Three curses of England

...are electricity, plumbing and telephones.

The electricity was sorted out thanks to ironmongers off the High Street. Gill & Co. Ironmongers sold me a conversion plug that fit into my so-called universal plug that worked in Scotland last year, but not in England this year. I thought I was all set, until my computer unexpectedly told me I had one minute of power left. It seems that I need both the universal plug and the adapter, otherwise there is no power coming through. I have no clue why this should be so, but now it works. I have also bought a local hair dryer, which is good because the Rewley House hair dryer is of a particular beige color and a particular elephant-like hose that makes me think it was manufactured in about 1978. Of course, I have to make sure the outlet itself is turned on as well as the machine itself, which brings us to...

Plumbing. The shower at Rewley House is easy to understand - until you use it. Because you have to turn everything on twice, it's a bit confusing. I turned on the hot and cold water, and switched it to the shower mode. The only problem was that burning hot water came out of the shower, and freezing cold water out of the faucet. After much toing and froing, I discovered that the rotating switch that I hoped controlled the drain (because the tub was filling up fast) was actually a switch that controlled the temperature of the water that came out of the shower head. And on the second day, I realized that if there was still water coming out of the faucet, you could turn the faucet way down, thus allowing your feet to avoid the red as a lobster option that occurred when the excess hot water splashed down into the tub. If this is still unclear, you have my utmost sympathy. But I've met worse.

The phone is really easy this time around, if you can find your phone card and the number you're calling. I bought the phone card from reception, and for five pounds you get almost two hours worth of calling. It tells you just what to do. I've done it successfully twice now, after I figured out the country code and then found the missing phone card under the phone itself. It does not help to be an idiot.