Your Basic London Shopping Rules

(Substitute name of other major city as applicable)

-        You will always find the perfect T-shirt/leggings/ODIC (Other Desirable item of Clothing) in the last shop you go into, after you’ve already bought the okay-but-not-quite-what-you-wanted one in the previous shop.

-        You will always find your favorite perfume/moisturizer/ODIS (Other Desirable Item of Skincare) for a better price after you’ve already bought it elsewhere for what seemed, but no longer seems, like a reasonable price.

-        However, if you refrain from buying that item of clothing or skincare, on the assumption that it’s bound to be cheaper at the airport Duty Free shop, the airport shop will surely be out of it. Better luck next time, honey.

-        If you buy that expensive glossy mag, you’ll be seated on the plane next to the most amusing and friendly traveler you’ve ever met, and time will simply fly. Need I spell out what happens if you don’t buy the mag and have mistakenly packed your book in with the checked-in luggage?...     

It's the little differences - Take 2

Take 1 was in May 2010 – see http://nina-makes-tracks.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-little-differences.html. But each time I go to the UK, other things catch my eye.

You don’t have to be told that English homes are different than, say, Israeli ones. It’s obvious. One thing that always strikes me is the doors. All rooms have doors, and these doors are actually put to use! On a regular basis! You go into the lounge and shut the door behind you. You move to the dining room, and – unless you’re in and out setting the table or bringing in food – you shut the door. In Israel, only bedrooms and bathrooms have doors. And possibly the door leading to the small porch you use for storage, where  you keep that old gizmo that you can’t quite bring yourself to throw out. I assume all this door-shutting is very logical – to keep the warmth from escaping. But it‘s part of a different life style. Also, many doors still have knobs rather than handles. I’m sure handles are easier to handle than round, slippery knobs. But there you have it. Tradition.

Bedroom door with knob. Ignore mess inside :-)

 Dryers

You’d think, with English weather being so predictably unpredictable though strongly leaning towards the wet side, that dryers would be a staple. But not so. Apparently, dryers are a relatively modern invention; more modern than the washing machine, to be sure. And it hasn’t quite been accepted as the norm. I bet more families have dryers in sun-drenched Israel and Nevada than in Britain. Here, you hang up the laundry outside, weather and blackbirds permitting (you know, like the maid in Sing a Song of Sixpence), or else you drape it over anything drapable like the laundry horse and the radiators.  Then there’s always the hand-held hair-dryer to finish of the job, if push comes to shove. Which it often does.

Laundry drying on the radiator