10 Things We Didn't Expect When Moving to England - Americans in England
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- čas přidán 18. 06. 2024
- Matthew talks about the 10 things that the Schaefer family was not expecting when they moved to England. Not the normal things that everyone knows, but the things that they didn't expect, even after doing their research. Is this what culture shock feels like?
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Most Brits have a coffee machine, it's normally still in its box at the bottom of a wardrobe somewhere next to the sandwich toaster. 😂
Do you know where I live?
During uni I lived with a couple, as well as 3 others (6 bed house). The couple had a toastie maker, it was plugged in and on the counter all year. They never used it.
They also had a blender on the side too, I placed a tiny piece of spaghetti on it that would fall off it they used it.
I moved out after a year, and the spaghetti never moved.
I have several in the loft but one in use many times a day, my bean to cup machine, one cannot beat a decent espresso. I also have several packets of tea at the back of a cupboard, yes, tea not teabags only drink a couple of cups a day compared to 10 or 11 espresso's. The beans come from Italy courtesy of Amazon monthly.
Not in my house - I use a coffee maker every day.
I use my coffee machine coz instant coffee is awful compared to it
Seperate taps:
Old fashioned plumbing in the UK had a hot water storage cylinder, gravity fed from a header tank in the loft. This means that there is a chance of contamination from dust, dead birds etc so the hot water is clean enough to wash in but not drink. The cold water taps were all straight off the mains supply so clean drinking water.
Modrrn houses, and most older houses now have pressurized central heating systems with a combination boiler which provides on demand hot water, straight from the mains so now mixer taps are much more common.
I don't know about "old fashioned" it is still very common in the UK, and other than for a "power shower" I would NOT choose an on-demand water heater myself.
Grizzly Gamer
All most right, it's the lack of pressure from the hot water tank compared to the cold water mains, that stops a mixer tap working properly.
In the USA, municipal building codes now demand that faucets in the kitchen and bathroom be mixer types, not separate. Very old houses in the US might still have those old style separate faucets for temperature, but enough people have been scalded by water from the tap that US building codes now mandate water from a single tap, so the temperature can be regulated.
This is spot on, historically hot water was never required to be drinking quality, and you can't mix drinking water and non drinking water without risking contamination....
Modern systems are usually combi boiler or high pressure storage tanks (with expansion vessel) so mixing is fine now
i've had a combi boiler for years but I would still never drink from the hot tap!
One thing that I’ve noticed is that Americans tend to make tea with boiled, rather than boiling, water. The resulting brew tastes awful.
Barry Gower YES! And really important to get the temperature right ... especially green tea over 70 degrees is awful! Can’t abide by it!
That leads into the thorny question of water first then milk or the other way round. Light the blue touch paper and run !!!!!!!!
@@mikeseal8858 that isn't a question though, anyone who adds milk first is deported
Mike Seal Milk first is decidedly lower class.
@@spencerwilton5831 Adding milk to the cup first is upper class. It comes the Victorians and their fine porcelain cups, if you pour hot tea into the cup then it has a tendency to shatter but if you add milk first then the cup tends not to break.
You can use the word bathroom in the uk aslong as the room has a bath.
MysticalTarget, that’s not really true, because it’s also a polite way of saying I need a piss/shit too.....
Norrin Radd guess it’s a regional thing.
Norrin Radd I think “going to the loo” or “going the toilet” is fine
@@WeMuckAround Saying I need to use the toilet in the US is actualy considered rude manners. ^_~ The word toilet is considered unflattering.
@Bilbo Baggins It depends. If someone is using the downstairs bathroom, why not then use the one upstairs if you need to use it in a hurry? ^_^
The strength of British toilet paper is probably due to our fondness for curries.
adventus saxonum this made me really laugh
I often need the madras strength paper.
adventus saxonum 👌🤣
@@homeone4054 Do you put it in the fridge, before you go out for your curry?
Or it can be referred to as the Eye of Sauron - a lidless, ever-burning ring of fire!
There are 24 hour supermarkets in the UK.
They are not open 24 hours 7 days a week though, only week days. Saturday and Sunday opening hours still apply.
@@wilmaknickersfit As someone whose just finished a nightshift in a 24 hour supermarket, yes by law we have to close at 22.00 on a Saturday, and reopen for the General public to trade again at 11.00, but there's still a nightshift crew working throughout the night. If our greedy owner's had their way, ( American owned) we would literally be opened 24 hours, but thanks to English laws, front end workers don't have to work all day Sunday, Scottish workers have to work later hours, but that was passed by their own Goverment.
@@alisonsmith4801 Exactly. The point is they don't open 24 hours 7 days a week to the public. I'm not religious, but personally I have never agreed with Sunday opening and the fact that most people don't even get paid extra for working weekends is disgraceful. Guess which party was in power when the Sunday Trading Act 1994 came in (clue - Margaret Thatcher tried to introduce it in the 80s)? Guess which party in 2015 tried to introduce real 24/7 shopping by devolving responsibility to local councils in (clue - see previous answer)? Scotland has never had Sunday Trading legislation, but it did legislate against forcing workers to work on Sunday. So large shops in Scotland do open for longer than in England and Wales, but that's because they have enough employees to do it. That said, 24 hour shopping is far less common in Scotland.
@@wilmaknickersfit And as an Employee of an American owned company you really need to see our company rule book, boy the poor Americans have it bad, they get about a page for there rights, and the British have a whole section book to themselves, let's hope that stays in place, what with Boris and his cohorts chomping at the bit to sell UK PLC off to Trump and his ilk.
@@alisonsmith4801 I know exactly which American company you mean and it is very sad that the original supermarket company was once voted employer of the year because of how well the employees were treated.
6:15 That's because you're in the South. Come up North where we'll tell you exactly what we think, whether you wanted to hear it or not . 😁
We say what we like, and we like what we say :)
We would also talk to you, on the bus or in the street...
@@lizcollinson2692 I actually really dislike if randoms speak to me cus they i have to humour them with polite replies when I actually just wanna be left alone. but then im not northern (if the strereotypes are true), and headphones are my best friend even without music in theyr like people blockers. People not saying what they really think is more cus they dont want to offend u, and especially in a workplace they wanna keep u on side. They may also think ur looking for an echo chamber and affirmation of the belief you already hold when they hold a wildy different opinion so theyd rather not lie so they hesitate t chime in and sit neutral on the matter. We live in the age of offense = a crime culture after all, now more than ever people dont want to say what they think in cancel culture.
@@Auron710 it's a stereotype based in some truth for alot of people. In truth I think it's about city vs town. I do the headphone thing too when I have been living in a the city, too much noise and chatter.
I guess southern manners is true in America and England lol (according to common stereotypes that aren’t necessarily true)
The taps used to be separate because water tanks in the loft fed the hot water and the cold came from the mains, and that meant different water pressures made mixer taps unusable. These days combi boilers have largely removed that issue, but the majority of English people (myself included) just prefer separate taps..
Manners- when an Englishman calls you "twat" you know you have a friend for life.
😂😂😂
So true lol 👍🇬🇧
ha..ha Brilliant
Don't discount the possibility that you may actually be a twat.
Only the coarser ones.
Once you understand our humour you're in! . The Whole of the UK and Ireland has wit that is like no other.
