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Category: UK Expat Archive

Road works

What is more expensive: Paying two guys minimum salary to stand at each end of the roadwork area and coordinate alternating two-way traffic over one open lane, or put two electric generators with portable traffic lights in each position instead? I don’t know the answer, but the “people” solution definitely…

Cheers for independence

For the 4th of July, occasional British restaurants – and especially pubs – promote special deals, and even some shops end up having “Independence Day” sales. Nothing major, fairly sporadic, but it sticks out precisely because it is so uncommon. And it always makes me wonder: You guys realize independence…

Car leasing in England

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…

Stray observations, 07/01/09

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…

I hate crossing UK borders

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…

Science to prove it

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…

A getaway to Brussels

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,…

Not so great NHS dentistry

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…

Name that house

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…

Not even a little

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.…

Homework on Fridays

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…

Eating out, at discount

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…

Going to markets

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…

GCSE choices

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 &…

Brief weekend recap

Our desire to move house has been quickly replaced by the pragmatic contentment with staying put. A sizable reduction in the rent amount has that type of effect on us. At the same time as we started to look for different accommodations, we suggested to our current landlord that in…

Random Illustrations: Pay-by-Phone parking

I first mentioned the phone-enabled parking charge payments in this article several months ago. Recently, while visiting friends in northwest London, I came across an entire area where all of the parking meters have been converted into the pay-by-phone operation. I suppose in this day and age everyone – and…