It’s not a reference to infectious lesions. It derives from that, ultimately, but really it just means small, or of low quality. Many words evolve beyond their literal origins. You used the word “astonishment”, but I doubt that you had actual thunder in mind.
My observations from when I was there:
London is more international than any city in the US.
Even outside of London, no one makes comments about how you have an accent.
The pub life rocks! When I move the (2.5 years God willing) I’m going to have a tshirt made up “I didn’t choose the pub life. The pub life chose me.”
Nicest most gracious people I’ve ever met.
Oh an its not look right then left it’s look left then right when crossing a street.
no, right then left. you want first check the lane that you are crossing first (assuming you are talking about the UK still)
I don’t know that it’s worth our trouble to takeoff on my parenthetical, but I know how language works. In this particular case, the word “pox” in my mind hasn’t reached the level of abstraction that “astonish” has because it’s not used that way in my dialect. So while I intellectually understand the intent, subjectively I still find it icky.
My daughter and I were just giving my husband a bad time about the misogynical origins of “hysterical.” (From the Greek word for uterus and formerly used for all sorts of behavior in women men didn’t understand or didn’t like - from not wanting sex to wanting too much of it, to being cranky at that time of the month, to PPD, to being independent).
One of my coworkers will, when receiving such a complex question as “you coming to lunch? We’re going to Fred’s” take so long to answer, with so many detours that we’re actually quite suspicious of his claims that he’s married.
I mean, do you really, just as a suposition, you know, a guess, think he would have been able to answer “I do” without any detours, caveats, side trips or questions? It appears quite unbelievable, but then, who knows, of course only because he doesn’t even appear to be capable of saying “good morning” without a lengthy addendum doesn’t mean it’s not possible, merely that none of us has ever witnessed such an event, if you know what I mean?
An English plummer explained to me that the mixers are not a good idea as the hot water can back up through the cold water pipe and encourage things to grow, thus contaminating the cold drinking water supply.
In Milton Keynes, if you want to get lost, just follow the signs.
Which is why, if you do have a mixer tap, you have to have a check valve installed to prevent this happening.
No, it’s look right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left like a loon the whole time you’re crossing because you’re half convinced you’ve gotten it wrong and will be run down by crazy London drivers.
quite right, also there’s no such thing as jaywalking in the UK, feel free to cross where and when you like…if you dare.
I was taught “right, left, then right again”. (It was called the “kerb drill” which I always imagined, as a kid, as a device for making holes in the kerb.)
Defination: National Disaster.
Morgenstern driving a right side drive car through a roundabout at rush hour in England.
If you’re really grubby, and washing your hands with bar soap, it’s actually very practical.
But mostly, it’s probably inertia - people who grow up in a house with separate hot and cold taps are accustomed to that, and as adults refitting their bathrooms later in life, probably often see no reason to deviate from what they know. Personally, I would choose separate taps over a mixer. It’s simpler.
Did you tell him how doctors used to treat hysteria? 
this may be more of a GQ question, but I just have to ask: what’s with the phobia over mixing taps?
Most countries use mixer taps, and yes, there’s a tank in the attic with the hot water in it.
But people in those countries dont die!!!
The Brits have a phobia about the hot water line, similar to the German (or Korean ?) phobia about sleeping with a fan .
I don’t get it.
IME mixer taps normally don’t work very well: the cold water pressure is normally a lot higher than the pressure from the hot water tank or boiler so the cold water overwhelms the hot.
A phobia? I’m not aware of anyone who has a “phobia” of mixer taps, and they’re pretty common these days.
In some British houses it’s not a great idea to drink cold water from an attic tank, but no-one thinks you’ll die if you do.
The heat from the hot side leaks into the cold, and vice versa, so you waste the few seconds of the flow waiting for it to heat up/cool down.
Well I have zero issues with my British mixer taps, and can’t say I’ve ever had a conversation with anyone who has, outside of the Dope, that is, where any argument is possible…