1. Walking along trying to keep to yourself, but accidentally make eye-contact with someone, and you do the weird "acknowledgement smile", whereby you just do a half-nod and press your bottom lip into your top lip, and carry on walking. 2a. Accepting the offer of a cup of tea from someone, and you see they use PG Tips or something and you know you are just going to be disappointed. 2b. The internal rage when you observe them committing what you consider to be an offense to tea. Leaving the teabag in the cup... putting milk in whilst the teabag is still in... microwaving it... we've all got one. 2c. The biscuit that falls off, drowns in your cuppa, and you know the last half is just going to go down the sink
I live in flats on a slope and the recycle van people forget to put it back on the stabilisers. It’s not unusual to chase a giant recycle bin up the street.
I know you got your UK citizenship a while ago now, but that’s just a legal document. This video is the proof that you are now definitely a true Brit. It’s not an address or an accent, it’s the development of an innate awareness of impending and unavoidable awkwardness. Congratulations. 🇬🇧
I have the Waste Company's collection calendar on the side of the fridge which indicates which bin collected which week, the Compost bin goes out on general waste collection days, the glass bin we get a text when to put that out as only collected every 6 - 8 weeks, relying on neighbours doesn't work where I live as there are multiple companies doing the collections, depending which one signed to, often collecting different bins on the same day, each having their own colour coding for them. We don't have any Council Tax and when the Council did the collections we had an annual charge, we now pay quarterly by the weight lifted and type, I have a notice on my bins asking the collector to ensure the bin is properly emptied as don't want to pay twice for some of the contents stuck in the bottom, often the compost bin or the recycling, a large flattened cardboard box wedged on its way out, they don't always give the bin a shake when upside down. Mine have some strange not obvious colours, general waste green with red lid, compost brown, recycling purple and glass red.
My kettle broke the other week. I posted in a chat I'm part of that has international chatters. The brits were all dramatically offering sympathy and concern over how i was coping The Americans were all "What's an electric kettle"
@@frankhooper7871 That's lucky. But with my council , even if your collection day is a Wednesday, another part of the region will be Monday and then the Wednesday guys occasionally have to miss a week while the bin men catch up with the missed Mondays guys. It also doesn't help that two of the bin types are notionally alternate weeks but the glass is every three.
Douglas Adams described a perfect British nightmare A man in a busy railway waiting room buys a newspaper and packet of biscuits, and takes the last empty seat that's available, at a table opposite a well-dressed middle-aged man, qnd absentmindedly puts down his paper and biscuits He looks around for a while so as not to have to engage in conversation, then opens the biscuits, takes one out and eats it. To his surprise and horror, the man opposite takes a biscuit himself from the packet and, glaring at him, eats it This goes on in silence, each alternately taking a biscuit, glaring at each other until all the biscuits have gone, at which point the well-dressed man angrily stands up and leaves Not understanding what just happened, the man watches the other gentleman leave before recovering his senses and picking up the newspaper to leave himself, at which point, underneath the paper, he finds HIS OWN PACKET OF BISCUITS
I identify with all of these, but I think the incidental point you've made so well is that the wonderful thing about this country - the truly wonderful thing - is that these 'problems' are so absolutely and totally and utterly inconsequential.
@@Richard_Ashton excellent. I have wasted significant percentages of my life checking bin day on Newcastle upon Tyne City Council’s apparently Flintstone-era website.
Haha I'm guilty of most of these. Here's another: given that there are no laws in the UK about jaywalking and we cross the roads as and where we please, when there is a light-controlled pedestrian crossing, we tend to take the attitude of "if it's green for me, all well and good; if it's red, I'll cross anyway if it happens to be safe". However, I (and I'm sure others because I've observed their behaviour), then start to consider "should I press the button because this may hold up the traffic unnecessarily?" Or if I press it, and then there's an opportunity to cross, do I stay put and wait for the 'Green Man' to light up, or cross over, risking the traffic having to stop and there be no-one on the crossing, and I might feel the drivers' furious stares at having had to stop for no-one, as they see me walking along a few yards ahead!!!
There is a crossing in my town at which you can press the button, cross the empty road and be 100yds down the road before the car centric crossing deigns to operate.
Don't try that in Switzerland. Had a friend who tried to cross a deserted street against the light and someone grabbed his shirt and pulled him back. Another couple stopped at the roadside in Germany to consult a map. They were just in front of a turn off with a no turn sign and an old lady on a bike stopped in front of them and furiously wagged her finger at them.
I once had a woman driver wag her finger at me for not using the crossing properly. It was early in the morning with no traffic to be seen in any direction, she was parked about 50 yards down the road and didn't pull out until I had started crossing. Left me wondering how anyone could be that stupid.
I've seen a lot of the opposite, cars are stopped, light is green to cross, yet people walk up to the crossing press the button and wait, sometimes stopping anyone else behind crossing. I blame an over reliance on coffee in the morning
I honestly thought that "No Jaywalking" signs in the US meant no prostitution / kerb crawling. Seriously. It never occured to me that you could be fined for crossing the road at an undesignated area 🤣
I live in a 5 house cul-de-sac ,each house is visible at a glance, but there is one guy that knows which bin goes out on the day, when he puts out his bin as if by magic all the other bins start appearing. this is useful as I am ninety and am reminded that it is Wednesday.
When you talked about, not quite wanting to chat to your neighbours, it reminded me of "Keeping Up Appearances". Mrs' Bucket's neighbours were always trying to avoid her.
My road like that a 2 mile country lane half of it is Basildon the other end is Brentwood lol, they also changed the road name a few years back , so it changes it’s name half way down it crazy😂
Also I’m allowed to put all my rubbish in a black bag , have no plastic bins but the rest of the road has coloured bags and bins for certain days , this proved to me that the recycle stuff is total Rubbish lol
oh god, I've got a hell of a situation along these lines. I'm in a outer London borough, my bins are done by my council, directly next to me is a graveyard with a couple of houses attached, the graveyard pre-dates the growth of London and was originally set up by an inner London borough so that richer people would be buried out in what at the time was the countryside. Fast forward a couple of hundred years and the graveyard is now an island run by one council based 5 miles away surrounded by a completely different council. When we complain about their bins being forgotten their council doesn't care because we're not their residents and when they complain their council doesn't care because it's like 5 people miles out of their area.
A dehumidifier is good for drying washing. Just hang your damp washing somewhere above it and leave it to do its work. Dehumidifiers don’t use much electricity and aren’t expensive to buy. After just a few hours, you’ll find several litres of water have mysteriously been sucked out of thin air - and out of your washing.
I keep my bins so that the one furthest from the house is the one that goes out next. When it has been emptied I move them round so that the one nearest the house is the one that has just been emptied and the other one (that will be emptied the following week) is now the furthest bin from the house. It works a treat.
I used to do that with our bins. Unfortunately, there are two of us in the house - so now I go to the council website and print out the calendar for our street. Sad I know.
Wouldn't work for me, we've four bins, blue for glass and tins, brown for for garden and food waste, grey for general rubbish and green for paper and cardboard. They sit down the side of the house and as they're always in the order above it means that I don't need to be able to actually see the colour of the bins when putting stuff out in the dark. Very useful at this time of year 🙂
I’ve got my number on the bin(s) BUT I’ve also put coloured markers (loose sleeves) on the handles of the lid so they can be spotted at a reasonable distance.
My favourite example of this is the slightly old-fashioned way of being introduced to someone for the first time. "How do you do?" has the correct response "How do you do?" It is *structured* as a question, but there would be a glitch in the Matrix if someone actually provided an answer.
You have actually turned British in your heart. It's not just the annoyance, you have British anxiety. Btw the meal thing- just ask "Is anyone thinking of having a starter?" And that way if you're alone in wanting one you skip it and everyone knows you're doing it to be polite, or someone else will agree and no one will mine if multiple people want it.
