On June 29, 2015, in the “Monitor” program of the “VM” network broadcast, as part of the “From Moscow with Love” section, the presenters discussed with experts whether their cities have a problem with insect infestations or, conversely, whether they bring any benefit; how they fight insects in the city; and whether they fight at all.

Experts who took part in the program:

Christina ANGEL - life coach (London, England),Ekaterina TSARANOK- Executive Director of "EduCouncil", expert on political communication (Brussels, BELGIUM), Alexander KARGALTSEV- artist (New York, USA), Vladimir SNEGIREV – own correspondent of the newspaper “Evening Moscow” for the countries of Central and of Eastern Europe (Prague, Czech Republic), Mikhail MOZZHECHKOV- President of the Russian Club in Tokyo ( Tokyo, Japan), Anatoly OSTROMETSKY- co-founder of the Slovak-Russian club “ARBAT”, member of the Slovak-Russian society (Bratislava, Slovakia), Ruslan VOROBYEV- entrepreneur ( Paris, France), Anna CHISTOVA– editor-in-chief of SmartTrip.ru ( Bangkok, Thailand), Ekaterina IVANOVA- guide and translator of tour operator Mexico Experts Travel (Mexico City, Mexico)

Studio: How things are with insects in the capitals of the world. Mikhail Mozzhechkov, president of the Russian Club in Tokyo, is in touch with us. Mikhail, what about cockroaches in Japan, are there a lot of them?

Mikhail Mozzhechkov, Tokyo: We have subtropics, Korney Chukovsky never dreamed of our cockroaches. They are 3-4 cm in size, like two guitar picks. They fly and jump.

Studio: Can they attack a person?

Mikhail Mozzhechkov, Tokyo: They are afraid of us and run away. But they really fly.

Studio: What other insects delight the Japanese?

Mikhail Mozzhechkov, Tokyo: Killer bees have caused a big stir in southern Japan. They fly and bite, which makes many people sick.

Studio: Do women scream when they see insects?

Mikhail Mozzhechkov, Tokyo: They really don't like insects.

Studio: Let's return to cockroaches. If they started at a neighbor’s place and then spread throughout the house, can the neighbor be punished for this?

Mikhail Mozzhechkov, Tokyo: I have never heard of anyone being accused of cockroaches. But if they appear, they really spread throughout the house. Japan is a fairly clean country, in which it is somewhat reminiscent of Germany. However, there are not very clean places in Japan near a cluster of restaurants.

Studio: Thank you very much Mikhail. The president of the Russian Club in Tokyo was with us. Let's immediately move to England, where Christina Angel, a life coach, is waiting for us. Christina, tell me, are there insects in London? Do they bother you?

Christina Angel, London: As for apartments in England, insects are rarely found there. If we talk about houses, then there are spiders there, but they are, as a rule, not poisonous. Today in England there is a lot of attention from scientific community given to ants. Scientists have a special passion for them. They install sensors on them and monitor them, conduct experiments.

Studio: Having a ladybug in our apartment is a good omen. Is there something similar in England?

Christina Angel, London: There is no such thing. But here everyone really admires butterflies. Everyone is watching them. There are very few of them. There is even monitoring: a search is being conducted for them, their population is monitored.

Studio: Where else can you find insects in England?

Christina Angel, London: There are a lot of botanical gardens in England, and I think you can also find insects there. Recently a poisonous black widow spider appeared in England, everyone is afraid of it.

Studio: Last question. What if a cockroach is spotted on a plate in a café in London?

Christina Angel, London: It all depends on how the chef treats you. He may compliment you and take the plate away.

Studio: Thanks, see you in a week. With us was Christina Angel, a life coach from London. And now we will go to Slovakia to see Anatoly Ostrometsky, co-founder of the Slovak-Russian club "Arbat", a member of the Slovak-Russian Society. Anatoly, it seems to us that Slovakia is rich in insects.

Good evening! There are absolutely as many of them here as in Moscow. I want to say that our attitude towards them is quite wary. In May we get a large number of mosquitoes that have a habit of gathering in the bushes. If this happens, then special services arrive. Which pollinate these bushes with a special mixture. But if this doesn’t help, then they raise aircraft and pollinate like that.

Studio: Anatoly, tell me, for this spraying to begin, are there any complaints from residents? And isn't this harmful to health?

Anatoly Ostrometsky, Bratislava: No, it's not harmful. This pollination is managed by the city, no complaints are required from anyone, they are simply destroyed every year. Ticks are still common here.

Studio: So what, you can also catch ticks in the city?

Anatoly Ostrometsky, Bratislava: We have many parks in our city. There you can.

