Coming to the United Kingdom

There is a little trick to supermarket shopping trolleys.   For some destructive reason, you might see trolleys randomly dumped on a verge, or worse, in a pond or canel.  Many supermarkets chain their trolleys together to try prevent this sort of behaviour.  

The United Kingdom of Great Britain is subdivided into counties for administrative purposes.  In ye olde language, we might have called them “shires”. Many of these counties are further subdivided into districts. The local government is typically referred to as the county or district council.   The local councils are managed by elected councillors.   These are different from the Members of Parliament who may represent the same geographic area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counties_of_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_counties_of_England https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-government-structure-and-elections https://members.parliament.uk/

The UK government has invested quite a lot into making the services it offers as digital as possible.  For most things, https://www.gov.uk/ should be your first port of call.

Finding a home is probably the hardest part. Try these sites: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/ https://www.zoopla.co.uk/   https://www.purplebricks.co.uk https://www.settled.co.uk/  

A friend coming to the UK asked me the questions: Which months of the year can’t you go out walking due to weather? How do you dress warm and still look smart for work?

When it comes to banking, the moneysavingexpert guy has a lot of good and useful information - which banks offer which services - who is cheapest and has best deals - etc. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ These might also be useful: https://www.comparethemarket.com/   to find best insurance deals https://www.moneysupermarket.com  

Internet: https://www.bt.com/broadband it likely to have best options. (I get about 75mbps down/15 up, and it costs me about £46pm). I haven't had a landline phone plugged in for years - who even speaks on the phone these days! Whatsapp rules!

Mobile phones: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/ is ok, and probably has widest coverage.  But also check out Three ( http://www.three.co.uk/ ). The other network operators are O2 and EE.   The last time I was shopping around, I found that O2 was rather expensive, and EE just didn’t inspire me at all.   That may have changed, and you may have a different experience.

Below is a list of job sites.  I’ve ranked them based on my personal experience of the quantity and quality of the jobs posted, how active the sites are, ease-of-use, and the relevance of their search function. 

If you are in need of the Emergency Services there are a few numbers you could use. As a general rule, if life is in danger, or, as I like to put it, there is blood involved, call either 999 or 112.  Else dial 111 or 101.

 My wife and I pretty much buy everything except groceries from https://www.amazon.co.uk/ .   We have Amazon Prime, so delivery is "mostly" free, and "mostly" next day.   https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201910360

Doctors: As soon as you settle in the UK, and have a fixed address, you will go find your local doctor and register with them. 

Unless you are living in Zones 1-3 of London, you’ll probably need a car to get around.  In central London there is a premium for parking, the London Underground and busses are really good, and there is a Congestion Charge to pay for driving in the central parts of London. https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge   Cars: to get an idea of what is available have a look at: https://www.carwow.co.uk/ https://www.cargiant.co.uk/ https://www.autotrader.co.uk/

The first thing that caught me out when I arrived here in the UK was the road signs.  Oxford    42m What?   Not possible.   Oxford cannot be forty-two metres away!    Oh!    MILES!!!!

The public transport in the UK is quite good, although, obviously, we complain about it – usually because of those couple of days in the year when there are delays. Trains can be a good way to get around, and to commute. Find information about times here: https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ or here: https://www.thetrainline.com/train-times

So that you can join in conversations with locals it wouldn’t hurt to learn a bit more about the history of the country. The Royals is a good place to start:  https://www.britroyals.com/rulers.asp

South African English has many local words that don’t translate or mean the same to British people.   https://public.oed.com/blog/south-african-english/

We’re all looking for things to keep us entertained or enriched.  Here’s some ideas of places to go, things to do, events and curiosities.