Britpicking my life
Learning how to be a local in London
Programmer’s log. Epoch time 1752431991. Commuting to work on a bike is the best, even in the baking summer heat. Sure, everyone who visits England knows about the Tube. It’s a wonderful transit system in terms of reliability and convenience, certainly compared to the infrastructure we have in America. But once I rode a bike to work once, I was converted. I still take the Tube every so often when it rains, but my new daily routine is reserving an e-bike using the Lime app, walking out the door and hopping on it to gently roll down the hill towards Central London. It’s both a faster and more enjoyable way to navigate the city, instead of baking in the AC-less heat underground after centuries of thermal absorption…
Wow I can’t believe it’s been three months since we’ve moved to London. Time flies!
We are finally at a nice steady state. There’s still a lot of small things to do on the margins like buying the random bits and bobs needed for the home (thanks Prime Day!), throwing away an endless mountain of cardboard boxes, and finding where to schedule our regular appointments. But the major day-to-day problems have been solved and we can start enjoying life in London.
I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to reflect on British culture and what has stuck out so far as newcomers to this city. The shock of a big move fades pretty quickly, and I’m looking forward to reading this collection of unexpected and surprising observations once I’m more adjusted to living as a Londoner. I hope you enjoy 🇬🇧
Britpicking my life
Learning how to be a local in London
It’s almost been 90 days since we moved to London! It took pretty much the whole three months to get settled, with the remaining logistics wrapping up only about a week ago.
In May, we secured our long-term flat and moved out of our temporary accommodations. The final piece was the arrival of our sea shipment coming from the US which was estimated to arrive in mid-June. After being stuck in customs processing for an extra week,1 the last of our stuff was delivered on the hottest day of 2025.
I felt so bad for the movers. Despite our meager shipment size, it was still brutal to carry boxes and furnitures up and down the stairs of our centuries-old non-airconditioned flat. I tried to help shuttle in the smaller pieces and even ran out to buy bottled waters, sticking them in the freezer in a desperate attempt to keep cool. Just unpacking the boxes had me soaked in sweat in minutes. But after hours of organizing in a London heatwave, cursing myself for not having the foresight to purchase a fan, our new house was set up!
So at long last, we have all the basic necessities needed to enjoy day-to-day living. I can finally take a breath and reflect on our initial impressions of living in London and the UK. Overall, we experienced much less culture shock compared to our move to Japan, but it certainly wasn’t a completely confusion-free transition to UK. Little-by-little, we are learning how to adjust our expectations and habits to more easily integrate into life here.
In high school, I went through a period of reading a truly embarrassing amount of Harry Potter fanfiction. Many of the writers were actually American/non-British, so a consistent problem with their writing was the anachronistic language or ideas that they added which in reality would never be used by British characters. The solution was a cadre of enthusiastic volunteer editors with experience living in the UK. These generous people2 would help by “britpicking”, or correcting, these inconsistencies. You could also describe our attempt to become locals in London as a “britpicking” of our lives.
Below are some differences between British and American life we’ve observed so far.
British terms
Letting a flat: you “let” a “flat” instead of renting an apartment. “Flat” is derived from the Old English word flett, while the more commonly used American word “apartment” comes from appartement in French. Stay tuned for a follow-up post breaking down the truly painful process of finding a flat in London.
Cheers: seemingly all-purpose phrase for appreciation or farewells. For example, when you get your food from a server use “cheers” instead of “thanks.” Doesn’t require an acknowledgement from the receiving party, which is perhaps why British people prefer it over verbally accepting thanks
Takeaway: never “take-out” when getting food to go.
Toilet or loo: most common words for bathroom. Apparently WC is no longer colloquially used and mostly appears on signage.
Bap: common name for a breakfast sandwich made with egg and sausage and/or bacon. I thought bap was an acronym like “B.L.T.” before a older woman running a local cafe explained it was the name of the soft white bread favored for sandwiches. It’s apparently a Scottish version of brioche.
Sausage dogs: dachshunds are called “sausage dogs” instead of wiener dogs here.
Man with a van: the actual category name for movers in the UK, which I find so charming and funny. You call up a “man with a van” service when you need to move flats. We used the literally named Super Man With A Van company for our recent move.
Wifi for hire: I never thought I would be praising an awful company like Comcast, but here we are. In America, even if you have a terrible Internet provider, at least you get a modem shipped to you within days when you sign up for service. Not so in London. It took three weeks for Sky to ship us a modem. Apparently, this is so typical that there are plenty of temporary wifi for hire companies happy to price gouge you for glorified cellular hot spots in the meantime.
Transit, infrastructure, and travel
Drive on the left, stand on the right: In Japan, cars drive on the left side of the road. It therefore makes sense that commuters also stand on the left side of escalators…
(Click here to read more)
📖 Links and books
Check out these great recent reads:
Oligarcy: the power of wealth (On the Commons)
Game, Set, Mouse (Great Big Story)
Flounder Mode (Colossus Review)
Overtourism in Japan, and How it Hurts Small Businesses (Craig Mod)
USGS map of earthquake records (1998-2025)
I’m reading Watching the English by Kate Fox.
That’s all for now! See you later alligator 🐊
Cheers ;) enjoyed reading a new-comers view on Britain