The UK is of course strange in many, many ways, but today I want to focus on things they plug in. And how they plug them in.
Basics first, for those of you who are unfamiliar, the plugs used in the UK are roughly the size of your fist. They are three-pronged, with all three being rectangle-shaped, the two on the 'bottom' (when plugged in) are horizontal, and the top one is vertical. The plastic bit to which these metal things are affixed (if that makes any sense), is generally six-sided, with the bottom half being rectangular, then the two sides tilting in so the top is narrower than the bottom. All in all, the plug is about two inches by two inches. AKA, massive. The Anglos like to think this makes them sturdy, I just think it takes away the grace of all Apple plugs.
Next step: the outlets. Wall outlets again usually come in sets of two, only instead of one being stacked on top of the other, they are side by side. The key difference is that you can turn an outlet on and off with a handy adjacent switch. I think the idea behind this is that you don't have electricity surging through an outlet that isn't in use, but not having grown up with the option of turning outlets off, I generally just leave them on all the time. These days this is enough to get you labeled as unfriendly to the environment, but really it just doesn't occur to me to do so.
The one room where you never find these sorts of outlets is the bathroom. As far as I can tell, this is to ensure you have to dry your hair in odd locations such as the hallway. What you instead find in the bathroom is a European style outlet with two parallel rounds things. They will be paired with a little sign saying they are for electric shavers only. I imagine this is based on the idea that people are stupid and will no doubt electrocute themselves while making toast in the bathtub, but in my mind it's a case of the government taking things a bit too far.
Aside from those darn electric kettles, the appliances here cover the same range. Only there are some slight variations in how you might turn things on and off. When I turn off the tv with the remote, it goes by default into stand-by mode. If I actually want to turn the tv off, I have to get up and press the button on the actual tv. The Wii is on stand-by by default whenever you're not using it, unless you cut off the source of power by turning off the outlet. Needless to say, there's a lot of work involved, and these days a lot of guilt forced on you by the media and other green folk if you don't do these things. Plus your electrical bill will be considerably higher if you leave things on all the time!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Obama-rama
I know it's nearly week old news by this point, but I still feel obliged to provide a bit of insight into how the whole inauguration thing went down on this side of the pond. To sum things up in one word, it's safe to say that the inauguration was BIG.
Last Tuesday, from the moment I arrived at work, there was much chatter and excitement about Obama and the day's events. Some efforts were made to arrange watching the events unfold here at work, but despite having several new flatscreen televisions, no one could figure out how to make them actually show tv with sound. So I didn't get to watch anything live, but if I had, I would have had plenty of options. There was two hours of live coverage on BBC 1 as well as extended coverage on BBC News and Sky News (a Rupert Murdoch situation, so you can envision what went on there). People in many other workplaces (coverage from from 4:30 to 5:30 local time) managed to sneak away to watch. I also received word of a number of gathering of Americans taking place around town. There was front page coverage in all the newspapers and it was the leading story in the news for days. Half of what I saw on BBC news at the gym last Thursday was all stuff taking place in the US.
Needless to say, I find this very intriguing. First of all, people here aren't directly impacted by the US president in the same way as Americans. Even Americans living here aren't impacted in the same way as people in the US (unless of course he drastically cuts the amount of money you can live abroad without having to pay US taxes...). Secondly, I find it somewhat interesting that people are so intrigued by the process of a president being inaugurated. There seems to be a small bit of jealousy, but that only seems normal in a land where they have an unelected monarchy and the prime minister isn't directly elected either.
To summarize sentiments, the people over here seem quite pleased with our choice. It will be interesting to see if overall sentiment towards Americans changes over the next few months!
Last Tuesday, from the moment I arrived at work, there was much chatter and excitement about Obama and the day's events. Some efforts were made to arrange watching the events unfold here at work, but despite having several new flatscreen televisions, no one could figure out how to make them actually show tv with sound. So I didn't get to watch anything live, but if I had, I would have had plenty of options. There was two hours of live coverage on BBC 1 as well as extended coverage on BBC News and Sky News (a Rupert Murdoch situation, so you can envision what went on there). People in many other workplaces (coverage from from 4:30 to 5:30 local time) managed to sneak away to watch. I also received word of a number of gathering of Americans taking place around town. There was front page coverage in all the newspapers and it was the leading story in the news for days. Half of what I saw on BBC news at the gym last Thursday was all stuff taking place in the US.
