She said: "After living in England for a few years, it was a shock to return home here. It was a shock when we came each year for a visit, but after a week or so we'd be flying back across "the puddle" and back to the house we rented in North London. The house was close to a hundred years old and in great shape. Our street was quiet. We had a small garden in back and could grow some of the things we ate. There was a flower mart a short walk away. The thing I miss the most was the quiet. We'd come home at the end of the day, and everything would be still and quiet. We rarely ate out because it was easy to cook a meal for the two of us. In the years we were there I don't think I ever "did some damage" in the shops. There wasn't really any reason to go shopping just to go shopping, if you know what I mean. I forgot, over time, what it was like to live on the East Coast of America. So, when we returned, it was a shock. We don't live in the core of the city here. If you want to go anywhere at all, you have to drive. My sister in law is always calling me to invite me to "go shopping" with her. Her hobby is shopping, I think. I don't want to be rude, but I usually try to beg off because I'm not a natural "shopper" like she is. I'm shocked at the size the meals are in the US. I can't really eat as much as they serve you in a restaurant. I'm not a good consumer, I'm afraid. There is just this amazing amount of what I think of as "useless stuff" for sale everywhere. "Useless stuff" catalogs come in the mail every day. I see "useless stuff" overflowing onto the road way on garbage day as my neibors dispose of "stuff" so that they can have room for newer "stuff". It's harmless, I guess. I don't know why I can't be a better shopper It just seems to me that, really, more isn't really better. More is just more!"

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