I knew when I moved here I would spend a fair amount of time up front converting things mentally: miles to kilometres [1.6](why, after having converted everything else to metric, would the Brits hold on so tight to miles? baffling); GBP£ to CAD$ [1.7]; pounds to stones [14], and even dining out [about 2:1]. Oddly, groceries right now seem to be running about par. Most of my meals at present are Tesco sandwiches or John West Lunches on the Go, and they seem to be about the same price as similar products at Longos or Loblaws. I do know a point will come where I will just start thinking in the new measurements, but not quite there yet.
The one conversion I hadn’t anticipated, but which is turning out to be a constant is ETAs. When my TomTom says it will take 32 minutes to arrive somewhere, I now know to convert that by about 1.7 (much like the currency) and that I will be there in about 55 minutes. That is not entirely my fault. I think TomTom needs to be held responsible for about 30% of that: it’s an offline GPS, working from downloaded maps. And when, for example, the on-ramp to the A74 south was closed for construction and I was forced to head north to Glasgow on my way home last Thursday, I suppose we can’t really blame TomTom for that. (Altho, as I wended my way through Bothwell, Uddingston, Bellshill, and Craigneuk before ultimately getting back on track in Wishaw, it was hard not to). And the UK road systems are accountable for some degree for my extended travel time – why oh why don’t Brits label their roads? They seem to think that if you are coming from a smaller road (usually labelled) to a larger one, you instinctively will know the name of the larger street?!?! FFS.
But yes, I think it is fair to say that 60% of my driving overtime is my fault. What with mis-counting exits at round-abouts, an unwillingness to make right turns in rush hour traffic, and the fact that the skies are overcast more often than not, screwing up my sense of direction, I have spent a great deal of time on the Lanarkshire road system craning my neck to see the next turn and waiting for Kevin, the Aussie voice in my TomTom, to re-calibrate and re-instruct after each misstep on my part.
Ah well, all part of the greater adventure.