Needless to say, I find this very intriguing. First of all, people here aren't directly impacted by the US president in the same way as Americans. Even Americans living here aren't impacted in the same way as people in the US (unless of course he drastically cuts the amount of money you can live abroad without having to pay US taxes...). Secondly, I find it somewhat interesting that people are so intrigued by the process of a president being inaugurated. There seems to be a small bit of jealousy, but that only seems normal in a land where they have an unelected monarchy and the prime minister isn't directly elected either.
To summarize sentiments, the people over here seem quite pleased with our choice. It will be interesting to see if overall sentiment towards Americans changes over the next few months!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tea in the NEW workplace
As I have mentioned before, I moved work groups in October. At as I've spent considerable time dwelling on the anglo-tea love situation, I feel obliged to report what goes on in this new territory.
The people in these new parts LOVE tea. They all seem to drink it by the gallon. But this is not the interesting part! What I find intriguing is that whenever someone gets up to get themselves some tea, they walk around asking if anybody else wants some. This sometimes results in someone having to make 10 cups of tea, about half of them in identical company mugs.
To make things extra tricky, everyone has their own unique way they like their tea. Okay, there are really only two different varieties offered: one sugar or no sugar. The milk, of course, comes standard and I haven't come across anyone asking for it to be withheld. The only really complicated orders come when someone asks for coffee and they have the choice of instant or the stuff from the coffee machine. How someone takes their tea is rarely asked when the mug collection process is going on, so basically everyone around me has a mental inventory of how everyone likes their tea. The system does break down once a day or so, and someone gets given a 'cuppa' with sugar when they prefer it without, resulting in the person giving the tea making faces and the person who made it apologizing profusely.
Much like with buying rounds in the pub, if you accept tea from others you do have to volunteer to make tea for others. This applies to everyone regardless of their seniority level - the director sometimes walks by asking you if you want a hot drink. Personally, I chose not to involve myself in the whole situation as I don't know how these people make tea (how much milk do you even put in? how long do you leave the tea bag in?). Plus I could never manage to keep tabs on who likes sugar and who doesn't, nor do I trust myself with the task of carrying more than one hot beverage at a time. Carrying my cup of coffee at home every morning requires all of my concentration as it is, without random people wandering all about and coming out of nowhere around the corner. That being said: I have not seen anyone spill yet.
The tea drinking is not just a first thing in the morning thing, or an all morning thing: it's an all day thing. People make rounds of tea at 5 pm. While the number of cups people have varies considerably, I imagine some people have at least 5 cups a day. I don't know how they get any sleep!
The people in these new parts LOVE tea. They all seem to drink it by the gallon. But this is not the interesting part! What I find intriguing is that whenever someone gets up to get themselves some tea, they walk around asking if anybody else wants some. This sometimes results in someone having to make 10 cups of tea, about half of them in identical company mugs.
To make things extra tricky, everyone has their own unique way they like their tea. Okay, there are really only two different varieties offered: one sugar or no sugar. The milk, of course, comes standard and I haven't come across anyone asking for it to be withheld. The only really complicated orders come when someone asks for coffee and they have the choice of instant or the stuff from the coffee machine. How someone takes their tea is rarely asked when the mug collection process is going on, so basically everyone around me has a mental inventory of how everyone likes their tea. The system does break down once a day or so, and someone gets given a 'cuppa' with sugar when they prefer it without, resulting in the person giving the tea making faces and the person who made it apologizing profusely.
