I find it so sad that an American immediately thinks that something like a letterbox could be used to harm them!!! Why would anyone want to harm you?!!!!!! It must be nerve-racking to live in the U.S.A.
I tend to agree with you, the vast majority of people have no intention of sticking anything malicious/dangerous through your letterbox. Yes there are instances of people who have done something untoward or malicious, but generally as you say people don't normally have that mindset that someone could or would want to cause harm to them via a letterbox.
I heard a story once of a phantom hotdog mail dropper. Every now and then someone would post a hotdog in to the letterbox of every house down a street. It caused a neighborhood hotdog watch. Very rare someone does something malicious through a letterbox, your more likely to get in a car crash.
The use of washing bowls in sinks is historical, in the past UK houses had big deep ceramic sinks often referred to as butler or Belfast sinks. These are large enough to hand wash laundry, even bathe a small child, the downside is they took a long time to fill and wasted water. Therefore it was common practice to use a smaller washing bowl inside the sink for dishes, preparing veg, etc. Another reason was to protect fragile china and glass from damage caused by the hard ceramic surface. While stainless steel sinks have replaced the ceramic sinks many people still use bowls for minor kitchen tasks as it conserves water plus the grey water can be used to water garden plants.
There were also very shallow rectangular brown sinks just about five inches high, 20 inches deep and almost three feet wide, called “slopstones”. Most Victorian terraced small two up two down houses, with outside toilet but no bathroom, were built with these rectangular sinks already installed in a kitchen floored with flagstones. They were very commonplace even in the 1950’s when I was growing up. My own home had a kitchen like this. We kept a white metal enamelled bowl in this sink (I’d never even seen a plastic bowl in those days) so that we could wash dishes there or even use a similar metal bowl to wash ourselves. The slopstones were very useful to stand a toddler in for a sloshy wash down or even when we washed the dog (no need for the bowl then). The slopstone was replaced by the white butler sink in the 1960’s.
@webbsfan1 As far as I was aware it adjusted the PH of the soil and was also harmful to the leaves if it got on them. I think you can make weed killer using it.
In the U.K. the Royal Mail have a legal responsibility to deliver direct to your door. So, if your home is at the end of a 5 mile track, they have a long journey… Also, as we invented postage stamps, we’re the only country in the world that doesn’t have the name of the country on our stamps. 😊
As part of its universal service obligation, Royal Mail must deliver to every address in the UK, every Monday to Saturday. But for some addresses, it is not possible for Royal Mail to deliver mail right up to the door.......
I’m an ex postman the service not only goes to the door and letterbox but it must be pushed through so that the letters can’t be pulled back out and stolen
just wait until they find out that some houses do have outdoor mailboxes(sometimes in a driveways brick wall) but they are just a letter box in the wall with a metal box to hold the mail :P
US curbside mailboxes are so small they fill up way too quickly. In the UK you can bugger off for weeks on end and the mail will accumulate behind the front door forever. In the US the post office will only hold the mail for you for 30 days which does me no good as I'm often away for months on end back home in the UK. Once the curbside box is full they stop delivering and return to sender. Which is shit if you're expecting a cheque while away. So the letterbox is far superior to a mailbox. The problems of living in 2 countries. As a Brit living in the US and the UK it annoys me immensely that the switches and outlets are upside down in the US although I do like driving on the right. Try finding a pork pie in the US.
If you watch the first Harry Potter film you can see some of the Hogwarts letters go through the letterbox. You'll also see that our chimneys are multi purpose and work as a secondary postbox. Owl post can be unreliable.
I think it's just Americans paranoia, it's like when they say they keep a gun in their house for protection in case anyone breaks in. If they're breaking in they're doing it to steal your TV, not kill you 😂
The only reason I would use a washing up bowl is if I had a sink that could easily get scratched by pans. Dishwashers are still not in every home in the UK, my dad and two younger sisters don’t have one. These days with the material used in modern sinks, it’s not too much of an issue, so I don’t use one now, but I also have a dishwasher so wouldn’t be using the sink to wash day to day crockery/pans anyway. Amazon Prime is generally either same day or next day delivery. Royal Mail post can also be guaranteed next day if you pay for it. As for house names, anyone can use them but we would also have to use the number if it’s on a street with other houses. If the house is in the middle of nowhere, you probably would just have a name and not even have a number, but you would also have your own postcode that is just for your house, if you don’t have other houses close to you (there is generally a different postcode for each street/road in the UK, if it’s a long road you might have more than one postcode). So because of the postcode system it’s easy enough to find houses that just have a name in the UK.
FYI: if you put dirty dishes in the washing up bowl, then have a stack of dirty dishes, but want to use the sink, you can lift out the washing up bowl (and all the dirty dishes) - and boom! You have a clean empty sink to use to fill kettle, cook, fill pots with water etc 🤷🏽♀️ 😂 It's a habit dating back to pre-dishwasher
Exactly! Take out the pots& then put in water to peel the spuds & carrots etc then put the bowl back in!! Or as you say fill the kettle without dipping it in water 😂
@@Muddflud We've never actually had one, I'm not too sure I know anyone that's ever had one either 😅 I know you need a big enough house to have an additional large appliance for starters.
I had to smile when you were talking about letterboxes. I’ve never had anything unwanted shoved through my letterbox. You can buy cages to fit over it if you have a letter eating dog.
Once had a lit firework shoved through the letterbox. We were having a party and it was done for a prank, so I shoved it back out again and held the letterbox shut until the idiot got bored and went away.
The UK postcode is quite simple and each part narrows down the location of the property. The first part identifies the region, the numbers then identify the area within that region, then the last number and two letters pretty much identify the exact street. So. Having a name on the house really isn't an issue in the UK
Try delivering to house/cottages/highrise flats(named highrise's. Its a nightmare, rural areas are worse as a 1 postcode could stretch to a gd 2-4 mile radius. We have to rely on navigation experiance snd apps designed for building names. Ex ups driver 😂, it makes more sense in the country side as u dnt have rows of house that often but wen u get house name nd no numbers on normal residentail streets its becomes a vain to the job ;)
Was going to mention postcodes too, my house doesn’t have a number either however I use pickup points for Amazon, I don’t think the delivery driver even tries.
@@deanpainter8536 Exactly, we live in the hills above Loch Ness on the southside. All houses are named, and the postcode is well over 2 mile radius. As we live off the main road, we get a lot of lost delivery drivers.
As an English man I find these videos fascinating. It shows although we are practically cousins we are a lot different culturally. I have ordered on Amazon and got the item the same day. Amazon normally delivers next day.
We call the "mail slot" a letter box. Just about every house in the UK has one. Years ago, I had to fit a box on the inside of our letter box to stop our dog from ripping up our mail when he got over excited.
I would like to buy one and fit it for my letter box, as I find it difficult to bend down and pick it up off the floor. Where do you get them from, and are they easy to fix? Bearing in mind I have the DIY skills of a 1 year old :-)
@@robcrossgrove7927 I made my own because at the time I was a self assembly furniture maker. At work I had all the machinery to do it. I beleive that you can buy a metal basket which you can screw onto the door. I'm not sure where you can get them, but there must be somewhere online.
@@robcrossgrove7927 I had a similar problem. I took a large shoe box (one where the lid is a flap) and cut a hole in the bottom, very slightly larger that my letterbox. I then doubled over duct tape (so it was like really strong double sided tape) and fixed it over the letterbox so the post falls inside and the lid is attached at the bottom. I then put another strip along the top and bottom for extra stability. Lastly, I put a split pin near the top of the lid and another on the top of the box so I could fasten it with a hairband. It lasted for years! All of this because I was too cheap to buy one of those letterbox cage things!😂😂 On the plus side, no screwdrivers required!😉😉
There's nothing more annoying than needing to use the sink and it's full of dishes so if the dishes are in the bowl you can just pull the bowl out of the sink
I live in a rural area of Scotland, around 30 miles from the nearest decent sized town. We have a bus service that runs to the town every hour and another bus service that runs every 45 min between here and the two nearest villages. Not only that, but since I'm over 60, I can travel literally anywhere in Scotland on buses for free.
That pretty good, i line in England about 30 mins from nearest town and on a main road but only 1 bus runs through the village roughly once an hour but stops at about 6pm. there is another bus but it's rather erratic on its times and sometimes they cut it entirely if they don't think they will make the money. Still really handy to have though.
I have a lot of American friends, and I remember telling them about how good our public transport system is. But what blew them away the most, is when I told them we have WiFi and places to charge our phones on buses and trains, and sometimes the WiFi is free. Where I live the WiFi on all our buses is free~ 🙌🏼
I’m fascinated that Americans find the idea of a letterbox so crazy, as it surely makes a lot more sense? Why would you want to walk to a mailbox outside? It makes sense for very rural areas, or neighbourhoods with a lot of long pathways, as I’m sure American postmen wouldn’t want to be trekking around forever. The U.K. benefits from having very close together houses in most places.
I’m from the US, I don’t know anyone with a mailbox. On the east coast of the US, we all mostly have letterboxes, even in the suburbs. You have to drive quite far out into the rural country to find homes with mailboxes. The point of the mailboxes are to make letter delivery quicker for the mail carriers in rural areas, so they drive right up to the mailboxes and out the mail in. I find it really odd that these 2 folks think the mail slots/letter boxes are a strange concept. And we don’t find our letterboxes/mail slots dangerous 😂.
As a family we lived in New Zealand, we had letterboxes almost on the road on our front lawn, the times we had soaking wet unreadable letters. My mum had to dry them out first, also my dad was a local postman there..on his bike.
Washing up bowl: Stops the sink being scratched over time. Also means you can tip liquids from cups etc into the sink and it will go down the drain without contaminating the washing up water. Amazon: You can get next day delivery, even on a Sunday!
Washing up bowl, other than safer for your crockery, you can re use water outside to water plants if you want. We reuse a lot of things in the UK, better for the planet.
For me it's two-fold. You don't need as much hot water for a bowl as for a sink and also, since the sink is often stainless steel and the bowl plastic, the same amount of water will stay hot for longer in the bowl. You can also empty the bowl directly into an outside drain and avoid blocking pipes with waste food from the washing up, or use it to water plants in the garden. And if you have the washing machine running you avoid having the risk of it deciding to pump water out at the same time as you empty the sink (in my experience the typical UK kitchen shares one outflow pipe for all waste water).
I think the mail thing shows the difference in the 'fear factor' of living in the US versus the UK - I live in the UK, have always had a letterbox and it would never enter my head about "poisonous" or dangerous stuff being put through my letterbox - why would someone do that?
I live in the US, I have always had a letter box. Everyone I know has a letter box. I am not afraid of my letter box. I don’t know a single person who is afraid of their letter box.
for the same reasons why your first thoughts about having mail box might be that people steal your shit, humans recognise issues first, a sisters ex threatened to put fire through our letterbox and it is something that happens
Hi Steve. I used to be a bus driver and drove rural routes. At least town to town but through rural villages and so on. Certainly got to see the countryside. Some 'villages' only comprised of half a dozen or so houses which we call Hamlets.
Well, what about this!. Four of us went on a two-week trip to Kenya, one-week diving and another on Safari, we were in the middle of the Masai, and our driver pulled up in a little village so the girls could get some trinkets, my mate and I were kicking up the dust waiting for them to come out, and what seemed like a 7ft Masai warrior as thin as a pencil came over and started listening to us talking in our broad Yorkshire accent, he asked in perfect English where we came from, my mate said "Bradford" he asked me and I said you will never know it a place called Alverthorpe in Yorkshire, he said ah yes I have been in the Blue Light pub there, my local WHAT!, He had stayed in the next village while he went to Huddersfield University. Small World.
I have also been to Kenya on holiday. I spoke to a Scottish couple and asked where in Scotland they came from. It's a small place you will never have heard of Port Seaton. They were shocked when I said yep know it. Just down the road from musselburgh. It's where my parents walked out on dates. So yep small world
I used to work in a newsagents and one of thr guys working in estate agents came in asking for stamps. He wrote a cheque out and I said the surname is very unusual, he said my fiancée family is from Ireland. I said the place and he was like how do you know that. I asked him if he knew someone called Syd and he's like that's my fiancée uncle. He was like how do you know this, said Syd is my father. I ended up going to Lincolnshire for their wedding with the rest of the family. Small world right.
We have a lot of local bus services. Living in rural Scotland and over 60, I'm given a national bus pass, which allows me to use any bus and quite a few long distance coach services in Scotland for free. Small buses, such as 14-18 seater minibuses are quite adequate for many rural bus routes here. Most areas also have volunteer driver Community Bus services fully funded by fares which can also be rented by local clubs, groups and schools for trips.
@@cyflym11 I love my disabled bus pass. When my dad was in hospital long term I was able to visit him every week even though he lived 3 hours away and I never would have been able to without my pass.
As a newspaper delivery boy in the UK in the 80's when newsprint was king, letter boxes in house front doors was a thing of beauty and horror. The Daily Observer and its colour supplement had to be fed through section by section which took ages, but to add to the drama if the house had a dog especially a terrier the paper would be shredded.
I feel your pain. The last door on my rounds on a Sunday with the Times. They had the smallest letterbox you can imagine and it felt like I was putting pages at a time. Plus the fact having to carry all it around my entire round was a pain but at least they tipped well.
reason for having a washing up bowl is so that you can save water when you wash up, you tend to break less porcelain dishes, and you can drain whilst washing up
Steve, as a retired postman I can confirm that most houses in the UK do have a letterbox built into either the door itself or the surrounding walls, although in some rural areas that have houses with long paths or driveways, some residents will make another provision to keep their letters and small packages dry and semi secure, for example I had a house on one of my routes who used an old ammo box wired onto their farm gate for small items and an old filing cabinet for anything larger. In the event that someone else is temporarily put on to our route to cover planned absence, we used to leave notes for our replacements and other posties who work alongside us will also give the cover men helpful hints where necessary. As for the practice of naming houses you are correct in saying that the general practice is to use both the house name and the number alongside the street name and the post code ( British zip code) to maximise deliveries to the correct recipient. In addition we work a system of 5 days over 6 with a progressive day off and we have a regular cover delivery man who works 5 different routes every week so he learns the routes as well. Some posties work their routes for years over and become so familiar with the families that we know them and their special days such as birthdays and anniversaries. In addition to the information about transportation in the rural areas there are also community buses that are used to help people get to appointments and sometimes they have a day or two scheduled to take their customers in to the larger shopping centres and supermarkets. In some areas that are really remote there is a Postbus Service that not only carries the mail out to the farms but can also be flagged down just like a taxi service, but it can take extra time to make a journey because the delivery of the mail has priority, in general the Postbus makes circular journeys twice a day once outwards and once inwards but they aren’t available in all areas and their timings can be very flexible so they tend to be used mainly by local people as opposed to the general public and visitors to their area’s.
