Hi, I've had a couple of requests for info, so here's some info, along
with a couple of questions of my own. I'm a Brit living in the US, so
some of my info may be a little rusty - anyone who knows better, feel
free to correct me (I'm sure you will :0))
First, some questions that I'm hoping someone else will answer:
- Do taxis in the Heathrow area take credit cards, and if so, is
AmEx likely to work?
- Do hotel rooms in the UK generally have US-style modem jacks?
(More on that below)
Here are all the other things that seem important, in no paricular
order:
- Beer:
- There are many great beers in the UK. None of them are
prefixed with the word Bud, or suffixed with the word Lite. Beer is
sold in real (Imperial) pints, i.e. 20 ozs, as opposed to a 16-oz pint
in the US. You can buy it in half-pints. Americans give interesting
names to their football teams, while we tend to reserve them for our
beer: you'll find lots of different styles and interesting names. I'll
mention Old Speckled Hen as a beer that's now very common and (IMHO) a
good pint, but this is very subjective.
- If want something that's
yellow as opposed to something with taste, ask for a lager, and pick
one at random. If you really want to immerse yourself in the culture
you can
ask for "a lager and lime", but don't tell anyone I told you that.
There was a time when I didn't find it strange.
- Don't expect to receive a frosted mug, and don't expect the
beer to be
frigid. Most pubs have standards.
- England is not the
place to go looking for good Guinness, though it is available not far
away if you're willing to travel.
- Pub protocol: You pay for drinks as you go, and usually one
person in a group buys a "round." When a couple of glasses are getting
low - usually including the person who bought the first round, since
he/she knows he/she is safe, so will drink faster than everyone else -
somebody else caves, and buys the next round. Then at 10:50 or
whatever time the landlord calls for last orders, everybody else has to
buy a round, which has to be drunk by the time the landlord calls time,
20 minutes later. Anyone who forgot and didn't buy a round has to buy
one at the next UK f2f, or the next evening, whichever comes sooner.
- Money:
- Don't assume you can use dollars anywhere - you probably
can't.
- Your ATM card should work fine, and ATMs are reasonably common
- I imagine you'll be able to find one in the airport. If you plan to
take a taxi
to your hotel you may need to get some cash first - depending on the
answer to my question above.
- The exchange rate is about 1 pound to $1.90 - I haven't checked
it recently. The exact algorithm for conversion can only be explained
in WSDL, but if you double the price and subtract a little bit you
won't be far wrong.
- Language (1): Soda means fizzy water, and the words 7-Up and
Sprite
don't exist, as far as I know. If you want something that resembles
these, ask for lemonade - and don't worry: the taste won't have any
resemblance to lemons. I don't know the English word for real
lemonade. but there used to be one. Coke's pretty universal.
- Coffee: I'm not sure how easy it is to get decaf; we haven't
really noticed that caffeine has any effect. Don't expect to get free
refills.
- Tipping:
- You should tip, but not at 15%, and a lot of people regard it
as optional. There's no percentage figure - I never understood why the
tip should be related to the size of the bill. I think someone else
might give better guidance on this than I can.
- If you're buying drinks in a pub, you can tip the bar staff (if
you want to) by saying "and one for youself" as he/she takes your
money. Usually some or all of your change will then end up in a beer
glass at the back of the bar.
- And on that topic, the common way to try to attract the
attention of the bar staff in a crowded pub is to stand as close to the
bar as you can, and wave money. Paper money works best, but it doesn't
guarantee success. Assertiveness training is useful if you have time;
otherwise lead with your shoulder.
- Shopping:
- It's not a good idea to ask for the mall: if you do, Londoners
will probably direct you to a very nice wide street called The Mall
that leads to (or from) Buckingham Palace. Though I think it's
pronounced "The Mal." But if it's shops you're looking for, ask for a
shopping center.
- Sales tax: There is some, and it's built into the price in most
cases, so you can forget about it. You don't want to know how much it
is.
- Language(2): We don't have sidewalks, we have pavements - and
unlike the US,
that's the place you should walk.
- Electicity:
- We call outlets sockets (or "plug sockets", as if there were
any
other kind), and yes, they're different - not only from the US, but
also (at least for now) from Europe. And I'm proud to say our
electrictiy is better quality: 240 volts,
give or take.
- You can buy travel adaptors in the US, but remember that
you're not going to Europe - you're going to the UK, or to Britain. In
the UK you can find them in stores such as Dixons or Argos - here's
what you're looking for: http://tinyurl.com/4pwpa (but
notice that this one doesn't convert voltage).
- Laptops and shavers should work fine on 240 volts, but make
sure you check before
you plug them in - doubling the voltage doesn't leave much margin for
error.
- Bathroom shaver sockets are always different from the normal
square-pin sockets, and
might (??) accept US plugs at the appropriate voltage - somebody with
more
up-to-date knowledge please help with that one.
- You can also buy travel adaptors that will reduce the voltage,
but you still have to worry about the wattage. I once fried an
electric toothbrush with one of those, so I'm not giving advice.