Much like with buying rounds in the pub, if you accept tea from others you do have to volunteer to make tea for others. This applies to everyone regardless of their seniority level - the director sometimes walks by asking you if you want a hot drink. Personally, I chose not to involve myself in the whole situation as I don't know how these people make tea (how much milk do you even put in? how long do you leave the tea bag in?). Plus I could never manage to keep tabs on who likes sugar and who doesn't, nor do I trust myself with the task of carrying more than one hot beverage at a time. Carrying my cup of coffee at home every morning requires all of my concentration as it is, without random people wandering all about and coming out of nowhere around the corner. That being said: I have not seen anyone spill yet.
The tea drinking is not just a first thing in the morning thing, or an all morning thing: it's an all day thing. People make rounds of tea at 5 pm. While the number of cups people have varies considerably, I imagine some people have at least 5 cups a day. I don't know how they get any sleep!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Done with the move!
As the title suggests, I am now officially moved out of the old place! Mark kindly volunteered to take yesterday off of work to facilitate the final stages and from the sound of it, he spent the entire day running around like a chicken with its head cut off. He oversaw the cleaner at the old place, aided in the delivery of a fridge/freezer and a washing machine up three flights of stairs at the new place, moved some remaining items from the old place, managed the Sky installation and even managed to pick up our new coffee grinder from the delivery office. Basically I think he deserves a round of applause!
After dinner last night we went back to the old place for a last visit (and to gather the last couple things). I must say it looked impressively clean. Which is sort of bad because then you realize that you live in comparative filth, but it should be okay for inspection. This was capped off by my putting the keys through the very aggressive letterbox (it tried to rip my fingers off!) at the estate agents. So no more Radipole Road!
However, the new place currently looks as if a bomb has gone off in it. It's an absolute mess of items randomly strewn about in the moving effort. While we hpoe to address this situation over the weekend, I also fully intend to spend a good many hours sitting on the couch watching televeision and doing very little thinking.
After dinner last night we went back to the old place for a last visit (and to gather the last couple things). I must say it looked impressively clean. Which is sort of bad because then you realize that you live in comparative filth, but it should be okay for inspection. This was capped off by my putting the keys through the very aggressive letterbox (it tried to rip my fingers off!) at the estate agents. So no more Radipole Road!
However, the new place currently looks as if a bomb has gone off in it. It's an absolute mess of items randomly strewn about in the moving effort. While we hpoe to address this situation over the weekend, I also fully intend to spend a good many hours sitting on the couch watching televeision and doing very little thinking.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
My Never Ending Move
Believe it or not, but I still haven't moved yet. Mind you, I have moved lots of things, but I myself am still living at my old residence. We had hoped to have moved in this past weekend, but fate (and the elevator) is clearly against us.
This past Saturday, our refrigerator and washing machine were scheduled to be delivered. This was to involve me waiting at the new flat for a four hour period while Mark went down to Brighton to partake in some festivities. Alas, when I arrived at the new flat at the start of this period, I noticed there was a note on the elevator door saying that it was indeed really, really broken and would be for a number of days. Logic would say this would impact the delivery of appliances to a fourth floor apartment, so I informed Mark who tried making contact with the delivery folk, but to no avail. He also resigned to put off his departure to Brighton until the whole situation was resolved.
Cut to 3 hours into the waiting period: I've been spending 3 hours putting together our Ikea dresser and we still haven't received word on the delivery, well, until then. We get a call saying that the delivery will likely take place in 40 minutes (depending on traffic). Mark informs them about the lift situation.
Cut to 4.5 hours into the waiting period: the delivery men finally arrive, after driving around being lost and unable to find our street for a while. They say they can 'try' to delivery the stuff, but if it breaks it's not their fault. That sounded like good motivation to let something break on the first flight of stairs, so we had to reschedule the delivery. It's now coming on Thursday. As of yesterday the elevator was still broken, and while we're hoping it will be fixed today or tomorrow, there's certainly no guarantee. And as people who generally like refrigerated items, we haven't wanted to willingly live somewhere without a fridge when we have an option that includes one.
So the move continues for now. Tonight is slated to be our last night in the old place. We've got a car booked for tomorrow evening to move over a few more bulky items, seemingly including ourselves! We have to hand back over our keys by the end of Thursday, so if the fridge doesn't come by then we'll be a bit SOL!
