Thoughts on the United Kingdom.

Here are some uninformed observations I have made on the differences between Canada and the UK.

Climate:

It’s nice to have left disgustingly dry prairie weather but I don’t understand humidity. As soon as I stepped off the plane my body became wet and sweaty. I noticed everyone has pants and a jacket on but I feel very wet in mine, as if I am wearing too much clothing. However, the wetness then makes me feel cold hours later – I don’t understand.

Money:

Servers don’t require tips and advertised prices include sales tax. Awesome, that makes sense.

Traffic:

It would appear that pedestrians yield to vehicles. I almost got hit walking through what I thought was a cross walk. Now that I think about it, there are hundreds more pedestrians than motor vehicles so it makes sense – or else the vehicles would be waiting forever.

There are no street signs, very confusing. The street signs that do exist are sometimes found on the sides of buildings. I would not want to drive here.

Other way traffic is harder to get accustomed to than I thought. It applies not only to driving, but walking on sidewalks, stairwells and awkwardly small spaces. Looking both ways before you cross the street is important, but I always forget that the close side goes right to left and not left to right.

Also, when people pull over they literally drive up onto the sidewalks. I’m not sure if this is to avoid oncoming traffic or just because.

Garbage:

I spent a rather large amount of time carrying around my garbage because I couldn’t find a garbage bin anywhere. Not a single one at the airport or Manchester Picadilly station. I saw a man walking around with a grabber-thing picking up trash. My theory is that the union to which he belongs argued that garbage bins would replace him and it was better to have the garbage picker uppers employed. I got fed up and discretely left my rubbish on a bench.

Public Bathrooms:

Public bathrooms cost 60p ( about $1 ). Yay for keeping the heroin addicts out, Nay for having to break a five to piss.

Fashion:

Every male I have seen wearing a suit has his tie tied three to four inches above his belt. It appears they are being tied so that the point reaches their belly button. Now this would be fine if men still wore their pants high on their waist – but they don’t anymore. I think this looks ridiculous, especially when the tie is only half the length of their shirt.

 

kylesmyth