Living in London

We have spent the past week exploring New Jersey, getting acclimated, and learning about the next place we will call home. We bought cars, obtained mobile phones, got a post office box, opened a bank account, toured about six small cities, and generally had a very productive week with a minimum of frustration. Everything we tried was can-do. No paperwork, no bureaucracy. But the single best thing (so far) about New Jersey has got to be the fact that automobile owners are not allowed to pump gas ... yes, at every station there is an attendant and you don’t even need to get out of the car!

Now we are back in London for about ten days, during which time we must pack, move, and say goodbye to some of our favourite places in the city. Its hard to know what we will miss most about our life in London; we are already anticipating missing:

• Roundabouts, because they are vastly superior to the regular intersection in every way
• The Tube and trains running at all times, to all places because its great to have alternatives
• Single cream, because the American “half-n-half” cannot compare. And tea, oh my gosh, Americans have completely missed out on the tea thing
• The wondrous multitude of British accents because its so much fun guessing what part of the country people originate
• The British sense of reservedness because Americans really are intrusive with their friendliness
• British weather, because England has taught us that we want to live in four seasons again
• Real diversity of cultures because there is nothing like a ride on the tube — listening to a chorus of foreign tongues — to appreciate the absolute multitudes of people in the world
• The yellow light between red to green to "get ready" because well, it allows you to “get ready”
• Floor numbering that begins with the ground floor on the ground, and floor number one up one from that, because it makes sense
• The double decker buses, because we can say “front row, upper deck #10” and know exactly how that trips feels
• Full length doors on all toilet stalls, because privacy is a wonderful thing
• The fact that every filling station has little plastic gloves at the pump, because now I never get gasoline on my hands
• Wonderful heated towel racks in every bath or shower room, because really there is no greater luxury at any price than a warm towel

With plans to make a big pot of Bulgarian Beef Stew this weekend, I set off to my local grocery store with a shopping list a mile long. Normally I would simply pick up a hand basket but this trip called for a trolley (aka shopping cart).

Although the American and UK versions of trolleys serve similar purposes, they are actually designed quite different. On the positive side, I was thrilled to find that all of the trolleys at Waitrose were equipped with a clipboard dashboard. Downright ingenious — even if I am too tall to read my list without bending over.

I wish I could say that the same ingenuity had been applied to the design of the wheel systems. For reasons that escape me, ALL of the wheels on UK trolleys are free to rotate (see picture—note sideways wheels). This is simply daft! When all of the wheels pivot, it makes the cart eminently harder to steer. It requires constant force to keep the cart heading in a forward direction and turning the corner at the end of the aisle feels like you are being flung at the end of a tether. Pulling the cart is out of the question, unless you are keen to bump the displays on both sides of the aisle.

On shopping carts in the US, only the front wheels pivot for steering while the back wheels are locked in the forward position. Pushing (or pulling) the cart requires a little energy in the forward direction and turning corners is a simple matter of twisting the cart to point in the new direction. How could such a good idea not make it across the pond?

Of course, the US carts are the size of a small SUV but that is a subject for another post . . .

Not only are the British and American accents very distinct, a new study by a Berkeley professor, has shown that your smile can reveal your roots.

An article published recently in the London Times, reports that the British smile by pulling their lips back and upwards and exposing their lower teeth. Americans, on the other hand, are more likely to simply part their lips and stretch the corners of their mouths. Also from the article:

He found the British were also more likely to raise their cheeks when they smile, showing the crow’s feet at the corners of the eyes. This produces a more sincere, hard-to-fake smile.

By contrast, Keltner found most Americans had the far less expressive “Pan-Am smile”, named after the defunct airline’s gesture of welcome. This depends only on the zygomaticus major corner-tightening muscle and has also been called the “Botox smile” because, like the cosmetic treatment, it leaves the muscles at the corners of the eyes motionless.

You can read the full article here.

We have started to think about driving in the UK but are a little daunted by the idea of sitting on the right hand side of the car and driving on the left. A lifetime of habits and instincts have been embedded while driving on the right hand side of the road.

Brian Lucas (he's Canadian, you know) has written a fabulous article answering the question "Which side of the road do they drive on?" Of the 240 countries listed in his report. 74 of them drive on the left. Who knew?

Interesting highlights from his article:

Did the United States ever drive on the left?

• Yes. The evidence we have been able to collect is mostly indirect, but it seems almost certain that in the early years of English colonization of North America, English driving customs were followed and the colonies drove on the left, gradually changing to right-hand driving after independence.

What about pedestrians?

• Keeping right is the normal practice in the USA and Canada.
• The United Kingdom seems not to have a preference as to which side of the path to use when walking . . . This doesn't mean that the British bump into each other. They don't tend to use single-file traffic, but they still manage to negotiate their way effectively using body language, eye contact, and other cues to signal their intentions and notice others' intentions.(ed. note: in other words, walking on a crowded street is complete mayhem! )

(Thanks to joe-ks for the sign photo!)

We post a lot about our regular walks in the park but it is such a refreshing place to be. In addition to the great exercise walks there are the happy dogs and the rabbits, and the Queen's Flower Walk.

