In general I’m quite happy, living in the UK. I’m now used to driving on the wrong side of the road, sitting at the wrong side of the car. I found a replacement for Andijvie (Cichorum endivia) to make Andijviestamppot, a Dutch dish I absolutely love. And everybody I met so far, is extremely friendly. Just to name a couple of things…
I found a replacement for Cichorum endivia
to make Andijviestamppot.
But there is one thing that puzzles me more and more. I know the UK is on the same planet as Holland. And, being in Scarisbrick at the moment, we are at (roughly) the same geographic coordinates (53.59N – 2.92W) as Doorwerth (51.98N – 5.79E). That’s less than 2.5% further west and less than 1% further north. OK, I crossed the Prime Meridian, but only just.
I do live on a lower altitude now (17.658 m/57.933 ft), compared to Doorwerth (39.347 m/129.090 ft), but that should only have a slight impact on the temperature, which (on average) should be 0.1388°C higher, here in Scarisbrick.
No, what really bothers me is Time, as in Amount of Hours. Somehow I don’t think the UK has an 24-hour day. It feels like there is time missing. It could be something similar to English and Continental pounds (454 grams versus 500 grams = 46 gram missing (9.2%)). Which, by the way, is good, because by moving to the UK I lost (59 kg = 118 pond = 118 lb = 53.572 kg → 59 – 53.572 =) 5.428 kg.
But emotionally there is a difference between loosing weight and loosing time…
Usually I get up sometime between 6 and 7 a.m. I have breakfast, a mug of coffee, and a smoke. Then it’s time to start the first of the things I planned for the day. But to my surprise, in no time it’s time to start supper. And yes, I know it is the Dark Days before Christmas, but somehow they seem to be darker here than in Doorwerth.
I decide to go on the internet, and to my amazement I find out that my feeling is right. There actually IS less time in a day in Scarisbrick than in Doorwerth.
Sunrise and Sunset times reveal that today, the 21st of November 2014, there is a staggering 13 minutes more daylight in Doorwerth (8 hrs and 31 minutes) than there is in Scarisbrick (8 hrs and 18 minutes). That’s a quarter of an hour.
And the sun sets a lot earlier in Scarisbrick than in Doorwerth (16:06 hrs versus 16:38 hrs). That’s another 32 minutes.
So by moving to the UK I’m loosing 18 minutes + 32 minutes = 45 minutes every day. Would that be 45 minutes * 365 days = 273.75 hrs per year = 11.4 days per year?
I knew it. There was bound to be something crawling out of the woodwork…!