What's the difference?

This post is dedicated to me explaining how utterly different so many things are over here as compared to back home. I thought I'd best do this while I'm still a newbie here...before too long things will seem totally normal and I won't be thinking about it any more.

I'll start just by taking you on a virtual tour of my flat. First thing I noticed when I walked in last week: the light switches. At home, we have switches right by every door. Easy peasy...convenient. Not here. ONE switch in most rooms. In the living room there is a switch by the front door, and another going out into the little middle room (not sure what I'm supposed to call  it...like a foyer in the middle of the flat or something). But that's the ONLY room. The light switch to the bathroom is a pull-handle. The kitchen: one switch near where you come in from the foyer-thing. However, being as I park outside the back door (which is out the kitchen into the alley), in the morning when I leave I have to open the door, which swings WIDE OPEN btw, like the house isn't level or something (which is actually needed cuz my small refrigerator would be totally blocking my exit if it weren't wide open)...and then I have to go back across the kitchen to hit the light switch and work my way around the refrigerator in complete darkness...oh...and the door opens the wrong way, so I can smack it good with my face/head/knees...as it opens INTO the kitchen instead of towards the wall. Also, being so cold (right at freezing every night), if I start the car up to warm it up before I jump in and drive, when the door swings wide open, the exhaust pipe of the car is about 18" away from the wide open doorway now...and the exhaust is just blowing right inside.

Bathroom: the shower is the tub. Free-standing thing. No curtain, privacy whatsoever. It does have a little half-glass piece-swing-away thing that separates where you stand under the water from the toilet. When I first saw it I thought "no way on earth that small glass piece is keeping the shower water in the tub and not all over the floor". I was quite wrong. You see, for that to happen, there'd have to be water spewing out of the shower head with some sort of pressure...my shower is a very gentle affair, and I swear I can spit harder than the water coming out. It's also an "instant heater" unit, vice a hot water heater. So I hit a button and the water starts to gently fall out of my shower head. However, it IS the perfect temperature, day after day with no adjustment needed (there is a knob that you rotate...more blue colder, more red warmer). So that one's a toss-up.

More bathroom. OK. The sink. It's a sink. Nothing else. No cabinet, anything. Nowhere to put stuff except around the faucet handles (and I mean TWO faucet handles). I'm not sure what century the hot/cold water coming out of the same spout was invented, but that hasn't gotten here yet apparently. I have either REALLY FREAKING COLD, or REALLY FREAKING HOT water, each coming out of their own spout....separated by about 10 inches of air. Wash your hands in that. And I'm not kidding either about how HOT and COLD they are. Amazing they can be that far apart in temp. The good part is the icy cold water feels somewhat good on your scalded hands. Next: the back of the toilet. Back home: flat (so I can put stuff on it, such as a spare roll of TP and some air freshener, you know...stuff like that). Here, it's rounded....like they are afraid you might try to actually put stuff on it. Must be some kind of forbidden zone. Thank goodness I have like 5 things to store. They are all herded together in the tiny real-estate available on the sink.

Next up: power outlets. OK....sure, these ARE 230 volts AC...but do they need to be so BIG?? Great googly moogly! I plug any of my 110v plugs into one of the adapter plugs, and it looks like a VW sticking out of a dump truck or something (in size comparison). That is one HUGE plug! And while we are talking about plugs, how about a few more please? On my kitchen counter, I have ONE plug plate with 2 outlets...however ONE of them is taken up FULL TIME becasue the TINY FREAKING GAS STOVE needs an acutal wall plug! Thus, I have ONE plug left to share between the microwave, coffee pot and toaster (and anything ELSE I might use). Gotta have more plugs folks! Same for the walls...not EVEN one outlet per wall..some have NONE! Like the outlets (and light switches) were made of gold or something. Oh, and speaking of the TINY FREAKING GAS STOVE, I cooked some tater tots last week. There is a conversion chart I need to use. There's NO temperature's on the oven. Just a tiny character of a big-flame, three dash marks, and a character of a small-flame. THAT's IT! I'm supposed to figure out what temp to cook a pizza, or a chicken pot pie with THAT? PLEASE!!!!! I'll be lucky if my pot pie and pizza's aren't burned to a crisp (no timer either).

