So Laura and I have been in the UK almost five months now. And we've noticed a few differences between here and New Zealand. Not just the obvious stuff like weather, but also more subtle nuances, and unexpected differences.
Here are a few observations from our first four months in London -
Firstly Rubbish and Rubbish Collection.
Here in Camden Borough we have three bins in our house; Big Black, Green Rectangle, and Brown Square. Big Black is the classic movie style tapered cylindrical bin, with a big number '51b' printed on the side. This bin originally had a lid, until it blew off and someone ran over it with their car, now the lid lays in a million pieces, strewn across the many roads!
Anyway, Big Black is for your rubbish, and just rubbish, which will become clear in a moment. Green Rectangle, as indicated by the 'green', is recycling. This is exactly the same system as I had growing up in Orewa. Hiff everything that can be recycled, paper, bottles, glass, etc, into the bin and way you go.
Now, here is where it gets interesting (and why Big Black only hold rubbish), Brown Square is for compost. Further to this, Brown Square actually has a little brother; Small Green Square. Small Green Square lives inside. He fills up with anything organic/biodegradable and then gets emptied into Brown Square ready for rubbish collection. On Rubbish Day, in our case Friday, a man with a large wheely bin has the job of collecting all organic waste and keeping it separate from your bog standard, landfill rubbish, which belongs in the aforementioned Big Black.
Now I know that I have just spent the last paragraph describing the 'refuse recovery system' of my local borough, but this seems to be a great system, and an important difference, especially the composting, something that New Zealand could take note from.
However, and this is a big 'however', outside of the house is a total free-for-all. And let me tell you, that is not in any way, shape, or form, a good thing.
Growing up in New Zealand you have the adage 'Be A Tidy Kiwi' drummed into you from before you even knew what a Kiwi was. Here, the notion of 'tidy' is something that doesn't really seem to exist.
Now this is probably down to the fact that these is a gross lack of public rubbish receptacles, but everyone litters. Seriously, everyone! They don't care... finished with your chip packet; chuck it on the ground, done with your Starbuck cup; ground it. I even saw a man the other day pick up after his dog. Seeing him reach down with that small plastic bag, I though "Wow, a tidy Londoner, how refreshing". That was until he placed the bag in the gutter and walked off!
This anecdote brings me to what Laura and I have hypothesise as to the root cause of the littering; Bin Men.
Bin Men, walk around the streets picking up litter, which is great, but it seems to have bred the idea that someone else will pick up your mess. I theorise that Bin Men only end up collecting litter because people know the Bin Men will pick up their litter. This, I call the Bin Men Paradox.
The following equation shows the Bin Men Paradox. Where Dū is the amount of litter, and the inverse of M is the number of Bin Men:
As you can clearly see, if we reduce the number of Bin Men, and increaser2(the number of public rubbish receptacles) then GM decreases and we have less litter.
Moving on;
Cash. Cash is something that Laura and I constantly forget to have on us. This is due to the fact that back home, no one uses cash. Here however, the idea of a plastic card that you can magically use to pay for goods is a foreign concept in some places. We are really going to have to get used to carrying cash, least we spend our entire London experience paying and extra 50p every time we buy something less than £5... or use a taxi.
While we are on the subject of paying, paying for a meal is done differently too. Back home, once you are done, you get up, walk over to the counter/concierge (depending on the 'fanc' level of the establishment) pay, and leave. Here you have to signal the waiter, they then drop the bill off at your table, leave, and come back when they feel it necessary. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with the receipt for the five minutes before the waiter gets back, but I suspect it must be something to do with counting the cash I'm supposed to be using to pay for the meal!
Now, at this point it might sound like I have been tipping towards the negative with my assessment of the differences between Home and the UK. Au contraire, there are a few notable differences that are definitely sitting in the positive, if not better category.
The first, food.
Not the food itself necessarily, but the cost of food. Food here, in fact most supermarket items, are so cheap! Even if you are converting back to the New Zealand Dollar most things are cheaper. Clearly though we are not converting our money as we are earning and living with British Pounds Sterling now!
Want to by 2l of milk? Great, that will be £1 please. How about a giant bag of onions? £1.50 please. And so on. The dairy products are the things that get me the most. New Zealand is the dairy capitol of the world, but if you want to buy a 500g block of even the cheapest, nastiest cheese you are looking at $7-8 easy. Here, about £2ish. It's amazing, and I haven't even mentioned alcohol yet.
Just imagine you are looking through the wine section of your local Sainsbury's and you have the inkling to get a nice bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Oh look, there's one, for only £6.50! How is New Zealand wine cheaper here, than it is back home!
Needless to say, Laura and I eat very well.
My final point brings me to possibly the biggest, and best difference. This is what truly makes London a great city, and what hinders Auckland from stepping into the realms of the Big Cities. And that's Public. Transport.
I love public transport. A statement, that if you even remotely knew me you would never thought I would say. But the fact that there IS public transport is amazing. I'm not saying the I don't miss driving, but when you have two Underground, two Overground, National Rail, public bike use, and about 23 bus stops all within a few hundred metres of your house you really don't need anything else.
We are so well connected that one hardly needs to think about how to get somewhere, and as an added bonus I have never walked so much in my life. #fitnessbonus
There are of course a myriad of other differences, and it is those differences that make living here so great. It is those differences that led us to move here in the first place. To experience a different way of doing things was the driving force behind this madcap adventure. For only once you see the differences, can you start to appreciate the similarities.
N.B. because this blog entry doesn't really allow the opportunity to add photos, I have just added a selection of random London shots. Enjoy -
Laura looking a bit shady
Sometimes working until the sun goes down is worth it!
All the troops
We were V-ery excited about this discovery.
Looking north from the Beeb. We live just by the red cranes on the left of frame.
