Elfkin477 Oh yes, we get snow. Not everywhere, and it doesn’t often last for long, but we get it. Even London had about an inch of snow that lay for about 4 days up till New Year’s Day this year.
Fog still happens, especially on the North Sea coast. However the Sherlock Holmes type pea-soupers were a product of polution, and have not really happened since coal and wood fires were banned in homes in cities in the 60s.
I’m afraid I can’t answer your buttermilk biscuit question. I’m not familiar with anything that matches your description (unless it’s the bread you can get in Jewish delis, whose name currently escapes me.) Butter biscuits are very nice, though completely different.
I’ve been to Chicago, and Britain’s not very similar. Britain is much more densely populated than the USA; 60 million people in an area about the size of NYS and Pennsylvania put together. However, this population is very unevenly spread. For example, central Scotland has about 4 million in an area of about 80 miles by 40 (very roughly). But the Highlands of Scotland are bigger than Vermont with a much smaller population. There are huge rural areas in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well. There are also vast depressing tracts of suburban houses.
I like Sue Deaunim’s
It makes it sound like we are secretly preparing the infrastructure for a sudden declaration of independence. However it’s actually one of several constitutional remnants of Scotland’s existance as an independent state before 1707.
Possibly. You need to remember that many roads were built before mass car ownership. Consequently they are usually narrower. This has effects the size of cars (as well as the cost of petrol). If you tried driving some of the larger US cars in a UK city it would be a continual squeeze. I remember reading about a US tourist who hired a car in London and drove off hitting just about every parked vehicle on the way up the street. He just wasn’t used to the narrow streets.
Older buildings do give a strong visual clue as to how average heights have increased in the last 200 years. But its also the case that the UK simply does not have as much room as the US. Consequently things do have to be smaller.
As to the chairs and tables. Well, not to put too fine a point on it, the average American is more generously, ahem, upholstered than the average Brit.
Washcloth? No, I think this is a US thing.
This is sloppy hotel practice. You should have complained. Thought you Americans knew how to do that?
Shhh! Actually we have 3 different bank issuers of notes. All completely different. Confuses the hell out of the English. You can have no end of fun with 1 Pound bank notes. And it’s all legal tender, don’t let them tell you any different.
I always got the impression that the English were into conformity much more so than Americans (although if you walk into any middle or high school here, you’d see than conformity is Number One!). Also, I also get the impression that English public schools are a nightmare, what with the hazing and what not; with seniors beating up on the younger students.
By the way, I was watching an A&E Biography on the Queen Mother and it said, towards the end, that she’s a “notorious picnicker.” That cracked me up! British humor is something I find interesting.
Oh, I see. Well sure, you need to distinguish between Olde and 19th/20th century stuff - even some of the things you might think of as being modern (for example, some roads are based on ancient tracks around which there was already development, even if that original development has now been replaced).
Also, in general land is a lot more expensive here so that impacts on room size, etc.
Don’t use 'em. We dance naked around May Poles in the rain instead. Good way to get to know the neighbours.
Ba-ta ? I find it’s difficult for staff to keep toast warm in commercial establishments. Best thing to do is dip it in yer tea.
That’s Outrageous ! I tell yer, I almost fell out my wonder bra reading this.
Just to clear up any confusion: “Public Schools” in England are the top fee-paying schools (in Scotland the equivalents are nearly all called private schools). These are the public schools you are referring to here, and the proportion of pupils that go to them is tiny.
There are 5 terrestrial channels: BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5. If you have a satellite dish (normally supplied by BSkyB) and a subscription to Sky there are many more channels available. I haven’t counted them but I suspect there at least 100. Probably more.
Similarly with cable, although if you live in a rural area such access is not available.
The area in which I live is considered rural in this country. Whether it would be considered rural in the US is another matter.
If you want to locate the area on a map, look for Stow On The Wold in north-east Gloucestershire. This town has a countrified feel to it, yet it is only 30 minutes from Cheltenham and Stratford, 1 hour from Oxford and Birmingham and 2 hours from London. These travelling times are by car on an average day.
I really like all the British.
I went to England last year, thinking I might want to stay.
Went from port to port by ferries, often sleeping on the boat. Traveled to Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Northern Ireland, even the Shetland Islands and Channel Islands.
But I found it’s hard to get working papers. Need a job first, have to apply before you arrive, so you have the right visa, etc. So I didn’t stay. Might come back when I’ve got the time to figure the legal end of it.
Oh, I’m old American stock, by the way. Traced to Kentucky before the Civil War.
Roads: Construction has been going on in Britain for over a thousand years. There are a number of geographical obstacles, so the roads can easily be narrow, especially in the country, where the volume of traffic is small.
Buildings: Again some of these are hundreds of years old. Once the walls are built, you just have to fit rooms in as well as you can.
Furniture: People used to be smaller in the Middle Ages. Antiques are valuable.
But perhaps it’s a basic difference. Britain is a crowded island, America has vast spaces, and the cultural heritage reflects that.
Washcloth: Does that translate as a towel (to dry the body), or a flannel (to wipe a bit e.g. the face)?
Hotels supply towels, but not flannels.
Cold toast: Que? Why would anyone eat that?
Scottish money: It’s all legal, but some places give you funny looks.