The strange thing about metrification in UK is that it is a right mix. You run 5k to the park and drive home 3 miles from there. You drink wine in ml and beer in pints; soda in ml and milk in pints. You fit a 2m sofa into a 1000 square feet apartment. I am sure Calyn can come up with more. We can just go on and on It is all very confusing.
The wrong bins one is so true. Every single week. Sometimes I go out in the dark to check what bin everyone else has put out and then have to wait on a car going buy to see what colour it is.😂
Just a tip from an old man: trust me, the delivery guy doesn't overthink how long you take to open the door. (1) He (she) has thousands of deliveries to make and the faster the better as far as he's concerned. (2) drivers have designated "patches", and usually it will be the same person most times - after a few times you might even make a nodding "Hi" ..."Hi" acquaintance. And let's face it - we paid for it days ago - we want that delivery as fast as we can get it because it's like a little birthday. Facilitate the joy!
We have become like an unofficial depot for every courier driver and Royal Mail postie. There's always someone at home and the front door almost always unlocked so when I saw drivers knocking and getting no response at other houses I said to him “If you want you can leave them in our hallway - door is open and dogs are out with me. Just stick them inside and leave a note for neighbour” and then every courier driver got wise to it. Honest to God, from now until Christmas Eve, our hallway looks like the Royal Mail sorting office there's just little piles of parcels arranged ready for neighbours to pick up 😆 One driver usually gives us a bottle of wine and some dog treats at Christmas as a thank you for helping him make all his drops bless him 🥺
@@charlottewebster4233 We take deliveries because two of us work from home. It can get a bit annoying if I'm in the middle of a tricky job, but never more than one every few days, even at xmas! You are a star, I hope your neighbours appreciate you.
When you see your neighbour the correct things to say are "morning", "afternoon or "evening" depending on the time of day - the good is presumed. "Oh hi" is also ok because it's such a surprise to see them. There's no need to say anything else.
I live on the 10th floor of a block of flats. I have the horror of sharing a lift with them. I don't get off with just "Hi" and then nothing. Sharing a lift in silence would be even more horrifying.
I'm an immigrant here and even I know her reaction isn't British. The British way of running into your neighbour is saying "you alright?", not waiting for an answer and carrying on with your business. They'll do the same.
There is normally someone in the street who knows, and always gets it right, the trick is to find out who that is. The real problem happens when they go on holiday, carnage😞
My bins are side-by-side and as I put one back I change the position ,so that the one on the left is always the next one out . OK, but if I don`t have a full enough bin to put out ,that week I forget to change them. DOH! 🙄
There was something on the radio about this the other week. The person who puts their bin out first letting everyone else which bin to put out is a binfluencer.
Good video GGL!! I KNEW you were going to mention parking!! A lot of car parks (especially multi storey) were designed in the 70s when cars were much smaller! Also the person that puts outthe bins in the street is known as "the binfluencer"!!!
The local council sent bin schedules out a few months ago. My family were going to throw them out, but I made sure to stick to to our fridge. They have constantly forgotten which bin needs to go out, and refer to it regularly. They still insist they don't need it though.
Hard agree with this. My husband was heavily against sticking it to the fridge. Bins are his job because I'm disabled and I now see him check it every time, AFTER he claimed to not need it 😂.
6:07 The delivery guy. I like being at the door as the delivery person is arriving. To me i like helping them reduce the delivery transaction time, as it helps them move onto their next delivery quicker, and ultimately means they can finish their day sooner. That's the courteous British way!
I'm a Brit, and I genuinely don't care how "enthusiastic" I seem about a delivery. I have a disability, and I've had delivery drivers who have seemed to walk away after knocking on the door at a pace that I'm sure I would find challenging to beat even if I were able-bodied. As for the rest, if half of these worry you, I think you've become just a tiny bit British :-)
Totally agree. That's why I'm glad my flat overlooks our carpark. When I'm expecting a delivery, I keep looking for the delivery guy so I can hopefully get to the door before they even have chance to buzz the intercom.
@@emma-victoria933that's happened to me too. I also had a company claim they tried to make the delivery but no-one answered and can honestly tell them I've been sat in my living room which looks directly onto the carpark and absolutely nobody has tried to deliver anything all day 😂
Yup, though I remember my first house after I moved into my own place one of the neighbours who I took avoiding like the plague because she took the non-commital half-asleep greeting to launch into a full blown conversation every time I bumped into her on the way out or in so I'd be stuck being to polite to just brush her off 'cause she was a wee 70 year old lady who didn't really get any visitors so I always felt horrible when I did brush her off whether because I was in a rush or just was not in a talkative mood that day
I watch 4 in a bed one competitor offers a room for £80 a night, breakfast included, nicely decorated room with on suite, tea and coffee making facilities, decent TV, , toiletries in the bathroom. Clamping, £300 a night, breakfast extra, you have to cook it yourself, toilet/shower block you have to leave your pod to use.
Bins! We have 2, collected on alternate weeks. So bins are kept in position A and B. Position A is nearer the road. On bin day take bin at A to roadside and THEN move bin at B to position A. At end of day put the emptied bin back in the now vacant position B. Next week the correct bin is already in position A. Always get the right bin!
It is even worse when you are the only one to order a dessert and when your sticky toffee pudding arrives the others help themselves to a spoonful. "Oh that looks nice... let me try a small taste.."
As a delivery guy, I can honestly say that I'd prefer it if everyone met me at the door, rather than having to deal with broken Ring doorbells and people who take five minutes to come to to the door .
@@ethelmini But then, you might meet your next door neighbour who happens to be waiting for a delivery and be obliged to engage in polite conversation. No! Just make it look like there's nobody in, wait for the knock on the door and then open it a crack, grab the item and close the door as quickly as possible.
@@suemowat222 Apparently, delivery drivers in my area assume that knocking on the door will not make any sound at all (as well as all doorbells are broken) so just drop the packages on the doorstep and leave without any attempts to alert anyone in the house that the package has been delivered. I'm thinking of investing in a very squeaky gate to foil them...
For starters someone in our group will casually look at that starters and say something like “I’m quite tempted by the prawns, are we going for starters today?”, while secretly hoping that at least one other person will agree. The worse case is that other people agree but change their minds when asked so that you are the only one who goes for a starter. Then everyone else has to wait while you have your starter on your own, which you then absolutely hate because of the social embarrassment that you are suffering from. It’s the kind of thing that you would do to scupper a love-rival or a mortal enemy and for a sensitive person, it can ruin the whole evening/day/month/year or life. However, this is part of a much larger Britain trait in that no-one wants to be the first to do anything different in case it is a social faux par within the group and causes massive embarrassment for everyone there.
The term is 'faux pas' with a 's' (from the French 'false step') and it is definitely a faux pas to spell it 'par'. And now I have this hideous suspicion that it was an even bigger faux pas on my part to call attention to what was probably just a typo. Please forget I ever said anything...
Among my acquaintances in Sweden (and I think it may be common here) if you fancy a starter or desert you say something like "I am pondering ordering [whatever your fancy] anyone else fancy starter/desert." if no-one does you drop the issue, at least unless they all says something like "I do not but I think you should order it".
Came here to say this. I get on great with my neighbours and our doors are extremely close together, but it is quintessentially British to just say morning/afternoon and leave it at that. My neighbours don't find it rude.
So many of these are relatable! You definitely are winning 'Brit Points' here. And why is the bin problem so difficult for all of us? It's a regular pattern every 2-3 weeks depending on your local authority - but EVERYONE doubts themselves EVERY week! Actually, I can't wait to see a(n ethical) US reactor reacting to this list. How many of them are going to seem bizarre to them?
