Clutch interlock

I've recently bought a second car here in California. It's a manual VW Passat 2003 1.8 petrol saloon. It's very nice.

Apart from the obvious difference of the steering wheel being on the left, its manual transmission has one important difference from the UK: to start the car, you must press the clutch.

The car can be in gear; you just can't start it with a gear engaged.

In the UK, one often accidentally starts one's car in gear. The car typically lurches and you stop trying to start the car. Sorted.

I imagine this thing in the US is for safety reasons. Purported or real. Maybe it's 'cos engines are bigger here. Maybe batteries are more tender. Who knows.

Public & Private information

In the UK, house prices are private, but accounts of private companies (and partnerships) with limited liability are public.

In the US, house prices are public, but accounts of of private companies are private.

Cute California License Plates

I saw two neat (California) license plates this morning:

On a Mercedes E350: SMBGURU

On a Nissan Pathfinder: OTTSUV

Buying glasses in the USA...

I think I've found something that the UK does better than the US. I probably haven't, I probably just haven't figure it out yet, but... it's glasses!

My employer here in California provides something called "vision insurance". A free pair of glasses every year or so (up to some low, low limit), with a co-pay, and a free eye exam every year, with a co-pay.

I was, I'm ashamed to say, naive enough to think that this was a good thing when I first moved here. What I *should* have realised when I saw the word "insurance" was 'Oh oh! This is going to be complicated and expensive!".

Here in California, they like to take things that are medical related, and wrap them in layers of insurance. Because, hey, you need *insurance* against having your eyes tested and having to buy new glasses. And there are medical people involved ... they're *bound* to be expensive.

In the UK, when you want to buy glasses, you go to an opticians, you get an eye exam done, it's usually free, it *might* cost UKP10 or even UKP20, and you pick glasses. And they make them up for you, you wander around for an hour, you come back and get them.

They also give you your "prescription" so you can order glasses online.

Here in the USA, there don't seem to be any competent big glasses superstores. The ones that *look* like they might be those sorts of stores don't - in practice - have opticians available to do eye tests.

I went into a few and said I wanted to buy glasses, and they asked me when I'd like to make an appointment... WTF? An appointment? Yeah, they said, when suits you? We might have some slots this week. WTF? Slots? I'm here *now*! This is a *shop*, right? This is *America*, right? What's the problem? Ah, you have to make an appointment. Who's your insurance with by the way? OK, thanks, I get it.

I eventually rang round a few wee small boutique opticians near where I work to see if they could see me "now" ... this was on, like, a Monday afternoon. I had to ring five before one said they could see me now. The glasses were expensive (even after the "insurance"), and I still haven't received them. Hopefully next week! (I mean, the optician is very nice and all, but it's like the UK way, only dearer and more complicated!)

I like the UK way of getting glasses better. It's capitalism done right. The American way is ... I don't know, but it's downright UnAmerican.

(Just in case you thing I'm some sort of whinging foreigner in California, I flippin' *love* it here. Almost everything is better. It's great. But some things could do with some improvement...)

Corned Beef

In the US, it's kind of a tradition to eat stuff called "corned beef" and cabbage on St Patrick's day.

To me, corned beef is, like, the beef equivalent of spam. It comes in tins. Nobody eats it. [0] Ever. Certainly not on Paddy's day.

I imagine corned beef in the US is much more palatable. Must try it sometime.

(Cabbage, on the other hand, is common in Ireland. My favourite is savoy cabbage chopped up small and sweated in butter with bacon for multiple hours and lots of pepper. Mmmmm.)

A little difference, to be sure.


[0] Obviously *somebody* must, otherwise you wouldn't be able to buy it in e.g. Tescos.

HFCS - what's the big deal?

I've decided that HFCS isn't evil. It isn't the work of the devil. It isn't the end of civilisation as we know it. It's just a cheap form of sugar. My body can't tell the difference between HFCS and sugar.

(There's a corporate "movement" underway to rename HFCS to "corn sugar". I see no problem with this.)

The thing I don't like about HFCS is that it's in *everything* in the USA. I *guess* that's because it's so cheap.

I wouldn't mind, but it's hard to buy plain corn syrup (which is almost totally glucose) here cheaply. You'd think that you'd be able to buy five gallon buckets of the stuff for next to nothing but you can't. Shame.

Watch this video on [the evils of] fructose:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

High Fructose Corn Syrup ... in milk???

There's a thing here in California called "half and half" - a kind of milk.

The first time I met it years ago, I thought it was the same as "half fat milk". So I put it in a cup of tea.

It is *not* the same as "half fat milk". It is *not* suitable for tea.

It's supposedly half cream, half milk. One part of me is delighted and amazed that such a concoction is so available, widespread and liked. Another part of me is horrified that such a thing exists.

(I'm totally used to this mental dichotomy now: revulsion and delight in equal measures. I try to encourage the delight and suppress the revulsion. The revulsion is mostly going away now.)

(I have a notion that half-and-half is, like, a "healthy" alternative to putting "cream" in your coffee. I hope this isn't true.)

Oh, yeah, the point of this post: apparently my wife was going to get some half and half for something the other day, checked the ingredients, and found High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in it. In milk, ffs!!!

Anyway, in the end she bought cream instead.