All 5 entries tagged Uk

The sun is shining

Today in Indy it is a crisp spring morning, the temperature is around the freezing point, but the sun is bright and high in the sky. In the UK its the kind of day where you’d either go for a walk along the Surrey Hills or you might take a trip out into Derbyshire for a nice drive followed by a walk along a river. It’s just a nice day to be outside and enjoy the scenery, the only trouble is that Indiana is Flat. It’s as though when America was being formed a massive force flattened the entire eastern side of the country then got bored when it reached the Rockies. I honestly can’t think of a single thing to do within 30 miles of Indy. There are no rolling hills to go walking in, no Yorkshire dales or variety, just a patchwork of farmland as far as the eye can see, and trust me when the world is this flat you can see a fair way.

Having driven round this part of the USA a fair amount now I’m left with the feeling that you could be anywhere, each little place is more or less the same as every other little place. Villages are so spread out that there is not much sense of community and what was there is dominated by huge chains of stores offering fast food or out of town shopping centres offering the same options as the last. I’m sure the west coast of America where you have Yellowstone and some of the more forested areas would be stunning, as would being in someplace more connected to the big cities like Washington DC, Chicago or New York, but here in Indianapolis there is little to see.

In a sense this is a shame because undoubtedly I’m doing a disservice and I just don’t know where to look but at the same time its pretty hard to find things to do, even a quick google doesn’t pull up much outside unless you like golf… there is a lot of golf here.

Christopher Hinds : 23 Mar 2008 14:43 |  Tags: Indiana Indianapolis Uk Weather |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

America and the UK: Automotive fun

At just about any point that any environmentalist wishes to denounce the internal combustion engine, out comes the picture of the American motorist in their 5.7v8 HEMI Dodge Ram or their Chevy Suburban. Said newspaper columnist denounces the USA and all its foul motoring habits and then returns to hiding waiting for the excitable response that can be found from attacking any lifestyle be it all consuming, unusual or just plain annoying. The thing is since I’ve been here I’ve noticed how many people drive these huge and, to European eyes, gas guzzling vehicles and then I started doing a little bit of thinking about this.

It seems from talking to people at work and around about that a typical SUV here, something like a Chevy Trailblazer (think around the same size as a Discovery but built like a 1st generation Freelander) get about 16mpg. That’s 16 miles per US gallon of course, a fact environmentalists tend to skip out, that their gallon is smaller – it makes for much more amazing headlines to say “US average fuel consumption is just 18mpg!” than to admit that’s actually 21.6mpg in the UK where we use proper sized imperial measures. That’s not really helpful though, because you can’t just go and buy a Chevy Trailblazer in the UK so how about the archetypal object of hatred, a Discovery 3 4.4v8?

UK average reports are around 16-18mpg
USA average reports are around 14mpg… but 14mpg US, or 16.8mpg (Imp)
So basically the same car isn’t that different in fuel use between the UK and the USA, no major surprises there, but it does help to debunk that feeling that Americans are somehow being hard done by in the equation. What is different in America is that far more of the population drive large cars, SUVs and I’ve never seen a full size pickup truck in the UK actually being driven. At work I park in between a hundred of them here. Lets just say they wouldn’t get into one of our multi-storey car parks in the UK…

A European of course reasons that the American should just get themselves a smaller car, why would you need something that size just to drive to work? The American reply is that they drive further than the average Brit and so they need a vehicle that can cope with the miles better and doesn’t feel claustrophobic. Average mileage for a UK motorist remains around the 10,000 miles mark, average mileage for a US motorist is around the 15,000 miles mark.

I’ve driven a good few miles in a tiny car at times during uni and no it’s not fun doing 140 miles in a Peugeot 106 1.1, but nobody is asking you to do that. How about doing them in something like a Mondeo or a Focus though? The thing is here in the USA the Focus is a budget car, that’s budget like Perodua kind of budget. The kind of budget where you wind your own windows, lock your own doors and are reminded at every possible opportunity that your car didn’t cost very much. To be fair you can pick one up from about £6.5k on the road so it is a cheap car.

What America has a problem with is size, a small car is somehow a reflection on your sexual organs. If you drive a small car it surely means you are unable to provide for your family. There are some exceptions, a MINI is chic for example, but by and large if it’s not bigger than an Mondeo it’s not a proper car and you will be looked down on. I got looked down on for dropping an A8 sized car for an A4 sized car, it doesn’t bother me but it bothers most people here. You then have to look at the returns and wonder “why bother” too. The Charger was giving me 18mpg (US) ~ 21.6mpg UK, the Pontiac is doing 25mpg (US) or 30mpg UK. Even swapping out I didn’t gain that much in economy, yet that’s seen as really impressive over here. I have even seen nearly 40mpg (UK) on a careful run.

