LIST: Things about The UK you wish you had known

Coming to Cardiff from Las Vegas I was really NOT prepared for the cold ... I'm always bundled up under my blanket while at home ..

What I did get right on my first invasion of the UK was I brought heavyweight Danskin tights and turtleneck jerseys, neither of which were found here then.  Now you can get all sorts of thick tights but turtlenecks are still rarely seen.

Coming to Cardiff from Las Vegas I was really NOT prepared for the cold ... I'm always bundled up under my blanket while at home ..

I still tell myself I'm ready for Cardiff weather and i definitely am not. Haha. That's why my family are sending me long underwear as Christmas gifts this year.

It's a strange kind of cold for me.  I am used to below freezing temperatures outside so the 30s and 40s seem mild in the winter (50 here today, could not believe it).  I just can never get warm.  When I studied abroad here I brought my huge, marshmallow-style coat.  It was January, you need warm coats in Ohio.  It was so mild that I ditched the heavy coat within 2 weeks.  Can't say I miss the prospect of the polar vortex, though. 

I just can never get warm. 

DH will feel my hands, which are like ice -- even  when I'm wrapped up in two sweaters and a blanket -- and says I must be anaemic 

What I wished I'd known first time was how cold it could feel -- even indoors!  I was used to cold snowy winters but did not imagine what British housing could be like. 

This!!!! I am from a part of Canada with similar weather to the UK and I have lived in Northern parts of Canada, with very snowy and long winters.

I have been here so long now I dress for layers inside like I would in Northern Canada for outside. It seems colder inside than outside in the UK!

I have been here so long now I dress for layers inside like I would in Northern Canada for outside. It seems colder inside than outside in the UK!

Absolutely!  Right now I am wearing a vest, thermal jersey top (LL Bean), jeans, wool socks and will shortly be putting on a fleece jacket -- just to stay indoors.  My body and brain cease to function when my hands and nose are cold 

There is an obsession with food sell by/use by dates bordering on neurotic. 

LOL!!! I never knew it was a UK "thing"!  My UK hubs and I have battled about this for the past 10 years.  I always thought it was him!

14 years worth of posts and many of these are still so true. I've been cracking up with laughter reading these.

Especially leaving the soap on the dishes to dry. And the expiration dates on food.

I had to convince my partner that the food didn't magically expire just because the clock went past midnight. We've instituted the smell and look test for him. If it still looks good, doesn't have mold on it and it still smells good then it is still good. He keeps saying that the food that has "gone off" that I've made him eat hasn't made him sick yet so maybe I am right.

And the expiration dates on food.

I had to convince my partner that the food didn't magically expire just because the clock went past midnight. We've instituted the smell and look test for him. If it still looks good, doesn't have mold on it and it still smells good then it is still good. He keeps saying that the food that has "gone off" that I've made him eat hasn't made him sick yet so maybe I am right.

I will be completely re-evaluating my stance on expiry dates when I get back to the UK next month. I've been eating completely out of date food for the last 2.5 months and I have yet to get sick .

This morning, I had toast with Marmite on it which went out of date in 2015. On Wednesday last week, I ate a bar of Dairy Milk which expired back in 2004... and it was fine (though it felt a bit like I had gone back in time, since it was in old packaging and it was the old recipe ).

We buy a lot of food on markdown and it is usually marked down because it expires on the same day. He was absolutely convinced he was going to get food poisoning because the cherries I bought that expired the same day had just magically gone off by the next day because the package said so.

He told me he wasn't going to eat some tomatoes because they were expired by a few days. (they were still perfect) So I chopped them up and threw them into his dinner and he didn't even know. lol

Besides the food expiration dates, I'm still trying to wrap my head around topping up the electricity.

And I feel like I am living in the stone ages because we don't have broadband or cable and I have to access the internet using a dongle on the laptop. He promises to get up to date on the technology front by the time I move over in April.

I will be completely re-evaluating my stance on expiry dates when I get back to the UK next month. I've been eating completely out of date food for the last 2.5 months and I have yet to get sick .

This morning, I had toast with Marmite on it which went out of date in 2015. On Wednesday last week, I ate a bar of Dairy Milk which expired back in 2004... and it was fine (though it felt a bit like I had gone back in time, since it was in old packaging and it was the old recipe ).

Good lord, it isn't turning into a Shakelton affair is it?

Keep a stash of beans hidden somewhere...and a flair gun.

Hubster warned me that there were "protein" cookies on the counter but I had no idea what he meant and I ate them anyways. I'm now the one freaked out by expiry dates because I've got PTSD from eating "wiggly protein worm cookies". They still had a week to go before expiry too! Eww!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Most businesses in Scotland do not seem to have public toilets (loos) available for customer use. We're on foot these days, and have quickly learned to follow Mom's old adage about "try even if you think you don't need to" before leaving the house in the morning for a shopping expedition.....

Most businesses in Scotland do not seem to have public toilets (loos) available for customer use. We're on foot these days, and have quickly learned to follow Mom's old adage about "try even if you think you don't need to" before leaving the house in the morning for a shopping expedition.....

Pubs and restaurants are your best bet. Just assume an air of confidence and you'll be in and out before they realize that you're not a customer!

Also, public toilets.  https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=18229