Do you speak English? Vol.2

Another word I picked up from the conversation with a British client lately:

• arvo /ˈɑːvəʊ/noun, austral informal afternoon

And while looking for the previous one I had to look the next one as well:

• austral /ˈɔːstrəl/adj: of or coming from the south: austral winds

Etymology: 14th Century: from Latin austrālis, from auster the south wind

Life by post

Everything in London circles around post and your postal address.

To register at the doctor you need to bring a proof of address - a utility bill, a bank statement or a council tax bill on paper - with your name on it and the address which you are trying to prove.

To find a school for your child, you have to move first, live there for at least a month, get first proof of address, and then go to school, at least they will talk to you. Before that a state school will not even talk let you through the door.

By default bank (I use HSBC, not sure about other banks here, but I heard they were all the same) sends you all the papers, cards and even PIN codes for the cards home by post. Statements are sent by post, you even receive separate notifications for every large transfer from and to your account - each and every one as a separate letter. You can change your settings in the Internet bank or by phone and become paperless, but it is not common.

All the utility providers, internet and phone providers, mobile operators also deliver you tons of paper into your post box unless you specifically opt-out of it.

I am using a smaller, and cheaper energy provider, which is supposed to be cool and modern. By default they send everything by post, although they have my phone number and e-mail asked during the registration. In a  week after I signed up for the service, I received a letter asking me to choose the way of payment - weekly by meter readings, monthly by meter readings, or predictive bill (where I do not provide them with a meter readings, and the company guesses how much I consume and sends me the bill with the "guessed" number. In the end of the year they actually come and check the meter readings themselves and either refund me extra money I have paid or send me another bill to pay what money they are missing. In the latter case next year predictive bills amounts increase). When I ignored the first letter, in a week the second one came, exactly the same. After 2nd letter I decided to call their customer support and the result was that they were extremely happy that I am going to read meters myself, enter them online and do not want paper bills, but am happy with e-mail. Now I have a so called "fuel discount" of 20 GBP per year just because I opted-out of paper.

The same story with internet providers - I receive a letter notifying me that soon I will receive a bill for such and such amount and this is because... - then goes a list of services which I already know since I ordered them myself and they do not change from month to month. In a week I get another letter - this time the bill itself. At some point I found a checkbox for that paper madness in my online account and I really hope I will not see paper wasting from them again.

On the other hand London Transport is striving to be electronic. In order to get your travel card by post you have to specify it separately. Ticket machines do not give paper checks unless you ask for it proactively by choosing a separate button. And this all is extremely convenient. You can top up your Oyster card or buy next week/month of travel card either online or at the ticketing machine on every Underground station. For every cash accepting ticket machine there are 2 or 3 card-only. Starting from July this year buses no longer accept cash, only travel or Oyster cards. In general, London Transport is incredible. I am totally delighted. Buses have no exact schedules, and I find it reasonable, since traffic and speed are never exactly predictable, instead there are approximate intervals depending on day of week and time of the day. Also, most of the bus stops have electronic tables showing information on coming in real time. Same as underground. I can talk about London transport for hours, and it deserves a separate post.

What else? Apply for National Insurance Number (the main number you must have as soon as you become an employed resident in the UK) by post, receive a small paper with 7 or 8 digits as a result - also by post. Loyalty cards, medical insurance card, driving licence - everything is posted.

A map of cycling routes for London - order online, posted to you in 2 days. Totally free, by the way. This is London Mayor's way of promoting car-free traveling.

Major supermarket chains offer home delivery of goods. Order online, pay online, and then either select a shop to pick your bags next day, or provide your postal code and order delivery home, starting from 1 pound per delivery.

My first experiment ordering stuff home was bumpy. I made an order on Saturday. The cheapest delivery slot, which was also very convenient for me was 9-10PM next Tuesday - just 1 pound, irrespectively of the amount of stuff I buy. So I placed an order, paid for it, and on Tuesday night was happily waiting for my toilet paper, eggs, toothpaste and a bunch of other things which I ran out of.
At 10 PM I've got an SMS that the driver is late for half an hour. But the driver didn't arrive at that day at all. I went to sleep angry as hell, with a small comforting thought that a least we can use our last roll of kitchen towel as a toilet paper and somewhere we had a "travel toothpaste" that would save us for several days. Egg breakfast however did not happen next day. I sent a furious online inquiry about my order asking two specific questions: where is it? and what compensation am I about to get for this?

