Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I take it you did not previously travel to London before you moved there? It's been going down hill since before Brexit.

No

Never traveled to London before living here

We are here until q3 2025 😭

I can empathize! I lived there for less than a year of a supposedly permanent move. I HATED it. The winters are the worst too! So dark at 4pm and always overcast.

Like much of the northern US in winter...

London is farther North than most of the Northern US in winter. Certainly farther north than us here in DC. So, yes, it's darker there in winter. Just a fact, really.

I have a house in Massachusetts. Sunset today is at 5:27. In London it is at 5:36. In December/January both are at around 4:15.

Your winter numbers are off. There's only about 15 minutes of difference in sunlight today, but the further north you are the longer the days are in the summer, so you gain sunlight more quickly as the spring goes on. There's more difference during the winter solstice, where Boston has 9 hours 4 min of daylight and London has 7 hours 49 min. An hour and 15 minutes is substantial, especially as every hour that goes away comes from the time that there is actual full daylight. The sun is never as bright because it's lower on the horizon, so it's like sunrise and then a moment of daytime and then sunset. That's made even worse if it's cloudy and gray, as the sun rarely gets strong enough to penetrate.

London is further north in latitude than Quebec City. London stays warmer because of the Gulf Stream, but that doesn't affect the amount of daylight. Boston is at 42.3 degrees latitude, London is at 51.5 and Anchorage is at 61.2. In Anchorage, the speed at which the light comes and goes is actually noticeable from day to day, and I've never experienced that in New England (outside of maybe Maine).

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/london

Yes, there are fewer hours of sunlight in the winter compared to Eastern MA but the shortfall is in the morning. The sunset times are not very different from late fall to late winter, obviously it stays light much later in England in the summer, while where we are in MA it gets dark about an hour earlier than here in DC. But enough on this topic - go on and complain more about England.

Most of these things wouldn’t bother me — I find the British polite rudeness hilarious—but I think many Americans don’t anticipate the issue with the daylight (even worse for Americans that move to Edinburgh). All of Europe has fairly dodgy housing as far as insulation, appliances, etc.

I was shocked how dirty the trains on the tube are and the seats are wildly uncomfortable. It makes wmata look elegant in comparison. I’d been to London before and didn’t notice this but it was striking on my last visit, so I guess they haven’t upgraded in a while. And of course the stations are terrible for disabled people, unlike DC.

I was also a little disappointed by some of the cheaper shopping — I remembered being able to get some real finds at M and S but now it just seems kind of meh. Globalization comes for all of us, even London. I went to harrods and it was just ridiculous — drippingly wealthy foreigners snatching up extremely expensive designer goods. Great people watching but not really shopping. And a little window into what I think has happened to the real estate.

I thought the parks were still quite nice though and didn’t have any problem with the food. I think everything we had in London was pretty good except for (surprisingly) the Indian place we tried inn Kensington which was well rated but seemed pretty basic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Venmo only exists because the US banking system is so primitive that you can’t just instantly transfer money from one account to another like you can in every other country in the world.

Which makes those users more susceptible to the whims of dictators to freeze bank accounts of people with whom they disagree politically. See: Truckers in Canada, Trudeau.

Yes, dictators lurking around every corner of non-America. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

The thread is very DCUM in terms of lying squarely at the intersection of pretentiousness and parochialism.

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked by how the queen dying has hurt the brand for me. I didn’t think I cared.

Same. I'm not a Charles hater, and I feel badly about his cancer diagnosis so soon after assuming the throne, but I have to admit that during the coronation, I was shocked by how silly the regalia looked on him. He just doesn't have the aura that the Queen had.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I take it you did not previously travel to London before you moved there? It's been going down hill since before Brexit.

No

Never traveled to London before living here

We are here until q3 2025 😭

I can empathize! I lived there for less than a year of a supposedly permanent move. I HATED it. The winters are the worst too! So dark at 4pm and always overcast.

Like much of the northern US in winter...

London is farther North than most of the Northern US in winter. Certainly farther north than us here in DC. So, yes, it's darker there in winter. Just a fact, really.

I have a house in Massachusetts. Sunset today is at 5:27. In London it is at 5:36. In December/January both are at around 4:15.

Your winter numbers are off. There's only about 15 minutes of difference in sunlight today, but the further north you are the longer the days are in the summer, so you gain sunlight more quickly as the spring goes on. There's more difference during the winter solstice, where Boston has 9 hours 4 min of daylight and London has 7 hours 49 min. An hour and 15 minutes is substantial, especially as every hour that goes away comes from the time that there is actual full daylight. The sun is never as bright because it's lower on the horizon, so it's like sunrise and then a moment of daytime and then sunset. That's made even worse if it's cloudy and gray, as the sun rarely gets strong enough to penetrate.

London is further north in latitude than Quebec City. London stays warmer because of the Gulf Stream, but that doesn't affect the amount of daylight. Boston is at 42.3 degrees latitude, London is at 51.5 and Anchorage is at 61.2. In Anchorage, the speed at which the light comes and goes is actually noticeable from day to day, and I've never experienced that in New England (outside of maybe Maine).

