In other news, I had a fantastic weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon, complete with Shakespeare play and horse-back riding. The one hitch was in attempting to hire the car. Turn up at Hertz with only your UK photo-card licence and you're not going to get anywhere. Apparently they need to see the paper counterpart so they can check if you've got any driving convictions. Of course, if you turn up with a US licence, which is photo-card only, they'll happily hand over the keys, despite the fact that you could have obtained the licence by passing your test in (and only ever have driven since) an automatic, have never driven in the UK or on the left-hand side of the road before, and have 27 serious driving violations recorded on the magnetic strip on the licence, which Hertz have no means of reading. Luckily, April had her California licence with her so we weren't left stranded at the station.

Another mixed English and overseas party next to us in the queue were having exactly the same problem; seems that a Kiwi licence will do nicely as well. Now I got the impression over the bank holiday weekend that a lot of English people were enjoying the opportunity of taking their overseas visitors to see the picturesque sights of Shakespeare's birthplace. So presumably, the roads of Stratford were full of English people, who have been driving in this country for years, being chauffeured around in hired cars by foreigners, who have never been around a roundabout before. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like a damn good recipe for unnecessary car accidents.