Back over 50 years ago, I was one of the many students who got a temporary job before Xmas as a Relief Postie. This was in the smallish town of Lanark - about 6000 population then. The regular posties were a fount of knowledge about the folk who lived in the town and countryside round about, even if they were recent incomers. Before we went out on deliveries we had to sort the mail into the different delivery rounds. A typical exchange would be, "One here fore Granny Jean, Lanark. Any ideas. A cry from across the sorting office, "What's the postmark?" "Looks like Alberta, Canada. Cannae mak oot the toon." A few seconds pause then, "Och, that'll be Jeannie Ferguson, xx Hindmarch Street. That's from her niece." The last mail from elsewhere would arrive about 1600 on Christmas Eve and we did a final sort and delivery of that with the aim of getting everything to the recipients by about 2100. There was a 'Dead Mail Box' for undeliverable mail but there were rarely more than half a dozen items in it even after the Christmas deluge. It was a point of honour among the regular posties to find the right person to receive it. Your mail wouldn't sit in the 'Dead Mail' even if you were actually dead because the posties would know who the solicitor responsible for the will was and often even the executors! I'd done the Xmas mail in my final year at school and so I knew our own postie well when the time came to get a place at a University. I'd already got acceptances from Strathclyde and Glasgow but still hadn't heard from the one I really wanted - Dundee. I met the postie when I was on the way to catch the train to school and he shouted to me across the road. "Bob! I've got that Dundee Acceptance!" That puzzled me a bit. "How d'ye know it's an acceptance, Jimmy?" "Och, that's easy. If it's a 'NO' then it's a wee letter. Yours is a big wan wi' a' the bumph an' forms that you've got to read now." I bet loads of folk thought they had all sorts of secrets but they reckoned without the Posties!
Well a key thing with the names (even without street names on the address) is that the postcode doesn’t actually cover that many properties (20?) so as you sort into your frames it’d become apparent without the street name. I work in developing new properties and Royal Mail are pretty strict on rejecting similar house names even on different streets in the locality. Eg recently tried to name a house “The Laurels” (rejected because there was a house with the name Laurels as an addition to its number about 7 houses down on the road the close with this house was off … so separate postcode but probably less than a third of a mile away) and “The Oaks” (rejected because there was an Oakridge in the same postcode) - so had to go with “Woodside”
Also - Ireland was even worse. Only brought in postcodes a few years ago (although they are literally unique for each tax registered property - some houses have 2 as the side door used to be a granny annex) and one of the plus points was “avoid confusion when people have the same name in the same rural area” … apparently if they just had the name and area the postman would deliver to the oldest, who’d read it and say “not for me” before handing it back 😂. A story I heard about postmen knowing the route was someone at work posted a birthday card to her dad at his brother’s house in Ireland where he was staying for a few weeks. It arrived back saying “no such person at this address” and when she told her mum she was told “well you should have written c/o Brother, otherwise the postman knows your dad doesn’t live there and would have just sent it straight back before delivery”
@@paulebroderick, actually the number of properties that are covered by each postcode, is infinitely variable, for example my own property has the same code for the entire street, on the odd side it is numbered from one to twenty seven, with one block of four flats, but the even side starts at number four and ends at number forty four. There are no missing numbers and no empty spaces. It all comes down to house sizes and the density of construction. Other streets nearby there are streets that have only fifteen properties in total but the road that connects these streets on its even numbered side it is numbered from 32 to 564 but the odd side only has a small number of properties due to the presence of a former mill, a large school grounds, a police station and various other public and commercial properties. There are also some properties in the same district that are so large that they have to have multiple postcodes to enable the post office to handle the correspondence that is received for what is just one large property, so your estimate of 20 properties sharing gone post code is wildly inaccurate.
Washing up bowl is used for a few reasons. 1, It uses less water than if you used the sink. 2, If you are washing up your dishes and you want to use the sink for something else (Cleaning your boots, washing clothes or say a large dirtier object) you can lift the bowl out and put it on the side.
On our letterboxes, verses your mailboxes near the end of your property, the incidence of nasty stuff through our letter boxes is much lower than you guys having your mail stolen out of the mailbox. Only reason we might put a mail catching cage in the inside of the door is to stop dogs ripping up the post lol
". . . ripping up the post lol." or to stop the same dog that rips up letters ripping up the postman's hand. I used to deliver, leaflets0. The worst dogs t i think are those little Jack Russel terriers. They hear you coming and just sit there quiet as a mouse, staring at the letterbox. Then just as the juucy looking fingers of the postie appear -- bark, bark, bark, bark, bite bite bite bite, snarl etc. There the ;property own0er opens the door and they are holding the little b----r in their arms like a baby "oh" " they say "you mustn't mind, he's like that with everyone" And I'm 'like ""yes madam, of course" sorry to have troubled you One more thing, just a quibble but pity your postie, The number of high security letterboxes that are just heavy, awkward, narrow bent at 180 degrees etc. And you've got to get "do not bend or fold" materials through or ring thee doorbell. which takes ages." I swear some hoem owners would put spikes on the inside. To feel a bit safer oh the joys of thr british front door letterrbox. you Amercans are lucky..
@@ukwhitewitch II apologise. I hav Parkinson's disease adnd i fdo makke aa lot of typos. I genuinnely didn't thinkk it was all thart b bad. I'l try to edit it today. I feel a little bit bad for letttting Team UK down as it weere.
@@ukwhitewitch Please. don't be. It's slays god to get criticism and feedback. As long ss it is honest and well intended.. You were standing up , politel;tly, for what yopu thought was true in defence of our Ameerracn hossts eho you thought were bei vg misserved by a cokunbrtryman. good for you. hip huraah and so on.
The reason we in the UK have a washing up bowl ( plastic) within a washing up bowl ( usually stainless steel (sinks, we call them) is in my opinion that you don't use as much water in a bowl thus saving the over usage of water
My sink came with a basket which fitted very snugly into it. The sink is made from moulded polypropylene (Astracast) and I was told the plastic basket inside was there to protect crockery from getting chipped, hitting against the sides of the sink as you wash. I didn't use it, which might explain all the chipped plates over the years.
@@bethiakittifyAnd if you need to clear your sink very fast, just whip out the bowl, set it on the side, fill the kettle without dipping it in dishwater, then lift your washing-up bowl back in.
I find it so endearing that you have such a passionate interest in the UK. My fiancé is from Denmark and we are working on getting him a UK visa to come and live here with me. We are going the spousal visa route, so we plan to get married before he can actually apply for it. He would have to live here and renew the visa once, and then after that he can apply for indefinite leave to remain after 5 years. So maybe that gives you some idea of time frames? It's a hugely complicated process. The best thing you could do is speak to a lawyer who specialises in immigration for appropriate information based on your own circumstances!
The Royal Mail first encouraged homeowners to have letterboxes installed at their homes in 1849. Boxes were also installed at post offices in the 19th century. The oldest letter box that still exists in the UK is now located at the Wakefield Museum and is dated 1809.
Before the national introduction of the penny post in May 1840, people outside London had to pay to *receive* their mail, not to post it. So there was no call for a letter box. People tried the scam that if they got a letter from an individual, that was the signal, so they refused to pay for it, so it had to go back to the sender, which was a second signal. I don’t see therefore that outside London, which had a basic franked post before 1840, anyone could have had a letter box. That’s why they had the Postman’s Knock - the postman needed to collect the charge.
The name of a house is part of the address but the street name and postcode means it’s not that difficult to find. Often they are really old houses from earlier centuries which is why they’re not numbered. Also in the 50+ years I’ve been alive nothing untoward has ever been posted through my letterbox! 😊
Yes we mostly have letterboxs here. Maybe as a novelty some thing different we would have them in rural areas. Or maybe house is big difference from road. We now live in highrise flat apartment to you. And yes we still have letterboxs in our door.
I'm an American who has been living in the UK for over 40 years. The history of the washing up bowl comes from the time before "mixer taps" (faucets) were common in UK kitchens. The idea was you would fill up your bowl with soap and water from both taps to get the appropriate temperature soapy water, in which to soak and wash your dishes. Of course these days most UK homes have mixer taps in their kitchens, and frankly I would say that now a days a majority of people here use dishwashers.
You do realize that a sink can also be filled from two separate taps, right? I don't understand why you think a bowl would be beneficial for this. Washing up bowls are a thing for two main reasons: historically a lot of kitchens had HUGE sinks, and filling them with water was wasteful and took a long time. Also, a lot of kitchens still only have a single sink, so if its full of washing up water, you can't pour anything down the drain. Washing in a bowl allows things to be drained in the gap at the side. Personally I've never liked washing up bowls and have thankfully had kitchens with double sinks.
@@vitalspark6288 I thought it was to protect china plates from chipping when it comes into contact with the hard sink surfaces, as plastic is kinder to crockery. I might be wrong but I'm quite sure that is how it was explained when I bought the sink and the basket came with it.
I spent a whole summer in England and had to rely on public transportation for all travel. It was great, and I even went into rural areas by bus. It was great!
It certainly does apply to flats. Postmen deliver mail to every dwelling through letterboxes. You can buy a metal cage so that mail does not drop to the floor indoors. A few large houses sometimes have a letterbox inserted into a wall surrounding the property. These are few and far between. Washing up bowls prevent the sink being scratched, and helps prevent glasses breaking if you drop it into the bowl (as opposed to dropping it in the sink). Plus it's a hygiene issue.
My mum has a little vintage letterbox in the wall by her gates purely because it looks cute as hell but it has a sign saying 'not a real postbox', the amount of letters she posts for people who drop them in there is insane, she's essentially a postman now hahahaha
Plastic washing up bowls have multiple benefits. Firstly, filling it up to wash rather than leaving the tap running saves water. Secondly, plastic is a good insulator so the water starts warm as well as being less noisy and damaging to glasses etc. Also for homes without the double sink, you can rinse away down the side of the bowl without dirtying/cooling the soap water for washing. Also slightly easier to dispose of food considering uk homes don’t have garbage disposal units like the US
The UK has relatively expensive water, and in the past, when water and heating were even more expensive and less widely available, a small bowl made sense. It helps to conserve water and create different zones in an oversized farmhouse sink. It’s also a great place to stash dirty dishes in a hurry. The used water from the bowl could also be used for watering garden areas (especially during dry periods.) - just a few theories!
That depends on where you live as water in England is privatised, whereas in Scotland, it's not and goes on size of property instead. The bowl is because many homes in the UK only have one single bowl so when washing up, you can pour liquids or scraps down the side of the bowl, keeping the soapy water as clean as possible.
@@JLO72 I have lived in Scotland and England and England is cheaper by a mile. For singles/couples. Because my DD is £18 with a meter, even that is too high, I reckon am using about £14 over the last 5 months because primarily I was away for a bit. But we will see if they put the DD down in July. But back to Scotland I was in a B council tax band and I paid (consult your council tax bill) about £23 per month with a 25% discount (single person), so that is £30 for a couple. Anyone (any couple ) could easily beat these amounts with a meter even with baths. The issue for me is A) You pay for a meter (I was quoted £200 plus an extra £200-£900 for the survey) and they couldn't tell me if it was £200 or £900. And in England it is the law to get a meter if you move and it is free. Its the law but not really acted upon. So anyone single definitely will pay less in England and most couples. What doesn't Scotland understand, we are trying to save water. And by the way, I had a water leak which I didn't know (was the case when I bought it) so they lost a lot of water (Scottish water) before they eventually let me know. I said can't you sort it, and they said down to you. I said aren't you concerned about losing all this water (and believe me it was a lot), so much thta I turned it off unless I used it while I waited for a repair. So A) Cheaper in England despite privatisation, B)People are wasting water in Scotland as no meters and C) Leaks are not being fixed if even known about because no meters. If I had no money wouldn't have been fixed and I notices all the worms I had under courtyard went away after fixing. So its not rocket Science, fix meters so people know. But of course as you highlight it must be very expensive in a band G council tax house. Which you may reckon is correct, but why is it as their water use may not be any higher. Lastly it is not helping Council tax revenue, a reason why Argyll and Bute council charged me £65 for a roadside pickup for items and Durham only charged me recently £18. And it has to be said a 3 weekly pickup of both normal refuse and recycling (in Scotland and 2 weeks in durham). No food waste pickup, no garden waste pickup. It is because of water (in my opinion) being on the council tax bill. And not only very high cost for businesses to go to the tip. One business I used had a man on the inside where he bunged a tenner or 20 to, so corruption going on because of high costs to business. And you may like to know I had a load of rubble etc under the floorboards which when the Gas CH was on I smelt a burning smell, that's the other option for businesses. I had it out of there sharpish and put it into the main refuse bin (over weeks or months). Lucky I had storage, I didn't have to dump it on the street. Or they could fly tip it which I expect many to do. All is the result of water being on the council tax bill.
House names are really common in villages/rural areas, especially for old houses. For example, my home was a pub centuries ago, so it has retained the name of that pub and had cottage added to it. Addresses usually have "house name", "road name", "village name", "County' "post code".
