Observations and more shopping

Even though we speak the same language, I don’t always understand the Brits when they speak. I find myself asking people to please repeat themselves with the hope that I’ll catch their meaning the second time around. This is especially true on the telephone. Any public announcements made in the subway are completely lost on me. (But I never understood them in New York either.)

It is fun to note how two countries using the same language create different expressions for the same item or event. For example, in the pharmacy, the brochure promoting a pneumonia shot refers to a pneumonia ‘jab’. In the U.S. we have Yield signs on the road; here they have Give Way signs. In the subways, we have Exit signs; here they have Way Out signs in the tube. Also in the tube, they remind passengers often to Mind the Gap between the train and the station floor when you are entering or exiting a train.


When riding the tubes, a passenger must either purchase a paper ticket or an Oyster Card. Oyster Cards are the greatest invention! You pay for a card for a period of time – or for an amount of money. Then, each time you enter -- and leave -- the tube, you place the card on a sensor at the turnstile. It’s a very quick procedure allowing many passengers to go through quickly. Obviously, it gives the transit people lots of information about which trains are getting the most traffic during the day.

In addition, at each tube station, there is a special sensor that will tell you how much money you have left on the card. If you like, you can opt to ‘top it off’ or add more money to it right there.
Or, you can do what we are doing – register the card and then add money to it online whenever you like. (Of course now, I am sure “they” will know exactly where and when I travel any day. I imagine the terrorists would not register their Oyster Cards online – preferring to remain anonymous and use the station sensors instead.) We could use Oyster Cards in New York.


Because the cars are driving on the left side of the road, it takes a while to remember that you have to look the opposite way when crossing the street. I find myself looking both ways always, and never quite feeling secure when there is a lot of traffic. At the busier intersections around London, they actually have a written message painted on the street at the curb telling you to Look to the Right or Look to the Left. (I guess there are lots of us having the same problem).


The local butcher shop carries Lancashire quail eggs – they are sort of small with brown dots. (“Perfect for canapés,” the label reads.)
The local grocery store offerings that are equivalent to TV dinners have some interesting options: bangers and mashed potatoes, meat pies, fish pies, and souvlaki, to name a few.

The local newspaper shop, or candy store, carries newspapers from almost every country in Europe. There are also an equal number of papers in Arabic languages. We saw The Wall Street Journal on sale there as well. Of course, we can get all the papers we want online now.

Today we tried out the bus instead of the tube. Oyster Cards provide us access to the buses as well. We discovered that we are lucky enough to have a bus stop only a couple of blocks away from our front door with a bus that takes us directly to Oxford Street – where there are many shops, including large department stores like Marks and Spencer, Debenhams, Selfridges, and John Lewis. (Carl is especially thrilled about this.) It is much easier to carry our bagged purchases home on the bus than on the tube.

We purchased two more pieces of furniture at John Lewis that will make life easier and help us be more organized in our flat. And I think we’ll be able to use them at LBI when we return.