This past Saturday, our refrigerator and washing machine were scheduled to be delivered. This was to involve me waiting at the new flat for a four hour period while Mark went down to Brighton to partake in some festivities. Alas, when I arrived at the new flat at the start of this period, I noticed there was a note on the elevator door saying that it was indeed really, really broken and would be for a number of days. Logic would say this would impact the delivery of appliances to a fourth floor apartment, so I informed Mark who tried making contact with the delivery folk, but to no avail. He also resigned to put off his departure to Brighton until the whole situation was resolved.
Cut to 3 hours into the waiting period: I've been spending 3 hours putting together our Ikea dresser and we still haven't received word on the delivery, well, until then. We get a call saying that the delivery will likely take place in 40 minutes (depending on traffic). Mark informs them about the lift situation.
Cut to 4.5 hours into the waiting period: the delivery men finally arrive, after driving around being lost and unable to find our street for a while. They say they can 'try' to delivery the stuff, but if it breaks it's not their fault. That sounded like good motivation to let something break on the first flight of stairs, so we had to reschedule the delivery. It's now coming on Thursday. As of yesterday the elevator was still broken, and while we're hoping it will be fixed today or tomorrow, there's certainly no guarantee. And as people who generally like refrigerated items, we haven't wanted to willingly live somewhere without a fridge when we have an option that includes one.
So the move continues for now. Tonight is slated to be our last night in the old place. We've got a car booked for tomorrow evening to move over a few more bulky items, seemingly including ourselves! We have to hand back over our keys by the end of Thursday, so if the fridge doesn't come by then we'll be a bit SOL!
Thursday, January 08, 2009
What's in store for 2009?
Just as important (perhaps more important) as recapping the year that was is start planning out the year to come. It's winter, it's freezing cold outside, I'm still in thet midst of a moving process that seems never ending, and here I am with no trips to look forward to. Something needs to give, and as it's unlikely to reach 70 degrees in the next few days, I've turned to the prospect of trip planning.
With the pound being such a useless currency these days, people are having to do a bit more thinking about where they might go this year. Expensive enough at the best of times, the main Euro countries are basically out of contention (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, etc). Lucky for us, Europe happens to contain a lot of countries, and not all of them are euro-based or as frequently visited by tourists.
So in our quest to plan a trip (so we have foreign travel to look forward to), Mark and I have started looking towards Eastern Europe. Well, not too far east. Essentially, the following countries have made it onto our radar: Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Slovakia is technically a Eurozone country, but has only been so for a week now, so I feel like there's still potential. Slovenia is also a Euro country but is also relatively uncommon and therefore hopefully still packs some value for money. Hungary features Budapest, which has gained some status as a weekend city break destination. And Croatia looks really pretty!
Mind you, we are very early in any potential trip planning, but our idea of the day is to fly into Slovenia (the name of the capital is totally unpronouncable in my book, nor can I spell it) and to rent a car and go on a bit of a road trip featuring some of Slovenia and surrounding countries (it's a little one, so the neighboring countries aren't that far away). Again, we're still early in our idea stage so any opinions or suggestions are welcome!
With the pound being such a useless currency these days, people are having to do a bit more thinking about where they might go this year. Expensive enough at the best of times, the main Euro countries are basically out of contention (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, etc). Lucky for us, Europe happens to contain a lot of countries, and not all of them are euro-based or as frequently visited by tourists.
So in our quest to plan a trip (so we have foreign travel to look forward to), Mark and I have started looking towards Eastern Europe. Well, not too far east. Essentially, the following countries have made it onto our radar: Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Slovakia is technically a Eurozone country, but has only been so for a week now, so I feel like there's still potential. Slovenia is also a Euro country but is also relatively uncommon and therefore hopefully still packs some value for money. Hungary features Budapest, which has gained some status as a weekend city break destination. And Croatia looks really pretty!
Mind you, we are very early in any potential trip planning, but our idea of the day is to fly into Slovenia (the name of the capital is totally unpronouncable in my book, nor can I spell it) and to rent a car and go on a bit of a road trip featuring some of Slovenia and surrounding countries (it's a little one, so the neighboring countries aren't that far away). Again, we're still early in our idea stage so any opinions or suggestions are welcome!
