The British press regularly measure things in football (soccer) pitches, London double-decker buses, Eiffel towers, blue whales and Wales.

The Register regularly does piss-take articles about this and even provides a handy conversion calculator.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-conve...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/24/vulture_central_stan...

I was under the impression El Reg does it as a joke to the US.

Nah, it is a common habit the world over, no matter what the local official system of measurement happens to be.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2010/may...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_units_of_measur...

I like the one suggested in the book Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, of measuring faith in Alps.

Mine. I'm French. We often use soccer fields as a unit of surface.

also in Eastern Europe...