…odds and bobs…

From my notes, a few things that didn’t get into the contemporaneous blog pages…

• “Sort it”
  Get it taken care of, handle it. The US “See something, say something” becomes “See it, say it, sort it.”

• “Let”
  Rent is let. Looking for a flat? note the “For Let” or “To Let” signs…still the “Let Agreed” sign puzzled me at first.

• “Pensioners”
  After working life is done, most folks have a pension to look forward to, and though that’s similar to Social Security in the US, the word retiree isn’t used…and if a “senior” discount is offered you might be asked if you’re a pensioner (as I was).

• “Which way?”
  There are one-way streets, but no one-way signs. At the entry there’d be a “no entry” indicator.

• “Amber light”
  The sequence is: Red → Red and Amber → Green → Amber → Red.

• Ordering to-go online - it’s “Click and Collect.”

• When most transit stops at the station, the doors don’t open - gotta press that button!

“Baseball” caps were relatively rare, noted as they are so common in the US.

Seemed like there were many more men pushing prams (strollers) than I recall in the US.

Particularly in London, there were many charity-based thrift shops, primarily offering used clothing.

Flying: with hearing aids you really notice your ears popping!
Small airlines parsing every option for income: at least on EasyJet, if you lose something on the plane, you’ll have to pay to get it back from lost and found.

As I recall, in both UK and Spain, often (ok, not often…but surprisingly occasionally) a restaurant with only one toilet and there’d be no…lady ring - toilet seat. Just a bowl. And I’d see women exiting with no indication that their there’s been anything amiss. (I know it would affect some men as well, but all women…). I recall my experience in 1993 in some old French squat toilets with their porcelain hole-in-the-ground with embossed footprints.

But ladies, traveling by train? They’ll help you sort it if needed…

On another front: I was going to say it was a Spanish thing, but I think it was a Spanish bus station thing…older men, at the urinal, leaning back, and surveying the room, their free arm aswing. A cruising thing? yet somehow that didn’t seem to be it, but I have no other explanation…

…and yes, I know that I mixed idioms…”bits and bobs” and “odds and ends.”