‘I’m an Aussie living in London – 15 things confused me about the UK’

An Australian woman who’s recently moved to London has shared a list of things that shocked her about living in the UK.

It’s estimated that about 87,000 Australians were living in the United Kingdom in 2021, according to the UK’s 2021 census, the majority of whom lived in London. One of the many people who have made the move is Olivia, who moved to London in 2024. Despite having dual citizenships and being no stranger to the UK, the move still came with several culture shocks.

“Things that confuse/shock me as an aussie living in the UK,” Olivia wrote in a TikTok post before sharing 15 things she found surprising about her new life in London.

Starting with money, Olivia shared her surprise about people in the UK are most often being paid on a monthly basis rather than weekly, and that VAT is a whopping 20% instead of 10% like it’s in Australia.

In terms of travelling, Olivia also wrote: “Why do I have to take out a loan to buy a train ticket?! For a train that will definitely either be delayed or cancelled.”

Next on her list was the surprise of having to pack her own groceries when doing a food shop, as well as arguing that the colour of crisp packets are ‘wrong’.

Moving on to driving, Olivia shared her shock that traffic lights turns orange in between red and green, and by the fact that roundabouts often have traffic lights within them. She also wasn’t a fan of the high fuel prices in the country.

While she’s used to people driving on the left side, she argued that the way people move in escalators are ‘wrong’. She said: “Walking on the left and standing on the right??? Make it make sense.”

In terms of housing, she said one thing that annoyed her was the lack of sockets in bathrooms, saying: “Will always be mad about this.”

However, not all the things on her list were negative, as she also shared her shock about how people were allowed to drink in public places, and that mail was delivered even on the weekends, with some things arriving the day after you ordered them.

Olivia then mentioned that she found it confusing that people parallell park and face both ways on the street, as you’re only allowed to parallell park on the side you’ve driven on in Australia.

She also expressed her surprise about the weather, and how much it changes between summer and winter. She said she hadn’t expected either the 4pm darkness in winter nor the 10pm sunny evenings in the summer.

Finally, she was excited about the UK having ‘real mud’, showing a photo of her wearing wellies while standing in wet mud.