I so infrequently write on expat-related topics lately that a chance visitor to my blog may be turned off by the preponderance of family news and assorted filler stuff. To rectify that just a bit, let me spend a few minutes on something that I did not get into much…
Busy at work, plus various relocation-related errands, phone calls and what-not. Less than frequent blogging, as the result. The temperatures have been pretty high in London the last week or so. Not too hot. Warm-to-hot, cooling down nicely overnight. But in a house without any air conditioning, it gets quite…
America nowadays is likely the country with the world’s most stringent border checks for foreigners. But I’ve been a US citizen since mid-90’s, so I never had to experience the long queues and the indignity of fingerprinting and all. You occasionally end up in a fairly long queue for US…
I have never had a slightest of doubts in the veracity of the statement I made on many occasions: My children benefited greatly through their experiences of living in a foreign country, and definitely got a leg up on their American peers who did not have such experiences. Now, there…
Two and a half years of living in England, and we finally braved the concept of taking a day-trip to the continent. From a certain point of view, it was a last-ditch effort to save the short tradition of spending the Early Spring Bank Holiday weekend on the mainland (specifically,…
I have very healthy teeth, but my gums are a different matter. No matter how well and often I rinse with Listerine, floss, and use my fancy electric toothbrush, I get deposits around my teeth. I go in for a dental cleaning three-four times a year. The first few times…
Houses in England often have names in addition to street numbers. Sometimes, they have names in place of street numbers, with the mailing address simply saying something like “Barton House, Gloucester Road”. This throwback practice is still very much in use in rural parts of the country, but even in…
From an actual conversation in a medical office: X-ray technician: Are you pregnant at all? Natasha [after a pause]: No, not even a little. This is one of those linguistic differences that we explored elsewhere. Brits insist on adding “at all” to questions very frequently, and that throws us off.…
I wrote in the past about my views on British education and its differences from the American brand. The main gist was that under the right conditions, British system looks somewhat superior, but in the state educational environment on grammar school level, I don’t see much of a difference. I…
On one hand, we like going out, if not every week, then at least a few times a month. On the other hand, as much as I enjoy personally stimulating the economy, some cutbacks in non-essential expenses are clearly needed. A service such as TopTable helps with that. Beyond rewards…
Kimmy was participating in a grand show with her dance school, which shaped up as a day-long exercise, with two final rehearsals and then two performances crammed into a single Sunday. After dropping her off at the venue in the morning (we later went to the evening show – it…
If we were to stay in England for another year or two, Becky would have to start studying for GCSE’s next year. Year 9, which she is in now, is when the students choose their optional subjects. First of all, there are 6 compulsory subjects: English, English Literature, Information &…
I have had this item on my blogging to-do list for probably 18 months now, without attempting to address it. To be fair, I have in the past addressed the lion share of this topic in the various posts within the Expat Topic category, but a consolidated summary has been…
Few of my readers may remember the little adventure I had with my UK tax return about a year ago. In that post, I mentioned that the self-assessment process for filing tax returns in Britain is easy and even expressed anticipation towards trying it on my own. Well, Q.E.D. It…
In England, just as I remember in later years in America with ads against insurance fraud, TV campaigns against benefit fraud do a pretty good job of sending the appropriate message. A benefit thief may not mend his ways outright upon seeing an ad like the one below, but seeing…
Remember, I wrote in the past about the recycling scheme instituted by the Greenwich council? Basically, the dry recyclables go into the blue-cover bin, the food waste and the garden refuse into the green-cover bin, and the rest goes into a large garbage bag (soon to be replaced with a…
It’s been a bit over a year since England curbed smoking in public places. For those of us who cannot stand the smoke, life has become considerably more pleasant, especially when it comes to dining out. The unfortunate souls who can’t exist without cigarettes, conversely, have been having much harder…
Natasha arranged for a vision check-up for Becky a few days ago. We haven’t been to that NHS office before, and Natasha turned out to be overly optimistic about the ease of finding a parking spot near the office. By the time she had parked some distance away and walked…
Something that we see in England considerably more often than in the States: People driving around in vintage cars. And I don’t mean “vintage” as in 1968 Corvette or something, no offense intended. I mean as in 1929 Bugatti. There are also people who drive around in racing cars –…
Kimmy’s Year 4 program in literature includes a module called “Fantasy Worlds”. Guess which texts she was supposed to be studying in that? Harry Potter books! And not just the books – all movie installments to date were apparently part of the program as well. On top of that –…