Studio: Is there any tension in society related to the tick?

Anatoly Ostrometsky, Bratislava: No, they work very well information centers. They notify residents how to get it. It is recommended to use certain sprays. As for insects in the house, utility services quickly respond to this, arrive within 12 hours and treat the place with chemicals.

Studio: That is, it will not be possible to breed a cockroach and a bedbug, since a chemical war will immediately begin?

Anatoly Ostrometsky, Bratislava: Yes, right away.

Studio: Does this crew work for a fee or is it provided by the city?

Anatoly Ostrometsky, Bratislava: The city provides.

Studio: Great. Maybe you have a bee problem?

Anatoly Ostrometsky, Bratislava: No, not with bees, mainly with mosquitoes. We have more and more immigrants. We are afraid that these mosquitoes may cause an epidemic, since they bite both us and them, and they may be unhealthy.

Studio: Thanks a lot. Anatoly Ostrometsky, co-founder of the Slovak-Russian club "Arbat" was with us. Meanwhile, we are going to the very heart of bureaucratic, no, tolerant Europe, to Belgium. Are you ready to endure everything, including insects? Ekaterina Tsaranok, executive director of EduCouncil, an expert in political communication, will tell us about this. Katya, hello, you know, the impression about Belgium is that it is generally a sterile country, and the bugs and cockroaches there have also already been wiped and washed.

Ekaterina Tsaranok, Brussels: In fact, Belgium is very tolerant. According to 2013, Belgium is the only country that has introduced a rule: eat insects. This is the only country in the world that eats insects.

Studio: Ekaterina, be more specific, who are you eating?

Ekaterina Tsaranok, Brussels: Following a UN report that insects were an excellent source of protein that could replace traditional sources, the Belgians decided why don't we give it a try? Experts have identified 12 types of insects that can be eaten: moths, beetles, African locusts, etc.

Studio: Moth, it’s small, you’ll be tortured to cut it up. Here's a moly cake for your birthday. Why cake? Roast! Katya, don’t listen to us, tell us, it’s very interesting. Can you just go to the store, buy it and fry it yourself?

Ekaterina Tsaranok, Brussels: These are insects that are specially raised. Special stores sell tomato paste and carrot paste with insects and worms. There are no worms visible, but it is written that the jars contain up to 6 percent worms.

Studio: What is cheaper to buy: steak, organic potatoes or these funny cockroaches?

Ekaterina Tsaranok, Brussels: The presence of insects does not affect the price of the product; it affects its nutritional value and protein content.

Studio: Have you tried it?

Ekaterina Tsaranok, Brussels: Not yet, but I read a report from one university that said that, in principle, it is not at all scary to eat insects. But there are people, like me, who have myophobia - fear of new things. food products. I still can’t overcome my fear.

Studio: Well, don't get over it. Eat oysters and champagne, and everything will be fine. Are there insects that have not yet been eaten in the houses or is everything clean and sterile?

Ekaterina Tsaranok, Brussels: Despite the fact that Brussels is old City, and there are buildings here from the 18th-19th centuries, there are very few insects here. In all the time I've lived in Brussels, I've only gotten fruit bugs once, but they disappeared when it got a little colder. For example, I have never seen cockroaches. Belgium is a small country, people here are modest, they don’t push themselves, but they like to be at the forefront of everything. Belgians are good entrepreneurs. First Railway appeared in Europe in Belgium, few people know about it. Why don't they start eating insects first?

Studio: Let's consider a hypothetical situation: if they do appear in the house, then where should you go, to a restaurant?

Ekaterina Tsaranok, Brussels: There are a huge number of private companies that are engaged in eliminating crawling, patching, and gnawing insects.

Studio: But the state does not include this in its public services.

Ekaterina Tsaranok, Brussels: Yes, if it is your property, then for your own money.

Studio: You started the pigsty yourself, clean it up yourself. Thank you Ekaterina, Belgium appeared before us in a completely different face thanks to you. Ekaterina Tsaranok, executive director of EduCouncil and an expert in political communication, was with us. The Belgians turned out to be the most bloodthirsty. How to deal with your small competitors? Eat them. They didn’t disdain. Did you eat my fur coat? I'll eat you too. But there is a country where fur coats are no longer needed. This is Thailand, Anna Chistova, editor-in-chief of SmartTrip.ru. Anna, what about insects in Thailand, how do you get along with them? What's going on in the houses?

Anna Chistova, Bangkok: If you do not monitor the ant population, they can multiply to an infinite number. There may be several species in one area. My favorites are sweet-toothed sparrows. If you leave a box of cookies or a box of sugar, they quickly fly in and start eating it. When they have all eaten, they leave.

