An Interesting Rule

Tracy and I were in Tesco (the UK's biggest supermarket) yesterday in Springburn, the area of Glasgow bordering Bishopbriggs. Deciding we needed a few pain killers to counteract exercise, old age, etc we tried to buy 2 packets of 16 Paracetemol (acetaminophen/ Tylenol for the Americans) tablets and 2 packets of 16 Ibuprofen caplets. Well apparently this is not allowed, even with two of us there we could only buy one packet of each. Now we could understand if there was some abuse or processing potential (the store is not in the classiest part of town)but there is not. Paracetemol can cause liver failure in large doses so there is an argument there, but there is no logic at all in the rule for Ibuprofen. Some stores in the US will sell you a bottle of 750!

Tracy Takes a Test

Since 2007 there has been a test for immigrants to Britain, which Tracy can take right away. Unlike the one I took for US citizenship (answer 10 questions the immigration official reads off the screen, most are of the "Who is the President" variety or not much tougher) this is taken at a testing centre and actually requires study. So far I've only chosen one right answer in five sample questions she has given me and that was to the essential knowledge of "How often do British children get their pocket money". Clearly living in Britain is tougher than it once was.

How to Make the Trains Run On Time

You can either institute a fascist dictatorship (a Mussolini joke for anyone who paid attention in the school history class) or timetable like First Scotrail, our local company. We live on the edge of the city and the journey is timetabled as 5 minutes pulling out of the city from Glasgow to Bishopbriggs, up a steep hill. Going downhill however every train is given 10-11 minutes to reach the end of the journey. Wonderful way to massage the figures.

Scottish Money

For those who haven't visited Scotland (why not), we have 3 different bank notes for each denomination. All of them different from the English ones in design, but worth the same amount. This dates from the days that private British banks could issue their own notes, and while the law in England and Wales eventually prevented the practice there, 3 Scottish and 4 Northern Irish Banks retain the right.

I always think this must confuse visitors, although the general colour scheme has been similar for each denomination across the 3 designs. But now there are a couple of new factors:

- The Bank of Scotland notes since 2007 are really different from what we are used to in the UK (more like Euros), so an assorted handful of Scottish currency looks even more varied than before.
- Two of the banks have been bailed out by the government in the recent banking crisis to stop them going bust. Good thing they print someone else's money, they don't have any of their own.