This wrote a Polish man who live in London or near this area I think. To start with, whats the purpose of this post? Im not exactly sure. Ive seen some strange stuff during the 3.5 years Ive been living in UK and I think sharing it might give a different perspective to the readers, might be a bit funny, or might give me some answers to WTFs I encounter while living here (and enjoying most of it). Some of the things are positive, some negative, and some are just observations. So, in more or less random order: Banks. To open a current account was way too tricky. In my old country (Poland) I could walk through high street and have five current accounts opened within 2 hours - while having only the national ID with me and never having any financial product assigned to my name before. And they will treat me as customer, and they will be happy to have my custom. Not so much in UK. Proofs of address, credit history (how? Im new here), and in the end it all seemed to be very subjective, as one person in the same branch was saying no way, another was talking about a passport cash-only account, and third person on the next day, when I came with all the surprising documents I needed, opened a full current account for me, like I was a long-time resident. Banks again. Direct debits? Fees for no funds available? WTF? If I do not have money in my account, then do not send the bloody transfer, and let me handle that with my other provider. Youre here just to execute my orders, not to bloody educate me on how to handle personal finances. Zero means zero, not lets try to send it, apply for automatic overdraft, then punish you with a fee because we think you do not deserve it. Cheques. Who the hell uses cheques? Its XXI century. Ill people at work. Well, if youre ill, stay at home, not go to the office barely being able to speak, and spread germs so the next week half of the office is trying to cough their insides out. Loss of productivity of you being away for three days is nothing compared to loss of productivity from 10 people succumbing to your flu. Tea with milk and chips with vinegar. OK these ones grew on me and now I quite like both. But half a year ago I would just give you a strange look if asked if I want some bloody vinegar on my chips. I guess Im assimilated by now. Do not hog the right/middle lane. OK. I get it. But consider that: Im going on the middle lane, exactly at the speed limit with cruise control set, then some bastard sits on my rear bumper flashing lights (with right lane empty, the lazy prick somehow cant change the lane to overtake me, so I have to give way). I, being the nice person I am, move away to the left lane to let him pass. Then he speeds up... by one or two mp/h and takes 60 seconds to move past me. Then another. Then another. All while Im sitting behind some bloody truck, forced to slow down to 50 or 60. EVERY FRIGGIN TIME. Im not the person to road rage, but if anything gets me close to freaking out then its this kind of self-entitled road sheriffs. Parking. I love British parking! Although its strange that you just leave cars on the road, almost everywhere, and then you need to let others pass, squeeze in, etc. A beautiful lesson in calm driving, politeness, and common sense. While in Poland youd be towed away, get a ticket, a fee for police parking, and an invoice from the towing company. Your way is better, just so so so strange. Especially during the first 6 months of driving here. No, I wont be mentioning double taps. This horse has been beaten to a pulp. But Ill mention the mess people make. WTF? Ive once seen three guys in suits in a tube, around 8pm, eating (in a very messy way) some McDonalds meals. And they left all the packaging on the seats when leaving the tube. Not even gathered into one bag - no, a three of four seats littered with greasy shit. Disgusting. Ive never seen anything like that before outside Russia. Incompetence in services. I had to take my stepson back to the hairdresser because he came back looking like a scarecrow. Not a single even line. Left side with twice as much hair left, as the right side. And she couldnt understand whats wrong. I had to point out, then she said that well, Im right, she didnt notice(?!) Then she spent 15 minutes making it all even worse. I had to ask for the manager who finished the work and fixed all the crap she did. I had thee tyres replaced at a service station because the fourth looked fine to them - only to be rejected at MOT two days later. Dirty dishes at restaurants are THE CONSTANT. Energy company messing up every detail they could, switching somebodys else meter to my account, billing me twice, refusing to refund, taking 7 months to provide a final bill, then again refusing to refund what was overpaid. Furniture sent to me with missing element, got the right one only after three additional shipments from the seller even though I was providing pictures and detailed descriptions from the start. WTF? Everybody makes mistakes, but here its like living in a sitcom sometimes. Insure EVERYTHING. In Poland: car, house contents, maybe sometimes life insurance. Here: car, house, house content, tenants insurance, professional indemnity, bicycle, animals (small), animals (large, I have a horse), animals third party