Exciting times regarding politics in this country. The debate was excellent. It just amazes me that it was the first one EVER! I’m so used to debates in Portugal that I never thought other countries may not have them. Well I’m sure dictatorships don’t have them but I was surprised that they may not happen in a democracy.
It is a case of quality not quantity, however. It was done in a very English way: All very controlled, polite, organized… But in the end the result was very good. And surprise surprise with the Lib Dems. No one even knew who their lider was and what were their policies and now watch the changes in polls.
I think debates (if done properly) are essential to clarify policies and to allow the public to make informed decisions.
It’s a shame I can’t vote…

It is finally on the news that there is an initiative to install water meters in every household. But only if the environment agency ‘has its way’.

It’s not surprising that in the country where it rains so much, there are actual droughts.

Why this wasn’t done ages ago is beyond me…

I am ashamed to say, I actually started to enjoy the game! Still a long way from understanding the endless rules but it’s a lot more entertaining that football

It’s going to be colder here than in Scotland

At least there will be snow

Now here is something that I just only found out and left me very confused.

I’ve written before about abortion laws and how liberal they are in England. Abortion is permitted up until 26 weeks pregnancy and in practical terms all you have to do is go to your GP and tell him you want an abortion.

Oddly related to this is the fact that in the vast majority of hospitals, they are not allowed to tell the parents  the sex of the baby! I know that there are some people who like to be surprised and therefore, don’t want to know the sex of the baby. But being forbidden? I found that very odd. Then I found out why. Apparently some people abort if the baby is a girl. So to prevent this from happening the sex of the baby can’t be known until birth. Which leaves me with a question: one of the reasons why people defend abortion is that it is best to keep the baby from being born than to give him/her a life time of misery with parents who didn’t want them. I wonder how the lives of the baby girls will be with parents who didn’t want them. On the other hand, there should be no discrimination between boys and girls!

I’m still confused as to if this is a very conservative of a very liberal law

It’s amazing the small differences that you find.

Sanitary towels (pensos higienicos) in England are much bigger than in Portugal. A normal with wings in England is a super with wings in Portugal. (can’t imagine how big the biggest are).

I wonder if it’s because in England people are fatter? Or do they have stronger fluxes?

Shortly after I first arrived I went to a house party with some friends. It was the middle of winter. As usual guests contribute with drinks and/or snacks. We took beer. Unfortunately we had just bought it so it wasn’t cold. When I said this to the people in the party instead of the normal ‘put it in the freezer to cool faster’ that I would hear in Portugal they said ‘just put it outside in the garden, it will cool in no time’(!!!!) That’s something I wasn’t expecting! I supposed that thinking of it it makes perfect sense as it is very cold in the winter but it was weird to me anyway.

Later I was told that students who share accommodation, and therefore have limited space’ often put their stuff in a bag outside the window instead of the fridge. They only have to be careful so it doesn’t freeze in case it’s milk and yogurts and stuff

Police officers don’t carry guns.

In Portugal even traffic police carry guns.

This is not a thing that surprised me when I first arrived. It’s something that has been surprising me to date: Super-bugs in Hospitals.

It surprises me that a developed country as England has infections in their hospitals that kill patient who went there for something completely different. It surprises me that this happens in a country where they are paranoid about health and safety and fill hundreds of forms and take ridiculous precautions and then have these problems in hospitals when this could be avoided with simple things like washing hands and good cleaning and disinfecting! How can this happen?

Well one of the things that may induce this is some hospitals having carpets on the floor. A hospital with carpeted floor? Where is this heard of?

How can such a developed country have such mortality in their hospital because of diseases patients caught in the hospital?

I wrote in previous posts that I didn’t know which one was worst: the NHS or the Servico Nacional de Saude. I think I prefer the Portuguese…

One of the first things I noticed when I was travelling from the airport to MK was the lack of rubbish bins in stations. I just couldn’t find one. I was thinking: ‘Why the hell don’t they have bins in the stations? Where do they put all their rubbish?’ I always noticed that every time I travelled but only recently I had the chance to ask someone if there was a special reason for that. And there is. Apparently some people have this habit of disposing of bombs  into rubbish bins in train stations and such and hence killing a lot of people! Well it seems like a very good reason not to have rubbish bins in stations. This is one of those things that never occurred to me living all my life in a country with no problems of this sort. Makes you think doesn’t it? I always thought of terrorism as something that doesn’t happen in Portugal, something that only happens in other countries far, far away… Makes you think…