trip notes

[calimac]

Although the UK does not have Thanksgiving, weirdly it does have Black Friday. You took the wrong part of American customs, guys.

Rumblings Underground: Staying out near the end of the Piccadilly line becomes exciting when a broken signal causes a blockage just out from where it starts crossing other lines. Stumbling out onto the street in some unknown suburb called South Ealing, blessings fall in the form of a bus whose destination sign reads Ealing Broadway. A lightbulb goes on when I remember that's the name of the station at the end of the Central line. However, chaos re-emerges in town. The District line is half-closed, and the Circle line is entirely closed, facts only revealed in the form of inaudible station announcements, and more slowly in the form of trains that don't arrive.

Thing I brought with me that I turned out not to need: a voltage converter. Turns out the chargers I use for my tablets are 240-friendly. Could have used a second plug adapter, though. As for my electric toothbrush, first off it holds a charge for well over a week, which I hadn't expected; and second, there's a 115-volt outlet in the bathroom of at least two of the hotels I've stayed in, and it takes the American plugs, too. It's labeled "shaver only," but I won't tell if you won't.

Thing I didn't bring enough of but should have: the unfoldable gauze dressing I use on my skin condition, which every pharmacy chain in the US carries in various quantity boxes, is completely unknown in the UK. I have to make do with tiny little pads, which I rip off from the bandages they're mounted on and apply in large numbers. (It goes under my compression socks, which is why I don't need anything else to hold it in place.)

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Does seem strange we took Black friday with open arms.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Black Friday is a thing of very recent date here - within the last five years, I'd say. Of course, the retailers started it - and turkeys voted for it (as preferable to Thanksgiving).

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

I don't think Black Friday is that great a deal for retailers – they cut their margins a lot to get the volume. But it actually is a great deal for poor families.

Most modern electric devices have switching power supplies, that can automatically handle from 110 to 240 volts. Any device that doesn't, I would avoid taking on a trip.

Huh. Were you looking for something like this? http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Sterile-Absorbent-Gauze-BP-3m-x-90cm-_1129299/

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

No, that's not what I was looking for, though I would have taken it as a substitute if I could also have gotten some inexpensive scissors at the same time, if I had seen this on the shelves, which I did not, not even in the giant two-story Boots in central Cambridge, largest pharmacy I have ever seen.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

As far as the electric devices go, I knew the chargers were OK because the capacity is imprinted on the side. The toothbrush mount is not, and who knows where the manual is or if there ever was one.

By the way, before I noticed the fine print on the side of the chargers, I accumulated a large number of AT&T employees, both in their stores and on the phone, who did not have the slightest idea whether I could have used in the UK even the chargers they'd sold me. None whatever. Totally clueless. No customer of theirs had ever traveled abroad before.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Although the UK does not have Thanksgiving, weirdly it does have Black Friday. You took the wrong part of American customs, guys.

So utterly bitterly true! I miss Thanksgiving.