Observations

In addition to my "travel diary" posts from my trip, I'm also going to share some of the more general comments and questions that I made note of during my trip. Here they are!

• It seemed to me that a lot of the news presenters on the various BBC channels were South Asian. I wonder why that is?
• According to folklore, the sandwich was "invented" in the U.K. If that's the case, when did they forget how to make them? Here's a tip- there are condiments other than mayonnaise!
• And speaking of mayonnaise- which I DETEST- one evening while standing in a "chippie" waiting for my dinner I watched a man put mayonnaise on his fried chicken. I didn't know whether to vomit or seek counseling. Here are somethings that normal people might put on fried chicken: gravy, barbecue sauce, or even honey.
• I encountered some escalators that went up on the "wrong side" like people in the UK drive on the "wrong side."
• English variety shows (the names of them escape me at the moment) are almost as odd as Japanese game shows- and that's saying something!
• I don't care what anyone says, Heinz ketchup in the U.K. has a thinner consistency and a more vinegary taste than Heinz ketchup does in the U.S.
• "Plans" and "Projects" are called "schemes" in the U.K., which always tends to make me- as an outsider- vaguely suspicious of them no matter how well-intentioned.
• There are two kinds of women between the ages of, say, 18 and 35 in Scotland. Those who are stunningly beautiful without any make-up whatsoever, and those who trowel it on by the pound and still look hideous. (I've never claimed I wasn't shallow!)
• How hard is it to make a shower that a) has decent water pressure and b) stays at the same temperature during your entire shower?! This especially bothers me because in Scotland because there is literally fresh, clear, abundant water bubbling out of the ground everywhere that isn't covered with asphalt. All other Europeans should visit Iceland, where the shower head is basically a fire hose spewing super-heated water!
• And speaking of hoses... while public transportation in Scotland is generally abundant, convenient, and reasonably priced, if you're traveling to or from an out-of-the-way place, or- woe is you- from one out-of-the-way place to another, you'll get "hosed" for your ticket.
• In the U.S. we have spurned the metric system. I don't have an opinion on that one way or another. But what's going on in the U.K. In theory, they've adopted the metric system, yet, they still measure body weight in "stone" (14 pounds) and the weight of other objects (automobiles, for example) in "hundredweights" (8 stone). And yes, I'm well aware that a "hundredweight" weighs 112 pounds- I didn't make up the system!
  

Okay, so I'm not exactly Alexis de Tocqueville, but I thought these things were interesting.