Dear Rainer,

I think you will find that even in the English speaking countries that have converted to the metric system, peoples' mind sets in the business of selling, renting or buying real estate (properties) can only rationally come to terms with how much volume a building/room offers in terms square feet sq ft. In the UK certainly, many years on from metrification, the only adopted effect is on money, principally because it saves us the bother of multiplication or division by twelve (pence in a shilling) or twenty (shillings in the pound).

To avoid obfuscation I shall not, as a nautical man, get embroiled in the intricacies of chains, cables or fathoms but nevertheless they are every day terms in the world I inhabit, perhaps I should more truthfully say, the world my mind inhabits.

Thanks for all your efforts for keeping this side of the pond properly informed, it's nice to feel we remain in touch at leastto some degree with our old  European friends.  

sula