British Culture Notes - By Crystal
London is said to be one of the most expensive cities in the world. As Elizabeth and I travel I find myself (my mathematically challenged self) raising the rate of everything we buy by at least 50%.
For example, we just bought eggs (I forgot to warn Elizabeth they are sold warm on the grocery shelf), ham (happily refrigerated), cheese and milk so we can make omelets in the morning. The total was around £6.50 so I estimated it to be around $10.00. O.K. I managed that!
But earlier when we were at the Making of Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio I couldn't figure out how to pay for a coffee. By the way they do offer American filter / brewed coffee - not to be confused with an Americano - there. It's Starbucks brand, so it tasted fine with a good amount of caffeine.
At any rate, the English have coins for anything under, and including, £2.00. So to pay for my coffee I pulled out a handful of coins. My mind blew up into a million pieces. As I dug through the mound of coins in my hand I honestly felt like 15 minutes had passed, I could not figure it out!
As you can see by the sample of coins in the photo they have a 2p coin (translation, two pence = two American cents). There is also 1 cent (not pence, but an English cent, uh?). There are also 5p, 10p, and 20p coins, no 25 cents like we have here. But the copper colored 2p is, in my opinion, almost the same size as an American quarter.
The 50p is easy, it has several flat sides, 7, which makes it some kind of a "-gon". A "sept-a-gon"? Please comment on this blog if you know the name of the shape - without assistance from Google or another search engine.
At any rate, 25 minutes passed, then 30. The barista was polite and waited, and I produced the correct amount, £1.90! Success! I can do this! I am a financial genius! I hand over the coins and I smile triumphantly!
Very politely the barista informed me, "This is £1.40". I quickly apologized and dug in deep for a 50p. Crap, this is taking so long, I feel like an idiot! The rest of my brain dissolves as I act as if I have a vision deficit and turn the coins over one by one and examine them very close to my nose.
I'm looking for two 25p, just give me two 25p coins, damn it! Forget it! I find another £1.00 and hand it to the barista. I say, "Sorry, we just got here, I haven't had time to examine the money" (which is partially true, this was our third day here, I should have learned the money! Ugh!). As we walk away from the counter Elizabeth comments, "I don't think there is a 25p coin". Complete humiliation overwhelms me, I have to get this coffee into me, I.V. please!
If all of this wasn't enough...
To make me really frustrated, as I was taking the picture for this blog I realized the coin on the top right is a £1.00, but the coin on the top left is only €.20! Just .20 euros! Aggghhhh! They look the same, same size, same color, and with my new visual impairment I have no idea where the euro coin came from! I think now I was cheated out of a £1.00 and given a .20 euro coin for change instead. I'm not even going to try to figure out how much American money I lost with that transaction!
A note from Elizabeth, as I write this blog she interjects "Hey, how cool, if you arrange the British money it forms a shield", follow this link to take a look: BRITISH COINS 2008
Another problem for me...this means more designs to decipher on the coins! Not just the Queen's image or a London landmark, now a portion of a shield, like puzzle pieces. I guess that's payback for the American treasury using 51 different designs on quarters, one for each state.
Please just take my Visa, please!
London is said to be one of the most expensive cities in the world. As Elizabeth and I travel I find myself (my mathematically challenged self) raising the rate of everything we buy by at least 50%.
For example, we just bought eggs (I forgot to warn Elizabeth they are sold warm on the grocery shelf), ham (happily refrigerated), cheese and milk so we can make omelets in the morning. The total was around £6.50 so I estimated it to be around $10.00. O.K. I managed that!
But earlier when we were at the Making of Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio I couldn't figure out how to pay for a coffee. By the way they do offer American filter / brewed coffee - not to be confused with an Americano - there. It's Starbucks brand, so it tasted fine with a good amount of caffeine.
At any rate, the English have coins for anything under, and including, £2.00. So to pay for my coffee I pulled out a handful of coins. My mind blew up into a million pieces. As I dug through the mound of coins in my hand I honestly felt like 15 minutes had passed, I could not figure it out!
As you can see by the sample of coins in the photo they have a 2p coin (translation, two pence = two American cents). There is also 1 cent (not pence, but an English cent, uh?). There are also 5p, 10p, and 20p coins, no 25 cents like we have here. But the copper colored 2p is, in my opinion, almost the same size as an American quarter.
The 50p is easy, it has several flat sides, 7, which makes it some kind of a "-gon". A "sept-a-gon"? Please comment on this blog if you know the name of the shape - without assistance from Google or another search engine.
At any rate, 25 minutes passed, then 30. The barista was polite and waited, and I produced the correct amount, £1.90! Success! I can do this! I am a financial genius! I hand over the coins and I smile triumphantly!
Very politely the barista informed me, "This is £1.40". I quickly apologized and dug in deep for a 50p. Crap, this is taking so long, I feel like an idiot! The rest of my brain dissolves as I act as if I have a vision deficit and turn the coins over one by one and examine them very close to my nose.
I'm looking for two 25p, just give me two 25p coins, damn it! Forget it! I find another £1.00 and hand it to the barista. I say, "Sorry, we just got here, I haven't had time to examine the money" (which is partially true, this was our third day here, I should have learned the money! Ugh!). As we walk away from the counter Elizabeth comments, "I don't think there is a 25p coin". Complete humiliation overwhelms me, I have to get this coffee into me, I.V. please!
If all of this wasn't enough...
To make me really frustrated, as I was taking the picture for this blog I realized the coin on the top right is a £1.00, but the coin on the top left is only €.20! Just .20 euros! Aggghhhh! They look the same, same size, same color, and with my new visual impairment I have no idea where the euro coin came from! I think now I was cheated out of a £1.00 and given a .20 euro coin for change instead. I'm not even going to try to figure out how much American money I lost with that transaction!
A note from Elizabeth, as I write this blog she interjects "Hey, how cool, if you arrange the British money it forms a shield", follow this link to take a look: BRITISH COINS 2008
Another problem for me...this means more designs to decipher on the coins! Not just the Queen's image or a London landmark, now a portion of a shield, like puzzle pieces. I guess that's payback for the American treasury using 51 different designs on quarters, one for each state.
Please just take my Visa, please!
 |
| top left: 20 euros, top right: 1.00 British Sterling Pound, bottom left: 50 pence, bottom right: one cent (not .01p!!!) And I think this picture posted upside down, so you try and make sense of it! And why didn't England go with the euro instead of staying with the Sterling Pound? Simple, to gip me out of money! |
No comments:
Post a Comment