A lot of companies in the UK offer next day delivery, some of the bigger companies also offer same day delivery as long as you place your order before a set cut off time :)
Had deliveries arrive same day on more than a few occasions. Anything that takes over 2 days is unusual even where advertised as 2-5 days. Most courier deliveries are guaranteed next day with faster services available down to about 4 hours in cities. I've found it more of a problem when you have ordered something with 2-5 days delivery and you get a card for a missed delivery the next day. Generally they'll attempt to deliver 3 times - after that it's collect from the depot or it will have been left with a neighbour. As for how the postie knows where to deliver the mail - our postcodes cover a maximum of about 10 properties so it doesn't take much to find the right one. You thing a letterbox is a security risk but the number of US properties where the owners don't seem to have an issue with cat flaps or even dog flaps that someone could crawl through. A letterbox is about 1.5 inches high and about 5 inches wide so it's not as if you can even get an adult hand through and have a heavily sprung door hinged at the top
In the UK you only need the house number/name and the post code (zip code) to address any mail. The post code reduces the target down to one specific street/road within any given town/city. FYI - round my area we call mail delivery people 'postie' and Re: the bowl in a sink - drop a plate or glass in a pottery sink & you soon learn the benefit of a plastic bowl!
Ok, i'm a Brit and as for the letterbox thing yes, people can put dodgy thinks into them, but you can get actual steel boxes that attach to the back of the door on the inside to prevent it. Also speaking of mail in the UK, the postman or delivery driver won't leave a package unattended on your doorstep if you're not at home. They will either give it to a neighbour and post a note as to where it is or leave it at the nearest post office for you to then pick up. Sometimes they will even hide it in your paper bin ( trash can ) and leave a note letting you know. We have multiple bins ( trash cans ) in the UK for recycling and no, there is no chance of it getting emptied and you losing your package because the bin men ( Garbage men ) won't empty your bins unless they're put out on the street, they won't enter your garden to get them. Occasionally some dick head driver will just dump it on the door step but its very rare in my experience.
One reason addresses can easily have names is because our postcodes (your zipcodes) are much more specific. As in usually to the specific road. You can basically send anything to anyone with only person's name, house number, and postcode... none of the other info really matters. A usual UK address of: 123 Example Road Example Town Exampleshire EX1 2YZ ... could be written as just 123 - EX1 2YZ, and mail would get there, because the postcode EX1 2YZ literally refers to the road name, town/city, and county.
I live in a tiny rural village in Devon and all the houses have names. It’s very sweet. Yes, you would usually put the street name. The owner generally names the house. We have had the same postman for years and he knows every house and the name of the family that lives there.
Which village? Or the name of a town or city nearby if you don't want that info out there? I've lived all over the world, but I was born in Devon and live there currently. I love being close to the beaches too much to stay anywhere else. In Barnstaple I'm sandwiched between a few of the best beaches in the UK.
@appleduck3767 Woolacombe is my favourite. Barricane is great too. Especially when the food truck is there. When I lived in a German city the one thing I missed was the Devon beaches. Artificial beaches on a lake were not a suitable replacement 😂
I live in a small rural Village as well and all the houses are named, i often have issues with takeaways or postmen not finding my house. My house is called Millhouse because it used to have a windmill which adds some nice historical flavour since it is over 400 years old (it has a longer history than the USA which is an interesting thought ). Unfortunately there's another house down the road called High Millhouse and i often get their mail and vice versa, though i feel that's more down to lazy postmen as it clearly states the name on a large sign next to door. As for takeaways it's often dark and the house is a good 10 metres from the road so you likely cannot see the sign. I do wish we had both numbers and names to help people find them easier.
Evan Edinger has videos which covered his journey through to becoming a UK citizen. Washing up bowls are there firstly as a layer of (plastic) insulation between washing up water and the material of the sink which can often be made of thick metal or ceramics and as such tends to cool the water very quickly. Also because we traditionally wash up by pouring a mixture of hot and cold water into a sink (dual tap rather than a single tap or faucet) with detergent before we start scrubbing the dishes in said water, it can be easy to accidentaly knock the plug out and end up with the water draining out before you are done with it. A washing up bowl gets around all of this. As far as how addresses are written for the postal system in the UK, it usually is shown as follows: Joe Bloggs - Recipients name 76 Somewhere Street - Street name and door number (the number can be replaced with a house name which would typically appear on its own line) Inatown - Name of the village, postal town or city the recipent lives in Somewhereset - The region of the country the recipient lives in IN4 7BS - The 'post code' which is used by the post office to select which local sorting office and local post office is best suited to handling final delivery. The post code system is quite accurate and going with just that into a Sat Nav would generally get you to the right street to handle a delivery (by a post-man or post-woman). House names are something I have developed a hatred for as someone who does deliveries as they don't work with Sat Nav systems while with a typical 'door number' a Sat Nav will often take you right to the recipients driveway. Some houses do have post boxes, but they are usually bolted onto a wall or a fence. Also it is common in rural areas to have access to bus services. This is usually hourly but it depends on how far out of town you live (you can see busses as often as every 10 minutes in town) and it often takes an hour or more to complete its route. The example I am drawing from is a village I used to live in which was 15 miles from the local city centre.
Also, you can choose to give your house a name and (I think register it with the postal service) it just becomes your houses name. We moved into a newly built estate and the house number was 15, we registered it with a name and then for the next 10 years, all the mail came there, online forms had it registered and it was just how it was. I think it helps that UK postcodes, the equivalent of zip codes only ever cover a very small distance, like maybe 1/4 mile square, commonly much less, usually about maybe 50 houses.
One of the benefits of a washing up bowl is during hot summers when there is a water shortage you can easily take the bowl outside and pour it on your garden. Another benefit is that it is smaller than the sink so you tend to use less water. If you have a water meter then this arrangement gives you cheaper water bills. Not all UK homes have water meters, some pay a fix price however ever much water they use.
I find that the American, Amanda Rae, on her podcast, has a more balanced view on the USA-UK differences. She’s very personable and makes for easy listening.
I live in a very rural area ...our buses are very good .morning buses to take us into town and evening buses to bring us home...a few throughout the day ...six days each week ..none on a Sunday ...and none late in the evening...also if you’re elderly...over 60 ..we have countrywide free travel on the bus ..
Sinks in the uk used to be large and porcelain so a washing up bowl protected crockery etc and a bowl didn't use as much water, back then we used immersion heaters to heat hot water which took a while to heat up and expensive, bowls enabled us to multi task the sink, remember the uk is a very old country modern conveniences not yet available and toilets were outside, modernisation was a slow,difficult and expensive process as our homes were and still are very small making even basic altercations like building a new house.
Think about all the crap that gets chucked down the sink - toxic cleaning products, waste food, dirty water from the cleaning of worktops, floors etc - then think about the dishes that you serve food on being washed in that same sink. A dedicated plastic basin that is used exclusively for washing dishes/utensils is not only hygienic, it's also convenient. You can pour waste food, coffee etc from dishes down the sink at the side of the plastic basin without contaminating the dish water. Also, if you fumble a glass or plate and it drops into the sink - especially if it's a ceramic one - it's more likely to break than if it was dropped into a shock-absorbing plastic bowl.
Right so sink within a sink-soaking the dishes to make them easier to clean. If you need the sink while you have dirty dishes you can lift the bowl up and use the sink, like draining cooking water or cleaning veg. It’s for convenience but I’ve seen them get a bit gross and most younger people I know don’t have them. I have known bad things to go through letterboxes especially for businesses… but someone who wants to get something in your house will find a way -open window/break the window etc If you have a dog then they might eat your Mail haha. I don’t know if she mentioned but even if you are in a flat/apartment the postman still brings it up the stairs to your door. Cottages and houses with names sometimes have numbers if on busier towns but only if there is a lot of homes on the road.
I'm in Kent, UK and when it comes to Amazon deliveries I get most items next day. I believe it depends on which warehouse an item is stored. I ordered some items at 11pm last night and one of them is coming today and the rest tomorrow. As for homes being named - the reason why postmen know where to deliver is that post codes refer to relatively small areas. Sometimes a street may have more than one postcode. Public transport in the country depends very much on how good the local authority is. If you have a decent one then you'll probably have a regular, but infrequent bus service.
The postcode is much more accurate than zip codes. They cover less than half a mile. So the house name, then the street/road, then village/town/city, and then county, and then the postcode. This gives them a pretty good idea even in rural areas. If they aren't in a village they'll normally be something like 'farm', or 'cottage' in the name so the postie know what to look for as the drive down the road. In Wales it even easier as lots of the rural house names, like 'tan Y coed' meaning under the trees, give you a description. 🙂
Yes I live in a small village in a rural part of England, East England to be exact, and we have an excellent bus service, it runs hourly to the local town, then from the town buses run every 15 minutes to the nearest city that is 25 miles away. They also run other bus services that link the local outlying villages.
We went camping in Dartmoor and the site was on a very rural road. The owner told us that even though there was no bus stop, if we stood at the gate and put our hands out the driver would stop for us, which he did. A very hair raising ride followed as the double decker hurtled along the road with branches whipping at the windows. If something large like a lorry was coming the other way the driver didn't slow down at all and for a split second everyone on board would stop talking and hold their breath! He certainly got us to our destination in double quick time though.
Rural public transport is not as good as in some other European countries (Switzerland is probably the apogee) but it is light years ahead of the USA. Most small towns (down to about 5000 people) will have at least a bus service to the nearest big town or city running hourly from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday - and many villages will have several buses a day, especially if they are on main roads and so can be served by buses running through on a longer route. Buses are particularly well used by older people - pensioners get free bus travel across the country* outside of the morning peak hours. Some smaller villages may only get buses one or two days a week but it's rare to find any that have no service at all. There are also rural areas popular with tourists and hikers that have buses running at weekends and/or during the summer only to bring people in from nearby towns and cities and get them around the area. * only applies to whichever of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland they live in. House names rather than numbers usually only applies in villages or on streets with lots of older houses, or very rural areas where there are only isolated houses. Sometimes new houses might get a name but no number if they are built on a street where every other house has a name. The address will usually include a street name as well as the house name, except in some _very_ small villages. There are lots of people who give their house a name because they thing it makes them sound posher or richer to live in a named house, even if their _official_ address is a house number.
Letterboxes typically have a flap either side and a row of bristles in the middle which makes it slightly harder to put anything that isn't letter shaped through it. Quite a few people do have mailboxes on the outside of the house but it's often because they have a dog and dog want destroyed mail. I've seen a couple of those rural American style mailboxes but they're really novelty and usually decorative only.
Letter boxes have been used for arson , or nuisance attacks but it's very rare . They are in full view of the street . Post codes are pretty accurate , down to very small groups of houses . The washing up bowl is handy , it protects the main sink and whatever you are using it for , allows you to mix not and cold water and gives the option of using it for the garden or patio when you have finished .
The majority of people don’t have dishwashers. The plastic bowl stops dishes from getting chipped against the sink, it also means you use less water. Also the main sink is possibly used to wash clothing or dirty boots or other stuff but the washing up bowl is clean.
Love seeing your videos, it really makes me look at things from a different perspective. Never really thought about it, but I can get 2 trains and be in Paris or Brussels from where I live. Europe is on our doorstep with so much culture and history, that we take for granted. Have a great time with your family!
I live in the middle of England and can get same day delivery from Amazon on certain products. We use a washing up bowl so you can pour the slops down the sink and not into your clean water.
The letterbox has a flap on the other side of the door which would make it quite difficult for someone to pour something into the property because it would have to go through the depth of the door and you would have to keep both flaps open at the same time as trying to pour something through! It doesn’t happen over here. I was actually surprised at how excited you got about the produce prices. A quid is one pound. And 100 pennies make a pound seeing as you were trying to work it out 😮
Yeh if your in a rough area you can just screw it shut on the other side and fit an external letterbox .we had to do these on council jobs when the houses were empty to stop arson and junk mail
i've had some letter boxes with brushes in the centre, fairly sure they are to stop the wind from flapping them open as i've only seen them on doors exposed to a lot of wind. but i'd imagine it would make pouring something in practically impossible, or even putting something that's on fire through it too. still never met anyone that's had something nasty posted through there letter box though i've heard in the news on occasion.
a family friend used to live in a house called "the elephant and castle", It wasn't hard to find, it was the only house in the village with a huge statue (10foot tall) in the front garden of an elephant with a castle on its back 😮
The bus situation has been true and I've had many a countryside holiday or day out based on getting around on buses. Sadly the last 2 years has changed this dramatically in the countryside and cities. Both the services and the state of the roads are deteriorating rapidly.
It would be something like Tide cottage Newton St Loe Bath Ba2 TPX Because each street has a unique postcode so finding the cottage in a village with a postcode unique to its street would make it much easier. I have never seen a mail box in England, neither in the city or in countryside not even on large farms.
It just sounds so charming, though! I think people in the UK cannot see sometimes how they have all sorts of things that are just somehow "radioactive with Britishness", That is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. The rest of the world gets it, even if the inhabitants don't. It is just quirky, and don't even mention the taps!
In the Netherlands if you buy something from a store before 11:00 pm you get it next day at home, post service is that good. Even if you buy in Amazon or what ever, except if is coming from China ofcourse...
Post is easily delivered anywhere (even with names rather than numbers) because the average number of properties in any postcode is 8. Yes, you read that right. The UK has a different postcode for each street and most streets have many many postcodes. A small street will have 1 postcode but a long street will have a different postcode for each 100yds. Each apartment building has its own postcode as does each office building. This is because the UK uses alpha-numerical postcodes (e.g. E12 4PK) meaning they can have millions of iterations. The first section is for the district and the second section is for the building or section of street. So addresses do not need to be totally clear, if they have a postcode, the mailman will find them easily.
The whole of my UK street of about 36 houses all have the same postcode and I have been told this is not uncommon. When I put my address on the back of something going abroad I will put my name, the house number and the postcode for the street/town ,then UK
@@gillcawthorn7572it’s not that common, but I’ve lied in a street where that was the case. Most small streets have two postcodes, one for even numbers, ones for odd. Either way, a postcode only need the house number , and hey presto , post will get to you
In small villages, I would say that it is uncommon for houses to have numbers. Growing up, my house was called "Lyndhurst", there was no number. It is easy for mail workers when there are only 10 houses on that street. Remember, we don't have long streets with thousands of houses like America does. There are some very common names for houses such as "The Manor House", "The Rectory", "Rose Cottage". They're often named after something that makes them distinctive, hence naming it after a type of flower is commonly seen.
