Doing it the hard (England) way

I am convinced sometimes that people in England just like doing things the hard way. I have read other blogs by other expats and this seems to be a universal theme. Everything in England....is just more difficult. It's almost like they just have not advanced in ways that you would think they should have by now. A lot of it may be their lack of space here (see previous posting on how small everything is). I guess it is the conveniences that I miss the most. Drive through restaurants and coffee places? Nope. Drive through banks and ATM's? Nope. Even parking at the actual restaurant, store, bank, coffee places - no way, no how. There is just not any parking at these places. The towns all just have a random car park somewhere in town that you pay to park in and then you walk to your destination. I don't mind the exercise, it is the lack of time that I think makes this hard. With two kids in two different schools, work, taking care of the house and daily life, who has time for this? It's not convenient when you have a toddler in a stroller and dry cleaning to pick up. As for gas stations - there are not very many of them, only one in our entire town and pay at the pump? They have never heard of that here. No school buses and not very many fast food places. The only ones I have actually seen are few and far between and are all American restaurants that have spilled across the pond like McDonald's, KFC and Subway. There are no outlets in bathrooms, something about the power wattage being so high, so getting ready in the morning is always an ordeal. Hubby plugs the hair dryer in behind the bed and stands in the middle of the room, I use my curling iron at the desk down stairs where there is also fortunately a mirror. I have tried to adjust to the slower life, walking my children to school, making my own coffee, cooking healthier foods and have tried to enjoy it. Some days it is fine, and I would do those things even back home, but not having any of the conveniences on the days you really need them, well...mostly, it just annoys me. (Believe me, I know how that sounds, but if you are a parent to one or more small children, think about what you have done in a given work/school day and then tell me that you have the extra time in your schedule to walk a mile to get cash out of an ATM or go to a post office.) I know I get to spend weekends in cool places like London and Edinburgh, and honestly, those are the things that make these little difficult inconveniences worth being here. I have said from the beginning of our stay here - the travel and the things we have seen have been worth it. And I truly think people in England just like doing things the hard, slow and what we would consider the inconvenient way. Nothing wrong with that if you are used to the slower paced life of this country, but coming from America - where everything is about convenience and being faster, it is a difficult adjustment. Right or wrong, I miss my Tim Horton's drive through coffee every morning.