I have to say that was stuffed up too, as soon as they issued half and quarter pence you knew someone had failed (and guaranteed built in inflation).
Instead of New Pence it should have been New Pounds, a new pound being worth the old 10/-
Iāve just realised another bit of confusion -
I weigh myself in kg
The medical centre measures my height in cm, and Iāve got used to that - I live on my own, and if you think about it, itās difficult to measure how tall you are by yourself
But the waist of my trousers is quoted in inches
My trousers are 92cm so that is fine.
The only anomaly I than think of is TV screen size, they used to be in centimetres but when they started to change from 4:3 to 16:9, to avoid confusion they started to quote 16:9 TVs in inches and it has stuck. My TVs are 40 and 55 I suppose it doesnāt matter that much as they are just quoted as a number, in the TV specs everything is metric.
I didnāt mention the one exception to the metric only rule was the police āWantedā or Persons Missing notices they were allowed to quote a personās height in both metric and imperial. I am pretty sure it was the only exception, I notice that heights are now given purely in cm.
Hi
We have a weird system here in the UK.
In Hospital you are weighed every Sunday in Kilos.
That is the minimum, for some it is twice a day.
Many cannot stand up, so you are measured in your bed, which is in feet and inches,
All good fun.
A cricket pitch wicket to wicket is a chain and ever more shall be so.
2 Likes
I think you will find that nations that actually know how to play the game of cricket measure it as 20.12 metres stump to stump and 17.68 metres crease to crease. 
Completely agree it is another language to me , I have to take my tape measure with me . Itās the same when I bake I donāt know the liquids or weights I have to convert. It drives me absolutely mad
2 Likes
Steer well away from DIY stores and head off to a builderās merchantās trade counter.
Is there a Toolstation anywhere near your location? Ask for 50mm wire nails and they will have a flat head and not those lost-heads B&Q offered you.
Round Wire Nail Pack 50mm | Toolstation
1 Like
When I was a Lass, hardware shops used to sell nails by weight - they priced them by the pound then, not by the kilogram, but the principle is still the same - they weighed them out and charged by weight.
The difficulties with buying DIY stuff from hardware shops began when they started putting them into little packets and opening out of town DIY shops - most of the old fashioned shops, owned by experienced hardware retailers, who had a bit of everything and could give you a bit of advice too have gradually disappeared from our High Streets.
Even if you have a nearby hardware shop, itās rare you can go in and ask for advice about the product you want and ask for the exact number of screws or nails you want for a small job - you have to buy them in set pack sizes, unless you go to a builders merchant.
The 0.4 mm and 0.5 mm measurement thing may be easier if you think of the numbers as fractions of 10 - whether you are talking about millimetres, inches or even slices of cake, 4/10ths of something is smaller than 5/10ths.
1 Like
I agree, Susan, then just when I think I have the hang of ounces/grams/pints/litres etc - some idiot starts using cups!!
1 Like
A few of you here know that my wife is an American. She likes to cook and bake - and I am the lucky recipient! Naturally she usually uses pounds and ounces and can convert metric units. Just now and again she will ask the odd unusual unit.
1 Like
I use cups occasionally when baking or making Yorkshire puds, itās a lot easier because they are units of volume rather than weight. 1 x cup is around 8fl oz, or 5oz dry weight flour, 7.5oz sugar etc.
Thank you LD. There is a Toolstation and a Screwfix not too far from me, I never thought of going there before. 
I have bought some now though although they are not quite what I really wanted, but Iāll see how I get on. If I donāt like them, I will try one of those other places.
1 Like
Oh, that is so true, Tabby. I hate that.
How much liquid is considered a ācupā in a recipe anyway? I never have known that?
I had someone who was an EU fanatic and having a go at me about Brexit and we got on to the metric system
He said we are taking a step back from modern countries like the EU (ā¦ yeah right) by using old imperial measurements. So I asked him how tall he is to the nearest meter and how much he weighed to the nearest Kg and he couldnāt tell me.
1 Like
Now that has really finished me off, Judd!
So a cup of dry weight can be anything it seems from that? You said a cup is approx 5 ozs flour, but 7.5 ozs in sugar.
I shall never, ever understand these things. I am English and live in England, so I would expect English measurements!
Those nails I bought yesterday say on the packet - (first there is a little symbol that I canāt even find on this keyboard, itās a circle with a line through the middle?? Followed by 2.7 x L50mm.
Absolute double dutch.
Tell me something, if you wanted to weigh or measure yourself at home, what system would you use?
A pint of prawns
A pint of maggots
lots of things are measured in pints other than beer and milk.
But cups are not all the same size, Judd, unless one invests in a specific set of measuring cups as well as measuring spoons! More clutter for the kitchen drawers!!
Hopefully not in the same jug ā¦ and never confused!
1 Like
50mm = 1"? Flippy neck, Primus, are you having a larf? Ever since Adam were nowt but an ankle-snapper, 1" has been nothing more, nor less than 25.4mm.
If I want to estimate short distances, I know that my hand span is approx 8" (or 200mm).