....to miss the States:
WINDOW and DOOR SCREENS.
Would it kill the Brits to put a few metal mesh barriers between their buildings and the great, winged insect outdoors? Especially since the lack of air conditioning makes keeping said windows and doors shut in the summer rather, um, sweltering?
I lost five sweaters, a pair of trousers and a knit handbag while my husband lost an expensive suit jacket to moths last year.
Judging by the nightly visitors drawn to our living areas by the bright lights, no barrier to access system we're operating, I'm afraid the score is about to tilt even more heavily in their favor despite carpeting the closets with various and sundry items meant to keep the destructive critters away. After all, they got to my favorite black cashmere sweater despite:
a) moth sachets
b) religiously dry cleaning each object in the storage bag before putting it away for the season
Seriously, people. SCREENS. They're not that hard of a concept. And yet, when an American friend remodeled her house and wanted to include put window screens in, she discovered they don't exist here. She was welcome to have them custom made or imported from America, at great expense of course...
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7 comments:
Oh man - Your favorite black cashmere sweater? That's bleak, girl. Grim.
Any chance you can get a wardrobe that's lined wth cedar? I've heard cedar's supposed to work.
Canada- at least Vancouver, has some odd screen adversion too. How are you loving the Whole Foods
No screens? How very strange. Sorry about the sweater and other items.
I was going to ask aout Whole Foods too. Do you have a well-stocked kitchen now?
Kim:)
So they don't do screens here. Ha ha! Not surprised! I just moved to Oxford in April. I must first say, as others have, I LOVE it here. However, I'm also delighted to have discovered this post, and I can't help adding that apparently, (and hopefully someone can correct me) the UK does not manufacture WINDOW FANS! Regular fans, sure, if you want to set one on a table or stand one in the room. But a fan that actually fits into a window opening...not so much. I'm actually on board with not using air conditioning--it's green and whatnot. But come on--they haven't thought of putting a fan in a window unit? Basic cooling technology here--blow air out when it's hot in the daytime, in when it's cool in the evenings. The only thing I've found is a kitchen or bathroom ventilation fan. So, I guess we're stuck with screenless windows and sad, silly little floor fans. Good thing it's damn cold here despite it being July! (My fam's at the beach--I miss, miss, miss the sun!)
PS--any advice for job seekers?
hah, we've found there are many things that don't exist here that SHOULD! How about some good delivery services? good tv programming? how markets closing later than 5pm on a sunday? As a fellow ex-pat, this place never ceasese to surprise me anymore.
I'm surprised! I'm English and I have door screens. Window fans are readily available in most DIY stores, in fact I just had one fitted in my office recently. I often find that US bloggers living in the UK say they can't find certain things. All I can say is that theres not much you can't get here if you know where to go and provided your prepared to look for it.
Jack - thanks for leaving a comment. However, if you'd actually read my post, you'd see that I am also commenting on the lack of WINDOW screens in your benighted country. And no, you don't have them. And yes, my friend - married to a Brit, using a Brit contractor - couldn't find them.
Nor are door screens common in London. I haven't seen one in the four years I've lived here. Congrats on your uniqueness.
And thanks for your concern, but I do have fans. (Although the stores in this country apparently haven't learned how to order appropriately and they are denuded of fans any time the temperature rises above 25C.) I'm not going to the expense of fitting a window fan in the flat because, y'know, we're renting (or letting, as the case may be).
In fact, we even have a *gasp* portable air conditioner for our first (second to Americans) floor bedroom. Heat rises, after all. So we've found that the A/C unit is the only thing that keeps the bedroom temperate enough for my husband (we turn it off right before we go to sleep). Fans only do so much.
Still doesn't erase the fact that you need to keep the windows open in other areas of the flat during the summer. And the moths come in. And they eat my clothes. Something that would easily be solved by a screen, and with less damage to the environment than running an electric fan or my portable A/C unit. Screens, which are standard equipment in every US home, apartment, condo or office I've been in (well, the few offices I've worked in that weren't hermitically sealed to the outside world, that is).
I've also found, in discussions on international message boards, that the British are very prone to exaggerating the availability of items in their country. I don't blame them; after all, the British newspapers take similar liberties with facts every day. However, after being told various tall tales (such as convenience stores open 24/7 exist on every street corner of London, which is to laugh) please excuse me for lumping your "screen doors" into the same fantasy genre. On the other hand, this tendency to tell fables does explain C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein and J.K. Rowling, so I guess it serves some purpose.
So thanks for stopping by. Better luck on that reading comprehension thing next time.
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