Everyday practical information for United Kingdom

Four countries, not one

• The United Kingdom is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and calling the whole thing England will land badly in three of them.
• Scotland has its own legal system, its own banknotes, its own bank holidays and free prescriptions. Wales has its own language and bilingual signage. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland.
• Bank holidays differ between the nations, so a public holiday in London is an ordinary working day in Edinburgh and the reverse.

The pub, explained

Nobody will tell you these, and everyone will notice.

• You order at the bar and pay when you order. Table service is the exception, not the rule, though it has spread.
• There is no queue at the bar, but there is an order, and the bar staff know it. Do not wave money or shout. Make eye contact and wait your turn.
• Buying in rounds is the convention in a group: one person buys for everyone, and it comes round to you. Leaving before your round is a genuine social offence.
• You do not tip the bartender. See the money section.
• Last orders are called before closing, often with a bell, and drinking-up time is about 20 minutes.

Practical bits

• Electricity is 230 V, 50 Hz, with the chunky three-pin BS 1363 plug. You need an adapter for essentially every other country's plug, European ones included - but not for an Irish one: the Republic uses the same BS 1363 socket, so a trip that takes in Dublin needs no second adapter.
• UK sockets have individual switches, and the appliance will not work if the switch is off. This defeats a surprising number of visitors.
• Bathrooms often have no shaver socket and no light switch inside, because of old electrical safety rules. The switch is a pull cord or outside the door.
• The country runs on both systems of measurement: road distances in miles, beer in pints, milk in litres, body weight in stones, and nobody finds this strange.
• Drive on the left, and remember it as a pedestrian too.
• Shops open Sunday but for shorter hours, with large stores in England and Wales limited to six hours by law. Scotland has no such restriction.
• The weather changes constantly and the forecast is a suggestion. Carry a layer and something waterproof whatever the month says.
• Queuing is real. It is not a stereotype, it is enforced socially and silently, and jumping one is the fastest way to be disliked.