Living in England is not so different from living in America. It’s like moving from the West Coast to the Deep South or to New England.

Spending this summer in the United Kingdom, I became more aware of three things different there than here: food packaging, road work, and a fabulous beverage.

Have you recently considered how much of our food is packaged in zippered containers? Lunch meet, cheese, dog treats, cereals, dried fruit–the list goes on. Such packaging keeps our food both fresher and safer for longer.

However, in Britain zippered packaging has not yet made the scene. For instance, ham slices come in a flimsy plastic package with a plastic top that peels back to open. Once the package is opened, it cannot be closed tightly or sealed. To have food exposed to air, drying out and spoiling is an “ooog!” in my book.

Road works, like here, can be found equally in the towns and countryside. How irritating and frustrating to come upon road works repeatedly! But in England (at least in Yorkshire where we did most of our traveling) flaggers are not employed to control traffic flow. Rather, portable traffic lights regulate the traffic. I found this method to be efficient and effective. Yet being stopped and made to wait for five minutes while oncoming traffic drives by is a definite “ooog!”

For Kat’s 50th birthday, we went to The Castle restaurant. When the waiter came for our beverage order, I chose something that I never heard of before: Rekorderlig strawberry-lime cider. Wow! It was so good–sparkling, refreshing, tasty. And it comes either with or without alcohol. It is a product from Sweden. What a lovely surprise to find that it can be purchased here!

Whether in the USA or in England, life runs along much the same with the differences adding texture–sometimes an “ooog!” and sometimes a “Wow!”

What is the “ooog!”/”Wow!” count in your day today? Regardless~~~”Be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15)