UK Oddities

Here are some things that I have observed and have been forced to get used to since living in the UK:

The Elevators (lifts) and how floors are labelled – G level vs RC (reception) or other random title. G is actually the first floor, and reception or lobby is the street level. At end of day after a long day of work I have forgotten this and hit G instead of RC. Would like to say that I learn from mistakes, but have done this on more than 2 occasions so obviously something isn’t sinking in!

Juice – from concentrate – 1 part juice to 8 parts water. Essentially, straight concentrate tastes like super sweet syrup and vitamin C. I learned this the hard way on 2 occasions - are you sensing a pattern of non-learning?

Toilets – to effectively flush a toilet here you need to continually pump it. There isn't such a thing as too much pumping the way the plumbing is designed. Which is a nice thing cuz you don't have to worry about clogged toilets very often like in N. America!

Doggy poop - so they don't have bi-laws here against leaving dog waste on city sidewalks, though there are some amusing signs posted by the borough council like 'failure to pick up after your dog's refuse is disrespectful to your community'. Unfortunately it also means that people are not so respectful. For a good 6 weeks of living here I managed to poop-watch while walking, but just the other day I let my guard down and my foot slipped through some fresh stuff. I was not impressed. Plus, it happened to also be the one weekday that it wasn't raining for easy clean up! Thankfully it being autumn there were lots of leaves on the street that did a pretty good cleaning job. arg.

Taps – Most sinks here still have two separate faucets for each temperature. In the absence of sink stopper, how do you wash your hands with warm water? Wave your hands under both taps continuously? I must admit I haven't quite figured the right technique yet. Brits think that the tap design is silly too, so it's not just me.

Terms – here are some terms I have heard lately: "Let me have a butchers at that CV" = look at that resume, "That's such codswallop" = that's such BS, "How are you getting on?" = how are you doing/learning, "I'll knock you up in the morning" = I will wake you up by knocking on your door - like when my scot cousin woke me up by bringing fresh hot tea to my room every morning , "I'll ring up the agency" = call the agency, "y’alright?" = how are you doing?, "so you want me to fix this, yeah?" = they say yeah here as often and in the same context as we use "eh"

Londoners "tsk" openly to show exasperation, especially if someone gets in their way/cuts them off or stops quickly. This is especially evident if you do one of these things and fail to immediately apologize.

Football or footie as they call it is taken very seriously here. They hate when we call it soccer! Whenever we get together to play footie on Sunday mornings with infusion crew (of which 2 are British) they constantly correct our North American lingo!

Buying food at the bar – new concept – buy first eat later. Much nicer at the end of your meal if you have to run as you don’t have to wait for a server to bring the cheque…you just leave! Felt weird at first but now I love pubs with this system.

Weather – fog, rain, and some sun. But when it is not raining or sunny it is one of two things: bright or grey. Bright? What does that mean? All I want to know is whether I need to bring my umbrella that day or not, that's all. I always bring it just to be on the safe side but it can be quite annoying to lug around, even the smallest one I can find.

National Health services – Healthcare is social/free here for all residents. The prescription drugs are also free, you have to register with a local independent medical clinic, and most health plans do not have dental coverage so that means that dentists are super expensive and less frequented...and I haven't seen an orthodontist sign yet (have you SEEN some of the teeth here?). An interesting aspect of some health plans is that if you sign up for a membership fr a partner gym, your attendance at the gym is tracked and if you go frequently each week (3 times) then the health plan pays your gym membership fee that month - so you have incentive to get healthy. I think its a brilliant plan, because even though they spend a lot up front to subsidize memberships, it works out cheaper in the end because healthy people have less need to make/use expensive health claims. I hope Canada adopts something like this soon. It makes good sense.

Funky fashion – the fashion here is a multitude of baggy tops with lots of horizontal stripes, some shirts of such long length that look like mini dresses. These mini dresses are worn over tights or skinny jeans with flat shoes, a big belt and long costume necklaces (chunky pearl-like necklaces in all kinds of colours). I have started buying some of these items cuz they look neat but not all of them are flattering so I have to be selective. Of course I will never buy the skinny jeans and hope that fad ends real soon!

That's it for now. Looking forward to Syd's bday this weekend and the Rugby world cup final. England is playing South Africa. SA is a much stronger team and it will be a fight to the end. Check it out if you get it on your tellies! (tvs)