I'd argue the Aussies have our sense of humour too.
@@thebigeasy87 Most definitely.
@@thebigeasy87 New Zealanders get it too.
Making 20 cups of tea and running out of milk,then getting some milk from the shop is a good way of wasting an hour at work
And writing a list of everyone's name the strength they prefer, black or white and number of sugar for each cup.
never insult the NHS, We aren't all obsessed with Tea and Coffee, we all have Coffee machines they're just in the bottom of a wardrobe, also the Bank Account thing is very true that is universal for everyone in the UK other than that Great Video!
I don't have a coffee machine
Quite a few places are open 24/7 ie. Tesco, McDonald’s, and Asda to name a few. But for other businesses, keeping them open all night means more wages being paid to the staff so that’s really why places close around 6-8pm roughly 👍🏻
I never understood why you would want to rest in a toilet,or for that matter have a bath in one. Very strange.
Just call it the bog and be done with it.
I've always called it toilets , excuse me where are the toilets ,you politely ask the waiter in a busy restaurant you are new to
I’ve always said scuse me where can I bust a sh*t please
Maybe you need to rest when trying to squeeze a log out
Im3 from Canada. If you ask "Where is the toilet?" You'll probably be told "In the bathroom." Lol
I’m a Brit living in Texas & it’s taken over a year just to get my name added to my wife’s account. I miss the work life balance of the UK.
I am a Brit living in Canada. I enjoyed working in the UK much better. I agree they have a much better work life balance. In America it is all work
Also! NGL...when you started saying “Boots & Bonnets...” I was thinking “where did they move to? The 1860s??” Then I realised you were talking about cars...not clothing hehe
Same 😂😂😂
That about trump that’s the same with Americans asking about Brexit, the queen, the Beatles the list goes on
Americans don’t ask about Brexit nor the Queen. Those are not the things posted all over our media.
Tea
Nearly all of Europe and most of the world use 24 hour clocks. We only call bathrooms that name if they have a bath or shower in them; we would only call it a restroom if there was a bed in there 🙄🙄🙄
Bathrooms don’t have electric power plugs in them to reduce the chance of electrocution as water is rather prevalent in those areas, which is also why many bathrooms have a string-pull light switch rather than wall mounted.
He's not talking about Europe he's talking about Great Britain.
@@truckerfromreno GB is in Europe although he didn't claim that Europe was mentioned in the video.
@@DisconnectedRoamer The word Europe has been hijacked to mean the EU.
Restrooms, bathrooms, why call them that? You generally go in them not to bathe or rest but to deficate or urinate. Everybody knows that, it is a normal human function and nothing to be ashamed of. We all do it, so don't be so bloody prudish USA! Call them what they are, lavatories, water closets, toilets, or if you really want to be British, loos, khazis, bogs, etc etc. There's alot ruder British words for them too, which I won't mention here!
I don't think it's legal in the UK to have a wall mounted light switch in a bathroom.
"Good manners" we live on a small island, good manners allow us to get through a day without serious incident.
Private thoughts are only shared between close friends and relatives. Friends are people we have known for 'ages' - everyone else is an acquaintance.
The American president opening a speech with "My friends" doesn't quite ring true to British ears, we'd never hear the Queen say such a thing.
True, but we are also capable of epic insults and swearing.
Because we dont have a queen. That s Sam Francisco.
I'm American and have always thought this way. Glad to know it's not just me. "Private thoughts are only shared between close friends and relatives. Friends are people we have known for 'ages' - everyone else is an acquaintance"... therefore it's not necessary or wise to "tell exactly what you're thinking"...we shouldn't spew out everything we think! So this is not a problem for me, as we are considering a move to England.
We do express our opinions about things, people, a situation, etc, but in a more formal setting such as work with colleagues (who are not our friends) we will not be direct in our condemnation or putting down of an idea. When you are confident with people's reactions then you can be direct and tell somebody exactly how shit they or their idea is.
Nice video mate. That's so true about us being to evasive in our speech through politeness.
If a British person says "I have a slight issue with you"
It really means "I loathe you with every beating of my heart!" 😁
LOL. There is a saying that the English are too polite to be honest and the Germans are too honest to be polite. It's said that when BMW bought Rover, the German managers totally misinterpreted what they were told by the British managers. Rover was in an appalling state but they were told things were 'not too bad, you know'. It wasn't deliberate deception, just a cultural difference.
@@PedroConejo1939 I love that, but it is sad. Because we all know exactly what "not too bad, you know"
means in Britain... I think the German equivalent would be "das rover is kaput"
I disagree; in the UK if someone says "Have a nice day" they actually mean it. 🙂
Steve Millard Eh, NO not always it can also mean GOODBYE! As in I do not want to treat with you any longer , f..k off ! ...it all has to do with the tone.
@@stevemillard2487 yeah that is true...or am I just saying that to keep the peace?
UK bathrooms don't usually have power outlets as a safeguard as we run on 240v systems, any damp ingress would cause problems
It is (certainly was ) illegal to have a mains outlet in a bathroom. The risk is much reduced nowadays as power supplies are fitted with earth current leakage devices. So if current flows from the positive to earth, possibly through someone taking a shower, the supply is instantaneously disconnected.
That was not always the case, I have come across a few example where supposedly qualified electricians picked up the earth of the power circuit for use on the lighting circuit, and vice versa, which is potentially dangerous and will cause an earth leakage device to trip.
@@glynnwright1699 agreed. Until quite recently it was forbidden to have a normal mains socket in a bathroom. The rules, the law, the code.
@@timoakley277 It still is forbidden. Unless the socket is more than 2 metres away from anything with water - which is practically impossible in UK bathrooms.
The outlets that we do have are usually 110v. They are usually transformer isolated for safety. The first time you get a decent belt (shock) off UK mains, you'll understand why power outlets are nowhere near bathrooms.
Plus, we don’t call them outlets! Sockets, in UK speak.
A topic is broached, not “breeched.”
A lot of the banking restrictions are associated with preventing money laundering. It is relatively recent and my son faced much the same problem when he moved to the USA.
Always pays to have a Barclays account. They have Barclays in the states
Yeah. Time was, it took 2 minutes to open an account. Now they like you to prove who you are.
@@niccolomachiavelli3774 I've never seen or heard of Barclay's in the US in 18 years living in NY and NC, other than some credit cards.
@@pulaski1 I would use an internet bank so there are no geographical boundaries and they are happy to work in many currencies.
after living in Germany for 18 years then moving back to the UK it took me 6 weeks to open a bank account, I feel your pain and frustration. And, I was born here!
Hot and cold taps... this may apply to older houses! Houses used to have a storage tank for cold water in the attic. The hot water would come from either a boiler or storage heater tank. Thus separate taps. Modern houses have different plumbing, no storage tank, so have heated mains water, and can use mixer taps as a result! ( its the separating of storage tank water that was the reason!)
There used to be a product called Izal toilet paper, think it was finally dropped a few years ago. Some years before that When I was in the military I was on guard duty at the main gate at the base I was serving on. We had to pick random cars for searching, this we picked was being driven by an American service man on an exchange visit, he had in his car several rolls of the military version of Izal, he reply when asked why he had this was
“ I am sending it home because no one believes me when I tell them you guys wipe your arses with grease proof paper”, yep, thats Izal, we sent him on his way, with the Izal.