I believe the first digits on American numbering refers to the block number, e.g. 20103 would be house number 103 on block 20. It works like hotel room numbers starting with the floor numbers.
To a Brit having your mail delivered "outside" your house is a really bad idea. Thieves here take every opportunity to steal accessible mail, in search of credit cards and personal details. When I lived in an apartment the lobby door was often broken open to get at the mail. With the increase in online shopping, more people are installing armoured boxes for larger mail. As you usually have to go to the Post Office to collect undelivered mail.
We used to and still do in certain household's have pottery sinks. When the plastic bowls came out it was to protect the pots we washed in the Belfast pot sinks, and we have just carried it on.
Sink bowl is like a bumper on your car, you accidentally drop your plate in, the bowl is like a cushion to stop it smashing on the sink itself. House names get their name on building them, but you can change names later, you just have to register it with the post office. But the address will come with the street name and postcode, you normally the get the same postal worker working the same route daily, so they will become familiar on the house locations/roads. Some people do have post boxes on the front of their property, they have them so they can have a solid front door to increase insulation and security. Their boxes will be key locked.
I subscribe to both of you guys, so funny watching you both at the same time. I always find the US mailboxes really weird, as anyone could just take your mail or do they have locks on them? Funny your immediate thought was that people would put horrible things in your letterbox - think that's more on you and your expectations of people generally!
You can apply for indefinite leave to remain after 3 years (more chance after 5). You can then apply for citizenship 1 year after getting that. I would say overall between 5 and 7 years total.
Washing up bowls are plastic, rather than the metal or ceramic of the sink, so glass items are less likely to break. Also, the small sink next to the main one which is used to pour water or liquids down is a relatively modern invention. Most houses did not have them. So having the plastic bowl creates a space by the side of the bowl where you can rinse items out - it creates a second space
The washing up bowl stops the plates chinking on the metal or porcelain sink. When you don't have much kitchen space you can stop your washing up partway through and lift out the bowlful to use the tap or the sink for something else. An example would be someone else needs to wash their hands, fill a kettle or wash some vegetables when the washing up takes too long. Also you can lift out and carry the waste water to your garden to water plants or fill the water butt for reuse in the garden.
14:32 A washing up bowl protects the sink from sharp objects but also protects your delicate items from the hard sink, its a lot easier to chip a plate against metal or porcelain vs some type of plastic etc. It also helps to save water, older sink spaces were large and you didn't have a built in water heater and so you would need to boil the water on a stove, the bowl can be any size where as the sink is a fixed size. Then you can also use it to transport the water elsewhere when finished with it, not very common to reuse water these days or need to save space for heating water, but traditions stick around and right now the main reason I use a bowl is I keep it on the side, pre wash items to remove food etc and put them in the bowl, then later I will rinse everything at once under very hot water. It saves me time and keeps things tidy
A lot of these experiences on the US side seem to be regional. For example, I grew up in New Jersey and also lived in Los Angeles. We had a mail slot growing up, used a dish "tub" for dishes given that we had a large kitchen sink, and we receive Amazon packages same day or next day.
The bowl in the sink probably is due to someone realising that if the dishes are in the bowl you can remove them to use the sink for draining vegetable water etc Also used to protect dishes from hard sink materials that are more likely to chip or break dining sets
I'm a postman in the UK. We do have houses with names, but they will have a house number too. So it might be "The Railway House" No. 10 - Station Road. So most of the time, you know where the place is because it will be in the correct order when you are preparing your letters for delivery. But on occasion you do just have to know where the house is. Common sense helps, if you have a row of houses then one big house by itself, the big house is probably the one with the name (not always though.) - With you mail boxes. Most houses have slots (letter boxes) in the door. But becoming more common are mail boxes attached to the wall outside the house. They don't look like the American ones (though you do occasionaly get them), they look more like square boxes which are common in continental Europe. People tend to use these if they have dogs, since there is a real risk of getting your fingers bitten off when delivering a letter through a letter box!
Our dogs (golden retrievers) love the postie. The postie told me that he likes saying hello to them. But we wouldn't let the dogs in the garden if they were vicious and the post was due.
The nice thing about our letterboxes is that you private mail is safe within your property out of the wind and weather and not stuck at the edge of your property on a wooden pole.
Im not sure whether this is quite as frequent as it used to be, but the Royal Mail would even still try to deliver letters without the address, where someone would put the persons name and vague area, with perhaps directions or a landmark near to the property, and they might still get it. The Postal service is suffering in the modern world of email and so many delivery services, and the workers are under a lot more pressure, but they still have an investigative team who will try to find out how to get it there. The Guardian newspaper ran a story last year about some very obscure ones that still got to who they were meant for! The article headline is Lives across from the Spar’: bizarrely labelled letter finds way to UK address If anyine is curious just how obscure some of the directions were!
We didn't know the number of our friend's house when we sent a postcard on holiday. So we just put "The house next to the electric substation, opposite the Victoria pub" and it got there 😂
Re: public transport in Britain, remember the whole place is the size of Alabama, is more compact, densely populated in general and public transportation systems were developed during the Industrial Revolution between. 1750 to mid 1800's (London's underground subway system was the 1st in the world).There is extensive public transport throughout the UK and even quite small towns have train stations.Buses do run in rural areas,albeit on a more limited schedule. This naming of houses rather than a # is not common in large urban areas.Yes,it is common in small villages.Names have been in place for 100 or more years.Often 200+ plus. Everyone has mail slots in front door.Don't project American crime paranoia! People are not afraid of poisons and letter bombs being delivered in UK.
You can have a box on the wall by your door. you can have a cage attached to the door that catches the mail. Also, you can put a gadget so people can put things through your letter box, especially if you go one holiday You have to live in uk for five years to become a citizen and not have broken any immigration laws. a washing up bowl, it uses less water, and there 16:08 are no scratches in your sink and the water can go on your plants if they have pests also the small sink you can have a basket with holes and wash yours veg and drain them
Number of Reasons for a washing up bowl 1. transportable some people will use it for washing and peeling their vegetables to which you can then easily take the peelings to the waste or compost 2. allows for other liquids that might contaminate your washing up water to be drained away 3. no chance of accidental pulling the plug out draining your water 4. most common uk kitchen sinks dont have built in waste disposal so the bowl helps minimise the risk of debris going down the plug and blocking the pips
Most of the benefit of washing bowls come with the lack of a second sink, or split sink. If your only sink is full of dishes and water, its hard to use the sink for anything else like washing vegetables. With a bowl, you can lift it out. Id also say fewer people have dishwashers, so theres more of a chance of plates and cups etc accumulating in the sink during the day, to be washed later.
The slot in the door for the post to come through, is called a, "letterbox", as mentioned early in the lady's video. We also have a "postbox" which is a box on the side of the road, or on a pavement, where you can put your sending letters in that will be collected by postal workers. Some people may have a separate box attached to the wall of the house, which would eliminate a slot in the door through which heat can escape - particularly if the person posting a letter or newspaper, leaves it half-way through instead of pushing it all the way. Often, the post simply drops onto the floor but, you can also have a box or cage, useful for keeping your post away from pets. There is an implied right of access onto someone else's property for the purposes of posting something through the door, or to knock/ring the bell. But, if there is a gate that is locked, you cannot enter and doing so is trespass; in those cases, there is usually a slot near the gate to post letters into. House names... yes, this is a thing and generally for older or rural properties. Whilst there's nothing stopping you putting a plaque up on your door with a name on, it's not a legal name so shouldn't be included in a postal address. For those rural addresses, it could be something like "Gamekeeper's Cottage, Little Villageinthemiddleofnowhere, near Sometown, ". So, the postal system will use the postcode to get to a rough locality getting the items to a local office, and from there, the final delivery's made. In cities, postcodes can narrow to a very small geographic area (even down to a few homes on a road), or out in the countryside, a small number of properties but in a larger area.
My house has a name and a number. The name was registered with the Post Office almost 100 years ago and I receive mail addressed to me at either the name or the number of the house. No problems at all. Address is "House name", "Village", "Post code". Simple as that.
I can't imagine washing up without a plastic bowl. Why would you put the plates and glasses THAT YOU EAT FROM into the same sink that you fill your bucket for washing the floor? How do you not continually break glasses on the hard steel or ceramic sink? Where do you put the slops? Why do you need a whole sink full? Far less water wasted using a smaller bowl.
Next day? How slow lol. But seriously there are occasions that it is possible to get same day delivery (not necessarily just Amazon but places such as Argos)
Mailslots exist all over the US. Often in older homes. I'm not saying they're common by any means, but they exist. There's even one in the movie "Scream 4". This is more a case of Steve being sheltered than them not existing in America.
Mail slots are usually in more dense cities in the US, I think. The only time I had one was when I lived in a row home in Washington DC. In that neighborhood, I felt safer having my mail drop directly into my entryway than a mail box where some local pranksters might grab its contents just to be destructive.
As a Brit its so interesting watching this because all our things make so much sense to us but i can see why they would seem weird if you dont have them😅. The letterbox thing, ive never heard of anyone using one for anything dodgy. It probably does happen(?) but it would be extremely rare. It isnt actually something ive ever thought or worried about. I love my washing up bowl because once or twice a week i put it in the dishwasher and my sink is still quite clean underneath! My childhood home was called Ivy Cottage, it was over 400 years old and had ivy growing all over the exterior walls, i dont know when it was named but it had definitely been called that for a long time. Our house now is newer, i think about 50 years old maybe, and we have named it since we moved in. When you write the address it goes house name or number, road name, town/city, county, postcode. I have always travelled loads and so has everyone i know, ive been all over europe, over to Australia and the states, it is much easier to get around in europe, like a couple of years ago my partner and i decided to have a weekend away so we flew to Amsterdam, it took 50 minutes and we were back in time for work on monday lol. And yes, public transport is very accessible. I grew up in a tiny village, we didnt even have a shop or a doctors surgery or anything- just a pub and a small primary school and other than that it was just some houses and farmland. We had a bus station outside the pub that could take us to all the nearby towns, that was how i got to my secondary school as a teen and how i went shopping or to the cinema with my friends at the weekend.
Brits dont normally go around putting stuff in someones letterbox to kill them etc! To become a British Citizen you need to study our history & then sit an exam. If you pass you are invited to a special presentation ceremony & make the allegiance. We have a NY friend who married a Brit, lived here for several years before doing the history study. She found it hard as there are no guidelines as to what you need to know. Sometimes its quite trivial questions. She passed her exam & about 4 months later had her ceremony.
I find it so sad that an American immediately thinks that something like a letterbox could be used to harm them!!! Why would anyone want to harm you?!!!!!! It must be nerve-racking to live in the U.S.A.
I tend to agree with you, the vast majority of people have no intention of sticking anything malicious/dangerous through your letterbox. Yes there are instances of people who have done something untoward or malicious, but generally as you say people don't normally have that mindset that someone could or would want to cause harm to them via a letterbox.
Nothing I watch in these type of channels would ever make want me to go live in the USA!
I'm from northern Ireland and people pour petrol through them and set fire to your house
Woulnt live in america if ybpayed me unless I was very rich
I heard a story once of a phantom hotdog mail dropper. Every now and then someone would post a hotdog in to the letterbox of every house down a street.
It caused a neighborhood hotdog watch.
Very rare someone does something malicious through a letterbox, your more likely to get in a car crash.
The use of washing bowls in sinks is historical, in the past UK houses had big deep ceramic sinks often referred to as butler or Belfast sinks. These are large enough to hand wash laundry, even bathe a small child, the downside is they took a long time to fill and wasted water. Therefore it was common practice to use a smaller washing bowl inside the sink for dishes, preparing veg, etc. Another reason was to protect fragile china and glass from damage caused by the hard ceramic surface. While stainless steel sinks have replaced the ceramic sinks many people still use bowls for minor kitchen tasks as it conserves water plus the grey water can be used to water garden plants.
There were also very shallow rectangular brown sinks just about five inches high, 20 inches deep and almost three feet wide, called “slopstones”. Most Victorian terraced small two up two down houses, with outside toilet but no bathroom, were built with these rectangular sinks already installed in a kitchen floored with flagstones. They were very commonplace even in the 1950’s when I was growing up. My own home had a kitchen like this. We kept a white metal enamelled bowl in this sink (I’d never even seen a plastic bowl in those days) so that we could wash dishes there or even use a similar metal bowl to wash ourselves. The slopstones were very useful to stand a toddler in for a sloshy wash down or even when we washed the dog (no need for the bowl then). The slopstone was replaced by the white butler sink in the 1960’s.
I wouldn't want to put soapy water on plants.
Why not,I'm a gardener and do it regularly
@webbsfan1 As far as I was aware it adjusted the PH of the soil and was also harmful to the leaves if it got on them. I think you can make weed killer using it.
Not soapy water,you can also use it as a spray against aphids and such.
In the U.K. the Royal Mail have a legal responsibility to deliver direct to your door. So, if your home is at the end of a 5 mile track, they have a long journey…
Also, as we invented postage stamps, we’re the only country in the world that doesn’t have the name of the country on our stamps. 😊
As part of its universal service obligation, Royal Mail must deliver to every address in the UK, every Monday to Saturday. But for some addresses, it is not possible for Royal Mail to deliver mail right up to the door.......
I’m an ex postman the service not only goes to the door and letterbox but it must be pushed through so that the letters can’t be pulled back out and stolen
@@bertieballs😂😂
We also have postcodes like your zip codes.
unfortunately quite a few arsons have been caused by people pouring through letterboxes in the uk, people have lost their lives.
I never thought the humble letterbox would be such a surprising thing to someone. Equating finding the mail on the floor as "magic" XD
just wait until they find out that some houses do have outdoor mailboxes(sometimes in a driveways brick wall) but they are just a letter box in the wall with a metal box to hold the mail :P
US curbside mailboxes are so small they fill up way too quickly. In the UK you can bugger off for weeks on end and the mail will accumulate behind the front door forever. In the US the post office will only hold the mail for you for 30 days which does me no good as I'm often away for months on end back home in the UK. Once the curbside box is full they stop delivering and return to sender. Which is shit if you're expecting a cheque while away. So the letterbox is far superior to a mailbox. The problems of living in 2 countries. As a Brit living in the US and the UK it annoys me immensely that the switches and outlets are upside down in the US although I do like driving on the right. Try finding a pork pie in the US.