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
2008 Recap!
Perhaps recap isn't the best word, but I do feel obliged to provide some sort of summary on the year that was 2008!
Number of combined work and home addresses: 5 (3 home, 2 work)
Apparently I'm a bit of a nomad. Yet I have remained faithful to the Wimbledon-Edgware Road branch of the District Line throughout!
Cultural Events: Phantom of the Opera (February), Alphabeat (October), Rainman (October), Blue Man Group (December)
Trips: Munich (February), Switzerland (March), Paris (May), Seattle (May), Edinburgh (July), Dublin (August), Portland (November), Las Vegas (December).
Is it bad that I've gone on more trips than plays/concerts? It seems I've been on a lot of trips! However, most have them have been short and I am allowed 25 days of annual leave per year. Munich gets my top personal recommendation. This could easily go to Paris, but I feel Paris is an obvious choice. Munich is comparatively under the radar and prooved to be a very good time, with a nice combo of learning culture and beer drinking culture (a balance essential on any trip).
My top London tip/find: Chelsea. I didn't really ever go to Chelsea before this year, but it has managed to become a regular weekend haunt. It's basic draw is shopping along King's Road, which is easy for me to reach (we can even walk!), as well as the fabulously delicious market on Saturdays, the Big Easy restaurant, and while I haven't been, it also has Cheney Walk nearby featuring, um, old houses or something. I'm not entirely sure. Either way, Chelsea is a nice place to go on Saturday. Just watch out for the uber-yuppies.
Best reality tv program: normally this would have to go to X Factor, but this year I'm giving the award to Strictly Come Dancing, purely because of John Seargant. Strictly is the origin of Dancing with the Stars and is a big BBC Saturday production. This year one of the participants was political correspondant John Seargant, who couldn't dance to save his life, but everyone loved him so he stayed on the show with no problems until he finally stepped down, it seems in fear of winning despite being the worst of the lot. It was a sad, sad day. Tom Chambers, who is on some sort of soap opera, eventually won. He took his professional dance partner along on his honeymoon. Oh, and Alexandra Burke won X Factor.
That's all I've got for right now! If I think of more fun thinks to recap, I'll come back with them tomorrow or the next day!
Number of combined work and home addresses: 5 (3 home, 2 work)
Apparently I'm a bit of a nomad. Yet I have remained faithful to the Wimbledon-Edgware Road branch of the District Line throughout!
Cultural Events: Phantom of the Opera (February), Alphabeat (October), Rainman (October), Blue Man Group (December)
Trips: Munich (February), Switzerland (March), Paris (May), Seattle (May), Edinburgh (July), Dublin (August), Portland (November), Las Vegas (December).
Is it bad that I've gone on more trips than plays/concerts? It seems I've been on a lot of trips! However, most have them have been short and I am allowed 25 days of annual leave per year. Munich gets my top personal recommendation. This could easily go to Paris, but I feel Paris is an obvious choice. Munich is comparatively under the radar and prooved to be a very good time, with a nice combo of learning culture and beer drinking culture (a balance essential on any trip).
My top London tip/find: Chelsea. I didn't really ever go to Chelsea before this year, but it has managed to become a regular weekend haunt. It's basic draw is shopping along King's Road, which is easy for me to reach (we can even walk!), as well as the fabulously delicious market on Saturdays, the Big Easy restaurant, and while I haven't been, it also has Cheney Walk nearby featuring, um, old houses or something. I'm not entirely sure. Either way, Chelsea is a nice place to go on Saturday. Just watch out for the uber-yuppies.
Best reality tv program: normally this would have to go to X Factor, but this year I'm giving the award to Strictly Come Dancing, purely because of John Seargant. Strictly is the origin of Dancing with the Stars and is a big BBC Saturday production. This year one of the participants was political correspondant John Seargant, who couldn't dance to save his life, but everyone loved him so he stayed on the show with no problems until he finally stepped down, it seems in fear of winning despite being the worst of the lot. It was a sad, sad day. Tom Chambers, who is on some sort of soap opera, eventually won. He took his professional dance partner along on his honeymoon. Oh, and Alexandra Burke won X Factor.