Great observations, every one. I always look for a car parking space at the end of a line so I can park on the white line and leave as much space as possible between my car and the one that is (or will be) parked next to me 😃
The saga of the bins really did make me chuckle, we often look to see which ones the neighbours have put out, but also a small Facebook group for our village has frequent posts about the bins for the week. We do have the bins schedule on a calendar in the kitchen too....
As a slight tangent to the holiday cost item, it's common for prices to be stated as 'per person per night' but sometimes with the small print of "based on two people sharing" which means solo travellers are asked to pay about a 90% supplement (they usually knock off a few £s for only one breakfast). I found this much to my chagrin in the lake district when I booked a B&B for 3 nights at £75 per person per night. The charge for me was £435 for the long weekend. 😡😠😤
I always book for the room. I only see cruises and package holidays advertised as "per person" and I know what that means ("based on two sharing"). Last week I stayed at the Coniston Inn. £400 for six nights, including breakfast (for one), plus a free pint on five nights for not having my room cleaned the next day! Lovely place.
My favourite part of the dark arts of putting out the bins is when Christmas strikes and everyone thinks if you have put your bins out at some random time the neighbours think that the binmen must be coming on a different day of course! as it's Christmas! And they all follow suit.
My wife is one of the most chaotic people I've ever known, BUT - she knows which bin(s) to put out and when because she marks it on the calendar, exactly _because_ it's confusing.
Me and the missus always audibly ask each other if we are having a starter and one or other will say "no, I may have a pudding after the main though". This usually coerces the rest of the party to decline starters thus saving a fair bit of dosh off the bill. We are sometimes full enough after the main to decline puddings as well.
Another British problem: that awkward little dance we do when we're approaching a doorway and encounter someone coming through from the other side..."Oh" (nervous laugh), "Go ahead" (stands aside), "No, you first" (also stands aside), "Oh thank you", "No problem" (one manoeuvres around the other, still not entirely sure whether it's ok to go first). We Brits are sometimes too polite to function!
Despite being a Brit born and bred, there are times (when the 'dance' has gone on a little while) that I end up looking them in the eye, spread my arms out and ask "may I have this dance"
I have a problem asking Alexa to do things without saying please and thank you. One of these days she's gonna reply "You're welcome" and scare me shitless
@@charlottewebster4233 You're not alone in that - I find myself thanking inanimate objects too. Once took it a step further by apologising to the lamp post I'd just bumped into...
I like to combine the bin confusion with leaving the house at the same time as my neighbour which ends up with us both in our pj's saying an awkward good morning
Christmas is what you make it. I like to fill an empty chocolates tin with my favourite chocolate and forget about it until 'the big day'. I also don't bother with decorations because I live with a cat who has an addiction to tinsel, and her litter tray tends to look more festive than the rest of this place - yes, I have threatened to put lights on her litter tray should I forget the reason to not put tinsel up. I like to do something different every year - it's variety that makes it memorable. however, in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, my druggie neighbour addressed the whole 'do something different' thing by having the place swarming with police and all that because someone died in his property. It's actually worse than it sounds and would make an excellent comedy sketch at some point in the future. this year, I'm cooking for my other neighbours - and we're hoping the drama is elsewhere, not here!
Hi Kalyn, put a bin collection into google calendar (or whatever you use), say trash on a Thursday, set a repeat to 14 days and a notify for a day before. Do the same for the other bin (recycle) a week later (I'm assuming each bin is fortnightly). You can make a separate calendar for this stuff, so you can turn visibility on/off easily. Oh, and set the color to the same as each bin. Little life hacks so you don't have to copy your neighbors. You can do this for other things, payments / renewals, maintenance tasks etc.
The chocolate tins thing - find somewhere that does pick&mix and get the selection you want to fill the empty tin from last year. And if that's 100% chocolate minis that's entirely up to you 😁
I’ve done that for ages. Just buy what you like and use an old tub jar or tin. I do the same in the car and use a large ziplock bag (yes we do have them in the UK)
I know you said a while back you didn't want other TH-cam reactors "pinching" your videos Catlyn (and entirely I agree with you) but honestly - you should consider making this video available to ANYBODY who wants to get a true insight into the reality of the British mindset. Well Done!!
@@wilmaknickersfit Here in the South West, we use the universal greeting of "Oll Roi?" (all right?), nod and get on with the day. Note that despite being a question, Oll Roi does not demand an answer, except maybe a confirmatory Oll Roi from the other party.
its worse when you come home from work have been in traffic for 2 hours all you want to do is be grumpy in front of the TV/Computer and you neighbour is siting or doing something in the front garden and you want to just ignore them but you can't.
I find that if you don't rush to the door when you see the delivery van pulling up, they just drive away and say "Parcel could not be delivered" and don't even bother to ring the doorbell.
Back in the day, when I was a nipper, Zeppelins over London and so on, there used to be a chocolate war weapon in the tin. I think it was called Hazelnut Cracknell. Nearest I can get to it is chocolate-coated fibreglass. So when you open the tin on Boxing Day and that's all that's left, put the lid on again and back away slowly.
I have two alarms set on my phone. One says “put grey bin out” the other says “put recycling out” and they’re set to repeat every two weeks on the appropriate days. I also have events set on my phone calendar saying the same things. But when I go carry my recycling boxes out and the only other thing I see is a grey bin I still have an Existential crisis
When I lived in Switzerland, we got a booklet detailing when and what could go out. Even cardboard and old batteries had their specific days. All coloured coded charts with the times, the days of the week _and the month_ when stuff should be put out. And don't get it wrong or else you'd be made aware very quickly!
I now adopt a fingers-round-the-edge-of-the-door hold in supermarket car parks, to cushion any potential collisions while squeezing out. It’s ridiculous..😊
I have been in the UK for 2 months. The bin issue is so real. My counsel gave me a paper that marks which bin goes out on which date. It was supposed to be labeled in color to signify each bins' date. However, they gave me black and white copy with different shades of grey and I can't tell the difference. So I just rely on my neighbor.
Parking spaces haven’t changed size in the UK since they started however cars have all got bigger. The Ford Anglia from the 60s was a very popular small family car and was 3.9m long X 1.5m wide. The current Ford Focus small family car is 4.4m long X 1.8m wide. Which means parking spaces at 2.5m X 5m are starting to feel a little tight. There is another standard that exists that is for larger cars and that is 2.8mX5.2m but no one ever uses that when setting out parking spaces. (FYI- I’m an Architectural Technologist and have been drawing parking spaces for about thirty years). The only place where you can find bigger spaces in the car parks at Costco supermarkets as they expect most of their customers to use vans!
Ive been driving for aeons, never once have I come across a parking space that was 5m+ in length, thats between17/18ft for any americans reading this, I drive a hatchback, it fills every inch of that space
The parking one applies to the whole of Europe. It never ceases to amaze me how often when I'm wanting to drive in or out of the parking space one of the drivers of the cars either side of me comes and holds their door open for ages. I don't dare move in case I hit them or their door. If I'm the one reaching my car in such circumstances I get in the car as quickly as possible to not inconvenience others.
I've known my neighbour for 16 years. I feed her cat when she's away and taught her daughter to drive. When we open our front doors at the same time she shuts hers again until I've got into my car or walked down the street a little!
Yep, I have bin days on the fridge - still look at what others put out 🤣 Except yesterday. People up the road put their brown bins out - it was black bin day... hehe.
I love this list! The delivery one is spot on for me. I have frosted glass in my front door so I have to hide around the corner in my own home for an appropriate amount of time so that the delivery driver doesn't know that I watched them approaching
The problem is that Quality Street is a popular gift. You don't buy it, you get given it. I suspect most people who buy it don't buy it for themselves.
I have signed up with my local council and they email you each week to tell you which bin(s) to put out. you are correct in that parking spaces need to be made bigger as cars have got bigger.
