Awesome New Thing: # 6

I suppose I should apologize - this week's thing isn't really "something new" per se, but it is totally awesome.  Forgive me?  Thanks.

Before I moved here, my husband always told me that British people have an unbeatable sense of humour... then he made me watch a Carry On film and I never beleived anything he told me ever again.

But then I heard about this recent occurance:  a man bought a sandwich at Marks and Spencer (think Target, but only about 60% as great and seemingly targeted at people at least 10 years older).    He was overcharged for the sandwich and wrote a letter to M&S customer service to request a refund.  He was told they would be sending him a gift card, but it never arrived.  Not one to give up, he wrote again this time requesting a "hand-drawn picture of a smiley dinosaur".  He expected his request to be ignored, but soon after, he recieved a £5 gift card in the post along with this -

How awesome is that?

Awesome New Thing of the Week: Week 3

I would be willing to bet that I have cried on an airplane more times than most people (being apart from the husband back in the day), but as I understand it, crying on a plane is actually something most people try to avoid doing... it makes your plane-mates uncomfortable, it makes you look generally loony and it probably makes the flight attendants argue over who has to serve you.

This week's awesome new thing can't help us not miss the loved ones we expats always seem to be leaving behind, but if you are the cry-at-movies type, it can help you decide on tear-free in-flight entertainment options.

Since they have realised that people are often in heightened emotional states when flying (either due to fear of flying, excitement of the pending vacation, or boyfriend/mom/dad/best friend seperation anxiety) Virgin Atlantic has introduced a new service that warns passengers if the movie they have selected is a tear-jerker with this screen appearing before the movie begins:

Photo: Virgin Atlantic

How nice.

I would now like to issue an official Beyond the Queen and Driving on the Left Challenge (shall we call those BQDLC?) to anyone who travels on Virgin Atlantic to ask the cabin crew for a cuddle after watching a sad movie.  Your reward will be the cheapest piece of tat I can find and my respect for all of eternity.

So You Want to Expatriate...?

...but can't decide where to go?   I'd cross Luanda in Angola off my list if I were you as its just been named the city with the highest cost of living for expats. 

As far as I can gather, this survey is done mostly for global companies who may be moving staff to various places around the world. Cities are ranked by the "strength or weakness of the relevant currency against the US dollar over the prior 12 months" and "price movements over the prior 12 months compared to those in New York City". 

The top five most expensive cities are Luanda, Tokyo, N'Djamena (Chad), Moscow and Geneva.  (I'll give out major brownie points to anyone smarter than me who can figure out why it would be so expensive to live in Angola or Chad)

If you're sure you want to end up in the UK, it will come as no surprise that a move to Scotland or Northern Ireland would be much more affordable than living in London. (duh).   The UK cities on the list included London (18), Aberdeen (144), Glasgow (148) Birmingham (150) and Belfast (178).

Wondering what the least expensive place to live is?   At number 214, Karachi in Pakistan is at the bottom of the list. 

Who Said License Plates Are Boring?

I mentioned in my post on 26 September  that I am glad I'm not an expat in China as I imagine it would be a billion times harder than it is in the UK (and even more crowded!).  There are so many things that, in my opinion, would be much harder to get your head around.  We've already discusssed the food, and now I've just come across this article which discusses one of the many Chinese superstitions.  Interesting view from an expat in China, but its not actually the superstitions that I'm interested in - its the newsworthy part of the article:  As of October 20, 2010, China will not be issuing number plates with the number 4 on them.

Very lucky Chinese license plate

The article's author, Peter Foster, explains the number 4, when spoken in Chinese, is similar to the word "death" and is considered highly unlucky.   He also mentions that in Bejing there is a traffic limiting programme which assigns each day of the week a number and if your number plate ends in that number, you are forbidden to drive that day.  Apparently, the day that bans 4 is heavily congested since people avoid having 4 on their plate, but the day that bans 8 is not nearly as congested since 8 is the number of good fortune and many people choose to have it on their number plate.   Wait... You're bored aren't you?   You don't really care about license/number plates in China or any other country do you?

It's time I make a confession to my ultimate nerd obsession.  I am obsessed with UK number plates (or registration plates as they are officially called). Why would I care about UK number plates, you ask?  Because they tell secrets and can sometimes cost more than a car!

The secrets:  Any UK number plate issued after December 31, 1999 tells you the age of the car and where it was registered.  This is where the nerd part kicks in - I am constantly looking at the age of people's cars and scowling at those who have the newest ones.  Here's how it works:  Current number plates that are not personalized ones always have seven characters.  They will begin with two letters, then two numbers, then a space then three letters.  The two letters at the beginning tell you where the car was first registered and the numbers will tell you the date the car was originally registered (i.e. the age of the car). The last three letters are completely random.
To tell where your car was "born", here is the list of memory tags.  Ages are recorded in two formats - if the car was registered between March and August, it will display the year clearly (01 for 2001, 05 for 2005, etc), but if the car was registered between September and February of the following year, it will display the year plus 50 (58 for 2008, 60 for 2010, etc).  

In the example below, the car was registered in Birmingham and was registered between September 2001 - February 2002, which would make the car a 2001 model.

Unlike American license plates, UK number plates stay with the car for the life of the car unless someone wants a personalized plate which brings me to the next cool thing about number plates. 

The ££:  My mom once had a personalized license plate that read ND FAN and referred to her love of Neil Diamond. Unfortunately for any Neil Diamond fans in the UK, this plate is not allowed.  Personalized plates in the UK must have a combination of letters and numbers which means that people have to be a bit more creative if they want to display their name or other popular choices.  

There are some commonly accepted numbers that take the place of letters - a 4 is an A (probably not if you are Chinese), a 3 is an E,  a 5 is an S and 7 is a T.   So, if my name was Sarah, I could have a plate that read "54RAH" and most people would know what I meant.  However, any Sarahs out there would need to not only find the owner of that plate currently, but would have to have a LOT of money if they wanted to tell the world their name of the back of their car. Personalized plates like that or something "cute" like K155 ME are often sold by their original owner either on one of many websites or through auctions and can fetch big bucks...really big bucks!  

I just found the plate reading ROS 5 (Ross) for sale on a website for an astonishing £535,500.  If this was sold at this price, it would be a new UK record.  The most expensive plate sold in the UK was " F 1" (as in Formula One racing) which sold for £440,625.

Here's some other pricey plates:
"1 D"       £325,411
"VIP 1"    £285,000
"1 HRH"  £113,815

See... aren't licence plates cool?  :)