- Communication:
- UK phone plugs are different - they're flatter than RJ11
plugs. But modems
have RJ11 plugs, so you can easily buy adaptors in stores such as
Dixons or Argos, or any high-street computer store, or at the airport.
But you may not need to: can anyone confirm whether UK
hotel rooms
typically have RJ11 jacks for modem hook-up? I suspect they will.
And most likely a broadband option too. If you *do* need to buy an
adaptor, here's an example: http://tinyurl.com/68ahn.
- Cell phones - obviously compatibility and cost depends on your
service; I don't have any info. Cellphones are called mobile phones,
or just "mobiles." The numbers of all such phones begin with "07",
which is useful to know if you're calling someone and you care about
the cost. When you call a UK cellphone, the caller pays all the costs;
the incoming call is free. If someone calls you and you want to get
out of the call, you can use expressions such as "this must be costing
you a fortune" as an excuse to hang up. There's a good chance that
you're right.
- It's impossible to form UK phone numbers into any recognizable
pattern, and you can't write a regular expression to parse them.
- Language(3): "Regular" doesn't mean "normal" in real English, and
certainly
isn't related to the size of a drink - it has more to do with
frequency. Though you may hear the phrase "you're a regular comedian"
from time to time, depending on what you just said.
- Restaurants: I have no real advice on these, as pubs usually sell
food. You'll find lots of great Indian restaurants. I've never seen a
Mexican restaurant in England, so if you spot one please let me know.
- Potatos: Fries are generally called chips, and chips are called
crisps.
- Tea: doesn't come with a string attached. We think that's silly.
- Weather: very unpredictable. It's the middle of summer, so
you'll definitely need a sweater and a light waterproof jacket.
- Getting around:
- One of the most useful things you can have if you're going into
London is a small map book called the "A-Z." But it's pronounced
"A-to-Zed."
- Our subway is called The Tube or (sometimes) The London
Underground. We reuse the word "subway" to mean "pedestrian
underpass."
- Driving and Car Rental.
- We tend to drive on the left, and you should try to conform.
- If you rent a car and you want an automatic, make sure you say
that in advance - otherwise you'll probably get a stick. Except we
don't call them that - I think we call them "manual transmissions", or
"normal cars" or something like that. Mostly we don't call them
anything special, because it's the automatics that are unusual.
- We call gas "petrol." We chose that name because we already
had a fuel called gas, and we didn't want to be confused.
- We call signals "indicators." You can give signals when you're
driving, but you mostly need to open your window to do that.
- Apparently it's illegal to drink or eat while you're driving,
which probably explains why the car I rented a couple of months ago
only had one cup-holder. But that's one more than British cars used to
have. I believe it's also illegal to use a hand-held mobile phone
while you're driving.
- Petrol is around three times the price of its US counterpart,
but it's priced in liters, so you won't realize it until you do your
expenses. Oh, and we spell words like "realize" with an "s":
"realise."
- You should observe the speed limit, because it's certainly
observing you. Speed cameras are indiginous to the British Isles, and
they've learned the secret of procreation.
- Roundabouts are everywhere. They're traffic circles, and
they've been around so long that they're now designed by the same
people who design crazy golf courses. But they have lights on them
instead of windmills. Basically if you come to an intersection and it
has anything vaguely roundish in the middle of it - even a small white
painted spot - it's probably a roundabout. You should yield to anyone
coming at you from the right, then move onto it reasonably speedily, in
a clockwise direction (which means you bear to the left - clocks do go
in the same direction in the UK). Generally you want to move toward
the center lane initially, and signal and move out when you eventually
discover which exit you need. This might be on your fourth or fifth
rotation, but that's OK - each time around you'll meet a fresh set of
people. Incidentally, roundabout is English for "carousel." We
reserve "carousel" for use in songs, because we don't know what it
means. Kind of like "homecoming queen."
- Traffic lights have an orange phase before they turn green, as
well as after it. But we have a better word than "orange" - we call it
"amber."
- We call trucks "lorries." Tractor-trailers, which after all
are just lorries that can bend, are called "articulated lorries." It's
unlikely that you'll need to know that.
- You probably don't want to drive into London. You get charged
at certain times of day, though I don't know all the rules about that.
Train service is good if there's no strike, and you can get day-saver
tickets - I can't remember the exact term.
Hope that's helpful - sorry for the heavy use of HTML, but if anyone
has problems with it let me know and I'll post it in pdf.
- Jem
Jem Treadwell wrote:
If anyone
heading to the f2f is visiting the UK for the first time, and you need
any info on the necesseties - e.g. power or modem adaptors, ATMs, car
rental or beer - let me know. I haven't seen discussion other than
transport and hotels, so it may be that everyone already knows all the
pitfalls, but I'll be happy to put together a few facts if anyone needs
them.
- Jem
--
Jem Treadwell
Hewlett-Packard Company Phone: (732) 577-6043
200 Route 9 North Fax: (732) 577-6003
Manalapan, NJ 07726 E-mail: Jem.Treadwell@hp.com
--
Jem Treadwell
Hewlett-Packard Company Phone: (732) 577-6043
200 Route 9 North Fax: (732) 577-6003
Manalapan, NJ 07726 E-mail: Jem.Treadwell@hp.com
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