Where the USA scores its big black mark is that far more of the population drive a big engined big car than in the UK. Even the commuter car might have a 3.8l v6 in it and it’s only that because it generates barely any power. My G6 2.4 for example puts out 162HP and 154lb.ft of torque. Figures the 1.4TSI in a Golf can easily match albeit using more advanced technology. It’s still 15Hp and 18lb.ft behind Audi’s 2.4v6 though irrespective and that’s an old engine now.

They do however get a positive mark for matching their EPA figures. This year the EPA revised their mileage estimates and they are now pretty realistic down to what the car gets on each cycle. It’s about time the European parliament revised our test regime to make it realistic too… but then they’d have to admit all the car companies are going to miss the CO2 target, not just a little bit but by a significant factor. Conservative estimates would say the fuel use will go up by maybe a factor of 10%, but the thing is it won’t be linear, it will be harder on small cars i.e. Fiat, Citroen, Peugeot whose engines run optimally during the tests currently. The big understressed engines in BMWs are unlikely to vary much due to their huge reserves beign translated into power not heat. That might upset the Italians and the French. Ultimately it doesn’t solve our CO2 problem though. However you grade it, there’s still too much fuel burned. Taxing someone on their choice of car is wrong, taxing them on their fuel use is not. Maybe each car should have a “smart” card associated with it, then when you fill up you are credited with so much extra CO2 output. Your car CO2 output can then be tracked automatically as you know how much fuel you have consumed and how many miles you have travelled… maybe it’s a function for the trip computer in the car to log on an annual, total and per journey basis. That would make for interesting motoring… more fun than being belittled for your 5 mile journey in a Range Rover by the guy doing the 70 mile journey in the Mondeo anyway.

Christopher Hinds : 26 Nov 2007 02:49 |  Tags: America Cars Fuel Consumption Testing Uk |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The cultural divide

When I came to the US I was expecting a few cultural divides and nothing major. It turns out that assumption was mostly true. While Friends and Frasier aren’t reality they aren’t totally removed from it either. They are also two of the few examples of good American comedy, the rest is er somewhat obvious, think Carry On rather than Yes Minister. Nowhere is the cultural divide more obvious than in the written word though. I don’t mean computers correcting spellings I mean the interpretation of phrases.

I’ve gradually gotten my gym attendance up from 10 minutes a day to 45 minutes a day and am feeling fitter but no thinner for it really. However, the gym is in a separate building that has been recently refurbished and over the weekend they opened the doors to the 1st floor car park, which saves me going down to the ground out, along the street and back up the other side. To get from the gym to the car park you go through two shiny, aluminium and glass, double glazed doors. On the aluminium frame, a small label on each door proclaims one thing:

Dogging Instructions

Christopher Hinds : 29 Oct 2007 21:03 |  Tags: Culture Uk Usa |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

One week in: America vs England

I’m not quite sure how it came to this but I appear to have been in Indianapolis for near enough a week now and it seems as good a time as any to update on all things work related and not. Starting out let’s take a look at how the city appears off the balcony tonight. I intend to get some walking about shots tomorrow evening. It really is a pretty impressive city to drive through, though you couldn’t really mistake it for anything other than an American city.

The Theatre opposite is rather ornate and looks far better in the dark than in the light. It’s the North Street Church that looks most impressive though.

Dawn is about 07:30 and dusk about 19:30 so the days are rather like those in Peru at a pretty fixed 12 hours. I guess that’s a consequence of being somewhat closer to the equator. It generally seems to be a fairly safe city in the Downtown area though I’ve been warned to stay out of the East side and having driven along the edge of it I have to say I’m fairly convinced of this. Plus apparently police attended a shooting there in the early hours of this morning.

Obtaining basic groceries can be a problem. Margarine and Butter are relative unknowns though I did find a little supermarket that sells them today. It also sold Indian curry paste too so with the aid of some coconut milk normal food might result. Lets just say though at 3mm thick the “thin sliced” bacon is a little optimistic about it’s description. It’s easy to see why many Americans have weight issues though, because it’s almost impossible to obtain non processed food and foods without tons of salt and sugar in them. It’s not impossible but you have to look several times as hard even for basics like lettuce compared to buying a preprepared, presalted salad. It’s also hard to obtain food that hasn’t been “enhanced”, especially bread which is flavourless and rather like eating inflated paper. I must find a proper baker. The pretzel is not just a snack here but a way of life, there are people at work who eat them for breakfast and lunch. They also come in only two varieties it seems: salted and with extra salt, though officially that’s unsalted and salted respectively.

