Life, Kids, Technology & that move to another continent
If I wrote a business book the title I think would be “Shared Goals Makes Everything Better” How to Reduce Friction and Get Things Done In Cross Functional Teams.
I came up with that while having a conversation with someone at work. I find it pretty funny because it could be (maybe should be) a real book. I do believe shared goals do make everything better.
Now all I need is some semi interesting buzz word jumbled together and I can be the next David Allen. One can dream.
I have been trying to embracee the terms used in my new home. M sometimes makes fun of me because of it.
Sometimes you have to adapt. If i asked around for a bathroom people would likely not help because they dont know what i mean so I adapt and use Loo or Toilet. I keep remembering i need to call what i know as pants, trousers. if i call them pants people will think i am talking about what i know as underwear. so adapting is necessary a lot of times. When you start talking like that you continue to use the terms even at home or when you don’t need to. That is when i get the funny comments from M sometimes.
As we learn the right terms we also adapt. Many terms i knew already, like lift vs elivator or toilet vs bathroom. Others I didn’t know like popsicle vs lolly. Lolly makes sense to me so when M told me about it i was like ok, noted. Then there is the stuff that doesn’t make much sense to me.
M said that cotton candy is candy floss. I was like WTF? It didn’t make much sense to me. As of writing this it make a little more sense than when I originally heard it but still not much. I have a few other translations i noted I want to write about. This one however popped in my head when i had a few minutes to write.
Now I am off to get a chocolate Lolly and pondering how unhealthy candy floss is.
I keep forgetting we have fresh mint in our garden. Finally M reminded me while we were out so i could remember to get fresh Lime and club soda so I could try making Mojitos. We love them and it is one of the drinks i have been meaning to try at home. Our first two test drinks were both pretty good.
That means that Pandora / Mojitos box is open. I am told and can independently confirm we have a good supply of mint in the garden so my only limiting factor is how many limes we have on hand.
Now I have a good use for our Tiki glasses. Next up is trying to make Pims now that i got real British lemonade.
T drew this the other night. No help on the spelling. I think she may be trying to send me a message however I do brush daily!
Thanks A even if you likely just picked from a pile of stuff. How would she know that Animal is my favorite Muppet! ANAMAL!!!!
While I am still settling into writing routine I figured I would start off with some comparison posts. I know its a bit cliche to do comparisons. I also know people who have moved countries say you shouldn’t really do it if you want to enjoy your new home better however with some things my mind just goes to comparisons. And no comparison between New York and London would be complete I feel without talking about the subway and the Underground. FYI I refer to the Underground a lot in this post. I do that instead of saying the Tube mainly because my Dragon Anywhere dictation had trouble getting Tube correct in all the different contexts I was using. I really mean the Tube and the DLR in my comparison since I use both systems daily.
Payments
The Underground and the subway are in some ways similar and yet are so starkly different. First difference between the systems that stands out for me how you pay. In New York the subway is a flat rate to go anywhere. You can also purchase a daily, weekly, monthly unlimited card. The flat rate of the unlimited cards were pretty awesome. That is where the awesome ends with the Metro Card. You see for those of you that do not live in NY the Metro Card requires you to use a magnetic strip reader that was semi new and cool when introduced in the mid 1990’s. Ah the aggravating memories of having to stand at a turnstile swiping my card 15-20 times before it would work. Or swiping it 15-20 times only to have it say just used when you did not just use it because you were standing there for 5 minutes trying to get the dam card to work. Wow, I just had bad flashbacks about that. That is just two typical issues I had with my Metro Card.. I sum up the Metro Card experience by saying it is 1990s technology that has not aged well. At present there’s only a rough roadmap to replace the system.
The underground on the other hand you pay based on where you are and where you’re going to. I get the reasons for this however in practice it costs me more. Payments on the underground are contactless. I had the oyster card when I visited for moving here. On the last trip or two visiting I realized I could use my iPhone with Apple pay to tap into and out of the system. Since I’ve been living in London I have an Apple watch series 3 and now am able to make payments via my watch.
Head-to-head contactless payments for the Underground wins. Even if it costs a bit more money the Metro card is crap. I had countless issues with it. The simple fact that I can pay for my trip using my watch will win anytime.
In Part 2 of The Underground vs Subway I will ponder why in the world stuff breaks so much on 100+ year old infrastructure.
“A” looking fondly at Paddington “Dee Dee, your our only hope”
Star Wars movies at 3 totally paying off!!!
I know this is normal in London. I am just not sure if I will ever get used to twilight at 10:14 PM. Or dawn at 4:30 AM or whatever crazy early hour it happens now a days.
Me while tucking in A, “are you tired?”. A replied “how do you know i am tires?”. I replied “are you tired?”. She replied “yes”.
I said “you look tired”. Sounding surprised she responds “oh”…
