Day 67 - What we will miss about the UK (and what we won't miss)

Our last Monday in London was pretty uneventful. Most of the day was spent doing laundry and catching up from being on vacation. The girls watched some movies online. A few weeks ago, Scot downloaded a program that allowed the girls to watch movies in the UK online – something that is hard to do because of copyrights in the UK. We ran into it a lot. When I tried to order something from Amazon.com, it wanted to charge me international shipping because it could tell I was logging in from the UK. Crazy how “smart” the computer can be. It was also a day for trying to use stuff up. Our lunch and dinner comprised of some very off combinations:-).

We did make a list of the things that we really will miss in the UK and what we were really not going to miss. What we were going to miss was the following:

#1 – Public Transportation. We loved (especially me) taking the bus, the tube or just walking to where we needed to go. I know that as soon as we are back, it will be the car for everything – even if I want to take a bus, I still have to drive to get there.

#2 – Crosswalks. There is a special name for the crosswalk that I don’t remember but, how nice that cars stop when you step into one. Actually they stop if you look like you are going to step into one. We always looked to make sure the cars would stop (you never know – an American could be driving) but once we were in there, I didn’t have to hold the girls hands because I knew the cars were stopped. That does not really happen back home.

#3 – No-idling car. Our first rental car had a feature that turned the engine off when we waited at a red light. How cool is that! I think some cars – hybrids do that back home as well. But that car was a diesel and it did it. Just think of all of the gas and emissions could be saved in the Kiss and Ride line at school.

#4 – Yellow lights. In the UK ( and elsewhere in Europe), the stoplight turns yellow both ways. It signifies when a green light is going to turn red AND when a red light is going to turn green. Very cool to know.

#5 – My new dryer. Ok I actually will miss the dryer here – not the washing machine, just the dryer. The dryer has a resevoir to collect the water from the clothes since there is no dryer vent. So after every load of laundry, I had to clean the lint screen and dump the water. But I thought it was pretty cool feature. One time, I even watered the plants with the water from the dryer. I wouldn’t drink it but it was a different feature.

#6 – Relatively no bugs. Spring is always a fun time at home. At the bus stop, swarms of gnats buzz all around. But not here. We hardly saw any gnats, flys or mosquitoes (save Austria & Hungary). It was so nice to go play in a field and not be swatting away the bugs.

Now we also listed out what we would not miss.

#1 – Lack of customer service. In many of our dealings this summer, we noticed a general attitude that the customer was last, or at least definitely not first. It is probably a better attitude for life in general, but I am used to the way it is back home. There is definitely a concern for the employee rather than for making an extra pound. I told my boss that when I come home, I am going to go to the Giant at 11:55pm on a Sunday just because I can.

#2 – The old washer/dryer combo and new washing machine. I told a friend back home that when I got home, I would kiss my washer & dryer. She thought that was a funny thing to say but laundry in the 1^st few weeks of our time here was pretty horrible. Now that was before I got the new dryer which I ended up liking. But I still miss my washing machine. I can’t wait to do a load of laundry as 1 load back home is the same as doing 3 loads here (and they take longer – even the eco cycle on the new machine takes longer than a normal load back home). I like the fact that at least there is an eco-cycle on the new one. The old one was so old, the manufacturer didn’t even have the instruction manual.

#3 – Our house. It has been many years since I rented. And when we did rent, it was either in school or a rental community so the lessors really did a good job of maintaining the space. But renting from a private person who has never rented before definitely proved to be a somewhat downer to the trip. I miss our house where things are maintained. Sure, it isn’t perfect but if it is broken, we can fix it. Not have to go through a rental agency who then takes a week to get back to us because she has to clear it with the landlord who is on holiday and unreachable. I can’t wait to sleep in our bed with proper covers.

#4 – Air conditioning and/or screens. For the most part, it has been a heavenly summer for weather. I really don’t remember rain slowing us down too much. And given the heat wave back home, I felt bad to say it was 25C/72F and sunny. But on the few days where it pushed into the 30’s (Celsius), it got “hot” on the 2^nd & 3^rd floors. We opened the windows and discovered that there were no screens the first week. And definitely no AC. And usually, it really was not needed. Now I understand that the house is very old so the windows are probably not cookie cutter where you could install screens easily. But this was everywhere.

#5 – My car. I know that my #1 Pro-UK was the public transportation and I really did love being able to get around so easily. But sometimes, a car would be nice. I did get to drive last week in Austria so that was good – at least I don’t forget how to do it. But sometimes taking the bus with 3 bags of groceries during rush hour was hard and a car that I could just put my bags in was dreamed of. Pretty soon, that is all I’ll be able to do which is a little sad too.