Britain: Where Even the Birds Are Polite

On Friday C and I went down to the open-air market to do some of my dorm shopping.  Everything there was a fantastic bargain, so we got quite a lot of what I'll need for much less than I had thought it would be.  We got lunch from one of the stands, but it wasn't very good, even for food coming from what was about the equivalent of a lunch truck.  So we ate enough to tide us over and spent quite a while tossing the rest to the birds.  Which was also a different experience to California birds.  In Cali, when one bird grabs something and flies off, the others will fly after it and keep trying to steal it.  And birds will get aggressive about wanting your food, trying to steal it off your plate or out of your hands.  Here? Not so much.  Even the birds were almost polite.  When one got a bit of food and flew off, the others just let it go, then turned back to us and waited patiently.  It was a little bit surreal.  I've never seen birds behave with what might be called manners before.

Another interesting observation: The English are not extremely patriotic, at least not as openly and obviously as the Americans are.  No flags outside houses or anything.  Even C admits, they are basically not patriotic.  Except, as it turns out, when it comes to their food.  Imagine my surprise when, after hearing him talk about lack of patriotism, we walk into the nearby Tesco's and absolutely everything is labelled as "British salad" or "British minced beef" or "British juice drink", of course with the flag printed next to it.  So they are not very patriotic... until it comes to their food.  Apparently this is leftover food security from the mad cow outbreak several years back.

We'll be heading out in a few minutes, but later tonight I'll post a few pictures.