Chapter 7 Excerpt

Home, Sweet Home

Although there's nothing you personally can do to change the size of, or amenities in, British homes, this chapter contains descriptions of typical British houses to lessen your disappointment at the inadequate showers and tiny refrigerators! Fore-warned is forearmed as they say!   Whining about the lack of air-conditioning in your eighty year old great aunt's house will only make you look ill mannered and not very well traveled.   Similarly, exclaiming at the "charming" dimensions of your host's kitchen, bathroom, or hallway will eventually appear patronizing to them.

"I would venture to say that the chief complaint among Americans staying in the UK is about the showers. Showers are not as common nor as powerful as in the US, and many Brits still prefer baths.   Often, when you find a shower, it is a tub shower, the shower curtains are never long enough, and they have a tendency to stick to you as soon as the water starts running.  

"If you're desperate for a really good shower, find a resident American.   He or she will undoubtedly have ripped out the bathroom and rehabbed it "American style, or found the only house in the vicinity with a powerful shower". Many houses, especially with less than four bedrooms, do not have more than one full bathroom, although higher end new houses are beginning to come with a bathroom for each bedroom and loos dotted about all over the place (figuratively speaking)."