Studio: Do you have cockroaches the size of your palm like in Japan?

Anna Chistova, Bangkok: Yes, we have them. They fly freely. They are eaten. My cat loves to bring cockroaches home and play with them. You can always buy silkworm pupae from a market merchant. They are quite tasty. If any of the listeners have tried dried shrimp, they are a little similar to them.

Studio: Are they crunchy or spicy?

Anna Chistova, Bangkok: They're crispy. I tried them for the first time in Phuket in 2007, and it was a bit of a shock for me. Then I tried locusts. But Thailand, in defiance of the 2013 UN convention, which called for everyone to eat mykomeat, claims that not all insects are equally beneficial. For example, people with high cholesterol are not recommended to consume a lot of silkworm. Thailand plans to sell insects on an industrial scale and wanted to expose Belgium. On average, today the country annually harvests 7,500 tons of insects.

Studio: Don’t you think it’s cruel to kill grasshoppers and mosquitoes?

Anna Chistova, Bangkok: No, they are only cute in fairy tales. For example, in real life in Thailand you can get dengue fever from a mosquito. The treatment is quite difficult. You need to stay at home or in a hospital, and there are no vaccinations against it.

Studio: Anna, are there any other unpleasant insects, poisonous spiders, for example, scalapendras, who can run into your home and cause trouble?

Anna Chistova, Bangkok: It's all there. IN southern provinces There are, for example, scorpions. They just need to be swept up and thrown away.

Studio: Is it your custom to deal with this problem on your own?

Anna Chistova, Bangkok: No, usually the owner or manager of the house calls a service that destroys them. Large red ants bite quite painfully.

Studio: Do Thais eat insects raw?

Anna Chistova, Bangkok: They eat, but it’s more like a treat. Don't put everything in your mouth.

Studio: Thank you very much, Anna Chistova, editor-in-chief of SmartTrip.ru, from Bangkok was with us. And we'll go to New York. Alexander Kargaltsev, an artist from New York, is in touch with us. As a person with developed aesthetic taste, how do you feel about insects?

You get used to insects, of course. On old apartment, where I lived, there were cockroaches, and, which was very unpleasant, of all types and sizes. There is no use calling any services. Which are sprayed because it doesn’t bother the cockroaches.

Studio: How many types of cockroaches have you seen in New York?

Alexander Kargaltsev, New York: The most aesthetically beautiful are the marbled American white cockroaches. They have such pearl-colored wings. They have huge mustaches, but they themselves are small. I remember when I lived in Russia, some cockroaches were fighting with each other. This is where they all live together.

Studio: Does anyone else live in apartments: bedbugs, spiders, wood lice?

Alexander Kargaltsev, New York: Of course, there were woodlice, but the biggest problem was the bad bag bugs. They live in the bed, in clothes, and are very difficult to get rid of. There have been cases when an entire house was evicted and treated because of them.

Studio: Are there any other insects?

Alexander Kargaltsev, New York: There are mosquitoes, so you should close the window from them.

Studio: And when you're on a picnic in Central Park, don't they bother you?

Alexander Kargaltsev, New York: More likely, birds will fly to you or squirrels will come, but I didn’t see any insects there.

Studio: Are city authorities making efforts to free residents from cockroaches or only at their own expense?

Alexander Kargaltsev, New York: The city helps through management company, but there is always a queue there.

Studio: In America, too, all sorts of innovations are being introduced: organic food, rich in protein. No cockroach food at all?

Alexander Kargaltsev, New York: No, you won't be able to find this. I tried to try national dishes different countries, but here they all strictly satisfy US standards.

Studio: Thanks a lot. Alexander Kargaltsev, an artist from New York, was with us. We have a country bordering the United States, where the situation with cockroaches should be even better. This is Mexico. Contacting us is Ekaterina Ivanova, guide and translator of the tour operator Mexico Experts Travel. Do cockroaches live in apartments?

Ekaterina Ivanova, Mexico City: They come in waves. There are especially many of them before the rainy season. There may also be a lot of ants before the rainy season. Usually before the humidity sets in. Cockroaches do not live in houses. They can enter through water drains.

Studio: Do they do any harm when they get into the house?

Ekaterina Ivanova, Mexico City: When there are a lot of ants, then, of course, you need to hide everything from them, otherwise they will understand that the road is well-trodden here. They usually come in April-May. But for the rest of the year they are not visible. There are still mosquitoes. If we take a little further south, then in this part of the country there is also dengue, which causes such a dangerous disease in which the blood does not clot.