I remember Izal! Terrible stuff in public toilets years ago. I suspect it was cheap for central and local government to buy. I'm almost 60 and never knew anyone who used it at home though!
Had to use that stuff In primary school, bloody awful.
I remember Izal from school. Horrible stuff but very widespread in schools and public conveniences in the 1960s.
Still have it if France, heavily perfumed if you can believe it. It was one of the first things I did when I came over from Sweden finding paper which were not perfumed! ( Swedes in general are not much for strong smell or smell at all unless it’s natural and discrete and even then...) still remember that fatal first night! I went to the loo, and after having desposed of matters, to use a more clinical term reached out to the... and desperatly started searching to find something else to use ...as to put My derriere on that heavily lavender perfumed LILAC THING was not in My plan...came out of there scented heavily with lavender, and feeling Very,Very EXPOSED!
Anna Rehbinder the stuff we had was not perfumed, but very very hard, almost waterproof, it was banned from ships, I was in the RN as it would not dissolve, shore bases had to continue with it for some years more
I'm just going to the restroom; I need a short nap!
Lots of folks at my work use the restroom for that. They just sit on the toilet for 30 minutes at a time. LOL! XD That's why it's called a restroom. A place to take a poo while reading the newspaper and such. LOL!
oh and a shit
@@crystalmethking A poo and a wank
two taps was because mainly hotwater got its pressure from a header tank that could get contaminated, so you never drank from a hot water tap, combining the two in that situation could be a health hazzard
Cold water in bathrooms often comes from a header tank too. Mixer taps are easily available but some people still get separate ones just because... Normal usage would have been to fill the sink with water to wash hands rather than under running taps.
In kitchens, where the cold will almost certainly come straight from the mains, British mixer taps don't really mix because the supplies have to be kept separate right up to the nozzle. This can be a hazard as you may still get scalding hot water coming out even when the cold is also on.
saves wear and tear on the hot tap if you just wanted cold :-]
I've not had a hot and cold tap in any place I've lived in since the 90s. I think they just put them in places Americans stay to annoy them.
Most visiting Americans don't stay in a newly built house. Old houses seldom have mixer taps. I had one put in into the kitchen sink, because I couldn't get the kettle underneath the cold tap.
It's very interesting when you research the differences you mention like the cold and hot taps and the light switches. 99% of the time is due to health and safety, the other 1% is just to annoy people from other countries 😁
5:01 Did you notice Matthew says that the joke didn't 'go over'. In the UK it would be 'Didn't go down....'
Which is funny! Cos it DID go over! Over his HEAD! Oh yeah!
Hi Matt. Radiators vs hot air vents: Yes, we don't have so many air conditioners, so we use radiators. Strangely enough, a few years ago my brother "upgraded" from a hot air system to radiators. Shop closing times: yes, they tend to close early and many don't open at all on a Sunday. However, over the last 10-20 years, shops close later and do open (if only for limited hours) on a Sunday. Some supermarkets (e.g. Tescos) open 24 hours during the week, but close early (4pm) on a Sunday. Glad you're enjoying living in "the old country". Separate vs mixer taps: actually, mixer taps make more sense as you are less likely to get scolded by hot water. Separate taps tend to be found in somewhat older properties, but you can still buy sinks (basins) with separate tap holes (go figure!).
My whole estate was built (in the 1970's) with hot air but over the years everybody has changed to more efficient, in the long run, radiators.
I think we should have air conditioning in homes in the UK to get us through the second and third week of August.
For a while I lived with someone from New Zealand who was also confused by shops and places closing early here in UK, and she was also confused by all the street parking we do, I’m guessing they must have lots of car parks in NZ. And I was confused when I could go clothes shopping at 10pm in New York.
Fun fact, "radiators" tend to use convective heat instead of radiant heat
Yes. Radiators do radiate somewhat, but heat transfer is mostly by convection.
Are you sending him up?
I hope your being treated well here in the UK.Have a good day
Andrew Mcgill you’re *
Kelly Ray Hill No, I just use my brain.
Welcome to the UK. Take lessons in sarcasm. We Brits use it a lot. You will also have to start putting the U back in certain words..like Colour...and for Gods sake, don't use the word Aluminum, it's aluminium. You will drive people nuts if you say it wrong. Good luck.
😂😂😂
Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit it is said.
Ian McGreevy but the highest form of intelligence, is the rest of the sentence.
@@user-ky6vw5up9m “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence,” is the full quote. :)
Ian McGreevy, that’s only said by the people that don’t have any wit... I was once told that I was a scoundrel and a ne’er do well , because of a sarcastic reply, to a stupid comment from a yank.....
The taps are separate because of the plumbing system. Newer buildings tend to have mixer taps
We've had mixer taps in our house since the late 80s and I'm sure we're not unusual. In the bathroom I think it's probably down to personal choice.
Cats Chorus. Actually by law, you’re supposed to have at least one tap, which is directly connected to the mains, so that you can have a safe supply of drinking water. Because copper is actually poisonous, and so you shouldn’t drink from a hot water tap or a shared tap, and that’s in our building codes. So if you don’t have this safe tap, in your property, then you can be stopped from selling it.....
Wilma Knickersfit, please see my reply to cats chorus........
I'm sorry, but I don't think your information is correct for UK homes. In the UK it is illegal to mix cold water and hot water from a boiler, but we still have mixer taps. The difference is the mixer tap has two separate water feeds. The hot feed is cold water from the mains heated by a boiler and the other is cold water directly from the mains i.e. it bypasses the boiler.
Wilma Knickersfit. When I was in maintenance for social housing, we were given regulations, and I am quoting these(but not verbatim), and the cold water directly from the mains, doesn’t bypass anything, which is why it’s directly from the mains..... things may have changed a bit in fifteen years(like the laws against doing your own electrics, without paying for them to be checked by a registered electrician, unless you are one), but I am not the only person quoting the same reg’s in the comments on here. So if you want to know exactly, what the laws/regulations are today then contact the housing department at your local council, but they are still, why most properties have single taps.....
Nothing used to open on a Sunday when I was young.
.....yep, Sundays used to be dire. Sunday afternoons, what Douglas Adams referred to as "the long dark tea time of the soul"
What about half-day closing? One day a week, all of the shops, apart from Woolworths, would close after lunch and not reopen.
@@billyhills9933 usually Wednesday afternoon.
Sunday Trading Act changed all that, loosened the hours that a company could trade a great deal.
@@billyhills9933 due to the Market days in towns
Another lovely video, thanks. And you're very welcome in our little country. 🇺🇲🇬🇧
Its 240 volts AC here! Touch a light switch, socket or appliance with wet hands and its bye bye time, or it was in the 50s and 60s! A lot of older homes here still had gas lighting, or just electric lighting up to the 40s and 50s and there were lots of deaths due to poor electrical lighting and mains socket installations and use of electric heaters etc in bathrooms. As a result, fused square pin plugs were made standard and it became illegal for builders to install sockets or wall switches in bathrooms. Before this we had larger, unfused bakelite round pin plugs and they were not standard types, so you might find your appliance could not be plugged in in another town or house. Since the standard plugs were introduced we have had regulations about switched sockets introduced so you can turn off a faulty appliance from the socket if the fuse does not blow, or to rescue an electrocuted person.
