In three weeks and four days I will be going to the States. Yes, I really am counting the days. It will be hurricane season in Florida when I get there. I'm confident the weather will still be better than it is here in the U.K. at the moment. Pleasingly, I have discovered I will have Wi-Fi access, so consider this post a teaser for the twice-daily posts that I will start writing once the novelty of sun and swimming wears off. Be assured I will not be posting garish photos of my skinny frame lounging in the sun.
Part of me is infuriated that I holiday so frequently in America. This will be my fourth visit, and I believe one trip shy of the times in living memory that I have gone to Spain. I am no old-fashioned nationalist, quite the opposite in fact, but I do feel occasional nostalgia for the times before Britain was so absorbed into the American social machine. The last decade or so has seen America come to dominance over our culture, politics and now our holidays. It seems to me that we spend all our free time watching American television, American films, reading about American politics and increasingly listening to American music.
Its not that I dislike America. Its a huge country with a diverse culture that produces some great music and cinema, as well as a lot of tosh. But it saddens me that the most popular place for us to holiday is the source of most of the entertainment we now have over here. Through a combination of shared language, a favourable exchange rate and general American dominance over world culture, politics and economics, we have gradually found ourselves as the fifty-first state.
Mind you, I'm looking forward to topping up my tan.
Part of me is infuriated that I holiday so frequently in America. This will be my fourth visit, and I believe one trip shy of the times in living memory that I have gone to Spain. I am no old-fashioned nationalist, quite the opposite in fact, but I do feel occasional nostalgia for the times before Britain was so absorbed into the American social machine. The last decade or so has seen America come to dominance over our culture, politics and now our holidays. It seems to me that we spend all our free time watching American television, American films, reading about American politics and increasingly listening to American music.
Its not that I dislike America. Its a huge country with a diverse culture that produces some great music and cinema, as well as a lot of tosh. But it saddens me that the most popular place for us to holiday is the source of most of the entertainment we now have over here. Through a combination of shared language, a favourable exchange rate and general American dominance over world culture, politics and economics, we have gradually found ourselves as the fifty-first state.
Mind you, I'm looking forward to topping up my tan.
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