If you watch the first Harry Potter film you can see some of the Hogwarts letters go through the letterbox.
You'll also see that our chimneys are multi purpose and work as a secondary postbox. Owl post can be unreliable.
LOL
Talking about Harry Potter the bus drivers leave a bit to be desired especially the night ones.
I think that’s just a you problem, I’ve never had any issues with owl post in 20+ years
Never in a million years would I have even considered that someone might put poison through my letterbox.
I think this says quite a lot about his world view!
I think it's just Americans paranoia, it's like when they say they keep a gun in their house for protection in case anyone breaks in. If they're breaking in they're doing it to steal your TV, not kill you 😂
More likely to be excrement. But I remember at least one incident of setting a fire through the letterbox.
The only reason I would use a washing up bowl is if I had a sink that could easily get scratched by pans. Dishwashers are still not in every home in the UK, my dad and two younger sisters don’t have one. These days with the material used in modern sinks, it’s not too much of an issue, so I don’t use one now, but I also have a dishwasher so wouldn’t be using the sink to wash day to day crockery/pans anyway.
Amazon Prime is generally either same day or next day delivery. Royal Mail post can also be guaranteed next day if you pay for it.
As for house names, anyone can use them but we would also have to use the number if it’s on a street with other houses. If the house is in the middle of nowhere, you probably would just have a name and not even have a number, but you would also have your own postcode that is just for your house, if you don’t have other houses close to you (there is generally a different postcode for each street/road in the UK, if it’s a long road you might have more than one postcode). So because of the postcode system it’s easy enough to find houses that just have a name in the UK.
Islam. Wake up.
FYI: if you put dirty dishes in the washing up bowl, then have a stack of dirty dishes, but want to use the sink, you can lift out the washing up bowl (and all the dirty dishes) - and boom! You have a clean empty sink to use to fill kettle, cook, fill pots with water etc 🤷🏽♀️ 😂 It's a habit dating back to pre-dishwasher
Exactly, pre-dishwhaser or couldn't afford one at the time
Exactly! Take out the pots& then put in water to peel the spuds & carrots etc then put the bowl back in!! Or as you say fill the kettle without dipping it in water 😂
pre-dishwasher? others can actually afford dish washers now a days? 😅 plus feels like another machine to keep clean/worry about breaking down.
@@lostindisorder dont pretend, you know we all have them.
Just cant afford to run them anymore :)
@@Muddflud We've never actually had one, I'm not too sure I know anyone that's ever had one either 😅 I know you need a big enough house to have an additional large appliance for starters.
I had to smile when you were talking about letterboxes. I’ve never had anything unwanted shoved through my letterbox. You can buy cages to fit over it if you have a letter eating dog.
Once had a lit firework shoved through the letterbox. We were having a party and it was done for a prank, so I shoved it back out again and held the letterbox shut until the idiot got bored and went away.
I have had something unwanted thought my letter box. A letter from the tax people,
@@da90sReAlvloc comment of the day. 😂
Years ago, I was looking after a dog for a couple of weeks. I also had a driving licence with teeth marks.
@@grahvis Yours or the dog’s?
The UK postcode is quite simple and each part narrows down the location of the property. The first part identifies the region, the numbers then identify the area within that region, then the last number and two letters pretty much identify the exact street. So. Having a name on the house really isn't an issue in the UK
Try delivering to house/cottages/highrise flats(named highrise's. Its a nightmare, rural areas are worse as a 1 postcode could stretch to a gd 2-4 mile radius. We have to rely on navigation experiance snd apps designed for building names. Ex ups driver 😂, it makes more sense in the country side as u dnt have rows of house that often but wen u get house name nd no numbers on normal residentail streets its becomes a vain to the job ;)
Was going to mention postcodes too, my house doesn’t have a number either however I use pickup points for Amazon, I don’t think the delivery driver even tries.
@@deanpainter8536 Exactly, we live in the hills above Loch Ness on the southside. All houses are named, and the postcode is well over 2 mile radius. As we live off the main road, we get a lot of lost delivery drivers.
As an English man I find these videos fascinating. It shows although we are practically cousins we are a lot different culturally.
I have ordered on Amazon and got the item the same day. Amazon normally delivers next day.
2 Nations divided by a common tongue George Bernard Shaw.
We call the "mail slot" a letter box. Just about every house in the UK has one. Years ago, I had to fit a box on the inside of our letter box to stop our dog from ripping up our mail when he got over excited.
I would like to buy one and fit it for my letter box, as I find it difficult to bend down and pick it up off the floor. Where do you get them from, and are they easy to fix? Bearing in mind I have the DIY skills of a 1 year old :-)
@@robcrossgrove7927 I made my own because at the time I was a self assembly furniture maker. At work I had all the machinery to do it. I beleive that you can buy a metal basket which you can screw onto the door. I'm not sure where you can get them, but there must be somewhere online.
@@robcrossgrove7927 I had a similar problem. I took a large shoe box (one where the lid is a flap) and cut a hole in the bottom, very slightly larger that my letterbox. I then doubled over duct tape (so it was like really strong double sided tape) and fixed it over the letterbox so the post falls inside and the lid is attached at the bottom. I then put another strip along the top and bottom for extra stability. Lastly, I put a split pin near the top of the lid and another on the top of the box so I could fasten it with a hairband. It lasted for years! All of this because I was too cheap to buy one of those letterbox cage things!😂😂 On the plus side, no screwdrivers required!😉😉
@@robcrossgrove7927 Argos and The Range sell letter box cages. They don't cost that much.
We had to get one because my husband was self employed and our dog was always ripping up his customer's cheques! 🙄
I can honestly say I've never worried someone might put something poisonous through my letterbox 😅
There's nothing more annoying than needing to use the sink and it's full of dishes so if the dishes are in the bowl you can just pull the bowl out of the sink
With the bills alone, that is poison enough.
I never use a washing up bowl , they are stupid.
The reason behind a washing up bowl is a good question , I’ve lived here since 1975 still don’t know
To keep the sink clean and to have a place that you wash your eating things in rather than the sink which all sorts goes in
I live in a rural area of Scotland, around 30 miles from the nearest decent sized town. We have a bus service that runs to the town every hour and another bus service that runs every 45 min between here and the two nearest villages. Not only that, but since I'm over 60, I can travel literally anywhere in Scotland on buses for free.
That pretty good, i line in England about 30 mins from nearest town and on a main road but only 1 bus runs through the village roughly once an hour but stops at about 6pm. there is another bus but it's rather erratic on its times and sometimes they cut it entirely if they don't think they will make the money. Still really handy to have though.
I have a lot of American friends, and I remember telling them about how good our public transport system is. But what blew them away the most, is when I told them we have WiFi and places to charge our phones on buses and trains, and sometimes the WiFi is free. Where I live the WiFi on all our buses is free~ 🙌🏼
in 51 years living in Scotland I've never feared someone putting poison through my letterbox. Now after watching this, I can't sleep at night!!! 😂
🤣😂😂🤣😂😂🤣😂🤣
😂😂😂 nor me 30 year in england nd never heard of such things, too mny cctv on houses nowadays
Shocked?
Surely the word she is looking for is surprised?
I’m fascinated that Americans find the idea of a letterbox so crazy, as it surely makes a lot more sense? Why would you want to walk to a mailbox outside? It makes sense for very rural areas, or neighbourhoods with a lot of long pathways, as I’m sure American postmen wouldn’t want to be trekking around forever. The U.K. benefits from having very close together houses in most places.
I’m from the US, I don’t know anyone with a mailbox. On the east coast of the US, we all mostly have letterboxes, even in the suburbs. You have to drive quite far out into the rural country to find homes with mailboxes. The point of the mailboxes are to make letter delivery quicker for the mail carriers in rural areas, so they drive right up to the mailboxes and out the mail in. I find it really odd that these 2 folks think the mail slots/letter boxes are a strange concept. And we don’t find our letterboxes/mail slots dangerous 😂.
As a family we lived in New Zealand, we had letterboxes almost on the road on our front lawn, the times we had soaking wet unreadable letters. My mum had to dry them out first, also my dad was a local postman there..on his bike.
Washing up bowl: Stops the sink being scratched over time. Also means you can tip liquids from cups etc into the sink and it will go down the drain without contaminating the washing up water.
Amazon: You can get next day delivery, even on a Sunday!
Sometimes same day delivery
Yes. This. Good!
Washing up bowl, other than safer for your crockery, you can re use water outside to water plants if you want. We reuse a lot of things in the UK, better for the planet.
For me it's two-fold. You don't need as much hot water for a bowl as for a sink and also, since the sink is often stainless steel and the bowl plastic, the same amount of water will stay hot for longer in the bowl. You can also empty the bowl directly into an outside drain and avoid blocking pipes with waste food from the washing up, or use it to water plants in the garden. And if you have the washing machine running you avoid having the risk of it deciding to pump water out at the same time as you empty the sink (in my experience the typical UK kitchen shares one outflow pipe for all waste water).
Exactly!
I think the mail thing shows the difference in the 'fear factor' of living in the US versus the UK - I live in the UK, have always had a letterbox and it would never enter my head about "poisonous" or dangerous stuff being put through my letterbox - why would someone do that?
I live in the US, I have always had a letter box. Everyone I know has a letter box. I am not afraid of my letter box. I don’t know a single person who is afraid of their letter box.
for the same reasons why your first thoughts about having mail box might be that people steal your shit, humans recognise issues first, a sisters ex threatened to put fire through our letterbox and it is something that happens
@@NostalgiaVivecThe letterbox is for convenience, not security.
You forget we don't have meth here in the UK
@@difficultr we do have spice heads and smack heads tho
Dude, we love what you do, and if you put family first, that just emphasises why we really enjoy you, your family, videos and wholesome vid
Hi Steve. I used to be a bus driver and drove rural routes. At least town to town but through rural villages and so on. Certainly got to see the countryside. Some 'villages' only comprised of half a dozen or so houses which we call Hamlets.
In Northern Ireland we usually refer to Hamlets as Townlands
Many of the cottages in the UK, especially in rural areas, have had their names for centuries. Long before our postal service began.
Well, what about this!. Four of us went on a two-week trip to Kenya, one-week diving and another on Safari, we were in the middle of the Masai, and our driver pulled up in a little village so the girls could get some trinkets, my mate and I were kicking up the dust waiting for them to come out, and what seemed like a 7ft Masai warrior as thin as a pencil came over and started listening to us talking in our broad Yorkshire accent, he asked in perfect English where we came from, my mate said "Bradford" he asked me and I said you will never know it a place called Alverthorpe in Yorkshire, he said ah yes I have been in the Blue Light pub there, my local WHAT!, He had stayed in the next village while he went to Huddersfield University.
Small World.
Wow, small indeed I bet you were stunned
I’m from Leeds 😊😊
I have also been to Kenya on holiday.
I spoke to a Scottish couple and asked where in Scotland they came from.
It's a small place you will never have heard of Port Seaton.
They were shocked when I said yep know it. Just down the road from musselburgh. It's where my parents walked out on dates.
So yep small world
I used to work in a newsagents and one of thr guys working in estate agents came in asking for stamps. He wrote a cheque out and I said the surname is very unusual, he said my fiancée family is from Ireland. I said the place and he was like how do you know that. I asked him if he knew someone called Syd and he's like that's my fiancée uncle. He was like how do you know this, said Syd is my father. I ended up going to Lincolnshire for their wedding with the rest of the family. Small world right.
Thanks for sharing that. It's a lovely story.
We have a lot of local bus services. Living in rural Scotland and over 60, I'm given a national bus pass, which allows me to use any bus and quite a few long distance coach services in Scotland for free. Small buses, such as 14-18 seater minibuses are quite adequate for many rural bus routes here. Most areas also have volunteer driver Community Bus services fully funded by fares which can also be rented by local clubs, groups and schools for trips.
My son is disabled and can use buses anywhere for free too.
@@cyflym11 I love my disabled bus pass. When my dad was in hospital long term I was able to visit him every week even though he lived 3 hours away and I never would have been able to without my pass.
As a newspaper delivery boy in the UK in the 80's when newsprint was king, letter boxes in house front doors was a thing of beauty and horror. The Daily Observer and its colour supplement had to be fed through section by section which took ages, but to add to the drama if the house had a dog especially a terrier the paper would be shredded.
I feel your pain. The last door on my rounds on a Sunday with the Times. They had the smallest letterbox you can imagine and it felt like I was putting pages at a time. Plus the fact having to carry all it around my entire round was a pain but at least they tipped well.
The worst letterbox was the small vertical with the spring loaded flap
....and many a Crossword was done.
@@craigbirks7075Yep, would snap your poor fingers! Hated those! Eventually learned how to open and close it very, very carefully!
Oh gods, yes!
reason for having a washing up bowl is so that you can save water when you wash up, you tend to break less porcelain dishes, and you can drain whilst washing up
Steve, as a retired postman I can confirm that most houses in the UK do have a letterbox built into either the door itself or the surrounding walls, although in some rural areas that have houses with long paths or driveways, some residents will make another provision to keep their letters and small packages dry and semi secure, for example I had a house on one of my routes who used an old ammo box wired onto their farm gate for small items and an old filing cabinet for anything larger. In the event that someone else is temporarily put on to our route to cover planned absence, we used to leave notes for our replacements and other posties who work alongside us will also give the cover men helpful hints where necessary. As for the practice of naming houses you are correct in saying that the general practice is to use both the house name and the number alongside the street name and the post code ( British zip code) to maximise deliveries to the correct recipient. In addition we work a system of 5 days over 6 with a progressive day off and we have a regular cover delivery man who works 5 different routes every week so he learns the routes as well. Some posties work their routes for years over and become so familiar with the families that we know them and their special days such as birthdays and anniversaries.