My council, Bury, posts a leaflet through your door with the bin details. But yeah, frequently I just look out the window to see what bins the neighbours have put out.
Congratulations! You've passed your Citizenship test! I can relate to your problem with your neighbours. I am very introverted in person; when I take my dog out for a long walk, it's amazing how many other people are doing the same thing, in the same place, but want to stop and have a chatter or gossip - ignoring what their dogs do. I like being quiet and alone taking my dog for a walk & I don't see him as an opportunity for gossip.
I'm going to give you a secret weapon in the war against sociability: Headphones. Only the most dedicated people will attempt to approach you then. Also double up as handy ear warmers in the winter!
My dad would sometimes deliberately put the wrong bin out on the wrong day. Then, when his neighbours had copied him, he'd retrieve his bin, so that everyone in the street was wring except him.
You covered these very well, I've been in every situation you listed except the last one. I did stop caring about the delivery guy thing in the end though.
An intermediate step is to feign just happening to appear at the door (perhaps with a single item to put in your bin, checking which one(s) the neighbours have put out or taking a quizzical look at the sky for any imminent change in the weather). Saying "Oh, that's good timing" not only averts suspicion/embarrassment but also serves as a precedent for future use of "Oh, I thought I heard you" so long as a veneer of affected pleasant-surprise is always properly maintained. This can also help establish a local reputation as a 'door popper-outer' as cover for going back in when a neighbour-emergence crisis occurs. Combine that with the quick pocket/bag door-step check manoeuvrer and you'll always have an unimpeachable excuse to retreat inside, even if that means letting yourself back in and listening for when the coast is clear.
When you hear someone cut the lawn/trim the hedge and get that horrible feeling that now *you* have to cut *your* grass, otherwise you'll be the last one to do it.
When I return to the UK from continental Europe where I now live, the one that gets me every time is the standing with the crowd on the train station concourse waiting for the moment three minutes before the train is due to depart when they actually might tell you from which of the twenty-two platforms it's going to be leaving from, and then joining the stampede to try and get there.
My dad is that one obsessive that knows about bins, his street follows him. The way to deal with the starter and dessert thing is "I will if you're having one" which indicates that the person has"social permission" to order. A period of "are you sure, I really shouldn't, I don't want to push you" follows after which everyone gets the dessert they wanted.
Because I am always the first mover putting the bins out in my street, I sometimes for mischief, deliberately put out the wrong bin, which causes some fun. I get texts about it from my neighbours, but that is part of the entertainment as it gives the busybodies something to worry about.....🙃
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what's a funny British problem that you encounter in your own day-to-day life?
Crushing self-loathing.
Queuing for the bus!! All the Gen Z kids don't have a concept of queuing!!! So do I push in front? Or do I wait???
1. Walking along trying to keep to yourself, but accidentally make eye-contact with someone, and you do the weird "acknowledgement smile", whereby you just do a half-nod and press your bottom lip into your top lip, and carry on walking.
2a. Accepting the offer of a cup of tea from someone, and you see they use PG Tips or something and you know you are just going to be disappointed.
2b. The internal rage when you observe them committing what you consider to be an offense to tea. Leaving the teabag in the cup... putting milk in whilst the teabag is still in... microwaving it... we've all got one.
2c. The biscuit that falls off, drowns in your cuppa, and you know the last half is just going to go down the sink
@TheOnlyGazzLam 100% on the dunking issue.....
I live in flats on a slope and the recycle van people forget to put it back on the stabilisers. It’s not unusual to chase a giant recycle bin up the street.
I know you got your UK citizenship a while ago now, but that’s just a legal document. This video is the proof that you are now definitely a true Brit. It’s not an address or an accent, it’s the development of an innate awareness of impending and unavoidable awkwardness. Congratulations. 🇬🇧
❤
Came here to say pretty much the same thing, but you did a much better job than I could!
Still I wish she would say queue instead of line.
Rubbish
Took the words from my mouth 😂
The term for the first person on a street to put their bin out is 'binfluencer'.
That's brilliant! 😂
You need a Bindicator to tell you which one to put out...
I have the Waste Company's collection calendar on the side of the fridge which indicates which bin collected which week, the Compost bin goes out on general waste collection days, the glass bin we get a text when to put that out as only collected every 6 - 8 weeks, relying on neighbours doesn't work where I live as there are multiple companies doing the collections, depending which one signed to, often collecting different bins on the same day, each having their own colour coding for them. We don't have any Council Tax and when the Council did the collections we had an annual charge, we now pay quarterly by the weight lifted and type, I have a notice on my bins asking the collector to ensure the bin is properly emptied as don't want to pay twice for some of the contents stuck in the bottom, often the compost bin or the recycling, a large flattened cardboard box wedged on its way out, they don't always give the bin a shake when upside down. Mine have some strange not obvious colours, general waste green with red lid, compost brown, recycling purple and glass red.
@@AnyoneForToast it’s called the internet 😂😂
Hilarious, well done 😂
My kettle broke the other week.
I posted in a chat I'm part of that has international chatters. The brits were all dramatically offering sympathy and concern over how i was coping
The Americans were all "What's an electric kettle"
I have a back up kettle. I am not joking.
🤣
@@ziggurat-builder8755exactly.
We know what it will be like if we have to wait to get another kettle.
@@ziggurat-builder8755 Everyone keeps their old kettle whenever they get a new one. Just in case...
Thoughts and prayers 🙏 😌
The thing is that you get used to the cycle of bins for a while and then there is a bank holiday and it all goes to pot
That or the new year rolls around and a new schedule is made or they add a new bin type to the rota and it throws everyone off for weeks
Where I am, Bank holidays don't affect; our bin collection days are Tuesday to Friday.
@@frankhooper7871 That's lucky. But with my council , even if your collection day is a Wednesday, another part of the region will be Monday and then the Wednesday guys occasionally have to miss a week while the bin men catch up with the missed Mondays guys. It also doesn't help that two of the bin types are notionally alternate weeks but the glass is every three.
Weirdly mine only changes date is for Christmas Day/Boxing Day.
@@fayesouthall6604 same here our collection day is Tuesday
Douglas Adams described a perfect British nightmare
A man in a busy railway waiting room buys a newspaper and packet of biscuits, and takes the last empty seat that's available, at a table opposite a well-dressed middle-aged man, qnd absentmindedly puts down his paper and biscuits
He looks around for a while so as not to have to engage in conversation, then opens the biscuits, takes one out and eats it. To his surprise and horror, the man opposite takes a biscuit himself from the packet and, glaring at him, eats it
This goes on in silence, each alternately taking a biscuit, glaring at each other until all the biscuits have gone, at which point the well-dressed man angrily stands up and leaves
Not understanding what just happened, the man watches the other gentleman leave before recovering his senses and picking up the newspaper to leave himself, at which point, underneath the paper, he finds HIS OWN PACKET OF BISCUITS
And the other man has the same story without the ending.
@PMA65537 Thank you 😊 🙏 I'd forgotten that bit and it's actually the punchline 🤣
Hope they were Chocolate digestives?
Arthur Dent's embarrassment.
I identify with all of these, but I think the incidental point you've made so well is that the wonderful thing about this country - the truly wonderful thing - is that these 'problems' are so absolutely and totally and utterly inconsequential.
Wonderful comment how true even today. We just are not grateful enough for what we do have.
I was listening to her and thinking to myself "these are really silly problems that you're having"...
My council has an app for bins. It sends me a notification at 7pm the day before. Perfect.
@@Richard_Ashton excellent. I have wasted significant percentages of my life checking bin day on Newcastle upon Tyne City Council’s apparently Flintstone-era website.
@@jeffreyjoshuarollin9554 Tameside FTW!