Tap is used due to taps on barrels being the only thing used to dispense liquid.
We still say 20 past 6, or 10 to 5, but do write 24 hr clock. Really confusing is "5 and 20 to, or past a time". You will hear this for 3.25 etc. Also quarter past/to and half past a time. It's like our metric/imperial mix. Miles, yards, feet, inches, pints, ounces and metric measures. 🙂
Nice video. Crypt means crypt!
I don’t know which part of England you live in where nothing’s open past midnight? Here, where I live, there are 2 large 24 hour supermarkets in the town, or I could drive to the next town, or the city, 6 miles away, where there are even more! Plus, innumerable 24 hour garages which sell snacks.
The law affects most of the UK where things are not open. But in Scotland and northern Ireland I know they are exempt. But even then, in scotland and northern island 24-7 doesn't really exist like it does in the US here. I have 5 huge supermarkets that are always open in my town and never close ever, expect on Christmas Day. Plus most gas stations are all open 24-7 as well. We even have 24-7 pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS that are open non stop too. (Walgreens here in the US owns Boots) I also live just a stone's throw from Walgreens/Boots corporate/World headquarters as another bonus fact. So that's how I knew all this, since what they do is always talked about here. (And Mcdonald's world headquarters) We have two Mcdonalds "flagship" restaurants here. One actualy is inside of their new 490,000 sq.ft, corporate office. LOL! XD
And Mcdonalds is open from 5:00 A.M. until 12:00 A.M. 7 days a week and many of their drive throughs are 24-7.
I live in Warwickshire. For the last 15 years or so, we have had many 24 hour supermarkets, petrol stations AND McDonalds. Warwickshire is in England. The only night supermarkets aren’t 24 hours is Saturday night/Sunday morning. McDonalds is 24/7, so are many petrol stations. We do not have regional laws regarding trading within England, so it is not just pertinent to where I live. Coventry, 6 miles from where I live, is in the county of West Mids, and there are even more 24 hour and 24/7 establishments. Theoretically, pubs could stay open for 24 hours, but none really do.
I don’t know what you’ve read, or where, but there is no law pertaining to 24 hour trading of supermarkets, other than on a Sunday
@@andrewfairbrother259 Exactly! So in the US, those are not considered 24-7 hour stores. They close on Sundays. 24-7 means to never close. Ever! And 24 hour stores are not near as accessible in the UK as they are in the US. So many folks who I know who have visited the UK and folks who live in the UK, say that the 24 hour culture is not like what it is in the US. Its at a different level in the US. I can go out on a early Monday morning at so many places here, at say 2:00 A.M. and get a full meal out on the town and go grocery shopping, or pick up some prescription medicine and who knows what else.
I get what you’re saying, I understand the concept of 24/7, I am replying, I was initially at any rate, to the premise that there are NO late night openings in the UK, so “you’d better plan ahead” if you think you’ll need late night snacks and saying, other than Sundays, there are many, many local supermarkets open 24 hours, and on Sundays there are STILL Many, many 24/7 petrol stations open, plus, locally to me at least, a 24/7 McDonalds. I imagine that you know plenty about how it is in the US, as you live there, as have I in the UK, so far for 58 years.
We also say the day,month and year.Today is 29/2/2020 in the US they say 2/29 which to us Brits doesn't make sense.
Andrew Mcgill Oh yeah I forgot about that one ☝️
Day, month, year, must be confusing when your birthday is in single digits like mine, both date and month, makes you look like your born on the wrong day and month. Strange it seems it's only in the US that does it.
It really makes perfect sense, since we always say month, day, year in a conversation. Christmas is 12/25/2020 this year. Easy peasy! It just rolls right of the tongue. 😁
I'm the opposite. I always get confused at first when I see a European written date. LOL! XD If I say it's "the 25th of December 2020", it just doesn't seem to roll of the tongue as easy as saying December 25th, 2020. But To each their own. ^_^
@@waycoolscootaloo Well the rest of the world manage with DD/ MM/ YY, perfectly ok, just like they cope with the metric system, temperature measurement and 24 hour clock, seems Americans are a step behind the rest of the world.
@@alisonsmith4801 Actually the rest of the world is the one behind the US. The US built an economy using our measurement method that's bigger than all 27 of your economies combined in the EU! And we have less people than the whole of the EU. ^_~
Its also a pain in the derriere for an English person to open a bank account.
I just opened a new bank account today and it took less than a half hour (in New Jersey).
It really isn’t, I did it online in about half an hour, ok it takes time for the card to come through, but opening a bank account is very easy now.
That is because of the of fraudsters in England.
Not to mention the money laundering rules
Nope. Monzo takes about 15 mins on line.
Actually, a lot of places seem to be open much longer than I remember in childhood! It always slightly amuses me when we talk about our service sector being so big, because as a nation we're really not cut out for that psychologically!
I wouldn’t say “thirteen hundred hours” just cause I’d sound like a train announcement if I did 😂
Some people do make it awkward for young people who can't read a clock face. Tell them it's five and twenty to six for bewilderment.
Welcome to the UK, hope you all have a great time while you are here.
I think the two tap thing is because the hot water comes from the tank (standing water 🤮) and the cold comes off the mains. ♥️
That’s correct. It’s mainly because there’s a huge difference in water pressure from the mains and the pressure from the header tank.
This was true before the days of combi boilers. Hot water tanks are rare these days unless your heating system is more than about 25 years old.
@@EmptyGlass99 I agree but I think most houses under 25 years old have mixed taps. 👍
@@EmptyGlass99 .
Or you only have electric power.
@@EmptyGlass99 My home has a Combi Boiler, and has mixer taps in the kitchen sink and bath (the bath mixer has a takeoff for a a shower hose) but the hand basin has separate hot and cold taps.
As a plumbing and heating engineer in England.
The reason we have separate taps is after the war we used to have a-lot of water shortages, (the Germans did a very good job at destroying our reservoirs) I.e. the whole water being off at certain times so we needed water storage units in our lofts, so if the mains water was off you’d at least have water coming though your hot even if it had gone cold by that point but it had previously been brought up to 60 degrees to kill bacteria 👍🏻
Depending on where you live there maybe a convenience store open though. A couple are open 24/7 near me. Even on Christmas Day I believe.
Mixer taps are getting really popular now, you'll rarely see a new install being done with 2 taps, and I'm glad about that. The mixer makes so much more sense.
mrsiborg and this has happened because new houses have combi boilers and other tankless systems
I hate mixer taps. Always rip them out and put proper taps in
@@Mind-your-own-beeswax Good man, I've always thought that combi boilers waste water and two taps are better than one.
Where I live there's 2 asdas and 2 tescos open 24 hours, some takeaways are open til 2 and 3am but on a Sunday shops close at 4 to 4.30pm maybe it's just where you live?
Those are not 24 hour stores in the US. They close. 24 hours in the US means to never close. Ever! (Except Christmas Day.) But even on Christmas Day in the US, you can still go to your local pharmacies that will still be open and pick up groceries and medicines and such. Plus most every gas station and mini mart is still open on Christmas Day.
