What Johnny Foreigner loves about Britain...

Falsey wrote:This is a great place to live, but it gets hard to see the good stuff through the bad sometimes.

I imagine that's true no matter where you are. It's our nature to accentuate the negative.

Of course, what Britain needs is Charleys.



Truly beautiful food.

Alvin Flummux wrote:Of course, what Britain needs is Charleys.



Truly beautiful food.

Or Bob Evans.

Or Tim Horton's.

Cal wrote:I've been around a bit; I've stood on the lip of the Grand Canyon and watched the mighty Colorado River, no more than a muddy streak of piss one mile down; I've hiked the Rockies, just outside Banff, British Columbia and I've sat on the back porch of a beach house in San Diego, sipping sundowners as dolphins cavort out in the Pacific Ocean, slowly making their playful way down south to the Baja Peninsular.

But still the British countryside, somehow suspended in time on a perfect mid-summer's afternoon, just does it for me. The sound of a light aircraft dreamily passing somewhere distant, the tolling of a church bell drifting in across rolling fields, a dog barking, distant sheep... North Devon can do that - it's a magical place - lost forever somewhere back in the post-war years, beautiful to look at in any direction, and yet somehow very surreal. Another world. Home.

Beautiful


I have a life to live, I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but I know, I'll always come back here to retire. Hopefully having lived a happy and fulfilling life. What can I say about Britain, the cities are massive cultural honey pots attracting people from all places, the countryside, my favourite place in the world(I've been to).

The absolute mix and change through the country are just simply amazing. In 2 small Islands we have, Brummies, Scousers, Cockneys, Posh oxford people, Welsh, Geordies, Scots, Yorkshirites, Hull people, Northern irish, Sumerset Farmers. And there are even splits in the cultures inside these places. You can walk into a bar in a city and meet 20 people from your country, all with different accents and ways of talking.
Now obviously other countries have this, but is it to the same extent, would you get people who literally could not understand each other (I'm looking at you Geordie's) living in the same country anywhere else?


I hope that the countryside in this country never changes, your depiction as it being like walking through time, is absolutely spot on, especially on them cold winter afternoons, when the sun is shining thinly and the snow is still a bit settled.

Kate Grenville apparently hasn't been to a proper UK archive. They're just like what she described the Aussie ones as being.

Go to Belgium and they have no rivals. Go to Switzerland and its legendary. Go to Italy, they will boast that he is better than the Swiss HP 97 chocolate. Go to France and duplication.

Archaeon wrote:Each country in Europe thinks they have the best chocolate. Go to Belgium and theirs has no rivals. Go to Switzerland and it's legendary. Go to Italy and they'll brag about it being better than Swiss chocolate. Go to France and repeat. French chocolate is objectively crap, though.

arigatou wrote:Go to Belgium and they have no rivals. Go to Switzerland and its legendary. Go to Italy, they will boast that he is better than the Swiss HP 97 chocolate. Go to France and duplication.

Falsey wrote:This is a great place to live, but it gets hard to see the good stuff through the bad sometimes.

This.

When I stop and think about it, I am so proud to be British, but there is just so much gooseberry fool here as well.

The gooseberry fool contributes to Britain's greatness. Still, wanna get out.

What gooseberry fool do we have that other nations don't?

Archaeon wrote:An old lady could lactate better milk than the toxic waste they sell over there.

Slartibartfast wrote:What gooseberry fool do we have that other nations don't?

Pies.

Edit: I took your meaning of 'gooseberry fool' to mean 'things', perhaps you meant 'gooseberry fool things' so I would like to clarify that there is nothing gooseberry fool about pies whatsoever.

Cal wrote:I've been around a bit; I've stood on the lip of the Grand Canyon and watched the mighty Colorado River, no more than a muddy streak of piss one mile down; I've hiked the Rockies, just outside Banff, British Columbia and I've sat on the back porch of a beach house in San Diego, sipping sundowners as dolphins cavort out in the Pacific Ocean, slowly making their playful way down south to the Baja Peninsular.

But still the British countryside, somehow suspended in time on a perfect mid-summer's afternoon, just does it for me. The sound of a light aircraft dreamily passing somewhere distant, the tolling of a church bell drifting in across rolling fields, a dog barking, distant sheep... North Devon can do that - it's a magical place - lost forever somewhere back in the post-war years, beautiful to look at in any direction, and yet somehow very surreal. Another world. Home.

Reading this, all I could think of was this





Edit: Found a more apt picture, considering it is Cal



I'd imagine this is what Cal looked like on a night out in the 80's

OnlyShallow wrote:

I'd imagine this is what Cal looked like on a night out in the 80's

Stumbling around after a soho bar nail-bomb went off by the looks of it.

Cal wrote:I've been around a bit; I've stood on the lip of the Grand Canyon and watched the mighty Colorado River, no more than a muddy streak of piss one mile down; I've hiked the Rockies, just outside Banff, British Columbia and I've sat on the back porch of a beach house in San Diego, sipping sundowners as dolphins cavort out in the Pacific Ocean, slowly making their playful way down south to the Baja Peninsular.

But still the British countryside, somehow suspended in time on a perfect mid-summer's afternoon, just does it for me. The sound of a light aircraft dreamily passing somewhere distant, the tolling of a church bell drifting in across rolling fields, a dog barking, distant sheep... North Devon can do that - it's a magical place - lost forever somewhere back in the post-war years, beautiful to look at in any direction, and yet somehow very surreal. Another world. Home.

All that needs to be absolutely perfectly British is Test Match Special quietly on a radio with either Christopher Martin Jenkins or Henry Blofeld commentating.

Or highland dancing lessons at primary school.

Octoroc wrote:

Slartibartfast wrote:What gooseberry fool do we have that other nations don't?

Pies.

Edit: I took your meaning of 'gooseberry fool' to mean 'things', perhaps you meant 'gooseberry fool things' so I would like to clarify that there is nothing gooseberry fool about pies whatsoever.

I did mean gooseberry fool things. Of which pies are not.

Anung wrote:What's Belgium famous for? Chocolates and child abuse, and they only invented the chocolates to get to the kids.

One of the girls they murdered was a friend of mine.

Eighthours wrote:People from the States should also mention our chocolate. Theirs is VILE.

Most things from the states are vile.

You clearly haven't been to Frisch's Big Boy.