Some thoughts

This is a strange country, this. And strange in a strange way, too - strange enough to be strange, but not so strange as to be too strange. How strange.
For example, no one could have prepared me for the flowers. When I think flowers I think 'Yeah, they're nice enough, nice colours and smell and that.' But then I came here and they're SO COLOURFUL! It's insane! No wonder so many artists were inspired in England. It seems like living here must be very pretty - falling snowflakes in winter and falling blossoms in summer.
Oxford Street, in the middle of London, was another thing I wouldn't have expected. Perhaps I was subconsciously assuming it'd be fairly similar to Oxford Street in Sydney, and to be fair they're both quite nice places (except in Sydney, if you ask for 'it,' you'll get it). But I can honestly say London's Oxford Street had the most fancy cars I've seen, anywhere. Seriously, in the fifteen minutes or so I was there I must have seen fifteen Bentleys drive past (yet no love for Rolls Royce). There was an Aston Martin showroom, but there were far more Astons parked on the street. You know something's wrong when you see a mid-range BMW, and can safely say it's easily the worst car on the street.
Having had my expectations exceeded once already by a place, I was optimistic to see Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter. All the time I'd been in Birmingham I'd heard people talk about two places - the Bullring and the Jewellery Quarter. Now the Bullring had been pretty nice, and I expected the Jewellery Quarter to be even nicer - after all, it has a much more impressive name. It brings to mind old, towering jewellery shops that had been in business since the time of Henry the Whatever, alternating with manufacturers who exported the finest platinum goods to all the world.
Well... not quite. Sure, there were jewellery shops - about twenty of them, half of closed down, poky little places inhabited by pale men with strange eyes and odd hair growth patterns. Sure, there were jewellery manufacturers - but to get to these depressing, dirty concrete slabs you need to pick your way through the piles of garbage bags and puddles of filthy water. To be honest it wasn't even bad enough to be interesting, just really drab and depressing. Needless to say, I didn't stay very long! (Though I did see a nice Lamborghini there...)
I do think I'll miss this country when I go. I've said a lot of good things about it, and as you can see above there's always little surprises that seem to be waiting for me. But hey, I'll be back soon enough, and I mean... Botswana!