Mine used to and now doesn't. My quality of life has fallen off a cliff now I have to check a website for a few seconds to figure it out.
All very accurate and true for all of us. You are now 100% British! Congratulations!
The British invent the phrase 'All Right' for those moments when you meet an acquaintance on the street.
Haha I'm guilty of most of these.
Here's another: given that there are no laws in the UK about jaywalking and we cross the roads as and where we please, when there is a light-controlled pedestrian crossing, we tend to take the attitude of "if it's green for me, all well and good; if it's red, I'll cross anyway if it happens to be safe". However, I (and I'm sure others because I've observed their behaviour), then start to consider "should I press the button because this may hold up the traffic unnecessarily?" Or if I press it, and then there's an opportunity to cross, do I stay put and wait for the 'Green Man' to light up, or cross over, risking the traffic having to stop and there be no-one on the crossing, and I might feel the drivers' furious stares at having had to stop for no-one, as they see me walking along a few yards ahead!!!
There is a crossing in my town at which you can press the button, cross the empty road and be 100yds down the road before the car centric crossing deigns to operate.
Don't try that in Switzerland. Had a friend who tried to cross a deserted street against the light and someone grabbed his shirt and pulled him back. Another couple stopped at the roadside in Germany to consult a map. They were just in front of a turn off with a no turn sign and an old lady on a bike stopped in front of them and furiously wagged her finger at them.
I once had a woman driver wag her finger at me for not using the crossing properly. It was early in the morning with no traffic to be seen in any direction, she was parked about 50 yards down the road and didn't pull out until I had started crossing.
Left me wondering how anyone could be that stupid.
I've seen a lot of the opposite, cars are stopped, light is green to cross, yet people walk up to the crossing press the button and wait, sometimes stopping anyone else behind crossing. I blame an over reliance on coffee in the morning
I honestly thought that "No Jaywalking" signs in the US meant no prostitution / kerb crawling. Seriously. It never occured to me that you could be fined for crossing the road at an undesignated area 🤣
I live in a 5 house cul-de-sac ,each house is visible at a glance, but there is one guy that knows which bin goes out on the day, when he puts out his bin as if by magic all the other bins start appearing. this is useful as I am ninety and am reminded that it is Wednesday.
Haha great neighbor
When you talked about, not quite wanting to chat to your neighbours, it reminded me of "Keeping Up Appearances". Mrs' Bucket's neighbours were always trying to avoid her.
Who else had to mentally correct themself on pronouncing her name in their head?
@@MrGBHI heard “Bouquet residence…” in my head…
It’s Bouquet!
Try living on a street where two different councils have a boundary, and two different schedules of bin days. That can lead to utter confusion.
The access lane where my bin is collected is on one schedule. The street at the front is on a different one. 😊
My road like that a 2 mile country lane half of it is Basildon the other end is Brentwood lol, they also changed the road name a few years back , so it changes it’s name half way down it crazy😂
Also I’m allowed to put all my rubbish in a black bag , have no plastic bins but the rest of the road has coloured bags and bins for certain days , this proved to me that the recycle stuff is total Rubbish lol
I have seen the same nightmare problem in Sutton/Kingston in London. One side of the street is in Kingston, the other in Sutton.
oh god, I've got a hell of a situation along these lines. I'm in a outer London borough, my bins are done by my council, directly next to me is a graveyard with a couple of houses attached, the graveyard pre-dates the growth of London and was originally set up by an inner London borough so that richer people would be buried out in what at the time was the countryside.
Fast forward a couple of hundred years and the graveyard is now an island run by one council based 5 miles away surrounded by a completely different council. When we complain about their bins being forgotten their council doesn't care because we're not their residents and when they complain their council doesn't care because it's like 5 people miles out of their area.
A dehumidifier is good for drying washing. Just hang your damp washing somewhere above it and leave it to do its work. Dehumidifiers don’t use much electricity and aren’t expensive to buy. After just a few hours, you’ll find several litres of water have mysteriously been sucked out of thin air - and out of your washing.
I keep my bins so that the one furthest from the house is the one that goes out next. When it has been emptied I move them round so that the one nearest the house is the one that has just been emptied and the other one (that will be emptied the following week) is now the furthest bin from the house. It works a treat.
I used to do that with our bins. Unfortunately, there are two of us in the house - so now I go to the council website and print out the calendar for our street. Sad I know.
What you've got there is a bin queue
Wow, that is organised, yet so simple. I expect you're the one all the neighbours watch.
You should be Prime Minister! 😮😂
Wouldn't work for me, we've four bins, blue for glass and tins, brown for for garden and food waste, grey for general rubbish and green for paper and cardboard. They sit down the side of the house and as they're always in the order above it means that I don't need to be able to actually see the colour of the bins when putting stuff out in the dark. Very useful at this time of year 🙂
Or when your bins get mixed up with the neighbours on the other side of the road and you spend half a day looking for it
I’ve got my number on the bin(s) BUT I’ve also put coloured markers (loose sleeves) on the handles of the lid so they can be spotted at a reasonable distance.
Or when it goes missing completely and you never see it again. 😊
When someone's TH-cam icon looks like a hair on my laptop screen and I spend a few seconds puzzled why I can't wipe it off. 😉
i sprayed mine with the house number
@@carltaylor6452 yeah. that!
British etiquette requires an acknowledgment & nothing more. It is tacitly understood that neither person wants a conversation!
“Morning”
“Mornin’”
Is possibly more than is actually required.
Fences make good neighbours..
@@williamcat3159 especially if you’re a burglar. 😉
I lived at my flat in Tooting for nine years and had just got to the point of exchanging nods with my neighbour.
My favourite example of this is the slightly old-fashioned way of being introduced to someone for the first time.
"How do you do?" has the correct response "How do you do?" It is *structured* as a question, but there would be a glitch in the Matrix if someone actually provided an answer.
You have actually turned British in your heart. It's not just the annoyance, you have British anxiety.
Btw the meal thing- just ask "Is anyone thinking of having a starter?" And that way if you're alone in wanting one you skip it and everyone knows you're doing it to be polite, or someone else will agree and no one will mine if multiple people want it.
Same, except I would be more positive about it : "Are we having starters?"
The strange thing about metrification in UK is that it is a right mix. You run 5k to the park and drive home 3 miles from there. You drink wine in ml and beer in pints; soda in ml and milk in pints. You fit a 2m sofa into a 1000 square feet apartment. I am sure Calyn can come up with more. We can just go on and on It is all very confusing.
Buy fuel by litre, then working out miles per gallon
The wrong bins one is so true. Every single week. Sometimes I go out in the dark to check what bin everyone else has put out and then have to wait on a car going buy to see what colour it is.😂
Just a tip from an old man: trust me, the delivery guy doesn't overthink how long you take to open the door. (1) He (she) has thousands of deliveries to make and the faster the better as far as he's concerned. (2) drivers have designated "patches", and usually it will be the same person most times - after a few times you might even make a nodding "Hi" ..."Hi" acquaintance.
And let's face it - we paid for it days ago - we want that delivery as fast as we can get it because it's like a little birthday. Facilitate the joy!
We have become like an unofficial depot for every courier driver and Royal Mail postie. There's always someone at home and the front door almost always unlocked so when I saw drivers knocking and getting no response at other houses I said to him “If you want you can leave them in our hallway - door is open and dogs are out with me. Just stick them inside and leave a note for neighbour” and then every courier driver got wise to it. Honest to God, from now until Christmas Eve, our hallway looks like the Royal Mail sorting office there's just little piles of parcels arranged ready for neighbours to pick up 😆 One driver usually gives us a bottle of wine and some dog treats at Christmas as a thank you for helping him make all his drops bless him 🥺
@@charlottewebster4233 That really is heartwarming - restores faith in humanity. Good on you!