Studio: What is the probability of getting such a bite? Is this a rare occurrence?

Ekaterina Ivanova, Mexico City: Rare, but I had several friends. This is, of course, scary.

Studio: How do you combat this?

Ekaterina Ivanova, Mexico City: There, closer to Cancun, they spray it there.

Studio: Who is doing this?

Ekaterina Ivanova, Mexico City: If we are talking about the period when dengue becomes active, then the state. As for the rest, each person copes on his own.

Studio: Are there poisonous spiders in Mexico?

Ekaterina Ivanova, Mexico City: There are poisonous spiders, and there are tarantulas; in the zoo they even let you hold them. There are scorpions; in particularly hot weather they can come into the house.

Studio: How big are these insects?

Ekaterina Ivanova, Mexico City: Spiders are the size of palms, cockroaches are the size of fingers, a little smaller. I would like to add that they eat insects here. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, there were no ungulates here: no cows, no horses, no sheep. The main source of protein was fish, which was still needed from the coast, or turkey, which was quickly shot. Therefore, to compensate for the lack of protein, they began to eat everything that moves. Now you can buy crickets in the store. The first impression is that it is a bit dry, but then you get used to it. I can’t say that I’m a fan and will eat them every day.

Studio: Is it crunchy?

Ekaterina Ivanova, Mexico City: Yes, when they are fried, all the moisture leaves them. Goes great with beer.

Studio: How long did it take you to get used to it?

Ekaterina Ivanova, Mexico City: Not right away, but when I tried ant eggs, I became a fan. We also have woodbugs, but they are eaten alive. They crawl all over the cake. They also have a characteristic smell. There are also caterpillars, which are white with black heads and are eaten by placing them on a flatbread and pouring sauce over them.

Studio: Thanks a lot. Ekaterina Ivanova, a guide and translator for the tour operator Mexico Experts Travel, was with us. Let's go to Paris. Ruslan Vorobyov is waiting for us here.

Ruslan Vorobyov, Paris: I advised a large pharmaceutical company headquartered in Belgium on their 2020 strategy, and I explained to them that in the future they would not be able to occupy the cutting-edge niche without insects. Currently, people in France don't eat insects, but the company plans to work with restaurants to attract customers to insects. With the help of the media, people can be drawn into anything. If you start to say that in 110 countries around the world insects are consumed on a regular basis, then in a few years some Michelin-starred chef will start cooking something from them. This does not come from a good life. To grow a kilogram of meat, you need to grow 40-50 kilograms of wheat. And a kilogram of grasshoppers comes from 1-2 kilograms of grass, which doesn’t really need to be grown.

Studio: If a cockroach appeared in Paris, how big of a problem would it be?

Ruslan Vorobyov, Paris: Every year our sanitary and epidemiological station carries out preventive maintenance. The director of the sanitary and epidemiological station goes around everything and does preventive maintenance during his visit.

Studio: Thank you very much, Ruslan Vorobyov, an entrepreneur from Paris, was with us. France, like the UN, doesn’t eat it themselves, but advises everyone to eat it. Our last stop will be the Czech Republic. Vladimir Snegirev, special correspondent of “Evenings”, is in touch with us.

Vladimir Snegirev, Prague: The only problem here is with ticks. You can catch them not only in the forests, but also in the forests. In Europe there is generally a lot of grass where they sit. A large percentage of them are encephalitic.

Studio: In the Czech Republic, just like in Slovakia, they give instructions on how to pull it out?

Vladimir Snegirev, Prague: The Czechs are very afraid of him, they write about him everywhere in the newspapers. They write how to pull it out, how to wash the wound.

Studio: Do they eat insects?

Vladimir Snegirev, Prague: Czechs have their favorite drinks and dishes that have not changed for centuries. Belgium is unlikely to have such an impact.

08.00 - 21.00 seven days a week

10% of the weight of dirty pillows is dead skin, as well as mites. It is also known that young mothers (women under 25 years old) neglect washing. Housewives under 55 years of age wash their bed sheets approximately three times a month.

Londoners have become champions of uncleanliness. Second place is occupied by residents of north-east and south-west Britain. Dirty bed linen is a breeding ground for disease. About a thousand men and women in the UK took part in the study.

The average Briton spends 49 hours a week in their bed during winter. The bed is not only the most frequently used piece of furniture, but also the most expensive. A UK resident can buy a bed for 1 thousand pounds. But he doesn’t care at all about the cleanliness of his bed. Bedding should be washed once every two weeks.

