bit of confusion in the store.  My boy asked for a pair of welly boots.  The assistant looked a little bemused, ‘you know’ he said, ‘wellys’.  Evidently she did not know until he pointed out the boots on the shelf ‘ah rain boots’ came the reply.  I guess the fashion sense of the Duke of Wellington doesn’t really convert in to the American conscious.  However, we did start singing this Scottish classic on the way home…and very worth a listen it is too! 

What I’ve learned this week

Guns at New Year are not good

In Scotland we don’t cope as badly with the snow as we think we do

One Nations does not always stand under God

Epipens and wellys are good ways to keep you out of the in-furm-a-reee

Thoughts and views are, as always, appreciated.

Take care Amigos

Richie