@@charlottewebster4233 We take deliveries because two of us work from home. It can get a bit annoying if I'm in the middle of a tricky job, but never more than one every few days, even at xmas! You are a star, I hope your neighbours appreciate you.
In our village FB group, there's a wonderful lady who always posts a reminder of which bins to put out, the night before bin day. A true local hero!
When you see your neighbour the correct things to say are "morning", "afternoon or "evening" depending on the time of day - the good is presumed. "Oh hi" is also ok because it's such a surprise to see them. There's no need to say anything else.
Oh and that lovely awkwardness of accidentally saying the wrong time of day, and it plaguing you for the rest of the day
You learn to avoid going out at exactly 12:00
I live on the 10th floor of a block of flats. I have the horror of sharing a lift with them. I don't get off with just "Hi" and then nothing. Sharing a lift in silence would be even more horrifying.
I'm an immigrant here and even I know her reaction isn't British. The British way of running into your neighbour is saying "you alright?", not waiting for an answer and carrying on with your business. They'll do the same.
A common London greeting exchange when you're passing in the street is 'Alright?' 'Alright?' That's it.
The bin thing is absolutely spot on, lost track how many times I have done this 😂😂
There is normally someone in the street who knows, and always gets it right, the trick is to find out who that is.
The real problem happens when they go on holiday, carnage😞
My bins are side-by-side and as I put one back I change the position ,so that the one on the left is always the next one out .
OK, but if I don`t have a full enough bin to put out ,that week I forget to change them.
DOH! 🙄
There was something on the radio about this the other week. The person who puts their bin out first letting everyone else which bin to put out is a binfluencer.
I think the word used to describe someone putting the bins out first is "binfluencer"... quite funny
Kalyn....I've just redecorated my laptop with my tea thanks to watching this video!! 😲🤣
Good video GGL!! I KNEW you were going to mention parking!! A lot of car parks (especially multi storey) were designed in the 70s when cars were much smaller! Also the person that puts outthe bins in the street is known as "the binfluencer"!!!
The local council sent bin schedules out a few months ago. My family were going to throw them out, but I made sure to stick to to our fridge.
They have constantly forgotten which bin needs to go out, and refer to it regularly. They still insist they don't need it though.
Hard agree with this. My husband was heavily against sticking it to the fridge. Bins are his job because I'm disabled and I now see him check it every time, AFTER he claimed to not need it 😂.
It's sellotaped to the inside of one of the kitchen cupboard doors here.
My council , Conwy ,now don’t send them out this month for the year . Have to download it or see if any in the local library 🤷♀️
6:07 The delivery guy. I like being at the door as the delivery person is arriving. To me i like helping them reduce the delivery transaction time, as it helps them move onto their next delivery quicker, and ultimately means they can finish their day sooner. That's the courteous British way!
Have to admit that if I spot them arriving I do too. For me, it tends to come from a belief that if I don't, I'm inconveniencing them...
If I don't rush to the door, most delivery people fail to use the doorbell and simply drive off.
We keep a calendar in the kitchen to keep up with collection days, appointments, birthdays, etc.
The amount of times I've waited behind my garden gate because I've heard the neighbours leaving
Zero.
The delivery man one got me omg 🤣. It's even WORSE if they are delivering food - God forbid the guy thinks you're greedy waiting at the door 🫠
I'm a Brit, and I genuinely don't care how "enthusiastic" I seem about a delivery. I have a disability, and I've had delivery drivers who have seemed to walk away after knocking on the door at a pace that I'm sure I would find challenging to beat even if I were able-bodied.
As for the rest, if half of these worry you, I think you've become just a tiny bit British :-)
Yep I've had them say they rang the bell and I've sat there watched them pop a note in the door and run off..
Totally agree. That's why I'm glad my flat overlooks our carpark. When I'm expecting a delivery, I keep looking for the delivery guy so I can hopefully get to the door before they even have chance to buzz the intercom.
@@emma-victoria933that's happened to me too. I also had a company claim they tried to make the delivery but no-one answered and can honestly tell them I've been sat in my living room which looks directly onto the carpark and absolutely nobody has tried to deliver anything all day 😂
Finally she's one of us.
You just say " morning " and move on.
This. No Brit wants a conversation first thing in the morning. Smile, nod and hurry to your car like you're running late.
Don’t forget mumbling about the weather.
Yup, though I remember my first house after I moved into my own place one of the neighbours who I took avoiding like the plague because she took the non-commital half-asleep greeting to launch into a full blown conversation every time I bumped into her on the way out or in so I'd be stuck being to polite to just brush her off 'cause she was a wee 70 year old lady who didn't really get any visitors so I always felt horrible when I did brush her off whether because I was in a rush or just was not in a talkative mood that day
And if they have the temerity to try to instigate a conversation, you reply while still walking away/getting into the car.
I watch 4 in a bed one competitor offers a room for £80 a night, breakfast included, nicely decorated room with on suite, tea and coffee making facilities, decent TV, , toiletries in the bathroom.
Clamping, £300 a night, breakfast extra, you have to cook it yourself, toilet/shower block you have to leave your pod to use.
Bins! We have 2, collected on alternate weeks. So bins are kept in position A and B. Position A is nearer the road. On bin day take bin at A to roadside and THEN move bin at B to position A. At end of day put the emptied bin back in the now vacant position B. Next week the correct bin is already in position A. Always get the right bin!
In John Lewis stores you can currently choose the Quality Street sweets you like and reject the ones you don't
The real problem there is buying an empty box,😞 sorry, 😁
They are soooooo expensive though!
It is even worse when you are the only one to order a dessert and when your sticky toffee pudding arrives the others help themselves to a spoonful. "Oh that looks nice... let me try a small taste.."
Don't think so, hands off, haha!
Try it, if you do not value your fingers.
"can we *share* a pudding?" stuff of nightmares
In the morning, just say: "mornin!!" and carry on...
As a delivery guy, I can honestly say that I'd prefer it if everyone met me at the door, rather than having to deal with broken Ring doorbells and people who take five minutes to come to to the door .
The delivery men where I live cope with this by assuming that no bells will work and just knocking on the door.
Easy solution, put your coat on & pretend you were going out.
@@ethelmini But then, you might meet your next door neighbour who happens to be waiting for a delivery and be obliged to engage in polite conversation. No! Just make it look like there's nobody in, wait for the knock on the door and then open it a crack, grab the item and close the door as quickly as possible.
I’ve stopped pressing the ring doorbell , they can get up off there arse or go collect the package at depot😂
@@suemowat222 Apparently, delivery drivers in my area assume that knocking on the door will not make any sound at all (as well as all doorbells are broken) so just drop the packages on the doorstep and leave without any attempts to alert anyone in the house that the package has been delivered. I'm thinking of investing in a very squeaky gate to foil them...
Same in Australia.. $3000 dollars for a weekend in yet another desert/beach/rain forest.
$500 for 2 weeks in SE Asia.
For starters someone in our group will casually look at that starters and say something like “I’m quite tempted by the prawns, are we going for starters today?”, while secretly hoping that at least one other person will agree. The worse case is that other people agree but change their minds when asked so that you are the only one who goes for a starter. Then everyone else has to wait while you have your starter on your own, which you then absolutely hate because of the social embarrassment that you are suffering from. It’s the kind of thing that you would do to scupper a love-rival or a mortal enemy and for a sensitive person, it can ruin the whole evening/day/month/year or life.
However, this is part of a much larger Britain trait in that no-one wants to be the first to do anything different in case it is a social faux par within the group and causes massive embarrassment for everyone there.
The term is 'faux pas' with a 's' (from the French 'false step') and it is definitely a faux pas to spell it 'par'.
And now I have this hideous suspicion that it was an even bigger faux pas on my part to call attention to what was probably just a typo. Please forget I ever said anything...
