And here’s another thing I hate…
It is almost 9 years since I first arrived on these shores. In that time I have adapted relatively easily to life in the UK – my youthful addictions to Ladybird books and Enid Blyton, The Goodies and The Good Life, Number One and the NME prepared me well for all that Britain had to throw at me.
But there are still some things that I truly do not like or understand about this country.
- The total absence of powerpoints from British bathrooms. I thought that Australia was a health and safety obsessed nanny state when it came to these things, but why British Building Regulations assume that people will automatically use their hair dryers while in the shower if there is a powerpoint in the bathroom is beyond me.
- The general propensity to wash up in a bucket in the sink, rather than in the sink itself. Why??!!
- Voting on Thursdays. If you want to increase voter turn out, then switch election day to Saturday. This frees more people up for both voting and campaigning, and as an added bonus you can stay up all night watching the results without fear of having to go to work with a hangover and two hours sleep the next day.
- People complaining about the weather. I don’t mind people talking about the weather – it is something that affects us all and is a very convenient tool for small talk afterall. But it’s not that bad. There are few hurricanes, tsunamis, bushfires, earthquakes or randomly erupting volcanoes; you don’t have to sleep rolled up in towels because it’s so humid you sweat lying still; it isn’t completely dark for several months of the year; the seasons don’t blend into one constant mush of mildness; you don’t risk skin cancer everytime you leave the house without Factor 36 sunscreen on etc. etc. The weather is not that bad. And it is not a good enough reason alone to immigrate.
- The combination of Daily Mail winge culture and British net migration out of the country. It is socially acceptable amongst a large proportion of the population to moan about ‘PC gone mad’ and ‘floods of immigrants destroying traditional culture’ whilst at the same time unironically eyeing up house prices in France and Spain. Drives me mad.
That’s enough for one week. Feel free to defend or just explain. Please.
Tags: cultural difference
December 8th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Not sure why watching a series of slides of this years sales figures while having soak is a benefit.
Isn’t voting mandatory in Oz that’s why figures are higher even on a thursday.
It’s the unpredicatbility of the weather we can’t stand you know it’s sweaty all year in Oz or dark in Sweden things change minute by minute here.
I imagine you have rednecks everywhere. I never knew why Mails readers hate pc as at the heart it’s very british and it’s just being polite ie calling people by names they want to be called not causing uneccessary offence etc. I think the main reason people hate it is that it means people have to think before they speak and that would never do.
December 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Voting is compulsory in Australia so yes, they are higher. But I think that they would be higher elsewhere too if it was easier to vote. And not just easier but more… festive I suppose. It feels like more of an occasion in Australia, not just something you nip in to do on your way to work.
There are Daily Mail types everywhere, but something just irks me about the hypocracy of people who have ‘given up on the UK’ and think its ok to move to an expat enclave in Spain instead. Like Spain wants it’s culture ’swamped’ by moaning Daily Mail reading immigrants from Britain…
December 8th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
The country has gone to the dogs brigade would never be happy even in Nirvana the ambrosia would be too sweet and the clouds to hard on the arse. They will still be moaning in spain or wherever. they have to slag off the old country because otherwise why did they move somewhere else. I think we are better off without them. They never made any good tunes, wrote any interesting plays, not single diesease has ever been cured by whingers like this, they will move on from spain soon when the water runs out! god knows where hopeful not back here.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Nos. 1 & 2…. YES!
and as a side note on No.2 what the bloody heck is the deal with not rinsing after washing. sheesh.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Hooray, Sarah, it’s not just me! Everytime I mention the weirdness of the washing up situation to British friends they look at me with incomprehension. And my boyfriend still groans when I cast the unloved bucket aside when washing up. He doesn’t rinse either…
December 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Hairdryer! What is hairdryer?
As for the bucket in the sink, it’s just easier. Don’t ask why, it just is………….
Voting on Thursdays I’ll give you. It’s like the lunacy in my workplace of holding quiz nights and nights out on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings.
I bitch about the weather because I hate rain. Apart from that, you’re quite right, we don’t have it too bad. A bit less rain would be nice though.
Whinge culture is something that has taken hold because some people believe they have a God given right to get what they want in life, and woe betide anyone who tells them they can’t have it. As far as the ‘it’s all the fault of foreigners’ crew are concerned, it comes down to being dis-satisfied with their own lot, but not understanding, or wanting to understand that it’s their own problem to solve and nobody elses. They look for an all encompassing general malaise, when in truth, the only thing stopping them leading the life they want to is the limit of their own feeble imaginations.
or something………
December 9th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Actually, Ill Man, people from Glasgow are exempt from point 4. The constant drizzle is very annoying (despite that infamous gulf stream!).
And see, no one has a good explanation for the bucket in the sink!!!!
December 10th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Ok, here’s the explanation of the bucket in the sink.
Long ago, in a land far, far away, there lived a slovenly young man. The man hated washing dishes (amongst other things), but twice a week he would drag himself to the kitchen to clear the mess that he had amassed. He realised that leaving dirty dishes lying in the sink for two days left his crappy plastic moulded sink covered in indelible food stains.
Anyways, he decided to buy himself a little red tub from a hardware store, so that he could leave his used cereal bowls and dinner plates for as long as he fancied (or until he ran out of plates and cutlery). It also allowed him to remove the crap from his sink in one swift movement should he wish to wash a pot or pan, or drain some pasta of a night.
And with that, he lived happily (if a little haphazardly) ever after.
The end.
That’s what my mother told me anyway……….
December 10th, 2008 at 9:54 am
That is the best and (now I come to think of it) most accurate explanation I’ve ever received. Certainly beats the ‘I don’t know, I just do’, ‘it’s more hygenic’ and ‘it stops you from accidentally smashing your glasses up against the sink’ reasons. None of which I buy anyway. Brilliant.