On Christmas day here you can usually find a corner shop open, garages here are usually open 24 hours too with the odd few that aren't. 24 hours here is classed as 24 hours and even when Tesco closes at 4pm it re opens at midnight when it turns into monday
@@jennyfayeuk7342 See that would put a huge damper on people's activities here in the US if a store closed at 4:00 P.M. Sundays are the busiest shopping day of the week in the US. Stores at even say 6:00 P.M. are crazy busy at that hour. But in the UK, the parking lots of all stores are empty at that time. Also the new Sunday sales ads start on Sundays here. So to close early would be bad for business since that is day 1 of a new add promotion.
But I do agree that the UK is much more open compared to what it used to be. And especially compared to other EU countries which truly shut down.
@back of the net I have reliable sources and lot's of knowledge.
@@waycoolscootaloo In Manchester we have had 1 full 24/7 Spar for decades, on Oxford Rd, now we have 4 of them, that never closes, open all over Xmas and Easter Sunday, as Xmas day and Easter Sunday are usually the only 2 days in the UK everything shuts. Shops during the week in Manchester close at 8 in Sunday they close at 6pm. There is also a pharmacy on Oxford Rd that is open over Xmas and Easter Sunday as well. As for garages, most have 24/7 pay at the pumps now.
Interesting about opening times. We have plenty of 24 hour supermarkets (around 400 Tesco's alone are), but they tend to be larger ones outside of city centres. Smaller "express" and community supermarkets generally close at midnight or earlier. Larger stores can only open for 6 hours on a Sunday due to Sunday trading laws and most open 10am-4pm. Would you say people in the US eat and shop more after midnight than the UK?
The 24-hour culture in the US is at a different level compared to the UK from folks who have lived their told me, and friends and family who have visited told me. The 24-hour stores are true 24 hour stores in the US. They never close. And some restaurants are even open 24-7 in the US. So are pharmacies. I have two pharmacies in my town that never close. Not even on Christmas. And over 5,000 Walmarts are open a true 24-hours in the US. Not to mention other types of "Walmart like" Supermarkets across the country.
This is the best video I’ve watched! Thank you!
You're welcome! Glad it was helpful!
This S E Texan discovered you today. I like what I hear so far, and I will admit GREAT envy.☺Always loved G.B., it think it started with Snow White, Cinderella and cozy cottages. AND, wonderful gardens. I'm excited to see more, so I subscribed.
Have you noticed that we buy our fuel in litres but express consumption in MPG? Or that we sell wine and spirits in millilitres but milk and beer come in pints. It confuses the hell out of everyone who visits the country, but we like it that way!
Separate hot & cold water is to do with water safety - cold water is direct from the mains and is drinking water - hot water is either heated instantaneously or comes from a tank and should not be drunk as it could be contaminated (if you saw the muck inside a hot water tank you would know!), the other part of the water safety is that should the mains pressure fail for any reason there is not any risk of non-drinking water getting back into the mains system and contaminating this.
Rules have been a bit more relaxed and mixer taps are allowed on cold mains & hot water - probably because the liklihood of a mains pressure failure is pretty unlikely these days, but the UK has very high standards of water safety.
Not having power in the bathroom, with either the light switch outside or a pull cord inside, is again, all about safety, some power is allowed but it has to be specially rated to ensure that wet persons cannot operate any electrics with the consequence of an electric shock. UK installations (and those derived from the UK) are the safest in the world, the most basic has two safety features, the ground earth and fuse overload protection, the best, have three (required for all new installations), the ground earth, fuses and earth leakage, fully protected circuits are very safe and practically no risk of an electric shock.
Hi Matthew - the two tap thing is because most old houses hot water systems have a hot water cylinder fed by a cold water tank located in the roof space of the house. So drinking water and hot water have to be separated by law cos water from the hot tap is not rated as clean. Modern homes use the cold water supply and not a tank and tend to have mixer taps as standard.
Just discovered your vids. Really lovely to hear your views.
Opening a bank account in U.K. was a real struggle for us as well! We haven’t encountered the shops being an issue, we are from the US but spent two years in Australia, everything closed up even earlier there it seemed. I have been caught out in U.K. for groceries on a Sunday, 10-4 is a pain especially if traveling on weekend and late out Sunday.
Don't do your shopping on a sunday then. it's supposed to be a day of rest.
When I was young the ‘do a round’ that you describe for tea & coffee was also true for beer and cigarettes. ‘flashing the ash’ I can remember a 20 pack being mostly gone in 2 rounds, but because everyone did it you sort of got them all back as others flashed. same with a round of drinks. sadly now the cost of both prohibits it.
David Parfitt In Sweden We do rounds but if you are more than 4-5 people everybody get’s their own also I’ll just grab a Quick one means that you will not participate in the round ( seen as perfectly ok if you stay around all night, just seen as nice that you stuck around) Also if you know that that person is low on cash you can offer can I get you one too ( if necessary you can add after the second such oh you can get me a beer Another time - if you know that that person have cash another day it seen as perfectly acceptable to later collect =) Done in the can you get it ?, sure NO probs or sorry We need to split it :)
I was always "Mother" for our Group as they knew I could make up the Break Hot drinks Good ..Sadly some people who act as "mother"think Stewed drinks or weak as **** drinks are the Norm ...You smile and drain them ASAP...and Whats the Schaefer''s views on Hot drinks from Vending Machines are they not as Lethal in the US? Best value for me is the Soup or the Beef Drink which I'd consume several cups on Night shift to keep me alert...
And guess what? The same are installed in UK Hospitals ...Not far to go if you get poisoned
Mike Lawler jupp same here apart from one time when I was elected to a political board and the chair tried to get me out of the room by asking me to make coffee when an important decision was coming up . My answer “ Sure, I suggest though that we adjourn so we have a fresh head since the next question is the most important tonight! Let’s open the windows and get the coffee and Pelle ( nickname for peter) does the coffee next time! “ And then I opened the windows full blast and went and made the most awful coffee ever ;) People still talk about it and it was over 25 years ago! In short -if you can make good coffee you can also chose to make REALLY bad coffee!
Super markets in the UK tend to be 24 hour apart from Sundays when they shut at 4pm.
The separate taps came from the way we used to heat water for washing , it would generally be a tank or cistern in the loft that was heated by an element , because the water would often sit in the tank for a long time it became unsafe to drink , so taps where separated so the cold was fed straight from the mains and hot from the tank to prevent cross contamination, but this is changing now due to new heating systems etc , you’ll still find separated taps because it’s just what we are used to 👍
Interesting video! I'm sure you'll have a million comments explaining the separate taps thing, but mixer taps were actually not allowed for a long time here because of the perceived risk of contamination they might enable between bacteria-laden hot water tanks and the clean mains water supply.
This is what I've heard as well :)
Thanks for the explanation! This makes sense to me!
@@stuartcarden5402 It is true. The Building Regulations require a property to have a clean cold water supply. In the old days (pre combi-boiler) the hot water was stored in a large copper tank. This tank was supplied with cold water from a separate header tank, usually in the loft. The water in the header tank could become contaminated and could therefore also contaminate the cold water supply if a mixer tap was used. Todays boilers provide instant hot water, so no chance of cross contamination. But we still like our separate taps.
