One New York Life

1) Pubs know how to pour a cask beer.

2) Joins Paris as one of the now two other places I’ve been more expensive than New York.

3) I’ve spent about three hours watching cricket and still find the game incomprehensible. I’ve gotten that you get 10 outs per inning, that a home run is worth six runs, and a ground-rule double is worth four runs, but I still can’t figure out what constitutes an out other than catching the ball in the air… without a glove… which seems like it should count for more than one out.

4) No one roots for Germany in the pub.

5) The only shows on the BBC are The Good Wife and My Name Is Earl. So, Americans are either cheatin husbands, shady lawyers, or rednecks. Which, really, fair enough.

6) I hate countries that have 8 different types of change. Do they really need a .02 cent piece? Is it just for joke purposes so one can actually physically give somebody their two cents pence?

7) Sky Sports 3 airs Raw and Smackdown seemingly on a loop every night.

8) In a sentence I never thought I’d say — ESPN’s production on the World Cup games is actually better than ITV’s.

9) The “every day is gray” stereotype is, in fact, not a stereotype.

10) There are a lot of Indian/Middle Eastern people here and less Asians. Big news in the paper is 1) BP potentially going under and 2) a woman who was convicted of adultery in Iran is facing stoning. In other news, I can go to jail for smoking a Cuban cigar, but we’re kinda good with Iran, who stones people to death and really good with India, who still has honor killings if a girl has pre-marital sex. Yay!

11) I’ve learned British folks don’t really seem to care much for the VAT. Here it is a seemingly capricious tax levied on anything considered a “luxury” item. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. For instance, a ham, egg, and cheese crepe is affected by the VAT, but a plate of eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, and beans was not. It is also being raised from 17% to 20% next month. That’s a 20% bump on anything some dude in a suit considers a “luxury”.

12) High miscellaneous value for the city. I could totally live here. The Unmentionable Accounting and Copier Company X offices are looking really good save for the 40% income tax. But, hey, at least I’d actually get the benefits of everything I’d be paying for.

13) I really hate subway systems with tiered zones with different charges.

14) Apartment rentals are listed by week. It seems much less terrifying seeing an apartment listed at 400 lbs/week until you realize that it’s roughly equivalent to $2400/month.

15) London’s subway system shuts down at midnight, but it seems like every neighborhood has its own pub. There are four within reasonable walking distance of our hotel and we’re neither in a touristy area of town nor near a major hotel. In fact, Google Map Sydney Street London and play “spot the hotel on street view”.