Next up is the cost of living. Again it’s really cheap in a lot of respects – a 750ml bottle of Coke is about 65p, while 3l of Apple Juice is under £1. If you buy processed foods like ready meals these are about £1.50 a piece, while you can get a pack of Pretzels for 50p… a bag being 2lbs of pretzels. If however you want “proper” food you have to pay for it and just the same for anything foreign. A 250g pot of butter cost me £1.90 while two fresh pork chops was £3.10 and well £2.50 for a jar of Curry paste that is about 75p in the UK is impressive. Generally though with the staples like this in stock the weekly shopping bill seems to be about $50/£25. I can’t get used to the cashiers expecting to pack the bags for you though, and they seem genuinely surprised when you automatically do it for them and more than a little flattered.

Eating out is also cheap. A group of grads went out on Wednesday and I had a Coke and a 10” pizza. It’s the first time I’ve ordered the smallest pizza on the menu and left some. Oh yeah and that came to about £6.50 for a freshly prepared pizza in a pretty smart restaurant. Drinks are pretty cheap too – a round for 8 people was just under £14.

Of course you can’t really mention the cost of living without the cost of petrol. I’m driving the thirstiest car I’ve ever driven long term. It’s doing about the same as an S4 – around 22 UK mpg and yet it’s costing sweeties to run. I filled up after 211 miles with 11.5 US gallons of fuel… for $32, or put another way about 7.5p a mile, just over half the cost of the TT which is doing nearly twice as many MPG. I’ve bumped the kerbs a couple of times, because I’m just not used to being sat that far out from the right hand curb yet. I think it’s just that despite driving a “small” US car I’m not used to driving something A8 sized on a daily basis yet. I’m impressed with how mild the traffic is, though that might be because the average residential street is wider than the M25 between the M3 and Heathrow.

While shopping tonight I also bought my clothes and trainers for the gym. Only low cost Walmart trainers and trackies but between them they only cost me £15. I also bought a t-shirt (wrangler branded no less) just because the slogan was cool… we love Stewey from Family Guy ($7)

Finally I should say that everyone at RR Indianapolis has been fantastic so far. My boss has invited me to join his family for Thanksgiving which is extremely kind of him, while the guys in the section couldn’t be more different from what I was told to expect. So far I’ve been told where to find all the shops I’d need, where not to go, what’s worth going to see and one guy who is a pilot has invited me to take a flight with him over Indianapolis and Indiana to see the world from 1000ft. I can’t get over just how different it is from what I was told to expect. These guys are people we should be proud to have working for us.

Christopher Hinds : 06 Oct 2007 04:42 |  Tags: America Cost Culture Experiences People Uk Work |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Day 2: Cultural Differences

Americans and Brits like to think of each other as pretty similar on the whole I guess. We think given the number of USA programs and films we see in the UK that we are in some way similar. Some of those similarities are of course there. It’s more the little things that differ wildly. Take today, I went to see if I could obtain butter or margarine for my sandwiches. Imagine my surprise when I could find neither in the local store. More to the point when I asked the assistant they didn’t know to what I was referring. It seems that the condiments in the USA tend to be mayonnaise or similar, they don’t do butter. That in itself was a bit of a surprise but I guess in a way it makes sense as then you aren’t adding more calories in the form of fat.

I had my first day at work today, and aside from starting out at the wrong plant by mistake, it was pretty good. There are some really great people working at our plant here and the potential to improve is similarly massive. I’m of course totally locked out of most areas at present but hey that will be resolved soon enough. In fact my greatest issue today was not really knowing what my targets are at present. I’ve made some associates though (I hesitate to say friends yet) and found out a little about the graduate community out here.

One thing you can’t get used to though is the scale of things – there are few places in the world where the Range Rover looks like a small car. I saw a Ford Focus Mk.1 today and compared to my Dodge Charger it’s a tiny tiny car and the Dodge is pretty small by USA standards. I drove into site today to find a row of I guess fifty large pickups, Dodge Rams, Ford F150s, Ford F350s and the like. All of these huge vehicles are pretty typical. It’s only when you see a typical European car like the VW Jetta/Bora and similarly the Range Rover that you realise just how tiny they are in comparison.

Siggy would be stuck in a whole new motoring complex between heaven and hell. Heaven because Petrol is currently $2.80 per US Gallon (37p/litre) and everyone drives a big engine and often a V8. You can even buy a used Chevy Suburban for $6000. On the other hand the corner is an abstract concept unheard of. Consequently handling is not a major criteria for a car at all.
So there we are… I’m off to make my Sandwiches… without Butter.

Christopher Hinds : 02 Oct 2007 00:36 |  Tags: America Uk |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem