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Original poster

Foreigners in the UK: What do you just not "get"?

389 replies

NotQuiteCockney · 07/10/2006 21:12

I've been in the UK for 10 years now, I think. I do not understand:

  • the Archers
  • tea (why? why? why?)
  • cryptic crosswords

Anyone else?

OP posts:
rustycreakingdoorbear · 08/10/2006 12:04

We've just redone our bathroom - we have mixer taps on both basin & bath and as far as I remember, when we were loking at taps in DIY stores they were nearly all mixers. (btw mine are definitely mixers, not side by side - I've just been up to check. I now have wet hair because the bath one was switched to shower!)

rustycreakingdoorbear · 08/10/2006 12:07

What on earth is wrong with backing into parking spaces?
It means you can see where you are going and don't back out into people, as someone did to me at Tesco's. It's really not difficult to do.

meowmix · 08/10/2006 12:16

I lived in a house in Tooting for 6 months that had carpet on the toilet - up the sides of the pan/leg bit and all over the cistern with just the seat, inside and handle uncovered. The carpet was peach shag pile.

So by comparison, carpet on the bathroom floor seems only mildly revolting.

bran · 08/10/2006 12:23

Ugh Meowmix, that just made me gag. How on earth did you manage to use it?

jabberwocky · 08/10/2006 12:42

As an American living in the US, I am finding this thread fascinating. Can't imagine fruitcake as a wedding cake (mine was a luscious Italian Cream Cake) or carpet in the bathroom . If it's that cold and uncomfortable, run hot water pipes under the tile - lovely!

southeastastralplain · 08/10/2006 12:46

seriously i do think that the carpet in the bathroom thing was just a 70s fashion that some people still have

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 08/10/2006 13:43

OMG at carpet up the sides of the toilet. Eww eww eww eww.

What is it with carpet, it's gross under any circumstances, why do some people have to cover anything that's sitting still in their houses with the stuff?

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meowmix · 08/10/2006 14:13

we took it off when we moved in. the smell was unbelievable. The whole house was over soft-furnished. Even the skirting boards in the hall had carpet on. (it was also opposite an IRA bomb factory allegedly and had a lovely skip dead outside which was set on fire every Friday night , presumably to encourage community spirit). Cheap tho.

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 08/10/2006 14:41

I hope there were no sleeping pets in the house when the carpet fairy came!

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expatinscotland · 08/10/2006 17:12

My work colleague had carpets in her bathroom, which she found minging and she's from Aberdeen, where it gets plenty cold.

She said in summer, they had mushrooms growing round the loo and sink.

BOAK!

expatinscotland · 08/10/2006 17:13

It was a rental flat, so she couldn't rip out the carpets.

They're so minging.

So are shoes a house w/carpets. Even worse than shoes in a house w/vinyl, wood, laminate, etc.

franca70 · 08/10/2006 17:13

It probably was my kids then who weren't that attractive as babies. I also know that I'd love to live in Liverpool. Bidet aren't for feet! You can't always take a shower everytime you, ehm, you know.
Anyway, just had a lovely day today, which reminded me how nice it can be to live here, even if yes, I miss the bidet thing.

meowmix · 08/10/2006 17:23

LOL! Carpet fairy. I don't remember any random bumps....

DumbledoresGirl · 08/10/2006 18:46

I want to turn this thread around and say what I as a "Brit" do not get about other countries. Well, America actually!

Can someone from the Land of the Free please explain to me why grocery bags over there do not come with handles? It is a common sight on TV and films to see someone struggling down a road or into a house with 2-3 large paper bags full of groceries in their arms. What is that about? Why no handles?

Dh says it is because the food goes straight from trolley to car, and people don't walk home with their groceries in America, but I am not so sure.

bran · 08/10/2006 19:06

Also in America, I don't get sweet things for breakfast (like pancakes with syrup, muffins etc).

suedonim · 08/10/2006 19:34

As I now have residency rights in the US some things that puzzle me about America are:

Why do they drive on the wrong side of the road?

Why do public toilets have a large gap down the sides of doors so people can see you sitting on the throne? (love the ass-gaskets in public loos, tho!)

Why do US loo cisterns have furry covers over them??

Why do so many of their houses have no internal walls and doors and why do they have so much wood panelling that combine to make their houses into gloomy echo chambers?

Why do US kitchens have those weirdy small taps that spout water so hot it gives you a third degree burn if it gets on your skin, but isn't hot enough to make a decent cup of coffee or tea?

Brits have small houses because the population density of America is 76 per sq mile, density of Britain 244 psm. And only fruit cakes will stay the course for the first baby's Christening - obvious, innit?? As to tea, if it wasn't for tea, the US would still be a Britsh colony.

