Chelsea and wellness

Chelsea is like a different world. It's the nicest, most expensive part of London and people there are...well, different. The other morning, I had breakfast in Starbucks before my shift, and a group of school boys, probably 13 years old and all wearing matching riding gear, trotted down the main road on horses, led by their teacher. Horses!! In the middle of London, nowhere near a park!

The NHS (National Health Service) has come out with a series of advertisements (because apparently, people in this country don't use the free health service enough as it is?) I was particularly amused by a sign I saw on a bus the other night:

"Choking. Chest pain. Blacking out. Blood loss.
For symptoms of serious illness, and major accidents, choose A&E or 999 [the ER or 911]."

Everyone criticizes Americans for being dumb and uneducated, but the citizens of this country have to be told in bus ads to go the hospital when seriously injured! Who, when choking or bleeding profusely, doesn't think, "Maybe I should call emergency personnel?" And what kind of country has to advertise national health care? The posters might as well cry in block letters, "And don't forget, IT'S FREE!!! PLEASE USE US!"

The mind reels.