Englishman's house

Maybe to someone, what is described below will seem strange, not fitting into normal modern universal concepts. But believe me - it's true. However, you can try all this on yourself by getting a job in an English house, say, as a maid.

No Englishman would want (if he had a choice) to live in a flat. Be sure to give him a separate house. With a kindergarten. This is quite understandable if you live outside the city. But no, an Englishman must live in his own house in the city. And let it be small and cramped, squeezed with difficulty between equally small and cramped houses. But the house. Separate. And there the Englishman will be fine. In cramped conditions, as they say, but not in an apartment.

In appearance, the British are practically indistinguishable from ordinary people. At work and in the cinema, in a restaurant and at the skating rink, at the airport and in the swimming pool, they often behave like everyone else, and sometimes, even with the closest observation, you may not detect anything strange in their habits. (Except, of course, for the small detail that they drive on the left side of the road, and not on the right, like all normal people!)

Another thing is at home. At home, the Englishman finally becomes himself. Here he gives himself free rein, here he reveals himself completely, here he lovingly cultivates his oddities, here he cherishes his notorious eccentricity. Therefore, you can truly get to know the British only by visiting them. But when planning to visit the British, you should at least know in general terms what awaits you there.

Central heating

To put it bluntly, it is not easy for a normal person to survive in an English home. Mainly because of the cold.

It’s an amazing thing, but everything that we were told at school about how the English go to bed in cold bedrooms, and their miserable children in boarding houses wash themselves with ice water, is the absolute truth. This is how it really is. And today, in the 21st century, approximately a third of English houses do not have central heating, in order to save money. To make the house at least a little warmer, they use gas heaters - scary-looking units on wheels, which not only emit a disgusting smell, but are also extremely fire hazardous.

And in cases where central heating is still available, the British do not use it in a stingy way either: they install special mode, when the boiler operates only a few hours a day - only in the morning, for example, and in the evening. And at night, rest assured, it will turn off. Because it’s already warm in bed under the feather bed, and why heat the room in vain when everyone is sleeping anyway?

Warmer

All progressive humanity uses a heating pad exclusively for illnesses. That's why they are sold in pharmacies. In England, a heating pad is a common everyday item (in winter), every house has a special cabinet where they are stored, each family member has their own, and a few more in reserve for guests. When going to bed, everyone takes a heating pad with them, because getting into an icy bed without a heating pad is truly impossible, even if you are wearing two pairs of woolen socks!

Thermostat

And everything would be fine, but in addition to the timer for central heating, there is also a thermostat. And although the scale of most thermostats rises to twenty-five degrees Celsius (and sometimes I have met an optimistic thirty!), you are unlikely to find an English house where the set mode will exceed seventeen degrees above zero. This is considered normal temperature. And if you happen to, say, live with the English and in their absence you try to warm up by setting the thermostat to the usual twenty degrees, then be sure that, as soon as you enter the door, your hosts will first freeze, as if listening to something, and then rush to turn the thermostat back, exclaiming: “Twenty degrees!” with a note of horror in his voice. It is noteworthy that no English person has anything against this temperature on a nice spring day or a cool summer evening. But twenty degrees of heat in the middle of winter seems like a perversion to them: “It should be cold in winter, because it’s winter. Winter means you have to wear a warm sweater, preferably two warm sweaters, go to bed in socks. And what kind of nonsense is this, why do you suddenly "Do you want to walk around the house in a light shirt or, God forbid, barefoot? What kind of strange fantasy is this? That's what summer is for!"

There are, of course (very rarely!), houses in England that are warm in winter. Where you can go to bed without wool socks, where steam doesn’t come out of your mouth and the water in the bath doesn’t get cold after five minutes. But on closer examination it will certainly turn out that one of the household members is half Russian, or half Uzbek, or Chinese, or Moor; or that the great-grandfather was an envoy to India, and therefore the grandmother was used to a different temperature regime, or something else in the same spirit - some kind of catch, so you still can’t honestly consider this house a real, classic English house.

Here is another proof of the wild stinginess of the British, these are double glazing, or rather the lack thereof. Of course, severe frosts do not occur in England; in general, the temperature rarely drops below zero, winter in England is mild and warm. And yet. After all, heat must not only be produced, it must be preserved. And when it’s five to ten degrees outside, double window frames make a significant difference. But the stinginess of the British, spending money on double frames, takes its toll.

Of course, installing double glazing throughout the entire house is expensive, who can argue. But once done, it will save a lot of money on heating! Year after year, winter after winter, five-year period after five-year period, you will save and save! However, this simple calculation does not convince the stingy British. And they, for the most part, continue to pay ruinous heating bills and sit in the cold all winter. They will never understand that the stingy pays twice.

And the British are also original in window design. The so-called "English window" is designed differently from a regular one. This, by the way, is the most common blunder in our domestic films about English life. No matter how much you shoot Sherlock Holmes in Riga, it is clear to everyone that this is not England at all. Because in England, windows do not swing open on hinges, but rise vertically, sliding on special wheels like a guillotine. (Insanity, and that’s all). That is, it would be more correct to say that this guillotine works on the principle of English windows. Because, most likely, the infamous Dr. Guillotin dreamed up his monstrous car after a visit to England, where he leaned out of a window, and the frame suddenly broke off and hit him in the neck.

Fireplaces

The British simply adore fireplaces and enthusiastically burn thick, damp logs in them (and sometimes, instead of firewood, artificial coal is piled up in an unconvincing pile, and what is actually burning is a gas burner). They force you to sit near this fireplace with a glass of strong drink and enjoy life, but life is quite difficult to fully enjoy when the fireplace is roasting you on one side, and your other side is numb (literally numb) from an icy draft!

And here’s what’s even more amazing! The notorious fireplace and, accordingly, the chimney are ALWAYS located in the EXTERNAL WALL of the house! It looks, of course, beautiful, but from the fireplace, I dare say, besides beauty there must be some benefit! It is designed to at least warm the room! But it is absolutely clear that the purpose of the chimney is not only to free the room from combustion products, but also to accumulate heat, heating up from the smoke, and, cooling down, release it gradually, thereby ensuring normal air temperature for a long time. time.

What's the point of making a chimney in an external wall, good people? And how could it happen that such a progressive nation, the heir of such a glorious and rich history, which gave football, penicillin, Dickens and Stilton cheese to a grateful humanity, suffers from such obvious, such blatant engineering idiocy?

This riddle excited me so much at one time that I began to ask all the English people I knew what they themselves thought about it. The British thought about it, shrugged their shoulders, threw up their hands, chuckled and agreed that yes, it was stupid of course!

Stairs

Imagine - every time, in order to relieve yourself, excuse me, you have to go up two flights of stairs (if not four), to put the kettle on, you have to go down two flights, and then you remember that you forgot a book in the bedroom and go up again and immediately you go down to make tea, and then the phone upstairs rings, and you go up, but you can’t find a pen near the phone to write down a message, and so you go down again, only to go up a minute later, and then go down again, and It’s like this all day long: down and up, down and up, and at the end of the day you feel like you’ve been working on a plantation for three days.

And young children who are just learning to walk - don’t they risk breaking their necks every day on the damned stairs? It turns out that they are not taking risks. Because for such cases, English stores sell special gates. These gates are installed at the bottom of the stairs and at the top. So children don't fall down stairs. But you have to first unlock the gate, then lock the gate, go up the stairs, unlock the top gate, lock the top gate, do your job, unlock the gate, lock the gate, go downstairs.

Cranes

But while ladders, hot water bottles and rabbit chimneys can eventually be reconciled, there is something about the English way of life that you will never reconcile with.

Its name is separate taps.

The British hate running water, considering it a great waste, and avoid it in every possible way. If such a strange feature arose among the Tuvans, say, among the Kyrgyz, or among some other people living in steppe or desert areas, this would be completely justified and understandable. But how and why such a phobia developed in a nation living on an island and surrounded on all sides by water and never lacking it is beyond human understanding.

This, however, is a sad fact. The British, to save water, do not wash under running water. To wash your hands, you are asked to plug the sink with a stopper, fill it with water and wash your hands with soap in this water. Moreover The whole family, in the morning, washes in the same water, and brushes their teeth in the same. After which they dry off with a towel. Without rinsing! The British never rinse anything. They don’t rinse the dishes - they wash them in a plugged sink and put them on the drying rack as is - in shreds of melting foam. They don’t rinse themselves - they just get up from the soapy bath and wrap themselves in a towel. And the hair is washed in the same water, sitting in the bath, and also not rinsed.

That's why they don't have faucets. The bathtub, the sink, and even the kitchen sink will be equipped with two taps, separately hot and cold. And get out as best you can. It is impossible to wash your hands properly, because boiling water pours out of one tap and ice water from the other. But even if you are ready to wash your hands with cold water, it is still impossible - the taps are located so close to the edge of the sink that you cannot get your hand under them. Especially a leg or a cup. What should I do? Fill the sink, wash your hands, flush, refill the sink, rinse your hands, flush, repeat as necessary. Hand washing thus takes approximately eight times longer than in civilian life. And if you suddenly have a whim to rinse your hair washed with shampoo, then the formal ballet begins - kneeling near the bathtub, fill a glass for rinsing your teeth with hot and cold water in the required proportions and pour it on your head until you wash off all the shampoo. (This needs to be repeated about twenty times, depending on the hardness of the water.) If you manage to sneak a saucepan or flower vase into the bathroom without arousing suspicion, this will significantly speed up the process. True, recently some of the most progressive houses have had a shower!

For tourists

Of course, it is impossible for a normal person to wash his face in a washroom with separate taps. But, there is one method that I saw in the old Khrushchev dorm, where, once upon a time, there were separate taps. Here he is. Use it when you arrive in England to wash yourself properly.

All fans of old Europe will be pleased to know interesting facts about the London Underground. After all, some details may seriously surprise you. In general, it’s always nice to read about ones that have many unique features. So, let's go!

  1. The London Underground, opened on January 10, 1863, is the oldest in the world. At first, steam locomotives served as the driving force, so the tunnels were heavily smoked. The last steam locomotive was removed from the line in 1961, but air quality in the metro is still poor.
  2. A 2002 study showed that it is 70 times more polluted than on the surface, and a 20-minute trip is equivalent to smoking a cigarette.
  3. The first spiral escalator was installed at Holloway Road station in 1906. Proving to be unreliable, it was never opened to the public. The launch of a functioning escalator took place in 1911 at Earls Court. It was notable in that it entered the platform above not at a right angle, but diagonally. When lifting, the right foot touched the platform before the left. They said that on the opening day, the owner company hired a disabled person with one leg, designed to convince distrustful citizens of the safety of the new product by his own example. All he had to do was ride the escalator from time to time.
  4. In total, the system has 270 stations and 11 lines with a total length of 402 km, of which 45% runs underground.
London tube map
  1. More than 3 million passengers a day use the metro, which is the third largest in Europe after the Moscow and Paris subways.
  2. An interesting fact is that the longest direct trip is 54.9 kilometers from West Ruislip to Epping. This journey lasts 1 hour 28 minutes.
  3. During the Second World War, some of the lines were closed, placing workshops, control posts and warehouses in them, and at Piccadilly - a storage facility for exhibits of the British Museum. A 3-kilometer section of the Tsentralnaya line was turned into an aircraft factory, information about the existence of which was declassified only in the 1980s.
  4. In 1940, with the beginning of air raids on the city, thousands of citizens took refuge in the underground day and night. Until the end of the war, a special train ran here, daily delivering 7 tons of food and 11,000 liters of tea and cocoa to those who spent the night in the metro.

  1. During the existence of the London Underground, three births of children were officially registered in it: in 1924 and 2008 - girls, and in 2009 - a boy. It is unknown how many babies were born underground during both world wars - no one kept a record of them. It is said that one of these children was the current British actor and television presenter Jerry Springer.
  2. About 50 people take their own lives on the London Underground every year, most often around 11am. The metro has its own psychological assistance service, working with train drivers under whose wheels there are suicides.
  3. There are many rumors about ghosts appearing in the tunnels. The most famous of these is the Screaming Ghost, the spirit of hatmaker Anne Naylor, who was murdered in 1758. According to legend, he lives at Farringdon station, where passengers have repeatedly heard chilling screams accompanying the departure of the last train of the night. The ghost of actor William Terris, who died near the station in 1897, has been seen in Covent Garden.
  4. Eldgate tube station is built on the site of a major burial site from the Great Plague of London in 1665, where the bodies of almost 1,000 people who died from the disease are buried.
  5. 75 million liters of water are pumped out of the metro every day. This is enough to fill a standard 10 x 25 meter swimming pool every 15 minutes.
  6. The world's first reigning monarch to travel on the London Underground was Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. She was an honorary passenger on the newly opened Victoria line in March 1969.

  1. The 14 London Underground stations are so close to each other that traveling between them takes on average less than a minute. The record belongs to the section from Leicester Square to Covent Garden - only 260 meters, which the train covers in 20 seconds. It is a popular tourist attraction attracting many passengers.
  2. There are 426 escalators in the system, and together they cover a distance comparable to two trips around the world in a week.
  3. The London Underground is inhabited by animals that are not found anywhere else in the world. It is believed that they could have entered the underground from Heathrow Airport, where they arrived on one of the planes, and over time this isolated group formed a separate species.
  4. Smoking in the metro was banned only in 1987, and drinking alcohol in 2008.

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The London riots, which have continued in the city for three nights in a row, have already disrupted the holidays of several hundred people - British Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Home Secretary Theresa May, London Mayor Boris Johnson and another 646 members of the British Parliament.