insurance, dental (WTF, it is covered by NHS, at least partially, why do I need that?), life, payment protection... name it. Its a jungle to understand what I really need, and what is just being actively sold to me. I love: train services in my area, always on time and well connected. I hate: train tickets price. WTF, I know someone who spends over 1/3 of his salary just to get to work for a month! Daily Mail. Seriously? Who buys this... thing? David Cameron. The manipulative, populistic, clueless prick. I always thought Polish politicians are the worst, but not anymore. How someone like that becomes a Prime Minister, I dont know. And people generally believe what he says. Which brings me to... Education. I admit that, my stepson is not the brightest star in the galaxy. Or wasnt. Until he came here. From the worst student in his class, he stepped up to one the best in his year. While knowing nothing. I know, Ive been testing his knowledge before his GCSEs. The kids here do not have to do anything. They have almost no requirements. They do not have to improve. They seem to have no concept of self-improvement at all! A girl from my stepsons class was saying that she doesnt have to learn, as she will finish the school, will have a baby, and will get money and housing from the council. So, is that a reason for points 10, 13 and 14? And if yes, is that intentional? Self-service cash registers. I love them. But why do I seem to be in a minority? Even better: portable scanners that I can take shopping. Nobody uses them but me. People sometimes think Im the store employee as Im scanning the stuff Im putting in the basket. Almost no road police, no portable speed cameras that can be set up in any random place... and people generally drive nice, calm, and within the road code. Love it. Poland to the contrary: speed cameras EVERYWHERE, on top of that police catching people with portables in any random place (you meet them almost every day if you drive just a bit), and people driving like CRAZY: overspeeding by 50-100km/h, taking over on the corners, on double lines, doing three-lane slaloms around slower drivers, etc. Cant understand how the driving works so well here with almost no enforcement. After 3.5 years Im now scared to drive in Poland. Sour cream is a surprisingly rare thing. Sour milk is only available in Polish shops. Just sayin Boilers seem to be a centerpiece of every home. Friends bragging about the greatest boiler maintenance contracts they managed to get. Friends complaining about broken boilers on facebook. Friends happy with fixed boilers, posting on facebook. Friends asking who knows how to fix boilers on facebook. WTF is it with boilers? And the last one... Why do I buy petrol in liters, but have the mileage in miles per gallon? Feel free to ask me anything, how stuff looks like where I come from, or why do I thing there is anything wrong with something I mentioned. Once again - I love living in UK. There are just some unexplainable quirks. Maybe every country has some? EDIT: Wow, that exploded. I went to bed early yesterday and came back to over 1800 comments. Didnt see that coming! Anyway, the most heated issue (not counting boilers) seems to be the middle lane hogging, so please let me explain - yeah, I know that it is for overtaking and this is the scenario Im talking about. Im commuting by car, about 30 miles each way each day. On the stretch of M25 Im using, at the time Im taking it, this is the most common scenario: left lane - a stream of lorries and slower cars, going about 60mph, sometimes a bit slower, spaced so that its easy to get in between and stay there for maybe 5-10 seconds while doing 70mph. Middle lane: people doing around 70mph, widely spaced. Right lane: mostly empty or people speeding considerably, sometimes people from middle lane overtaking someone slower. (The other common scenario is all three lanes full and moving at snail pace, there almost seem to be no middle ground.) So what Im writing about is that: Im doing 70mph (according to my GPS, 73mph on the dash), overtaking all the time. Moving into left lane would be, Id say, moronic as Id be switching lanes every 5-10 seconds only to be technically correct (the best kind of correct some might say, but I digress.) And then comes a guy who instead of overtaking me, sits 5 meters behind me. Sometimes flashing lights, sometimes not, but a passive-aggressive driving nonetheless. I do move away into a left lane as soon as I have a gap, because I hate to have somebody so close to me on a motorway. And then he speeds up by maybe 1-2 mph... takes forever to overtake... sometimes it even seems that he slows down and more traffic builds up behind him, locking me on the left. Every bloody time forcing me to slow down to match the 60mph of slow lane. It happens every day. Sometimes more than once. Often enough to be irritating and notice a pattern. So... I know middle lane is not for cruising. But if Im overtaking all the time, every few seconds, then I see no bloody reason to cause danger by switching lanes like crazy. And the right lane is still empty if someone wants to overtake me. Thats what it is for, right?
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 16:39:00 +0000
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