Am I the only Englishman who knows what a washcloth is? It does mean flannel (or facecloth) folks! Availability depends on where you’re staying – e.g. big, international chain hotels will provide them, smaller hotels probably not, and would not expect to be given one if I was staying in someone’s home. I generally take my own through force of habit.
Back to the tea question for a moment, the meal “tea” or “high tea” was formerly taken in mid-afternoon – four o’clock rather than five according to Noël Coward – in genteel Victorian homes. As such, it’s not something you’d expect in most British homes these days, but would be available at any time of day in teashops, cafés etc. The use of the term “tea” for the evening meal is a hangover from those times, and is very widespread, but is also a signal to social class. In more working class homes the three daily meals are (in order): breakfast, dinner and tea. In posher homes the meals are: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Other words would be used for irregular/extra meals (tea, supper). Very posh people call the meal tea “tiffin” after a term used in British India. At work these days tea breaks are more likely to be smoking breaks.
No cite for this, but as I heard it the heavy fogs you may have seen in old films set in Britain were used to save money on set-building. Many visitors are amazed that we aren’t permanently shrouded in the stuff, but although we do have it, it’s unusual. G. Odoreida is right about the pea-soupers though.
Is the cross-dressing comedy thing typicall British? It’s certainly not funny to me either.
Aha! That explains it, thank you. We stayed almost exclusively in B&Bs. I eventually found a flannel at a chemist’s. If I had known the proper term for it, I’m sure I wouldn’t have had such trouble.
The thing about the toast is, nearly every place we stayed served the toast in little metal racks, like I used to have for storing vinyl albums in [sub](yes, I really am that old)[/sub]. The purpose of these seemed specifically to allow the toast to cool. That may have just been the unintentional result. I did inquire politely once if I might have my toast warmed up a bit, but I never complained. They had obviously gone to such trouble to prepare the toast & put it in its lovely little rack.
Speaking of complaining, though, I must add that we used to see busloads (caravans) of American tourists. They would often alight in a sort of assault mission on a tourist shop or pub. You could always spot, and hear them, a mile away, and they were sometimes quite rude. I hate to say it, but I often hoped we would be mistaken for Canadians. I’m sorry if it offends anyone, but it helps to bear in mind when traveling that foreign countries are not theme parks.
Sue [sub]Please don’t throw me in the pit :-}[/sub]
They look like this: http://www.cuisinemagazine.com/recipes/biscuits.html
I hope they just go by a different name because I couldn’t imagine Thanksgiving dinner without them. Since you don’t celebrate our holiday, I guess it’s not as big a deal if you are deprived of them, though
I’ve always thought that it was because dentistry in the UK seems to be a medical practice, whereas in the US it is primarily cosmetic. Take, for example, bleaching of teeth. It is far more common in the US but has absolutely nothing to do with lookign after the teeth, if anything it is bad for them. In the UK it is more likely that people accept the colour of their teeth - it is just the way they are. “Mustn’t grumble”.
I think it’s a purely cosmetic thing, Sue, and it doesn’t work does it? Maybe they should start putting little “tea cosies” over the toast racks? [sub][sup]In fact I have seen that occasionally.[/sup][/sub]
That’s tourists for you! I often avoid British tourists when I’m abroad because they behave so badly, especially if there’s a big group together. Wherever people come from it’s always the loudest, most conspicuous, and rudest that claim to be most proud of their home country, yet they’re the worst ambassadors.
Fortunately there are usually plenty of well-behaved (and very welcome) American tourists over here – although not as many as usual under the present circumstances. Wherever I go I hope people get a good impression of my countrymen from having met me.
Sorry about the toast - some of the more traditional places do it like that, but everywhere else I’ve been, you now get nice hot toast brought just when you want it (& so the butter melts in beautifully instead of sitting on strange cardboard like stuff). Toast racks are very old fashioned & just allow lots of toast to be brought in one go. No one I know uses them at home.
Re the aeros - I haven’t seen coffee flavoured, but there is a new flavour out which is a cross between normal, chocolate aero & crunchies (a honeycomb sugar sort of centre). rather nice. Get one of those too if you’re asking anyone to post them to you…
Thanks for the answers about accents, btw. There will be no mp3s forthcoming, though, I’m afraid ;).
Sarky, my youngest sister is in love with all things British and I believe she would move over there if she could! I don’t know if she liked “The Full Monty” because of her love for Brits, or if that’s where the whole thing started in the first place! LOL But whatever got it going, she loves you guys and she’s got a Union Jack collection that’s pretty cool. She nearly swoons every time she sees that flag! It only got “worse” after she met and became friends with some fellows from Sheffield a couple of years ago.
While not as fanatical as my sis, I get a kick out of the differences between our countries. The way you guys drive on the wrong side of the road is so cute! (Just kidding! :D) I’ve always loved British comedy–Fawlty Towers and Monty Python in particular because John Cleese is hysterical! I loved “The Full Monty” myself and could even keep up with the language differences after I watched it with closed captioning on a few times. LOL And I’ve learned that “summat” is so much easier to type than “something” when I’m in a hurry.
Don’t know of many British stereotypes except for one that’s probably already been mentioned. Stuffy and arrogant–always a stiff upper lip and that sort of thing. In some movies, I’ve seen that sort of character still calling us "The Colonies. " hehe
I think y’all are cool though. (Can you tell where I’m from? )
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