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Going to the UK

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Steve said:
Coalville, in Leicestershire. (Pronounced Letser-sheer). East Midlands, and close to my old stomping grounds of the West Midlands.

There's proper beer over there..... :wink:
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Good - I was hoping to hear that.

Wow! i wish we had as much interest in selling another one of these machines as you folks have shown here. It is a High end measuring machine. It is designed to work in conjunction with grinding/ polishing machines to produce low deviation surfaces such as mirrors and lenses. The machine is bound for the Indian Space agency. Our current software is going to be incorporated with another software package in the UK. This will allow the profiling of aspheric optics. In the end the point cloud produced from this machine will be used by the polisher to correct deviations in the measured workpiece.

This machine has taken us (basically me and another guy) over a year to build. I made many of the parts here in my garage, the simple easy ones anyway. The stuff beyond the capacity and accuracy level of my tools, we farmed out to others here in the area.

The next machine (if there is one) will be a full 3-4 axis coordinate measuring machine with a 3-D probe.

Thanks for the advice and compliments all! Now Can any one tell me how to make my cell phone work in the UK?

What is it like driving on the wrong side of the road? Is an international drivers license required? The boss asked me if i had ever driven overseas, sounds like i may get to try my hand in a rental....cant wait for that....i suppose it will be better than letting him drive.


m
 
SilentUnicorn said:
What is it like driving on the wrong side of the road? Is an international drivers license required? The boss asked me if i had ever driven overseas, sounds like i may get to try my hand in a rental....cant wait for that....i suppose it will be better than letting him drive.
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I drove around in the UK a fair bit a few weeks ago. Getting used to the shift on the left side was no big deal by the time I was out of the airport I had gotten the hang of it. Driving on the wrong side, well I did that once or twice :laugh: , only on little tiny roads and pulling out of parking lots from the wrong side. Got a few nasty and puzzled looks for it also.

What I found much more difficult was judging exactly were in the lane my car was. The rental vehicle had a very low nose so I couldn't really see were the left side ended. We sort of instinctively know how much space we need for our cars but when you switch sides all that learned instinct just goes away....
Also watch out, on the main roads, there are AVERAGE SPEED TIME TRAPS.
 
Driving on the left is not a problem, don't think of left and right, just keep your steering wheel near the centre line and you can't go wrong.

the bigger challenge is actually crossing the street (and coming into traffic) because you will be constantly looking in the wrong lane for oncoming cars.
 
I've driven a few times there and as JP said, just keep the steering wheel next to the center line and you'll be fine.
I do have to say the first time I made a right hand turn (within 50 yards of the car hire) it was with some trepidation. It was very strange to drive out into the intersection to turn right instead of hugging (more or less) the right side curb as we are used to.
Your first round about may be a challenge too but didn't take long to figure those out either, enjoy your trip Mark!
 
And remember.....almost every car club there sells umbrellas.
There might be a reson for that.

- Doug
 
As to the cell phone - ours didn't have a sim card for international calling and we didn't realize that. It was just simpler to buy an el cheapo phone there and have prepaid minutes put on it. Kept the el cheapo as a souvenir.
 
P.S. If it were me I'd take my cell phone to where I got it and ask them to confirm that my phone would work in the UK. I don't understand the 'sim card' thing but you might. Check the phone manual if like most men 'you don't do direction asking.' I'm not proud I just ask whoever I think can give me a proper answer. :angel:
 
If you have an iPhone, it ought to just find the network and work fine.
Mine always did. You may need to enable "international roaming" on your plan. I'd just call the customer service center and tell them.

You might want to turn off email "push", regardless of your carrier. You may return to find a nasty roaming charge for data transfers. I only check email when I can get onto a free 3G hotspot.
 
Believe it or not, I never take my cell phone on Euro trips. Perish the thought that a 21st century human being could live without a cell phone, but we do.

Actually, it's a wonderful feeling to be free of those freaking things for awhile . . . :yesnod:
 
vagt6 said:
Believe it or not, I never take my cell phone on Euro trips. Perish the thought that a 21st century human being could live without a cell phone, but we do.

Actually, it's a wonderful feeling to be free of those freaking things for awhile . . . :yesnod:
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+1 :bow: very few people know my number and I usually have it off.
 
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