Among my acquaintances in Sweden (and I think it may be common here) if you fancy a starter or desert you say something like "I am pondering ordering [whatever your fancy] anyone else fancy starter/desert." if no-one does you drop the issue, at least unless they all says something like "I do not but I think you should order it".
@@cr10001oops. Thank you for letting me know. I’d go back and edit my original comment, but it would make your comment seem wierd.
@@eloquentlyemma how very British! (but nice obviously).
I've already decided what I'm having if I'm paying for it and I couldn't careless about anyone else. its awkward if someone else is paying though.
Love the hand puppet show in the glass of the picture behind you 😂😂😂😂
Distracting...
I couldn't keep my eyes off it. So much so I've no idea what the video was about.
It reminded me of a dinosaur waving its neck about
2:52 that’s the best thing about living close to your neighbours. A quick “Morning!” is all that you need.
Slamming the door after pretending to get fresh air is hilarious 🤣
Came here to say this. I get on great with my neighbours and our doors are extremely close together, but it is quintessentially British to just say morning/afternoon and leave it at that. My neighbours don't find it rude.
So many of these are relatable! You definitely are winning 'Brit Points' here.
And why is the bin problem so difficult for all of us? It's a regular pattern every 2-3 weeks depending on your local authority - but EVERYONE doubts themselves EVERY week!
Actually, I can't wait to see a(n ethical) US reactor reacting to this list. How many of them are going to seem bizarre to them?
There is the same separation in US - garbage, recyclable glass and tins and newspapers
Great observations, every one. I always look for a car parking space at the end of a line so I can park on the white line and leave as much space as possible between my car and the one that is (or will be) parked next to me 😃
The saga of the bins really did make me chuckle, we often look to see which ones the neighbours have put out, but also a small Facebook group for our village has frequent posts about the bins for the week. We do have the bins schedule on a calendar in the kitchen too....
The "bumping into your neighbour"...Micky Flanagan does a whole skit on this!!😅😅😅😅😅😅
As a slight tangent to the holiday cost item, it's common for prices to be stated as 'per person per night' but sometimes with the small print of "based on two people sharing" which means solo travellers are asked to pay about a 90% supplement (they usually knock off a few £s for only one breakfast). I found this much to my chagrin in the lake district when I booked a B&B for 3 nights at £75 per person per night. The charge for me was £435 for the long weekend. 😡😠😤
I always book for the room. I only see cruises and package holidays advertised as "per person" and I know what that means ("based on two sharing"). Last week I stayed at the Coniston Inn. £400 for six nights, including breakfast (for one), plus a free pint on five nights for not having my room cleaned the next day! Lovely place.
My favourite part of the dark arts of putting out the bins is when Christmas strikes and everyone thinks if you have put your bins out at some random time the neighbours think that the binmen must be coming on a different day of course! as it's Christmas! And they all follow suit.
My wife is one of the most chaotic people I've ever known, BUT - she knows which bin(s) to put out and when because she marks it on the calendar, exactly _because_ it's confusing.
Me and the missus always audibly ask each other if we are having a starter and one or other will say "no, I may have a pudding after the main though". This usually coerces the rest of the party to decline starters thus saving a fair bit of dosh off the bill. We are sometimes full enough after the main to decline puddings as well.
Another British problem: that awkward little dance we do when we're approaching a doorway and encounter someone coming through from the other side..."Oh" (nervous laugh), "Go ahead" (stands aside), "No, you first" (also stands aside), "Oh thank you", "No problem" (one manoeuvres around the other, still not entirely sure whether it's ok to go first). We Brits are sometimes too polite to function!
Despite being a Brit born and bred, there are times (when the 'dance' has gone on a little while) that I end up looking them in the eye, spread my arms out and ask "may I have this dance"
I have a problem asking Alexa to do things without saying please and thank you. One of these days she's gonna reply "You're welcome" and scare me shitless
@@charlottewebster4233 You're not alone in that - I find myself thanking inanimate objects too. Once took it a step further by apologising to the lamp post I'd just bumped into...
@@judithmitchell9065 I've said thank you to the cash machine before now when it's given me money 🤣
@@charlottewebster4233 Perfectly understandable 🤣
I like to combine the bin confusion with leaving the house at the same time as my neighbour which ends up with us both in our pj's saying an awkward good morning
Christmas is what you make it. I like to fill an empty chocolates tin with my favourite chocolate and forget about it until 'the big day'. I also don't bother with decorations because I live with a cat who has an addiction to tinsel, and her litter tray tends to look more festive than the rest of this place - yes, I have threatened to put lights on her litter tray should I forget the reason to not put tinsel up.
I like to do something different every year - it's variety that makes it memorable. however, in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, my druggie neighbour addressed the whole 'do something different' thing by having the place swarming with police and all that because someone died in his property. It's actually worse than it sounds and would make an excellent comedy sketch at some point in the future. this year, I'm cooking for my other neighbours - and we're hoping the drama is elsewhere, not here!
Hi Kalyn, put a bin collection into google calendar (or whatever you use), say trash on a Thursday, set a repeat to 14 days and a notify for a day before. Do the same for the other bin (recycle) a week later (I'm assuming each bin is fortnightly).
You can make a separate calendar for this stuff, so you can turn visibility on/off easily.
Oh, and set the color to the same as each bin.
Little life hacks so you don't have to copy your neighbors.
You can do this for other things, payments / renewals, maintenance tasks etc.
The chocolate tins thing - find somewhere that does pick&mix and get the selection you want to fill the empty tin from last year. And if that's 100% chocolate minis that's entirely up to you 😁
Great idea
I’ve done that for ages. Just buy what you like and use an old tub jar or tin. I do the same in the car and use a large ziplock bag (yes we do have them in the UK)
I know you said a while back you didn't want other TH-cam reactors "pinching" your videos Catlyn (and entirely I agree with you) but honestly - you should consider making this video available to ANYBODY who wants to get a true insight into the reality of the British mindset. Well Done!!
Kalyn, you are spot on with all 9 things. Well done.
Definitely true about copying the bins. I assume everyone is more organised than me!
The chocolate issue…don’t buy the tubs, just buy what you like. I do.
Could try Cadburys Heroes - mini versions of "regular" chocolate bars
I get a weekly email from the council to tell me which bin goes out… has saved so much stress
Just smile and say g’morning as you head off to work. Absolutely no need or time to socially chat!
No, you have to say something more, even if it's that you're in a rush and can't stop! 😊😂
@@wilmaknickersfit Here in the South West, we use the universal greeting of "Oll Roi?" (all right?), nod and get on with the day. Note that despite being a question, Oll Roi does not demand an answer, except maybe a confirmatory Oll Roi from the other party.
its worse when you come home from work have been in traffic for 2 hours all you want to do is be grumpy in front of the TV/Computer and you neighbour is siting or doing something in the front garden and you want to just ignore them but you can't.
Mention the weather - a bit/hot/parky/wet ... today isn't it"?
I find that if you don't rush to the door when you see the delivery van pulling up, they just drive away and say "Parcel could not be delivered" and don't even bother to ring the doorbell.
You've eaten all the chocolate triangles. Inequality Street.
Thats when you move onto the orange and purple ones
@@johnroach9026All the purple ones have also been eaten by your partner in a secret agreement - you get green and they get purple! 😂
The kids get the Orange ones... And absolutely hate them.
Buy Heroes instead.
Back in the day, when I was a nipper, Zeppelins over London and so on, there used to be a chocolate war weapon in the tin.
I think it was called Hazelnut Cracknell.
Nearest I can get to it is chocolate-coated fibreglass.
So when you open the tin on Boxing Day and that's all that's left, put the lid on again and back away slowly.