In addition to the information about transportation in the rural areas there are also community buses that are used to help people get to appointments and sometimes they have a day or two scheduled to take their customers in to the larger shopping centres and supermarkets. In some areas that are really remote there is a Postbus Service that not only carries the mail out to the farms but can also be flagged down just like a taxi service, but it can take extra time to make a journey because the delivery of the mail has priority, in general the Postbus makes circular journeys twice a day once outwards and once inwards but they aren’t available in all areas and their timings can be very flexible so they tend to be used mainly by local people as opposed to the general public and visitors to their area’s.
Thank you for your service and wearing shorts no matter the weather x
Back over 50 years ago, I was one of the many students who got a temporary job before Xmas as a Relief Postie. This was in the smallish town of Lanark - about 6000 population then. The regular posties were a fount of knowledge about the folk who lived in the town and countryside round about, even if they were recent incomers. Before we went out on deliveries we had to sort the mail into the different delivery rounds. A typical exchange would be, "One here fore Granny Jean, Lanark. Any ideas. A cry from across the sorting office, "What's the postmark?" "Looks like Alberta, Canada. Cannae mak oot the toon." A few seconds pause then, "Och, that'll be Jeannie Ferguson, xx Hindmarch Street. That's from her niece." The last mail from elsewhere would arrive about 1600 on Christmas Eve and we did a final sort and delivery of that with the aim of getting everything to the recipients by about 2100. There was a 'Dead Mail Box' for undeliverable mail but there were rarely more than half a dozen items in it even after the Christmas deluge. It was a point of honour among the regular posties to find the right person to receive it. Your mail wouldn't sit in the 'Dead Mail' even if you were actually dead because the posties would know who the solicitor responsible for the will was and often even the executors!
I'd done the Xmas mail in my final year at school and so I knew our own postie well when the time came to get a place at a University. I'd already got acceptances from Strathclyde and Glasgow but still hadn't heard from the one I really wanted - Dundee. I met the postie when I was on the way to catch the train to school and he shouted to me across the road. "Bob! I've got that Dundee Acceptance!" That puzzled me a bit. "How d'ye know it's an acceptance, Jimmy?" "Och, that's easy. If it's a 'NO' then it's a wee letter. Yours is a big wan wi' a' the bumph an' forms that you've got to read now."
I bet loads of folk thought they had all sorts of secrets but they reckoned without the Posties!
Well a key thing with the names (even without street names on the address) is that the postcode doesn’t actually cover that many properties (20?) so as you sort into your frames it’d become apparent without the street name.
I work in developing new properties and Royal Mail are pretty strict on rejecting similar house names even on different streets in the locality.
Eg recently tried to name a house “The Laurels” (rejected because there was a house with the name Laurels as an addition to its number about 7 houses down on the road the close with this house was off … so separate postcode but probably less than a third of a mile away) and “The Oaks” (rejected because there was an Oakridge in the same postcode) - so had to go with “Woodside”
Also - Ireland was even worse. Only brought in postcodes a few years ago (although they are literally unique for each tax registered property - some houses have 2 as the side door used to be a granny annex) and one of the plus points was “avoid confusion when people have the same name in the same rural area” … apparently if they just had the name and area the postman would deliver to the oldest, who’d read it and say “not for me” before handing it back 😂.
A story I heard about postmen knowing the route was someone at work posted a birthday card to her dad at his brother’s house in Ireland where he was staying for a few weeks. It arrived back saying “no such person at this address” and when she told her mum she was told “well you should have written c/o Brother, otherwise the postman knows your dad doesn’t live there and would have just sent it straight back before delivery”
@@paulebroderick, actually the number of properties that are covered by each postcode, is infinitely variable, for example my own property has the same code for the entire street, on the odd side it is numbered from one to twenty seven, with one block of four flats, but the even side starts at number four and ends at number forty four. There are no missing numbers and no empty spaces. It all comes down to house sizes and the density of construction. Other streets nearby there are streets that have only fifteen properties in total but the road that connects these streets on its even numbered side it is numbered from 32 to 564 but the odd side only has a small number of properties due to the presence of a former mill, a large school grounds, a police station and various other public and commercial properties. There are also some properties in the same district that are so large that they have to have multiple postcodes to enable the post office to handle the correspondence that is received for what is just one large property, so your estimate of 20 properties sharing gone post code is wildly inaccurate.
Washing up bowl is used for a few reasons. 1, It uses less water than if you used the sink. 2, If you are washing up your dishes and you want to use the sink for something else (Cleaning your boots, washing clothes or say a large dirtier object) you can lift the bowl out and put it on the side.
Also helpful to pour the remainder of my tea into the sink, before putting in the washing up bowl.
On our letterboxes, verses your mailboxes near the end of your property, the incidence of nasty stuff through our letter boxes is much lower than you guys having your mail stolen out of the mailbox. Only reason we might put a mail catching cage in the inside of the door is to stop dogs ripping up the post lol
". . . ripping up the post lol." or to stop the same dog that rips up letters ripping up the postman's hand.
I used to deliver, leaflets0. The worst dogs t i think are those little Jack Russel terriers.
They hear you coming and just sit there quiet as a mouse, staring at the letterbox. Then just as the juucy looking fingers of the postie appear -- bark, bark, bark, bark, bite bite bite bite, snarl etc. There the ;property own0er opens the door and they are holding the little b----r in their arms like a baby
"oh" " they say "you mustn't mind, he's like that with everyone"
And I'm 'like ""yes madam, of course" sorry to have troubled you
One more thing, just a quibble but pity your postie, The number of high security letterboxes that are just heavy, awkward, narrow bent at 180 degrees etc. And you've got to get "do not bend or fold" materials through or ring thee doorbell. which takes ages." I swear some hoem owners would put spikes on the inside. To feel a bit safer
oh the joys of thr british front door letterrbox. you Amercans are lucky..
@@ukwhitewitch II apologise. I hav Parkinson's disease adnd i fdo makke aa lot of typos.
I genuinnely didn't thinkk it was all thart b bad. I'l try to edit it today.
I feel a little bit bad for letttting Team UK down as it weere.
@@ukwhitewitch Please. don't be. It's slays god to get criticism and feedback. As long ss it is honest and well intended..
You were standing up , politel;tly, for what yopu thought was true in defence of our Ameerracn hossts eho you thought were bei vg misserved by a cokunbrtryman.
good for you. hip huraah
and so on.
The reason we in the UK have a washing up bowl ( plastic) within a washing up bowl ( usually stainless steel (sinks, we call them) is in my opinion that you don't use as much water in a bowl thus saving the over usage of water
My sink came with a basket which fitted very snugly into it. The sink is made from moulded polypropylene (Astracast) and I was told the plastic basket inside was there to protect crockery from getting chipped, hitting against the sides of the sink as you wash. I didn't use it, which might explain all the chipped plates over the years.
Exactly! You don't chip your crockery if you wash up in a plastic bowl.
@@bethiakittifyAnd if you need to clear your sink very fast, just whip out the bowl, set it on the side, fill the kettle without dipping it in dishwater, then lift your washing-up bowl back in.
I find it so endearing that you have such a passionate interest in the UK.
My fiancé is from Denmark and we are working on getting him a UK visa to come and live here with me. We are going the spousal visa route, so we plan to get married before he can actually apply for it. He would have to live here and renew the visa once, and then after that he can apply for indefinite leave to remain after 5 years. So maybe that gives you some idea of time frames? It's a hugely complicated process. The best thing you could do is speak to a lawyer who specialises in immigration for appropriate information based on your own circumstances!
The Royal Mail first encouraged homeowners to have letterboxes installed at their homes in 1849. Boxes were also installed at post offices in the 19th century. The oldest letter box that still exists in the UK is now located at the Wakefield Museum and is dated 1809.
Before the national introduction of the penny post in May 1840, people outside London had to pay to *receive* their mail, not to post it. So there was no call for a letter box. People tried the scam that if they got a letter from an individual, that was the signal, so they refused to pay for it, so it had to go back to the sender, which was a second signal. I don’t see therefore that outside London, which had a basic franked post before 1840, anyone could have had a letter box. That’s why they had the Postman’s Knock - the postman needed to collect the charge.
The address where the letter with the first penny black stamp was posted to the building that is next to me in Bedlington Northumberland
The name of a house is part of the address but the street name and postcode means it’s not that difficult to find. Often they are really old houses from earlier centuries which is why they’re not numbered. Also in the 50+ years I’ve been alive nothing untoward has ever been posted through my letterbox! 😊
Yes we mostly have letterboxs here. Maybe as a novelty some thing different we would have them in rural areas. Or maybe house is big difference from road. We now live in highrise flat apartment to you. And yes we still have letterboxs in our door.
Plastic bowls were largely used when you had a ceramic sink because crockery breaks easily with the slightest touch against the sink.
I'm an American who has been living in the UK for over 40 years. The history of the washing up bowl comes from the time before "mixer taps" (faucets) were common in UK kitchens. The idea was you would fill up your bowl with soap and water from both taps to get the appropriate temperature soapy water, in which to soak and wash your dishes. Of course these days most UK homes have mixer taps in their kitchens, and frankly I would say that now a days a majority of people here use dishwashers.
You do realize that a sink can also be filled from two separate taps, right? I don't understand why you think a bowl would be beneficial for this.
Washing up bowls are a thing for two main reasons: historically a lot of kitchens had HUGE sinks, and filling them with water was wasteful and took a long time. Also, a lot of kitchens still only have a single sink, so if its full of washing up water, you can't pour anything down the drain. Washing in a bowl allows things to be drained in the gap at the side.
Personally I've never liked washing up bowls and have thankfully had kitchens with double sinks.
@@vitalspark6288 I thought it was to protect china plates from chipping when it comes into contact with the hard sink surfaces, as plastic is kinder to crockery. I might be wrong but I'm quite sure that is how it was explained when I bought the sink and the basket came with it.
Most people like myself either cnt afford a dishwasher or nt enuff room loool wud luv one tho
@@deanpainter8536used to have one when I had a family but now in a retirement bungalow on my own do😊 no need one
Not need one
I spent a whole summer in England and had to rely on public transportation for all travel. It was great, and I even went into rural areas by bus. It was great!
We call it public transport
It certainly does apply to flats. Postmen deliver mail to every dwelling through letterboxes. You can buy a metal cage so that mail does not drop to the floor indoors. A few large houses sometimes have a letterbox inserted into a wall surrounding the property. These are few and far between. Washing up bowls prevent the sink being scratched, and helps prevent glasses breaking if you drop it into the bowl (as opposed to dropping it in the sink). Plus it's a hygiene issue.
My mum has a little vintage letterbox in the wall by her gates purely because it looks cute as hell but it has a sign saying 'not a real postbox', the amount of letters she posts for people who drop them in there is insane, she's essentially a postman now hahahaha
Plastic washing up bowls have multiple benefits. Firstly, filling it up to wash rather than leaving the tap running saves water. Secondly, plastic is a good insulator so the water starts warm as well as being less noisy and damaging to glasses etc. Also for homes without the double sink, you can rinse away down the side of the bowl without dirtying/cooling the soap water for washing. Also slightly easier to dispose of food considering uk homes don’t have garbage disposal units like the US
I know nobody who still uses a plastic bowl in a sink or who has double taps in their house in the UK.
@JohnnyZenith good for you, you want a medal for that? loads of people still have them
Your first point. Ever heard of a plug?
@@JohnnyZenith Then you don’t get into people’s houses very often mate 😂
@@JohnnyZenith my mum and my sister still use washing up bowls
The UK has relatively expensive water, and in the past, when water and heating were even more expensive and less widely available, a small bowl made sense. It helps to conserve water and create different zones in an oversized farmhouse sink. It’s also a great place to stash dirty dishes in a hurry.
The used water from the bowl could also be used for watering garden areas (especially during dry periods.) - just a few theories!
That depends on where you live as water in England is privatised, whereas in Scotland, it's not and goes on size of property instead. The bowl is because many homes in the UK only have one single bowl so when washing up, you can pour liquids or scraps down the side of the bowl, keeping the soapy water as clean as possible.
I pay £16 per month for water, wouldn't really say its expensive, not for me anyway.
Less than £2 for 1000 litres of drinkable water is not expensive!
@@JLO72 I have lived in Scotland and England and England is cheaper by a mile. For singles/couples. Because my DD is £18 with a meter, even that is too high, I reckon am using about £14 over the last 5 months because primarily I was away for a bit. But we will see if they put the DD down in July. But back to Scotland I was in a B council tax band and I paid (consult your council tax bill) about £23 per month with a 25% discount (single person), so that is £30 for a couple. Anyone (any couple ) could easily beat these amounts with a meter even with baths. The issue for me is A) You pay for a meter (I was quoted £200 plus an extra £200-£900 for the survey) and they couldn't tell me if it was £200 or £900. And in England it is the law to get a meter if you move and it is free. Its the law but not really acted upon. So anyone single definitely will pay less in England and most couples. What doesn't Scotland understand, we are trying to save water.
And by the way, I had a water leak which I didn't know (was the case when I bought it) so they lost a lot of water (Scottish water) before they eventually let me know. I said can't you sort it, and they said down to you. I said aren't you concerned about losing all this water (and believe me it was a lot), so much thta I turned it off unless I used it while I waited for a repair.
So A) Cheaper in England despite privatisation, B)People are wasting water in Scotland as no meters and C) Leaks are not being fixed if even known about because no meters. If I had no money wouldn't have been fixed and I notices all the worms I had under courtyard went away after fixing. So its not rocket Science, fix meters so people know. But of course as you highlight it must be very expensive in a band G council tax house. Which you may reckon is correct, but why is it as their water use may not be any higher.
Lastly it is not helping Council tax revenue, a reason why Argyll and Bute council charged me £65 for a roadside pickup for items and Durham only charged me recently £18. And it has to be said a 3 weekly pickup of both normal refuse and recycling (in Scotland and 2 weeks in durham). No food waste pickup, no garden waste pickup. It is because of water (in my opinion) being on the council tax bill. And not only very high cost for businesses to go to the tip. One business I used had a man on the inside where he bunged a tenner or 20 to, so corruption going on because of high costs to business. And you may like to know I had a load of rubble etc under the floorboards which when the Gas CH was on I smelt a burning smell, that's the other option for businesses. I had it out of there sharpish and put it into the main refuse bin (over weeks or months). Lucky I had storage, I didn't have to dump it on the street. Or they could fly tip it which I expect many to do. All is the result of water being on the council tax bill.