A Lane Less Travelled, it’s still a regulation, that you have at least one tap that’s only connected to the mains, because copper is poisonous, and heat can help those poisons get into the water...
@@alanelesstravelled8218 We had mixer taps long though before we changed to a combi boiler. The cold water from the mains used to be split so one supplied the old tank in the loft and one supplied cold water to the tap. But it was still a mixer tap.
What do you mean when you say “crypt”?an underground vault where bodies are kept is the only meaning I know of......Are you sure it just wasn’t a shit joke?!
I'm not sure either, I've always known then as crypts too and I no-one I know what he was on about, the internet doesn't either :/
It's the basement of a church, or at least of a cathedral.
I don't know a different meaning for the word crypt.
I've just googled it, exactly the same both sides of the pond?
Tell us your joke
I stopped using instant coffee 25 years ago and had a cafetière plunger.
Coffee pots for filter coffee are well known, but are now old school, we've moved onto to proper coffee makers, smaller versions of the ones in coffee shops and deli shops.
Hi Mathew.
I must really be in a minority here then for lots of reasons. First I have warm air central heating from a British company called Johnson and Starley. It's a Hi Spec J50 Clean Flow which as a separate boiler for the hot water which is held in a Mega-Flow 250 litre, sealed unvented pressurised tank, so the water can flow without the aid of a pump to our shower three stories above in our bathroom some thirty feet above the water tank. Second we only have mixer taps in the kitchen and bathroom sinks. The bath has two mixer taps at either end of a double headed corner bath and the water comes in where the overflow for the bath would normally be, so central above the bath plug so no taps at either end. We have a huge shower head, eight feet above the bath itself that acts as the shower tray. If you have mixer taps in the UK the hot water must not at any time be allowed to run into the clean cold water drinking supply so any mixed feeds must have non return valves fitted so so as not to contaminate drinking water and that may be one reason most properties use two separate taps. I spent more on valves and pipework in my bathroom than I did on a black glass sink and double corner bath so that may be a further reason. I also have a set of light switches in the bathroom for the lights that are radio controlled so no mains circuitry to accidentally electrocute yourself on. We also have towel radiators as the warm air in the bathroom is under the floor tiling.
The other thing about hot air systems in this country. You can have warm air but we are not allowed to have a combined warm air and air conditioning and I've no idea why. The company we use makes such units for export but are not allowed to sell them in the domestic market. Our system does have electrostatic filters to take out pollutants in the air and fans to circulate air around the system in the summer but no air con.
I think if you were working in London you would see more real coffee in use in offices. When I worked in London we had a very large coffee machine that used bags of Kenco coffee. Viennese with fig I think was our favorite.
Don't worry about being asked about Trump. We can be as idiotic as the next race when asking foreigners about themselves, as if we will get some sort of insight as to their sanity by which candidate they voted for. It's like anyone asking if we voted Tory because we thought Boris was actually a good politician rather than the truth that most of us just wanted to get on with Brexit one way or the other :-).
Getting recognised in the UK for anything official is difficult no matter who you are. My son the other day wanted to get a passport for his son and needed my and my wife's passport details among other things to apply for a passport for our grandson. When I need to renew my license to continue in my particular work I need a criminal records check and supply marriage certificate, birth certificate and utility bills every four years as well as photo ID. You would think they would know who I am by now :-).
We have 24 hour supermarkets and Chemists and petrol stations. You should use Google more :-)
Great video you have found out Our take on catch 22 in opening a bank account:)
Electric outlet in bathroom and pull switch are safety issues the UK uses 240 volt domestic supply whereas the US is just 110volt so if there is a fault in the system and you are damp / wet it can result in a fatal electrocution. The shaver outlet is supplied via a transformer which limits the current that can be drawn .
Two taps historic the cold water is either from a cold tank usually located in it attic/ loft but one outlet must be a direct connection to the mains ( this ensures that there is a source of pure clean water available). The cold loft tank is not often checked so debris or dead animals being trapped in the tank could contaminate your supply without being noticed. The hot water tank is fed from a heater of some sorts that takes its feed from the mains; I was told that due to pressure fluctuations it can be possible for a contaminated supply to be taken up and find its way into the public system so stop valves and other devices are used to prevent this back flow. More modern installations I think have other ways of achieving this aim but the regulations have to err on the side of caution. You may have realised that normally the UK does not have seasons which have wild temperature swings the standard joke is if you blink you can miss summer, or you have all four seasons in one day so until a few years ago the need for air conditioning was not seen as essential, we can open the window and only a few insects might venture in so our attention was focused on heating rather than cooling. I am sure that you will find more to comment on the longer you stay here :) enjoy yourself.
We use 240V. Was that a typo
Rod Coates thanks for spotting if I had a bit it fat finger syndrome:(
The use of a transformer means that the socket is isolated from the mains. This results in there being no dangerous voltage between either socket connection and the ground/earth because neither connection is live relative to earth. There IS still a dangerous voltage between the two socket connections but unless these are touched at the same time there isn't a problem, and even then the voltage and current flow would only be between two fingers rather then across one's whole body.
John R not quite true the transformer takes 240 UK and outputs 240 or 110 volts so voltage is still high what is important is that it limits the current that can be drawn. The appliances that it is designed for are normally double insulated or type 2 with no earth connection if a fault develops in a type 2 device it fails safe. If the housing is metal it probably has an earth connection so by touching a terminal and earth would complete the circuit.
@@terrymummery6377 I'm not sure what part of my comment you disagree with? It may be I didn't explain my point very well. Yes, there is indeed 240V (or 110v if switched to that) across the transformer output and I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I broadly agree with what you say apart from the current limiting factor which isn't the idea of the transformer, more just a consequence of some transformers being small. Large isolating transofrmers won't limit the current (and there is no need to) such as the huge 3KW ones under my set of benches which supply 240V at up to 13A. That is easily enough current to do me a lot of damage but ONLY if I touched both output connections at the same time. The important thing is that there is no LIVE side on the transformer output so if I accidentally touch just the brown or just the blue in the appliance I won't get a shock as long as I don't touch both at the same time. That's because, unlike the raw mains input, neither output connection from the transformer has any voltage potential relative to ground/earth because of the isolation it provides. I sometimes point people to this czcams.com/video/sfzy5IQMzyc/video.html
Not a criticism... made me smile when you said English people give six caveats on their opinions... much like you at the start of your videos 🤔👍😀🇬🇧 taps are often separate in the UK because many of the buildings were built before mixer taps were invented.
The taps are separate because hot water was traditionally stored in the roof space in a tank which could be contaminated and un drinkable and the cold water came from the mains supply off the street which is fresh water and safe to drink and brush teeth.
It's more of a tradition these days but there are still millions of houses with tanks.
The separate taps come from before modern " heat on demand" boilers. It is a British standard safety feature....Water was heated and stored in hot water tanks, in "airing cupboards" where you would keep linen to keep it dry. Above in the roof would be a cistern to keep the tank full and at a steady pressure. This meant that there were two possible routes to contamination, firstly via the cistern which was often not covered properly, and secondly the warming and storing of the water. (Imagine the heat going off on a timer, of being switched off before it got hot, or the building not being used for weeks....)