All of them were forced or will be forced to interrupt their vacation and hastily return to London to develop an action plan to prevent new unrest, which last night spread far beyond the borders of the British capital. It is reported that an additional 16 thousand police officers from across the Kingdom are being deployed to London.

The coming night will show whether the measures taken at an emergency meeting of the authorities on Tuesday will work.

Russian tour operators working in the British direction say that the situation in London is “certainly tense Russian tourists" "Unrest cannot play into London's hands as tourist destination", - said EUROMAG General Director of the tour operator Megapolyus Tours Victoria Kizimova. However, she assured that “there have not been any cancellations of previously purchased tours yet.” “But people are definitely nervous,” she added.

“Canceling a previously purchased tour is definitely not about Russian tourists. Although I personally wouldn’t go there now,” admitted EUROMAG Olga Zhdanova, manager for Britain and Ireland of the Russian Express tour operator.

However, no one is going to dissuade Russians from traveling to Britain. “We cannot dissuade anyone from traveling, but we definitely warn that in this moment takes place in the British capital. Although clients already know the situation,” she added.

Tour operators add that London is now playing into the hands long term visa processing “A British visa is issued in a month, or even two. Therefore, people who come to buy tours now will only go in September-October. I’m sure that by that time everyone will have forgotten about the riots,” says Victoria Kizimova. But, she warns, if the pogroms continue, Russian tourists may choose other European travel destinations.

“Although it will be difficult to say whether these events or the collapse in the stock markets influenced the decline in tourist flow to London. Indeed, due to what is happening in the economy now, some tourists may also postpone their trip or refuse it,” she added.

As for tourists who bought a tour in June and who have to go now, canceling the trip can cost considerable losses. “If a person is so afraid to go, then by canceling three or four days in advance, you can save some of the money paid. The airline will return about half the cost, the hotel will keep an amount equal to three to four days of stay,” Kizimova explained.

However, now the main question for tourists is how long will the unrest last? Tour operators are confident that the London police will be able to deal with this problem as quickly as possible. Although, if we recall similar pogroms in Paris that occurred at the end of 2005, they lasted about three weeks.

“Then it affected the flow of tourists to France, because Russian television relished those events very much,” recalls Olga Volkova, head of the outbound tourism department of tour operator BSI Group, but assures that “on TV everything was worse than in reality.”

“I was in Paris at that time, but in the city center, where tourists mainly live and walk, this was not felt. We wondered where the channels found such footage,” she admitted.

A similar situation, according to Volkova, was with last year’s flood in Budapest: “They showed on TV how people were sailing around Budapest on boats. And when we arrived there three days later, we could see the consequences of the flood only outside the city during a tour.”

Victoria Kizimova from Megapolyus Tours assures that the London riots pose virtually no danger to tourists if you follow basic rules of behavior, namely, do not go to troubled areas, especially in the evening.

“For group tourists in London the danger is no greater than in Moscow, because a tour is always specific route, a guide who definitely won’t take you anywhere you shouldn’t. And individuals can be advised not to walk at night and comply with all the demands of the police,” she explained.

By the way, the Russian Embassy in Great Britain has already recommended that Russian citizens refrain from visiting the outlying areas of London - Tottenham, Enfield and Brixton. Diplomats assure that there are no Russian citizens among the injured or detained.

That the London Underground has a pest problem is not surprising: after all, it is a network of warm, dark tunnels beneath one of the world's most crowded cities. However, in addition to the rats and bats that live in this huge labyrinth, there is another threat - Culex pipiens f. molestus, or common mosquito f. molestus, also known as the London Underground mosquito.

The first mention of this species appeared in 1999 in research work geneticists Kate Byrne and Richard Nichols. The title of the work was “The Common Mosquito on the London Underground: Differentiation between Surface and Subterranean Species.” It says that this species of mosquito is unique: it is found only in the London Underground and nowhere else in the world - its body has adapted to survive and thrive in the harsh underground world.

To lay eggs, mosquitoes need puddles of standing water - there are many such puddles in the tunnels. Thanks to the millions of people who use the subway every day, these puddles contain plenty of organic nutrients - like discarded sandwiches or human skin cells. Generation after generation of mosquitoes laid eggs in this water, and each generation became more and more viable. Females don't even need to drink nutrient-rich blood before laying eggs.

Despite the fact that London Underground mosquitoes were officially recognized as a separate species only in 1999, there is evidence that they have inhabited these places since the beginning of the 19th century - their ancestors settled there during the construction of the first tunnel, which marked the beginning of the development of the underground transport.

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