Yesterday we were touched by the sight if children playing in the leaves. They were throwing leaves and laughing and having a wonderful time. Of course, there was a happy dog nearby to round out the fun.

Long live the public park.

Our contribution to the year-end countdowns is this wonderful list from the BBC News that enumerates 100 things we did not know last year.

6. Dame Judi Dench sends 450 Christmas presents, according to her daughter.

18. There are 75 withdrawals from cash machines every second in the UK.

27. So much for the overworked society, the average British employee actually works 75 minutes less a week than in 1997, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

39. More Brits die each year falling from their hotel balcony than do in diving accidents, according to Foreign Office statistics.

47. A "jiffy" is 10 milliseconds in computer science terms.

73. Ducks have regional accents. London ducks shout out a rough quack to be heard above the urban din; those in the West Country make a quieter, softer sound.

Twas an interesting year, it was.

Thanks to J-Walk for the link.

You don’t realize what you have learned, and how you have changed, in a number of subtle ways, until you come back to the place you started. We have been in London about five months now, and have returned for a week to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Noticeable immediately:

• Over-the-top friendliness: Every person with whom you make eye contact on public transportation (yes we do have a little of that here) smiles. Not a tight little grimace smile, but a big, happy, generous smile. At least half a dozen complete strangers have started conversations with me. The store clerks act like they are so pleased to see me. It’s a bit scary. My mother-in-law asked if Americans seem "needy" and I have to say "yes."
• Teeth size and color: My god they are all so enormous and white. Is all this smiling friendliness, or just showing off the dental work? This goes hand-in-hand with the note above, but it really has to be called out on its own because these teeth are just stunning.
• Christmas décor: There are hardly any Christmas decorations, even around Union Square. Some of the smaller areas, like Berkeley’s Elmwood district, have nice, understated decorations in the stores, but I haven’t seen anything that comes remotely close to London's celebration of Christmas. It’s warm here, around 15 Celsius, so maybe people just can’t get into the season.
• Driving, driving, driving: It’s endless. We need two cars and have put more than 600 miles on them in five days. (We really feel the lack of any physical exercise whatsoever.) The cars on the road are all huge and spotlessly clean. As a further homage to time spent in car, the "vanity plates" are numerous. More friendliness I guess.
• Sunshine! You actually need sunglasses here (for the sun, not just the smiles).
• Pedestrians: People in the street have the right of way here, and they know it.

I am having a heck of a time figuring out the way people write phone numbers in this country. In the US every phone number is 10 digits with a 3 digit area code, a 3 digit prefix and a four digit number. So a number in the US looks like xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Not so in the UK. First of all, the UK has the preceding 0 if you are dialling from within the UK but that is not used when dialling from outside the country. Hence our phone number in London is 0208 xxx-xxx when dialled locally but 44 209 xxx xxxx when dialled from outside the UK. This is very confusing for Americans.

However, that is not the worst of it. What I can't figure out is how many digits there should be in a standard phone number and how digits should be arranged. For example, here are some actual phone numbers taken from customer service sites around the web:

The thing to notice here is that the numbers range from 9 - 11 digits and they are arranged rather willy nilly. Sometimes the digits are grouped 4-3-4, other times it is 4-2-2-2 or 5-6, or 3-4-4. There does not seem to be any rhyme nor reason as to how the individual digits are grouped.

If anyone can shed any light on these number patterns I would be most appreciative.

The electrical voltage is different in the US and Europe. In fact, it is different all over the world. In Japan and most of the Americas the voltage is between 100 and 127 volts. In the rest of the world it is between 200 and 240 volts. Some countries have an alternating current of 50 Hz (cycles per second) and others, like the US, use 60 Hz. Of course, the plugs and sockets are different in most countries as well.

I planned to do a little research on the internet and then write a concise post on why one system was better than the other. Alas, the explanations are more political than scientific.

In the early 1900's Nikola Tesla, a genius ahead of his time, did a number of experiments with electricity. He is credited with creating alternating current and the induction motor. Through his research he concluded that 240 volts at 60 Hz was the best for efficient generation and transmission. It is natural to assume at this early stage in the life of electricity that all the world would follow with 240 Volts at 60 Hz. If only life were that simple.

In the US, Tesla's preference for 240 volts put him at odds with Thomas Edison who already had several patents on devices that ran on 110 Volts. Edison was more politically powerful than Tesla and 110 volts, 60 Hz became the standard.

Originally, Europe was slated for 110 volts as well and a German company, AEG, built the first European generating facility based on 110 volts. However, since they used the metric system, the AEG engineers preferred 50 Hz over 60 Hz because 50 fit neatly into multiples of 10. This turns out to be an unfortunate choice. 50 Hz is 20% less efficient in generation and 10-15% less efficient in transmission. In order to boost the efficiency they doubled the voltage to 240.

Now we have a hodge podge of voltages and plugs in use around the world. Only a handful of countries (Peru, Ecuador, Guyana, the Philippines and South Korea) follow Tesla’s advice and use the 60 Hz frequency together with a voltage of 220-240 V.

Many thanks to the World Standards site for the excellent information on voltage and frequency as well as sockets and plugs.