Now given that the quality of water coming in was, an is, very high, and that the old systems were made of copper pipe and tanks, which kills quite a lot of bacteria, such as Legionaires disease, it would still be safe to drink even after being stored warm for some time.
However the possibility of contamination was there, and therefore against British plumbing standards. Therefore the pipes were kept separate, if a mixer tap was used there could be a danger of cross contamination and even of back syphoning if the main cold water supply failed. Keeping the taps separate meant that this was impossible, and that drinking directly from the cold tap would always be safe and high quality.
Modern heat on demand boilers mean the water is heated directly from the cold supply, and not stored, therefore mixer taps can be used.
Old sinks and baths and tradition mean that when rooms are refurbished they often just replace the existing taps, to fit in the existing holes, (mixer taps have one large central one) or choose traditional styles. Despite this, the mixer taps are slowly taking over as rooms are refurbished.
The tap thing is a hangover from when hot water used to come from an open topped tank in the loft it couldn't be guaranteed 100% clean. It's very rare now but for people my age still have a certain distrust of drinking from the hot water tap, even though it's completely fine!
I still have a "header tank" in my loft, but they're not open any more - ours has a lid.
Good to know about the hot water. We'll have to check and make sure about our system before we continue to drink from our taps.
@@SchaeferFamilyAdventure If you have one tank in the loft it will probably be a cold water header tank for the heating system (to give a more reliable supply). Most newer boilers heat water on demand rather than heating water and storing it in a tank so hot water tanks are not used anymore in new builds.
people your age? I think it's based on what people grow up with, not your age. I'm 22 and have always only had 2 taps
I'm sorry - does "crypt"mean something other in the US than the space beneath a church ? if so , please enlighten us because that is all it means in the UK.
So decrypt means you need another church! 😁
I think its gang speak
In the US "crypt" tends to focus on it being an underground tomb and less on it being specifically beneath a church/chapel/etc.
@Rita Roork yes but then it's just a short form of the word encryption.
@Scranvan lol. That's 'crips', not crypt.
Loved this video mate.
Warm air heating was popular in new homes in the 60s and 70s (we had it in a new house in about 1965), but it was replaced by the gas central heating you see everywhere. It was cheaper and that was down to the discovery of large supplies of North Sea oil and gas. Underfloor heating is becoming increasingly popular, but it still uses heated water, only in pipes instead of radiators. The earlier underfloor symptoms were electrical and basically rubbish for widespread use. I do envy warm air systems for placing the furniture in a room!
My family emigrated to the US when I was a toddler, and [some of us] re-immigrated to the UK 20 years later. I agree about the problem opening a bank account; not simple. We'd even taken the trouble to bring our "money' in an international money order drawn in £ sterling on Barclays Bank of California, thinking that would make it easy...it didn't LOL.
I don't know where in the UK you are living, but most reasonably sized towns now have at least one 24 hour supermarket [other than on a Sunday].
A slight niggle: I find the music on this video annoying - too quiet to really hear but loud enough to be aware of. Too loud music is a _bad_ thing, but to me so is music that's barely audible. Best IMHO is no music, second best would be a tad louder.
Thanks for the comment Frank. The bank think really is a pain, isn't it?
Yeah, looking at a lot of the comments about the supermarkets make it apparent I may have missed the mark on that comment.
Good to know - I'm playing with different music options, trying to figure it out. I really appreciate you letting me know your opinion on it.
You do get some Tesco’s which are open 24 hrs
Not on Sundays
Only in Scotland are they allowed to be open 24/7
Thank you! That's what I meant, but, some is not all, and 24 hr supermarkets don't serve meals, or even tea or coffee, and prescription drugs - very rarely. My nearest '24 hour supermarket' is still 20 mins away, along roads full of over wide lorries doing deliveries!
The bathroom light switch is outside for safety .
The hot and cold taps are separate again for safety, this is because in a lot of homes in the loft is a water storage tank, used to feed the boiler that provides the hot water. As the tank is not sealed, it can get contaminated so is not for drinking.
Now the water company does not want there to be any chance of their nice pure drinking water mixing with your hot water, hence the separate taps.
If you find a mixer tap and examine it closely you will probably find that the hot and cold only really mix outside of the tap.
Don't know where you live but there is an abundance of 24-hour supermarkets - Asda , Morrison's , Tesco - and petrol ( gas ) stations that are open round the clock . Clubs and some pubs are open until 02:00 - 03:00 .
You can have 240V 13A sockets in bathrooms in the UK. But the outlet has to be at least 3 metres from the edge of the bath, so most bathrooms don't have them.
I won’t go in a public toilet if I can help it but sometimes I’ve got no choice. I love my Tesco toilets (if I can say that 🤣) because you don’t have to touch the flush you just wave your hand over and the taps you just put your hands under and they switch on!!! Usually I’ll use tissue to open toilet doors and flush chain I will not touch anything in there OCD comes to mind 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Especially during germ season, this is SO smart!
I'm an electrician. With the exception of shaver outlets, we don't have main outlets in UK toilets / bathrooms in most locations as it's bloody dangerous and against regulations. They can be installed if they are over 3 metres (9ft) from the edge of a bath or sink, but there are very few bathrooms, especially within homes that are that big, so for the most part they won't be found anywhere.
The thing with the taps depends on how old the house is, usually an older house will have a water tank in the loft and this is where the hot water comes from and cold water comes from the street pipe. They’re separate taps as the hot water is not necessarily fit for drinking. Most people now have combi boilers so none of this is an issue now.
Sorry, I'm British, but not really into plumbing; I've often wondered, seriously, what's a combi-boiler?
Totally agree about the bank situation and the " Catch 22 " effect it creates. It is meant to counter money laundering but has a major impact on regular workers , students , family members visiting UK long term and of course the actual big time criminals are probably having lunch with the CEO and CFO of the bank and funneling money through dubious banking " short cuts ".
I've never heard the term "radiant heat" 😂
So in the states.. On a bus timetable, for example. How do you know whether it's pm or am?
They would write am or pm. Ie. 6:12pm-6:36pm.
@@robertomoi2044 Except they don't, radiators warm up the air by convection not radiation. Like wise I've never heard the term radiant heat used in connection with radiators. Radiant heat comes from infra red heaters, and they heat things not air. Btw no need to be rude when replying?
@@robertomoi2044 I'm not stupid. I understand what the word means, we say radiators.. We just don't use the term Radiant Heat in the uk. Ever.
@@robertomoi2044 who the hell do you think you are?! Get a grip on your anger dear.. You're really starting to show yourself up as a nasty human being. Wind it in.
@@robertomoi2044 There are ways of putting your point across without being rude or insulting. You might want to step away from the internet until you've learned those skills. Despite the name, radiators do actually transfer the bulk of their heat through convection, not radiation. If you don't believe me, Google is a handy resource.
Asda (walmart) are usually open 24/7. The sunday times are from when the UK used to be religious and sunday was classed as a day of rest, usually shops close at 4, pubs and restaurants stay open late (you can still have a decent 🍺 on a sunday, especially with the footy being on), these days though sunday times are just a hindrance
Interesting video, I love to see the differences. I think differences should be celebrated not criticized (American English spelling for you).