I have two alarms set on my phone. One says “put grey bin out” the other says “put recycling out” and they’re set to repeat every two weeks on the appropriate days. I also have events set on my phone calendar saying the same things. But when I go carry my recycling boxes out and the only other thing I see is a grey bin I still have an Existential crisis
When I lived in Switzerland, we got a booklet detailing when and what could go out. Even cardboard and old batteries had their specific days. All coloured coded charts with the times, the days of the week _and the month_ when stuff should be put out. And don't get it wrong or else you'd be made aware very quickly!
SMH 🙄
We get those in the UK, but people chuck them to one side and forget about them, it's a lot easier to just do what your neighbours do.
The "leaving your house at the same time as your neighbour" one.
I feel that in my soul 😂
I now adopt a fingers-round-the-edge-of-the-door hold in supermarket car parks, to cushion any potential collisions while squeezing out. It’s ridiculous..😊
I hook the toe of my shoe round the bottom of the door.
@ ahhh! I’ll have to try that. Might be less painful.🙂
Absolutely spot on with all of these. Your transformation to being a Brit is complete. Welcome!
Never have a problem with the bin, if in doubt you can check our council website, we have rubbish, recyling, garden and glass bins.
you make me sick you're so organized. are you sure your british ? 😀
@@PhilLewis-xg7iv I used to manage hotels got to be organised for that, all me Xmas shopping is done and pressies wrapped.
@@RushfanUK stop it, your making me ill. dont ever message me again. oh and have a happy chrimbo, much love.
I have been in the UK for 2 months. The bin issue is so real. My counsel gave me a paper that marks which bin goes out on which date. It was supposed to be labeled in color to signify each bins' date. However, they gave me black and white copy with different shades of grey and I can't tell the difference. So I just rely on my neighbor.
Brilliant observations 😂
Our council used to issue leaflets every year with the calendar for the bin collections. They stopped doing it a few years ago.
Parking spaces haven’t changed size in the UK since they started however cars have all got bigger. The Ford Anglia from the 60s was a very popular small family car and was 3.9m long X 1.5m wide. The current Ford Focus small family car is 4.4m long X 1.8m wide. Which means parking spaces at 2.5m X 5m are starting to feel a little tight. There is another standard that exists that is for larger cars and that is 2.8mX5.2m but no one ever uses that when setting out parking spaces. (FYI- I’m an Architectural Technologist and have been drawing parking spaces for about thirty years). The only place where you can find bigger spaces in the car parks at Costco supermarkets as they expect most of their customers to use vans!
Apart from Sainsbury’s
Ive been driving for aeons, never once have I come across a parking space that was 5m+ in length, thats between17/18ft for any americans reading this, I drive a hatchback, it fills every inch of that space
“Architectural technologist” 😎
The parking one applies to the whole of Europe. It never ceases to amaze me how often when I'm wanting to drive in or out of the parking space one of the drivers of the cars either side of me comes and holds their door open for ages. I don't dare move in case I hit them or their door. If I'm the one reaching my car in such circumstances I get in the car as quickly as possible to not inconvenience others.
So true about bins 😂😂😂
I've known my neighbour for 16 years. I feed her cat when she's away and taught her daughter to drive. When we open our front doors at the same time she shuts hers again until I've got into my car or walked down the street a little!
Yep, I have bin days on the fridge - still look at what others put out 🤣
Except yesterday. People up the road put their brown bins out - it was black bin day... hehe.
I love this list! The delivery one is spot on for me. I have frosted glass in my front door so I have to hide around the corner in my own home for an appropriate amount of time so that the delivery driver doesn't know that I watched them approaching
So true on all points. I think that you've finally gone native.
My wife swears by our electric clothes horse for those "soggy" days.
If you don't like the tins of chocolate. Don't buy them, Nuff said😂
The problem is that Quality Street is a popular gift. You don't buy it, you get given it. I suspect most people who buy it don't buy it for themselves.
I have signed up with my local council and they email you each week to tell you which bin(s) to put out. you are correct in that parking spaces need to be made bigger as cars have got bigger.
We have email sign up in America too. Usually they are to notify of holiday changes or snow day delays and they stay up to date on the schedule.
The neighbour thing and the starter/dessert thing killed me!! That is so me!! 🤣🤣🤣
Our bin fellas take the bins for us. Almost everyone around here is rather old so they just assume that we're all incapable.
My council, Bury, posts a leaflet through your door with the bin details. But yeah, frequently I just look out the window to see what bins the neighbours have put out.
Congratulations! You've passed your Citizenship test!
I can relate to your problem with your neighbours. I am very introverted in person; when I take my dog out for a long walk, it's amazing how many other people are doing the same thing, in the same place, but want to stop and have a chatter or gossip - ignoring what their dogs do. I like being quiet and alone taking my dog for a walk & I don't see him as an opportunity for gossip.
I'm going to give you a secret weapon in the war against sociability: Headphones. Only the most dedicated people will attempt to approach you then. Also double up as handy ear warmers in the winter!
@@ScreamingTc genius
My dad would sometimes deliberately put the wrong bin out on the wrong day. Then, when his neighbours had copied him, he'd retrieve his bin, so that everyone in the street was wring except him.
You covered these very well, I've been in every situation you listed except the last one.
I did stop caring about the delivery guy thing in the end though.
An intermediate step is to feign just happening to appear at the door (perhaps with a single item to put in your bin, checking which one(s) the neighbours have put out or taking a quizzical look at the sky for any imminent change in the weather). Saying "Oh, that's good timing" not only averts suspicion/embarrassment but also serves as a precedent for future use of "Oh, I thought I heard you" so long as a veneer of affected pleasant-surprise is always properly maintained.
This can also help establish a local reputation as a 'door popper-outer' as cover for going back in when a neighbour-emergence crisis occurs. Combine that with the quick pocket/bag door-step check manoeuvrer and you'll always have an unimpeachable excuse to retreat inside, even if that means letting yourself back in and listening for when the coast is clear.
I literally set up recurring google calendar reminders for the bins. When they changed my green bin day my life devolved into chaos.
The post office one. I feel that so much. I used to sell on Ebay...need I say more?
When you hear someone cut the lawn/trim the hedge and get that horrible feeling that now *you* have to cut *your* grass, otherwise you'll be the last one to do it.
When it comes to bins, simply look to the pensioners on your road....they are 'bin' dynamites on time, all the time
I am a pensioner, I'm totally not 'bin dynamite' when it comes to the bins I'm more of a damp squib.
I've found 60% of the time this works every time ;)
To acknwoledge your neighbour without talking to them just give them a wave or communicative head nod of recognition.
When I return to the UK from continental Europe where I now live, the one that gets me every time is the standing with the crowd on the train station concourse waiting for the moment three minutes before the train is due to depart when they actually might tell you from which of the twenty-two platforms it's going to be leaving from, and then joining the stampede to try and get there.
Euston station notorious for this.
My dad is that one obsessive that knows about bins, his street follows him. The way to deal with the starter and dessert thing is "I will if you're having one" which indicates that the person has"social permission" to order. A period of "are you sure, I really shouldn't, I don't want to push you" follows after which everyone gets the dessert they wanted.
Because I am always the first mover putting the bins out in my street, I sometimes for mischief, deliberately put out the wrong bin, which causes some fun. I get texts about it from my neighbours, but that is part of the entertainment as it gives the busybodies something to worry about.....🙃
You… you monster.❤
keeping the neighbours on their toes in the most diabolical of ways
Oooh now, that gives me an idea LOL
The bin to go out next week is always the one on the left. Once that’s gone down to the road, move the other one across to that left hand spot. Easy.
I don’t like Quality Street and Roses tins any more but the better alternatives are the tins of CELEBRATIONS and HEROES, all the chocs we like !!!
Thorntons for me!
@@esamiga That's well posh, Thorntons. Reminds me I need to get sorted for Xmas.