Heating. Wall mounted hot water radiators. There is a wall mounted thermostat (in Centigrade) in my little middle-room thing, but I can't even figure out what that is controlling, being as there's no furnace. EACH radiator has it's OWN temperature control knob...and those are adjusted to either I, II, III or IV  (or off, though it doesn't say that...I just figured that part out if you turn it slightly below the I setting). Maybe the thermostat controls the temp of the hot water, and the individual controls set how much each room gets?? That's my best guess.

Fireplace. Not even a real fireplace. Not even a real gas fireplace. Just a little contraption with some fake logs on it, and you have a few choices when you turn on the main switch: Light only (which lights below the fake logs, giving a nice fake impression of actual fake logs lying on a fake fireplace), and heat. Or should I say heat, HEat, or HEAT...depending on how many of the switches you turn ON. It does actually give out a nice little blow of heat (electric)....being as it's 230V, electric heaters are MUCH more effective than back in the US. Being as I setup my laptop on a little table right next to the fake fireplace, it's actually a nice little space heater...tho the fan is a bit noisy. But still, FAR better than nothing. This way I can leave the house slightly chilly, and turn on the 'fireplace' for a bit when I get home to toasty-things up some.

The TV. Or more accuratly, the guide...when you hit guide, whatever you were watching goes away. Back home it stays on in the corner of the screen, audio still there. Not here...as you search (in vain usually) for ANYTHING to watch, you have total silence. And then when yo DO select a channel, you have to push yet ANOTHER button...like an "are you sure" button. VERY annoying. I already PICKED that channel! Geez...the troubles I go thru...hitting the same button TWICE to watch a show! Will these trials and tribulations NEVER END?? (ahem...am I spoiled or WHAT!)

Storage space. I guess some of the flats have actual closets or such. Not this one. My Samsonite suitcase is sitting against the wall in my little middle-room, cuz I have nowhere else to put it. when my bike gets here, it will be joined by the hard-shell S&S case. The bike itself will most likely hang out in the kitchen. For one, that's about the only place with a piece of wall long enough to put it (that isn't already occupied by something else), and two: it will be going in/out of the back door anyway. And three...the kitchen has lovely linoleum floor, impervious to any wetness and such...whereas the rest of the flat is carpeted (except for the bathroom).

The refrigerator. It's pretty freaking tiny. If Jeannie were here, we'd be way-packed in there...thankfully with just me (and my BACHELOR foods), it's not too shabby. However, there's NO SHELF tall enough to put bottles of beer. HERE! In the BEER CAPITAL of the world!! What's up with THAT????????? I have a small drawer that can hold THREE pints, lying down. The rest have to sit on TOP of the refrigerator, as I have NO OTHER PLACE to put them. Speaking of no other place, NO PANTRY! I have my dry-good foods up in one of the dish cupboards, and re-arranged the other one to hold all the stuff I needed to move so I could have SOME space for my canned/dry goods.

Beer. Oh, did I mention that before? Hmmm...I MIGHT have.....tonights selection of the nectar of the Gods is a bottle of Bellhaven Wee Heavy. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

On the label it says "Brewed by Scotlands oldest surviving regional brewers. Bellhaven Wee Heavy has a rich deep flavour (yes, flavor is spelled with the "u") that derives from the greater proportion of malted barley to hops which characterised Scottish Ales of the 19th century. A beer to be sipped and fully respected. (note: it's 6.5% alcohol). On the whole, VERY NICE! I'll be buying more of these I can assure you! It has a slight sweet hint to the malty taste. Nice color too...a good copper ale if there ever was one.  OK...that was my beer review for today. Get some! (note: Bellhaven brewery doesn't even know I exist and there is nothing in this for me, except for the right to buy MORE beer!)

Well gee...that about covers everything INSIDE...I'll do a post on the driving later....as it will easily be it's own post. Hope everybody is having a nice week....we are supposed to get winter now...a storm is predicted with temps at -7C (that's about 19F). There could very well be snow...there's snow still on the ground less than 30 miles away up at Grassington...(where I will be riding my bike thru when I ride around in the Yorkshire Dales....WHEN it warms up just a tad I mean). I hope this post didnt' come over as me being a whiney-baby American...(not saying I'm NOT, just that I didn't mean for it to SOUND that way)...it's just amazing the simple things we take for granted on a daily basis that are so different.

OK...time to finish my TASTY BEER and get some shut-eye. I only work a half day tomorrow (Friday) as I worked 9 hour days Mon thru Thurs...no real plans for this weekend...might go driving around some...that's always fun!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Cheers!