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 08/10/2006 19:46

I've not lived in the US, but in Canada, grocery store bags are plastic, and have handles. And the people who work in the grocery store pack your bags for you ... sometimes well, sometimes badly, but at least they do it!

I think you can still get paper bags in some places, and they tend not to have handles, as they'd just tear. But I think paper bags are more of a tv + film thing than a reality thing, iyswim.

I'm not a fan of sweet things for breakfast, but they are quite common in North America. I stayed in a B+B once where the breakfast was v tasty but sent me into a diabetic coma ... waffles, fruit, syrup, whipped cream (fake with sugar in), and I think there were muffins too? It was scary.

I don't know the history of the sides-of-the-road thing, but I think you'll find Americans actually drive on the right side of the road! (ha ha ha Seriously, I think it has something to do with Napoleon or swords or something. Only the UK, Japan, and maybe Australia drive on the left, it's not really v popular at all)

I dunno about the gaps in loos. I had to stop DS1 from peering through them at people when we were in Canada this summer . What is an ass gasket? Do you mean those plastic covers? Most US women (I think?) either hover, or cover the toilet seat with toilet paper, if there are no plastic covers.

The furry cisterns are just to make it look less toilety I guess? I never had one.

I like open plan houses, I live in one (in the UK!). I hate the "tiny little rooms all over the place" style so popular here.

Oh, and I don't know what those tiny weird taps are for, other than burning children. Never had one.

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christie1 · 08/10/2006 20:09

This is my second time living in the uk. I love to bake, don't understand why things like, vanilla, chocolate chips and other baking supplies come in such small packages. Maybe I shop in the wrong stores or am I just too north american, large size it and all that.

suedonim · 08/10/2006 20:12

NQC at you going into a diabetic coma, poor you.

Yes, ass-gaskets are those paper seat covers in public loos.

Dh says Brits drive on the left because, as a long-time military nation, men armed with swords on horseback could pass each other r-hand side to r-hand side and lop each others heads off as they went. Nice!

DumbledoresGirl · 08/10/2006 20:35

It is the same reason why in a church at a wedding, the groom stands on the bride's right - so his right hand (sword hand) is free to protect his bride with. I wonder how often a groom has had to draw his sword as he emerged from the church with his bride on his left arm?

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 08/10/2006 20:38

(Sorry! Not actually a diabetic coma! Sarcasm, exaggeration! I've been here too long! I felt gross and over-sugared!)

Baking here is weird - I like recipes that go by weight, now I've got used to them. You can't get baking chocolate though (no sugar), and although the general quality of the chocolate is much better, you can't get "nice" chocolate chips, iyswim. Peanut butter comes in risibly small containers too, like it was marmite or something noxious, rather than an essential part of life.

Ok, so why do non-brits drive on the right?

OP posts:
DumbledoresGirl · 08/10/2006 20:41

It is to do with Napoleon. People used to drive on the left to have their sword arm free as suedonim said. After napoloen had conquered most of Europe, he decreed that people should drive on the right to prove that peace had been brought to all nations and ther was no need for passing travellers to draw swords against each other.

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 08/10/2006 20:44

Hmm, some pages say he was a lefty.

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MrsSchadenfreude · 08/10/2006 20:45

Well I have just moved back to UK having spent half of my life out of it, and have to say, so far, am hating every minute. Why is it so expensive? Why can't the trains cope with falling leaves? Doesn't autumn happen every year? Why don't you drive automatics? Why are your rooms so small in your tiny houses? (I can sit on the loo with my feet in the bath and my hands in the washbasin in my rented house.) Why do you drive on the wrong side of the road? (I am currently a menace, bouncing round the country roads in North Bucks in a left hand drive 4x4.) Why do I have to spend 14 pounds for half an hour's riding lesson for DD1 when it only cost 11 euros for an HOUR in Belgium? The overheads can't be that bloody different.

And I agree, why do baking ingredients come in such tiny weeny packets? I don't want 25g of poppy seeds, I want a huge bag to make a Tort Makowy, I don't want to daintily sprinkle a few on a loaf of bread.

And yes to plugs in bathrooms. For drying hair or plugging in a washing machine (I had washing machine in my bathroom in Poland).

Rant over (until I think of something else).

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 08/10/2006 20:49

Hmm, the mystery deepens, Wikipedia says (in a not-very-solid-looking page):

One frequently hears the story that Napoleon changed the rule of the road in the countries he conquered from keep-left to keep-right. The justifications mentioned are usually symbolic, such as that Napoleon himself was left- (or right-) handed, or that Britain, Napoleon's enemy, kept left. This story has never been shown to have a factual basis and it appears to be a legend.

Hmm, this link provides lots of info, but nothing definative.

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