Next morning, still being angry and looking for someone to blame I called their customer support. I was immediately offered a voucher as a compensation, and a new delivery time was found for me. New order was created, old one refunded, and in the end I did not even have to pay for the delivery. So, in the end it went well, but I will probably not order things from them that I need next day.   Post-factum, looking at the reviews online I discovered they are between 2 and 3 out of 5, but all the major supermarkets had a score like this, and I do not have any other in the vicinity, so I sighed, lowered my expectation on delivery reliability and planned my next order. At least their customer support was quick and polite. They probably find it cheaper to hire a bunch of people to take complaints than to plan for delivering their orders on time.

Buying online is very popular here, and it is understandable. The post is working well. It is convenient for customers - you can shop without leaving the comfort of your home, it is convenient for shops - less expenses on actual shops, it is even convenient for the city in general - people hang around less, there are less crowds in supermarkets, less chaos on the streets and in public transport. I find it very convenient. Also, most of people spend more when shopping online.

So, in general, the city is so spread and crowded that it is easier to shop online and use delivery by post or courier, than to spend time in traffic, transport and shopping malls. Instead,  while they pack and bring my order, I'll go work, read or go walk in the park.

Morning Commute vol 2

Today I made my conclusions from yesterday's experience and woke up half an hour earlier. I also went out 30-40 minutes earlier than yesterday and the result was dramatically different!

I used my advantage of boarding an empty bus and read my work emails during the 20 min ride to the station. Eventually, the bus became full, the driver even stopped opening the entrance door on some stops, waving people off to the next bus coming, but that didn't affect me since I took a seat on the upper deck and there it was all calm and chilly. You are not allowed to stand on the upper deck, so it is never crowded up there.

The tube station was half empty, I took the right train right away, it was also half empty, with seats available, and arrived comfortably to my office with total traveling door to door time today 40 minutes.

The main bonus though is that I have the annoying task of filtering through the emails done before I even reached my desk, and now I could concentrate on the important things.

P.S. This post was written on the Tube en-route from Highgate to Tottenham Court Rd.

Tube jams (aka Morning Commute vol 1)

Today I've got a new London experience: "tube jams".

I planned my commute to work to be 50 min long and I planned to read through my e-mails during this hour. I didn't succeed at either.

When I boarded a bus, which was supposed to take me to an underground station, all was fine. I live almost at the terminus of every bus line in that area, so most of the seats are empty when I enter.

So, first 15-20 mins of a bus ride I was indeed able to read. Then I disembarked, along with about 20 people and went down the funny twisted downhill road to the underground entrance.

This is where I had to stop. 

The gates leading to the escalators were just closed, there was a small crowd of people nervously looking at their phones and watches, and a polite female voice overhead informed every minute or so that the gates are closed because platforms below are overcrowded. As soon as they are less congested they will let us in.

We waited approximately for 10 mins, and I must say, noone complained. Maybe because 10 mins is nothing in London, and my planned arrival was delayed exactly by those 10 mins,i.e. otherwise transport runs smoothly. Maybe, because they are nice people. In any case, even when they opened one (just one) gate (of about 10 installed in total), people obediently passed one by one through this small "portal" onto the running escalator and down to the platform.

The trains were almost full. I am saying "almost", some other European would probably say "absolutely", but I've been to Moscow tube in rush hour. If you've been there too, you know what I mean. Here it was OK except I cannot read standing in between several people. Other people can, so I read what they read - London This Week - an article about where to go this weekend, a book, left anonymous to me, about some soldiers and armors and weapons. And so, I read until I realized I am on the wrong branch.

You see, Northern line I am using is tricky. It looks like this:

And I have to go from the rightmost branch of the upper split to the middle left branch of the lower split.

So, I had to take the right train while I was in the upper right branch. And I didn't.

Luckily, I realized my mistake before the train reached the second split. So, I pulled myself out at Camden Town (the dot on the crossroad above), went up and down the stairs and turned several times and arrived at another platform, boarded the coming train, which had less people inside and on I went. Halfway through the station I realized I am still on the wrong branch train. So much for changing platforms. Luckily (again) next station was Euston, where it is also possible to switch branches, which I did, this time correctly (I am not taking into account the fact that I first arrived at the platform heading North (back home) but looking at the 4 lonely people waiting for the train I quickly realized something was wrong there. Changing sides, and here I am - on the crowded Southbound platform again. Hoorray!) Two stops from there and I am in the center of the city, delayed only by 10 minutes in spite of changing trains 2 times.

Oh, did I mention that trains had to stop in the tunnel before every station because the previous train hadn't yet left the station. So, I must say the trains are indeed coming every 1-2 minutes in the morning.

Conclusions made: 

- 8 AM - 9 AM is definitely the rush hour

- the farther from the center I board the train, the better the chance to sit comfortably (although I consciously go to zone 3 (living in zone 4) to catch the Tube for purely economical reasons)

- boarding the right train will save me 10 more minutes

Tomorrow I am planning to start 10 mins earlier and see if it makes any difference.