First of all, let me confess that I am secretly in America. I had to book a business trip to visit our US office. I found
an amazing fare and so I came out on Tuesday night. But I'm only staying until Sunday. Anyway. That's not the point.
Back when I was in the process of moving, I was talking to a former co-worker and he was looking forward to reading all
kinds of delightful and quirky stories about the differences between the UK and the US. I haven't really told many of them
yet. The reason is that I live in London and I've been very pre-occupied with figuring out how to get things done. When in
Rome, you know? So I've just been trying to get into a routine, a mindset where I've acclimated to the culture and can comfortably
do the things I need to do.
This time back to the states, though, I am getting tripped up by all the different things I've learned to do in London.
Oh, never mind, this preamble is getting annoying.
It's a simple story, really. When I left the office for the first time I pressed the wrong button. It made
such an impression on me that I took a picture of the lift panel today so I can show you what I mean. Now, you'd think that
the huge white star next to the '1' would be a bit of a tip that it's the ground floor, right? But yet, I pressed M assuming
it was 'mezzanine'. And actually, it was the mezzanine. But the mezzanine is not the ground floor by definition. A mezzanine
is a 'between' floor. What's going on here. Are you confused? Are you wondering what Dave's been eating in London?
Here's the rub. In the UK, the first floor is not the first floor, it's the second floor. You may have to think about
that one for a moment. The ground floor is, well, the ground floor. Floor 0. In fact, it's not uncommon to see elevator floors
listed as 3, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2. In my English frame of mind I couldn't imagine pressing 1 because 1 is never the ground floor.