For me the reason why I use a washing up bowl is so your not putting food remains down the sink
House names are really common in villages/rural areas, especially for old houses. For example, my home was a pub centuries ago, so it has retained the name of that pub and had cottage added to it.
Addresses usually have "house name", "road name", "village name", "County' "post code".
The sink thing, you can wash off the soap/grime on the side without polluting the washing up bowl.
A lot of companies in the UK offer next day delivery, some of the bigger companies also offer same day delivery as long as you place your order before a set cut off time :)
Amazon in the UK have distribution centres in most areas, meaning you will usually get your order the next day.
If you are lucky ordering in morning some goods arrive that evening. Dist centre 8 miles away
@@johngreen869 yeah there's a distribution centre not far from where I live
Had deliveries arrive same day on more than a few occasions. Anything that takes over 2 days is unusual even where advertised as 2-5 days. Most courier deliveries are guaranteed next day with faster services available down to about 4 hours in cities. I've found it more of a problem when you have ordered something with 2-5 days delivery and you get a card for a missed delivery the next day. Generally they'll attempt to deliver 3 times - after that it's collect from the depot or it will have been left with a neighbour.
As for how the postie knows where to deliver the mail - our postcodes cover a maximum of about 10 properties so it doesn't take much to find the right one.
You thing a letterbox is a security risk but the number of US properties where the owners don't seem to have an issue with cat flaps or even dog flaps that someone could crawl through. A letterbox is about 1.5 inches high and about 5 inches wide so it's not as if you can even get an adult hand through and have a heavily sprung door hinged at the top
In the UK you only need the house number/name and the post code (zip code) to address any mail. The post code reduces the target down to one specific street/road within any given town/city.
FYI - round my area we call mail delivery people 'postie' and
Re: the bowl in a sink - drop a plate or glass in a pottery sink & you soon learn the benefit of a plastic bowl!
Ok, i'm a Brit and as for the letterbox thing yes, people can put dodgy thinks into them, but you can get actual steel boxes that attach to the back of the door on the inside to prevent it. Also speaking of mail in the UK, the postman or delivery driver won't leave a package unattended on your doorstep if you're not at home. They will either give it to a neighbour and post a note as to where it is or leave it at the nearest post office for you to then pick up. Sometimes they will even hide it in your paper bin ( trash can ) and leave a note letting you know. We have multiple bins ( trash cans ) in the UK for recycling and no, there is no chance of it getting emptied and you losing your package because the bin men ( Garbage men ) won't empty your bins unless they're put out on the street, they won't enter your garden to get them. Occasionally some dick head driver will just dump it on the door step but its very rare in my experience.
One reason addresses can easily have names is because our postcodes (your zipcodes) are much
more specific. As in usually to the specific road. You can basically send anything to anyone with only
person's name, house number, and postcode... none of the other info really matters.
A usual UK address of:
123 Example Road
Example Town
Exampleshire
EX1 2YZ
... could be written as just 123 - EX1 2YZ, and mail would get there, because the postcode EX1 2YZ literally
refers to the road name, town/city, and county.
I live in a tiny rural village in Devon and all the houses have names. It’s very sweet. Yes, you would usually put the street name. The owner generally names the house. We have had the same postman for years and he knows every house and the name of the family that lives there.
Which village? Or the name of a town or city nearby if you don't want that info out there?
I've lived all over the world, but I was born in Devon and live there currently. I love being close to the beaches too much to stay anywhere else. In Barnstaple I'm sandwiched between a few of the best beaches in the UK.
@@munky342 Yes, you have good beaches like Woolacombe, Croyde, Barricane Beach, and Lee. I also live in North Devon too
@appleduck3767 Woolacombe is my favourite. Barricane is great too. Especially when the food truck is there.
When I lived in a German city the one thing I missed was the Devon beaches. Artificial beaches on a lake were not a suitable replacement 😂
I live in a small rural Village as well and all the houses are named, i often have issues with takeaways or postmen not finding my house. My house is called Millhouse because it used to have a windmill which adds some nice historical flavour since it is over 400 years old (it has a longer history than the USA which is an interesting thought ). Unfortunately there's another house down the road called High Millhouse and i often get their mail and vice versa, though i feel that's more down to lazy postmen as it clearly states the name on a large sign next to door. As for takeaways it's often dark and the house is a good 10 metres from the road so you likely cannot see the sign. I do wish we had both numbers and names to help people find them easier.
I’ve been to Devon for a holiday, I loved looking at the house names, I think it is quite sweet.
Evan Edinger has videos which covered his journey through to becoming a UK citizen.
Washing up bowls are there firstly as a layer of (plastic) insulation between washing up water and the material of the sink which can often be made of thick metal or ceramics and as such tends to cool the water very quickly. Also because we traditionally wash up by pouring a mixture of hot and cold water into a sink (dual tap rather than a single tap or faucet) with detergent before we start scrubbing the dishes in said water, it can be easy to accidentaly knock the plug out and end up with the water draining out before you are done with it. A washing up bowl gets around all of this.
As far as how addresses are written for the postal system in the UK, it usually is shown as follows:
Joe Bloggs - Recipients name
76 Somewhere Street - Street name and door number (the number can be replaced with a house name which would typically appear on its own line)
Inatown - Name of the village, postal town or city the recipent lives in
Somewhereset - The region of the country the recipient lives in
IN4 7BS - The 'post code' which is used by the post office to select which local sorting office and local post office is best suited to handling final delivery.
The post code system is quite accurate and going with just that into a Sat Nav would generally get you to the right street to handle a delivery (by a post-man or post-woman). House names are something I have developed a hatred for as someone who does deliveries as they don't work with Sat Nav systems while with a typical 'door number' a Sat Nav will often take you right to the recipients driveway. Some houses do have post boxes, but they are usually bolted onto a wall or a fence.
Also it is common in rural areas to have access to bus services. This is usually hourly but it depends on how far out of town you live (you can see busses as often as every 10 minutes in town) and it often takes an hour or more to complete its route. The example I am drawing from is a village I used to live in which was 15 miles from the local city centre.
I think UK & US, are not only two countries divided by a common language. We are divided, by heaps of things.
Yep, they are a completely different culture, even though they )sort of) speak our language!
@@andreaconroy3623 And our culture is forever evolving. The US is a very different place now than it was in my childhood.
@@C.O._Jones same in the UK!
As Al Murray said "and a fxxxing great big ocean, thank christ" 😆
Whatever you think of the US if we had trouble with Russia or China we'd be glad to have them as a trusted ally
Also, you can choose to give your house a name and (I think register it with the postal service) it just becomes your houses name. We moved into a newly built estate and the house number was 15, we registered it with a name and then for the next 10 years, all the mail came there, online forms had it registered and it was just how it was. I think it helps that UK postcodes, the equivalent of zip codes only ever cover a very small distance, like maybe 1/4 mile square, commonly much less, usually about maybe 50 houses.
One of the benefits of a washing up bowl is during hot summers when there is a water shortage you can easily take the bowl outside and pour it on your garden. Another benefit is that it is smaller than the sink so you tend to use less water. If you have a water meter then this arrangement gives you cheaper water bills. Not all UK homes have water meters, some pay a fix price however ever much water they use.
I find that the American, Amanda Rae, on her podcast, has a more balanced view on the USA-UK differences. She’s very personable and makes for easy listening.
I live in a very rural area ...our buses are very good .morning buses to take us into town and evening buses to bring us home...a few throughout the day ...six days each week ..none on a Sunday ...and none late in the evening...also if you’re elderly...over 60 ..we have countrywide free travel on the bus ..
Sinks in the uk used to be large and porcelain so a washing up bowl protected crockery etc and a bowl didn't use as much water, back then we used immersion heaters to heat hot water which took a while to heat up and expensive, bowls enabled us to multi task the sink, remember the uk is a very old country modern conveniences not yet available and toilets were outside, modernisation was a slow,difficult and expensive process as our homes were and still are very small making even basic altercations like building a new house.
Think about all the crap that gets chucked down the sink - toxic cleaning products, waste food, dirty water from the cleaning of worktops, floors etc - then think about the dishes that you serve food on being washed in that same sink. A dedicated plastic basin that is used exclusively for washing dishes/utensils is not only hygienic, it's also convenient. You can pour waste food, coffee etc from dishes down the sink at the side of the plastic basin without contaminating the dish water. Also, if you fumble a glass or plate and it drops into the sink - especially if it's a ceramic one - it's more likely to break than if it was dropped into a shock-absorbing plastic bowl.
Right so sink within a sink-soaking the dishes to make them easier to clean. If you need the sink while you have dirty dishes you can lift the bowl up and use the sink, like draining cooking water or cleaning veg. It’s for convenience but I’ve seen them get a bit gross and most younger people I know don’t have them.
I have known bad things to go through letterboxes especially for businesses… but someone who wants to get something in your house will find a way -open window/break the window etc
If you have a dog then they might eat your Mail haha. I don’t know if she mentioned but even if you are in a flat/apartment the postman still brings it up the stairs to your door.
Cottages and houses with names sometimes have numbers if on busier towns but only if there is a lot of homes on the road.
I'm in Kent, UK and when it comes to Amazon deliveries I get most items next day. I believe it depends on which warehouse an item is stored. I ordered some items at 11pm last night and one of them is coming today and the rest tomorrow.
As for homes being named - the reason why postmen know where to deliver is that post codes refer to relatively small areas. Sometimes a street may have more than one postcode.
Public transport in the country depends very much on how good the local authority is. If you have a decent one then you'll probably have a regular, but infrequent bus service.
The postcode is much more accurate than zip codes. They cover less than half a mile. So the house name, then the street/road, then village/town/city, and then county, and then the postcode. This gives them a pretty good idea even in rural areas.
If they aren't in a village they'll normally be something like 'farm', or 'cottage' in the name so the postie know what to look for as the drive down the road. In Wales it even easier as lots of the rural house names, like 'tan Y coed' meaning under the trees, give you a description. 🙂
The postcode covers around 25 houses.
@Alison Randall not always. I lived in a rural spot where only mine and next door had that postcode.
American zip codes actually have an extra 4 digits since 1983 but it’s generally not used by most people.
Yes I live in a small village in a rural part of England, East England to be exact, and we have an excellent bus service, it runs hourly to the local town, then from the town buses run every 15 minutes to the nearest city that is 25 miles away. They also run other bus services that link the local outlying villages.
We went camping in Dartmoor and the site was on a very rural road. The owner told us that even though there was no bus stop, if we stood at the gate and put our hands out the driver would stop for us, which he did. A very hair raising ride followed as the double decker hurtled along the road with branches whipping at the windows. If something large like a lorry was coming the other way the driver didn't slow down at all and for a split second everyone on board would stop talking and hold their breath!
He certainly got us to our destination in double quick time though.
Rural public transport is not as good as in some other European countries (Switzerland is probably the apogee) but it is light years ahead of the USA. Most small towns (down to about 5000 people) will have at least a bus service to the nearest big town or city running hourly from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday - and many villages will have several buses a day, especially if they are on main roads and so can be served by buses running through on a longer route. Buses are particularly well used by older people - pensioners get free bus travel across the country* outside of the morning peak hours. Some smaller villages may only get buses one or two days a week but it's rare to find any that have no service at all. There are also rural areas popular with tourists and hikers that have buses running at weekends and/or during the summer only to bring people in from nearby towns and cities and get them around the area.
* only applies to whichever of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland they live in.
House names rather than numbers usually only applies in villages or on streets with lots of older houses, or very rural areas where there are only isolated houses. Sometimes new houses might get a name but no number if they are built on a street where every other house has a name. The address will usually include a street name as well as the house name, except in some _very_ small villages. There are lots of people who give their house a name because they thing it makes them sound posher or richer to live in a named house, even if their _official_ address is a house number.
Letterboxes typically have a flap either side and a row of bristles in the middle which makes it slightly harder to put anything that isn't letter shaped through it.
Quite a few people do have mailboxes on the outside of the house but it's often because they have a dog and dog want destroyed mail.
I've seen a couple of those rural American style mailboxes but they're really novelty and usually decorative only.
Letter boxes have been used for arson , or nuisance attacks but it's very rare . They are in full view of the street . Post codes are pretty accurate , down to very small groups of houses . The washing up bowl is handy , it protects the main sink and whatever you are using it for , allows you to mix not and cold water and gives the option of using it for the garden or patio when you have finished .
The majority of people don’t have dishwashers. The plastic bowl stops dishes from getting chipped against the sink, it also means you use less water. Also the main sink is possibly used to wash clothing or dirty boots or other stuff but the washing up bowl is clean.
@marycarver1542 ive seen more people not have dishwasher than do have dishwasher. I've only seen like 2 in my lifetime in Ireland itself
Love seeing your videos, it really makes me look at things from a different perspective. Never really thought about it, but I can get 2 trains and be in Paris or Brussels from where I live. Europe is on our doorstep with so much culture and history, that we take for granted. Have a great time with your family!
I live in the middle of England and can get same day delivery from Amazon on certain products.
We use a washing up bowl so you can pour the slops down the sink and not into your clean water.
The letterbox has a flap on the other side of the door which would make it quite difficult for someone to pour something into the property because it would have to go through the depth of the door and you would have to keep both flaps open at the same time as trying to pour something through! It doesn’t happen over here. I was actually surprised at how excited you got about the produce prices. A quid is one pound. And 100 pennies make a pound seeing as you were trying to work it out 😮
Yeh if your in a rough area you can just screw it shut on the other side and fit an external letterbox .we had to do these on council jobs when the houses were empty to stop arson and junk mail
i've had some letter boxes with brushes in the centre, fairly sure they are to stop the wind from flapping them open as i've only seen them on doors exposed to a lot of wind. but i'd imagine it would make pouring something in practically impossible, or even putting something that's on fire through it too. still never met anyone that's had something nasty posted through there letter box though i've heard in the news on occasion.