Taps/Faucets:
Put plug in sink. Run hot tap. If water too hot by the time it gets to the desired temp, add cold water. When done, pull plug. A lot of water is saved as you don't have taps constantly running through the whole process of washing. It is also why bathroom sinks are sloped so with a minimum amount of water, it can be deep enough for a wash - although newer sinks are different. When cleaning teeth, turn tap off between rinsing the brush or use a glass to swish your brush.
Bathroom is only a bathroom if there's a bath, otherwise it's 'toilet' or 'loo'.
I believe, but not sure that we don't have plug sockets in the bathrooms because of safety. The voltage here is higher than in America. Wet hands, although unlikely could cause issues so it is a health and safety thing.
But try and remember what you can. It doesn't matter if you "slip in to American" speak, mostly we understand. Eventually it won't feel weird using British words and phrases. Experience and Admire the differences.
😳 opening a bank account was a nightmare and took us 3 weeks!
they ask about Trump to find out what type of person you are
yes, am i talking to a stupid person or not. saves time.
Wow, just judge people.
Mate, who you vote does not really define anything about you, unless you want to take on that American tribalism where, if you are Democrat you adamantly reject any notion of decency or humanity in anyone not of your tribe. Republicans do the same, but less so.
The two tap system is because it's still common for UK homes to use cisterns to maintain pressure in the hot water tank and lines, (UK water mains tend to be at about 1/3 the pressure of North American ones). Since you have standing water in an, often open topped, tank that means the water in the hot water pipes is not potable and can't be allowed to mix with the potable cold water within the plumbing.
It may depend on location but regarding separate taps/faucet, growing up our hot water was warmed via either an Emersion/electric heater or the back burn of the coal fire. This would heat water that was stored in a tank in the attic which things such as birds may occasionally break into and possibly die. Cold water tap was fed by the mains direct. So we were never to drink from the hot tap.
But modern plumbing has mostly gotten rid of this. But the two tap system remains.
The whole utility bill as a proof of address thing is a pain for everyone not just foreigners. Most bills are only in one person's name or paid online so demanding them as some sort of proof is archaic. Welcome to Britain.
Radiators are better in the UK because copper water pipes take up much less space than air-ducts and you already know how small the houses are. As with most things, eg, the taps, it comes from having very old housing stock and having to drag it into the 21st century. Our (rented) cottage was built in the late 18th century, try modernising that! It's storage heaters and wood-burners for us.
240vac in Uk tends to make a better job of electrocution than US 110vac system hence different regulations on electrical installation.
I'm English and I have a single tap/faucet. We recently replaced our old tap, and that was also a single tap (rather than one for cold, one for hot). I find when there are two it's a pain because you have to go between a freezing cold and boiling tap. So while in the UK we do have separate hot and cold taps, we also have joint ones.
Yes, the old header tank in the attic / loft thing for the taps. Apart from the contamination business you can't easily mix hot and cold in one tap when the cold is at mains pressure and the hot is just coming from the roof - the tendency is for the cold to force its way up the hot pipe via the mixer. But now we have other boiler systems that keep the hot water at mains pressure, so there is no excuse for new builds with two taps imho.
When you move to any country there’ll be some stuff you totally forget happens there
On making drinks for the team in the office. I try and discourage it in my team. The reason being, I find too many of them stay in their seats looking at screens for hours and hours. At the very least, I want them up and away from their screens every hour for their health.
That's SUCH a good point! I always refuse an offer of a hot drink from colleagues and make my own when I want to stretch my legs and give my brain a break from what I've been working on. It's polite and considerate to offer, but I would discourage it too for the reasons you've highlighted. 😊
I stopped asking if anyone else wanted a brew. That's my time that I use to get away from my desk and think. I don't want to be faffed with making six brews every time.
It's funny that you mentioned the 24 hour clock system we use.
I had an American colleague who couldn't understand it and would always ask what the time was.
You are right when you talk about the time. It is strange that people, like myself, write 14:00 but say 2 o'clock. One even stranger tendency, although it may just be my age band (60), is to talk in centigrade at low temperatures (e.g. 5 degrees outside) but in Fahrenheit at high ones (e.g. 75 outside) - but only for weather. For anything else it's always centigrade. Maybe its because we were making the switch to SI units when I was a kid. We still have not completely switched. We buy petrol in litres, we even buy milk in litres - but we drink pints. We drive miles - but understand kilometers. I measure my weight in kilograms, but most still use stones and pounds, although they buy food in grams/kilograms.
Temperature is the only thing I'm fully metric with, everything else is just mash up, eg I'll use mm and cm for small distances, but miles for big distances and feet if it's height.
A happy birthday to all leaplings!
My sister's one - she's just received our flowers and we're going out for lunch tomorrow to celebrate. Happy Birthday to you if you're one too! 🎉🍾
Mixer taps! It’s a fallacy! I’m an interior renovator and in the many years I’ve been doing it, I have NEVER fitted anything but mixers in bathrooms AND kitchens! It may come from tourists mostly using public toilets, where the ‘2 tap system’ is still alive and well, but in houses? No!
The house i live in only has 2 taps in both toilets. I think older houses it is more common than you think. I've seen them in lots of houses. I'm sure you don't fit many new houses with them, but they are alive in well in lots of places. They are VERY rare in the States, even in older houses.
I’m not suggesting for a moment that they don’t exist here, especially in public conveniences, but your house is the exception, not the rule. My own house was built in 1899, not had single taps, certainly in the 34 years I’ve lived here. I’m merely pointing out that it’s become a cliché and like most clichés, it’s now widely fallacious. It’s stated as ‘fact’ that there are literally no mixer taps in the UK on so many American vlogs. It’s simply untrue, a far greater number of UK homes have mixers. That being said, I do feel your pain! Having to burn your hands every time you use them is a huge pain in the arse. Keep your vlogs coming, I really like them.
Most new houses or older houses that have been refitted have mixer taps. Separate taps are a massive pain in the arse.
How many old houses you been in? Open your eyes man!
@@timoakley277 in the UK? Most uses pre 90s have separate taps.
Hi Matthew I wasn’t sure about the two tap thing either, i think because I grew up with it I never even questioned it even though when I stay in hotels generally there is a mixer tap. But this is what I found; We asked Kevin Wellman, chief executive officer of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering.
"This tradition dates back to a time when hot and cold water were kept separate to prevent contamination through cross connection," he said.
Cold water came from a mains supply and was fit for drinking. Hot water would be serviced by a local storage cistern often situated in the loft.
"This caused an imbalance of pressures which meant that if incorrect taps and valves were installed one stream of water could force its way across to the other."
Water bylaws prevented hot and cold water being mixed because water that had been sitting in a tank in the loft was not deemed safe to drink, he said.
As far back as 1965 a code of practice called CP 310 advised that wherever possible hot water taps should be placed on the left.
"One of the reasons to maintain that over the years was reported to be so that the visually impaired would always know which sides the hot and cold were on," said Mr Wellman.
"When mixer taps came into vogue there was still a requirement to make sure water didn't mix until it came out of the tap," he said.
"So if you look closely you might be able to see the hot coming from the left hand side and the cold the right."
many shops will close at 5 or 6pm, but many superstores stay open 24/7, and some small convenience stores do also, or at least till 10pm or midnight.