That's all I've got for right now! If I think of more fun thinks to recap, I'll come back with them tomorrow or the next day!
Sunday, January 04, 2009
The Lift
or The Elevator
Firstly Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Margo and I started to move some of the larger items over to the new place on Friday night as we had rented a "StreetVan" which gives you free petrol per day of hire of 30 miles or the quick thinking MArgo suggested over night to get 60 miles free. Plus we could start to move things slightly sooner and maybe get in a large supermarket run.
Now things were going quite well - we managed to get the van full of the larger items and get a parking space in the road directly next to the front door of the current place (old). We then drove over to the new place and started to unload by using the lift. This went fine until we moved the third load and we entered the lift and suddenly all went quiet. For the first time in our lives we pressed the alarm button to the sounds of a prerecorded message saying "your call is important to us please wait your position X in the queue" (we later found out the call went through to a vodaphone (like at&t) call centre) anyways after eventually registering our problem and then waiting for half an hour we gave them a call back as the call centre said the technician should call the lift to say his eta. The slight issue was that the lift phone had a short in it and kept cutting out and redialing every 20 seconds so the conversations with the call centre were very rushed! Another issue was that I had no mobile coverage and Margo's phone was in her bag in the flat. Anyways after 1 hour and 30 minutes we heard someone outside who asked if anyone was inside as by this point the lift alarm (which was very high pitch) had started. They then rang the lift operator who was actually very good apparently and sounded very concerned (why they out source their emergency calls to vodaphone if they have people working at 10.30 on a friday night i do not know!) and said the operator on call tonight lived in Essex (no where near Fulham) but then they (the folks who found us) said that the fire and police were currently outside the development as they had been called to a fire alarm outside the development elsewhere. the people that found us (very nice couple about 45) went to get them. Anyways after about 10 minutes of activity three massive and i mean massive guys in uniform let us out. So to get this door open involved 2 policewomen 2 neighbours, and 4 firemen (one was on the next floor) ooo and the technician who arrived 20 minutes later.
we didnt go to the supermarket....
Firstly Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Margo and I started to move some of the larger items over to the new place on Friday night as we had rented a "StreetVan" which gives you free petrol per day of hire of 30 miles or the quick thinking MArgo suggested over night to get 60 miles free. Plus we could start to move things slightly sooner and maybe get in a large supermarket run.
Now things were going quite well - we managed to get the van full of the larger items and get a parking space in the road directly next to the front door of the current place (old). We then drove over to the new place and started to unload by using the lift. This went fine until we moved the third load and we entered the lift and suddenly all went quiet. For the first time in our lives we pressed the alarm button to the sounds of a prerecorded message saying "your call is important to us please wait your position X in the queue" (we later found out the call went through to a vodaphone (like at&t) call centre) anyways after eventually registering our problem and then waiting for half an hour we gave them a call back as the call centre said the technician should call the lift to say his eta. The slight issue was that the lift phone had a short in it and kept cutting out and redialing every 20 seconds so the conversations with the call centre were very rushed! Another issue was that I had no mobile coverage and Margo's phone was in her bag in the flat. Anyways after 1 hour and 30 minutes we heard someone outside who asked if anyone was inside as by this point the lift alarm (which was very high pitch) had started. They then rang the lift operator who was actually very good apparently and sounded very concerned (why they out source their emergency calls to vodaphone if they have people working at 10.30 on a friday night i do not know!) and said the operator on call tonight lived in Essex (no where near Fulham) but then they (the folks who found us) said that the fire and police were currently outside the development as they had been called to a fire alarm outside the development elsewhere. the people that found us (very nice couple about 45) went to get them. Anyways after about 10 minutes of activity three massive and i mean massive guys in uniform let us out. So to get this door open involved 2 policewomen 2 neighbours, and 4 firemen (one was on the next floor) ooo and the technician who arrived 20 minutes later.
we didnt go to the supermarket....
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