I live in a rural area in the UK. We have public transport coaches going past my street, about 1 per hour in most directions.
a family friend used to live in a house called "the elephant and castle", It wasn't hard to find, it was the only house in the village with a huge statue (10foot tall) in the front garden of an elephant with a castle on its back 😮
The bus situation has been true and I've had many a countryside holiday or day out based on getting around on buses. Sadly the last 2 years has changed this dramatically in the countryside and cities. Both the services and the state of the roads are deteriorating rapidly.
It would be something like
Tide cottage
Newton St Loe
Bath
Ba2 TPX
Because each street has a unique postcode so finding the cottage in a village with a postcode unique to its street would make it much easier.
I have never seen a mail box in England, neither in the city or in countryside not even on large farms.
It just sounds so charming, though! I think people in the UK cannot see sometimes how they have all sorts of things that are just somehow "radioactive with Britishness", That is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. The rest of the world gets it, even if the inhabitants don't. It is just quirky, and don't even mention the taps!
In the Netherlands if you buy something from a store before 11:00 pm you get it next day at home, post service is that good. Even if you buy in Amazon or what ever, except if is coming from China ofcourse...
Post is easily delivered anywhere (even with names rather than numbers) because the average number of properties in any postcode is 8. Yes, you read that right. The UK has a different postcode for each street and most streets have many many postcodes. A small street will have 1 postcode but a long street will have a different postcode for each 100yds. Each apartment building has its own postcode as does each office building. This is because the UK uses alpha-numerical postcodes (e.g. E12 4PK) meaning they can have millions of iterations. The first section is for the district and the second section is for the building or section of street. So addresses do not need to be totally clear, if they have a postcode, the mailman will find them easily.
The whole of my UK street of about 36 houses all have the same postcode and I have been told this is not uncommon.
When I put my address on the back of something going abroad I will put my name, the house number and the postcode for the street/town ,then UK
@@gillcawthorn7572it’s not that common, but I’ve lied in a street where that was the case. Most small streets have two postcodes, one for even numbers, ones for odd. Either way, a postcode only need the house number , and hey presto , post will get to you
In the Netherlands, just the house number and postal code is enough to get mail to its destination. That's how the return address is usually written.
@@ulfvinr9364, same in the UK.
I used to live in a house called Archer's Cottage the address was just Archers cottage, Main Street, followed by the name of the village and postcode.
In small villages, I would say that it is uncommon for houses to have numbers. Growing up, my house was called "Lyndhurst", there was no number. It is easy for mail workers when there are only 10 houses on that street. Remember, we don't have long streets with thousands of houses like America does.
There are some very common names for houses such as "The Manor House", "The Rectory", "Rose Cottage". They're often named after something that makes them distinctive, hence naming it after a type of flower is commonly seen.
I believe the first digits on American numbering refers to the block number, e.g. 20103 would be house number 103 on block 20. It works like hotel room numbers starting with the floor numbers.
My old house was called Sawrey after a place in the Lake District easy for the postman but maybe not for the posters. I got a letter to … Sorry ….
My house is Bridge House... The house by the bridge 😂 it's been so since 1750 😉🤣
To a Brit having your mail delivered "outside" your house is a really bad idea. Thieves here take every opportunity to steal accessible mail, in search of credit cards and personal details. When I lived in an apartment the lobby door was often broken open to get at the mail. With the increase in online shopping, more people are installing armoured boxes for larger mail. As you usually have to go to the Post Office to collect undelivered mail.
We used to and still do in certain household's have pottery sinks. When the plastic bowls came out it was to protect the pots we washed in the Belfast pot sinks, and we have just carried it on.
Sink bowl is like a bumper on your car, you accidentally drop your plate in, the bowl is like a cushion to stop it smashing on the sink itself.
House names get their name on building them, but you can change names later, you just have to register it with the post office. But the address will come with the street name and postcode, you normally the get the same postal worker working the same route daily, so they will become familiar on the house locations/roads. Some people do have post boxes on the front of their property, they have them so they can have a solid front door to increase insulation and security. Their boxes will be key locked.
I subscribe to both of you guys, so funny watching you both at the same time. I always find the US mailboxes really weird, as anyone could just take your mail or do they have locks on them? Funny your immediate thought was that people would put horrible things in your letterbox - think that's more on you and your expectations of people generally!
You can apply for indefinite leave to remain after 3 years (more chance after 5). You can then apply for citizenship 1 year after getting that. I would say overall between 5 and 7 years total.
Washing up bowls are plastic, rather than the metal or ceramic of the sink, so glass items are less likely to break. Also, the small sink next to the main one which is used to pour water or liquids down is a relatively modern invention. Most houses did not have them. So having the plastic bowl creates a space by the side of the bowl where you can rinse items out - it creates a second space
The washing up bowl stops the plates chinking on the metal or porcelain sink. When you don't have much kitchen space you can stop your washing up partway through and lift out the bowlful to use the tap or the sink for something else. An example would be someone else needs to wash their hands, fill a kettle or wash some vegetables when the washing up takes too long. Also you can lift out and carry the waste water to your garden to water plants or fill the water butt for reuse in the garden.
14:32 A washing up bowl protects the sink from sharp objects but also protects your delicate items from the hard sink, its a lot easier to chip a plate against metal or porcelain vs some type of plastic etc. It also helps to save water, older sink spaces were large and you didn't have a built in water heater and so you would need to boil the water on a stove, the bowl can be any size where as the sink is a fixed size.
Then you can also use it to transport the water elsewhere when finished with it, not very common to reuse water these days or need to save space for heating water, but traditions stick around and right now the main reason I use a bowl is I keep it on the side, pre wash items to remove food etc and put them in the bowl, then later I will rinse everything at once under very hot water. It saves me time and keeps things tidy
A lot of these experiences on the US side seem to be regional. For example, I grew up in New Jersey and also lived in Los Angeles. We had a mail slot growing up, used a dish "tub" for dishes given that we had a large kitchen sink, and we receive Amazon packages same day or next day.
The bowl in the sink probably is due to someone realising that if the dishes are in the bowl you can remove them to use the sink for draining vegetable water etc
Also used to protect dishes from hard sink materials that are more likely to chip or break dining sets
Also saves on water.
I'm a postman in the UK. We do have houses with names, but they will have a house number too. So it might be "The Railway House" No. 10 - Station Road. So most of the time, you know where the place is because it will be in the correct order when you are preparing your letters for delivery. But on occasion you do just have to know where the house is. Common sense helps, if you have a row of houses then one big house by itself, the big house is probably the one with the name (not always though.) - With you mail boxes. Most houses have slots (letter boxes) in the door. But becoming more common are mail boxes attached to the wall outside the house. They don't look like the American ones (though you do occasionaly get them), they look more like square boxes which are common in continental Europe. People tend to use these if they have dogs, since there is a real risk of getting your fingers bitten off when delivering a letter through a letter box!
As a retired postman I second that.
Our dogs (golden retrievers) love the postie. The postie told me that he likes saying hello to them. But we wouldn't let the dogs in the garden if they were vicious and the post was due.
Ok. The wash bowl is plastic and won't smash your glasses or plates. Because the actual sink is metal or porcelain plates may break more often
The nice thing about our letterboxes is that you private mail is safe within your property out of the wind and weather and not stuck at the edge of your property on a wooden pole.
Im not sure whether this is quite as frequent as it used to be, but the Royal Mail would even still try to deliver letters without the address, where someone would put the persons name and vague area, with perhaps directions or a landmark near to the property, and they might still get it. The Postal service is suffering in the modern world of email and so many delivery services, and the workers are under a lot more pressure, but they still have an investigative team who will try to find out how to get it there. The Guardian newspaper ran a story last year about some very obscure ones that still got to who they were meant for! The article headline is
Lives across from the Spar’: bizarrely labelled letter finds way to UK address
If anyine is curious just how obscure some of the directions were!
We didn't know the number of our friend's house when we sent a postcard on holiday. So we just put "The house next to the electric substation, opposite the Victoria pub" and it got there 😂
Re: public transport in Britain, remember the whole place is the size of Alabama, is more compact, densely populated in general and public transportation systems were developed during the Industrial Revolution between. 1750 to mid 1800's (London's underground subway system was the 1st in the world).There is extensive public transport throughout the UK and even quite small towns have train stations.Buses do run in rural areas,albeit on a more limited schedule.
This naming of houses rather than a # is not common in large urban areas.Yes,it is common in small villages.Names have been in place for 100 or more years.Often 200+ plus.
Everyone has mail slots in front door.Don't project American crime paranoia! People are not afraid of poisons and letter bombs being delivered in UK.
I think Michigan is actually closet to the UK in terms of size. Population size, we're bigger than all of them.
You can have a box on the wall by your door. you can have a cage attached to the door that catches the mail. Also, you can put a gadget so people can put things through your letter box, especially if you go one holiday You have to live in uk for five years to become a citizen and not have broken any immigration laws. a washing up bowl, it uses less water, and there 16:08 are no scratches in your sink and the water can go on your plants if they have pests also the small sink you can have a basket with holes and wash yours veg and drain them
Number of Reasons for a washing up bowl 1. transportable some people will use it for washing and peeling their vegetables to which you can then easily take the peelings to the waste or compost 2. allows for other liquids that might contaminate your washing up water to be drained away 3. no chance of accidental pulling the plug out draining your water 4. most common uk kitchen sinks dont have built in waste disposal so the bowl helps minimise the risk of debris going down the plug and blocking the pips
The main disadvantage of the letterbox is that the dog gets to your mail before you do, so you may have to reassemble it.
Most of the benefit of washing bowls come with the lack of a second sink, or split sink. If your only sink is full of dishes and water, its hard to use the sink for anything else like washing vegetables. With a bowl, you can lift it out. Id also say fewer people have dishwashers, so theres more of a chance of plates and cups etc accumulating in the sink during the day, to be washed later.
The slot in the door for the post to come through, is called a, "letterbox", as mentioned early in the lady's video. We also have a "postbox" which is a box on the side of the road, or on a pavement, where you can put your sending letters in that will be collected by postal workers. Some people may have a separate box attached to the wall of the house, which would eliminate a slot in the door through which heat can escape - particularly if the person posting a letter or newspaper, leaves it half-way through instead of pushing it all the way. Often, the post simply drops onto the floor but, you can also have a box or cage, useful for keeping your post away from pets. There is an implied right of access onto someone else's property for the purposes of posting something through the door, or to knock/ring the bell. But, if there is a gate that is locked, you cannot enter and doing so is trespass; in those cases, there is usually a slot near the gate to post letters into.
House names... yes, this is a thing and generally for older or rural properties. Whilst there's nothing stopping you putting a plaque up on your door with a name on, it's not a legal name so shouldn't be included in a postal address. For those rural addresses, it could be something like "Gamekeeper's Cottage, Little Villageinthemiddleofnowhere, near Sometown, ". So, the postal system will use the postcode to get to a rough locality getting the items to a local office, and from there, the final delivery's made. In cities, postcodes can narrow to a very small geographic area (even down to a few homes on a road), or out in the countryside, a small number of properties but in a larger area.
My house has a name and a number. The name was registered with the Post Office almost 100 years ago and I receive mail addressed to me at either the name or the number of the house. No problems at all. Address is "House name", "Village", "Post code".
Simple as that.
I can't imagine washing up without a plastic bowl. Why would you put the plates and glasses THAT YOU EAT FROM into the same sink that you fill your bucket for washing the floor? How do you not continually break glasses on the hard steel or ceramic sink? Where do you put the slops? Why do you need a whole sink full? Far less water wasted using a smaller bowl.
Next day? How slow lol. But seriously there are occasions that it is possible to get same day delivery (not necessarily just Amazon but places such as Argos)
🫶🏻have a wonderful time with your family!! 🩵
Mailslots exist all over the US. Often in older homes. I'm not saying they're common by any means, but they exist. There's even one in the movie "Scream 4". This is more a case of Steve being sheltered than them not existing in America.
Mail slots are usually in more dense cities in the US, I think. The only time I had one was when I lived in a row home in Washington DC. In that neighborhood, I felt safer having my mail drop directly into my entryway than a mail box where some local pranksters might grab its contents just to be destructive.
My last house was called fenmoor, the one before was called four winds, my present house is called giant sea, also our post codes are very accurate👍
As a Brit its so interesting watching this because all our things make so much sense to us but i can see why they would seem weird if you dont have them😅. The letterbox thing, ive never heard of anyone using one for anything dodgy. It probably does happen(?) but it would be extremely rare. It isnt actually something ive ever thought or worried about. I love my washing up bowl because once or twice a week i put it in the dishwasher and my sink is still quite clean underneath! My childhood home was called Ivy Cottage, it was over 400 years old and had ivy growing all over the exterior walls, i dont know when it was named but it had definitely been called that for a long time. Our house now is newer, i think about 50 years old maybe, and we have named it since we moved in. When you write the address it goes house name or number, road name, town/city, county, postcode. I have always travelled loads and so has everyone i know, ive been all over europe, over to Australia and the states, it is much easier to get around in europe, like a couple of years ago my partner and i decided to have a weekend away so we flew to Amsterdam, it took 50 minutes and we were back in time for work on monday lol. And yes, public transport is very accessible. I grew up in a tiny village, we didnt even have a shop or a doctors surgery or anything- just a pub and a small primary school and other than that it was just some houses and farmland. We had a bus station outside the pub that could take us to all the nearby towns, that was how i got to my secondary school as a teen and how i went shopping or to the cinema with my friends at the weekend.
Closest I've seen to anything dodgy in a letter box is kids with trick or treat throwing wrappers, rice or even raw eggs in them
Brits dont normally go around putting stuff in someones letterbox to kill them etc!
To become a British Citizen you need to study our history & then sit an exam. If you pass you are invited to a special presentation ceremony & make the allegiance.
We have a NY friend who married a Brit, lived here for several years before doing the history study. She found it hard as there are no guidelines as to what you need to know. Sometimes its quite trivial questions. She passed her exam & about 4 months later had her ceremony.