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/london

Anonymous wrote:I would try the museums OP, they are nice.

Ok, yes the museums and art galleries are excellent

Fair point

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few other things from living there that also suck OP

Train Strikes
NHS doctors, actually the whole NHS system
The fact that they use sort codes instead of Venmo
Their version of Pizza and Mexican Salsa is disgusting
The way they say Nike, Amazon, and Pasta is fu**ing grating

Find the Irish in the city, they are so fun and love Americans!

+1,000
Their entire speech affect is so pretentious and whiny.

These two PPs are racist. You do not criticize another country's speech patterns. American accents are known in other parts of the English speaking world as inelegant. Are you offended when this is pointed out to you? Then stop criticizing other people's speech.

Wtf it isn’t racist to call out Brit’s for pronouncing a word incorrectly. It’s just plain ignorant to refer to a company name incorrectly. Both Nike and Amazon have investor relations calls. And they call their companies NIK-EY and AMAZ-ON. Not “Nyke” and “Ama-zin” ! Nike was coined from the Greek Mythology of Nike (which you Do know how to say correctly right?!) And Amazon was coined from the friggen rain forest in South America, the Amazon (and again you know how to say this one right?!)

And pasta is from Italy where they call it pah-sta.

And filet is from France where they call it Fil-ay. Not Fill-it.

The Brit’s may seem elegant but they are actually uptight dumbasses.

Man you’re embarrassing, what a rant about nothing! Ignore ignore

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few other things from living there that also suck OP

Train Strikes
NHS doctors, actually the whole NHS system
The fact that they use sort codes instead of Venmo
Their version of Pizza and Mexican Salsa is disgusting
The way they say Nike, Amazon, and Pasta is fu**ing grating

Find the Irish in the city, they are so fun and love Americans!

+1,000
Their entire speech affect is so pretentious and whiny.

These two PPs are racist. You do not criticize another country's speech patterns. American accents are known in other parts of the English speaking world as inelegant. Are you offended when this is pointed out to you? Then stop criticizing other people's speech.

? You mean xenophobic?

And Australian accents are elegant? We're aware that the British are snobs about their accents. And much else. Southerners in the US speak like you lot did four hundred years ago, so there.

99% of Americans like English accents so ignore these weird rants

I’m shocked by how the queen dying has hurt the brand for me. I didn’t think I cared.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I take it you did not previously travel to London before you moved there? It's been going down hill since before Brexit.

No

Never traveled to London before living here

We are here until q3 2025 😭

I can empathize! I lived there for less than a year of a supposedly permanent move. I HATED it. The winters are the worst too! So dark at 4pm and always overcast.

Like much of the northern US in winter...

London is farther North than most of the Northern US in winter. Certainly farther north than us here in DC. So, yes, it's darker there in winter. Just a fact, really.

I have a house in Massachusetts. Sunset today is at 5:27. In London it is at 5:36. In December/January both are at around 4:15.

Look up October 31st pp. report back.

Nice try, that's because they switch to standard time a week before we do. So yes, for a week in the fall it is dark an hour earlier.

Anonymous wrote:Not being able to find good food in London is a special talent in itself, but bonus comedy points for thinking food scene is better in DC/ DMV.

+1

Another stupid post. Running out of AI generated ideas, OP?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few other things from living there that also suck OP

Train Strikes
NHS doctors, actually the whole NHS system
The fact that they use sort codes instead of Venmo
Their version of Pizza and Mexican Salsa is disgusting
The way they say Nike, Amazon, and Pasta is fu**ing grating

Find the Irish in the city, they are so fun and love Americans!

+1,000
Their entire speech affect is so pretentious and whiny.

How do they say these words?

London is one of my favorite cities and I also found it hard to live there (back in my 20s). Two things can be true.

OP, spring is around the corner and it will absolutely make things better. London can be glorious on a sunny spring day when the daffodils are blooming in the parks. More daylight and nicer weather won't address all of your complaints -- I heartily agree with the PPs who suggest moving from Mayfair, if possible -- but they will make it easier to implement the changes that will help you turn things around because you won't have seasonal depression or something close to it.

You might also want to start a list of all the cool things in London that you were looking forward to doing, back when you were filled with enthusiasm for moving to London, and start ticking off the ones you haven't been able to do. You may have fun along the way and you won't feel like you are wasting this opportunity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I take it you did not previously travel to London before you moved there? It's been going down hill since before Brexit.

No

Never traveled to London before living here

We are here until q3 2025 😭

I can empathize! I lived there for less than a year of a supposedly permanent move. I HATED it. The winters are the worst too! So dark at 4pm and always overcast.

Like much of the northern US in winter...

London is farther North than most of the Northern US in winter. Certainly farther north than us here in DC. So, yes, it's darker there in winter. Just a fact, really.

I have a house in Massachusetts. Sunset today is at 5:27. In London it is at 5:36. In December/January both are at around 4:15.

Look up October 31st pp. report back.