BRITS in BMW MOA

[Threeteas]

I once went with my Dad to see the Wolves v Man Utd, with Best, Charlton et al. We marched down barrackaded streets with windows boarded up. Stood in the Molineaux end and I couldn't see a damn thing...I was very young and small at the time. But there was a definite sense of an uncontrolable power, especially as the crowd moved like a wave ebbing forwards and backwards...I suspect it's like being a sock in a heavy wash on spin cycle.

Guernsey: lots of German stuff hanging around there too, as it was occupied during the war. There's some very strange photographs of policemen and Nazi troopers standing on street corners guiding traffic. I looks like the Germans took the island, then seemed embarrassed about it, or awkward and unsure what to do with it.

Gerrald Durrell's zoo is worth a visit, as it's far less"ooh look" and more, "let's save and study", his book, "My friends and other animals" is worth a read before you go.
The roads are twisty and I can't recall any straights where you'd open up, at all.
But, great place to while away a week or two...enjoy your trip.

So, Paperboy, are you somewhere near, is it the Black Hawk boarder crossing?
I was that way with the HU meeting in BC not long ago, then last week I was in Winthrop, Twisp, Okanagan, then down to the Coulee City area for the Dry Falls...spectacular geological area, where the Lake Missoula was created behind an ice tongue, then broke through (a few times), rippling the land (30 foot high ripples that is), depositing some of Canada down in Washington (boulders the size of small houses), cut swathes through volcanoes and mountains to leave deep gorges and then these falls. Bigger than Niagara, about 6 miles round, the water came over the top at 300 feet deep and travelling approx 65mph, before hitting the Columbia River and sweeping down there to the sea. Fascinating stuff.

You don't get that sort of thing in Guernsey, or Hull...more's the pity.

 

[Threeteas]

Ryder Cup anyone?

A golfing claim to fame: I played my first full round on the Brabazon Course of the Belfry...the Ryder Cup course and birdied the 18th. The one where you hit the ball onto the island then dog leg left, back over water and up the hill to the hole.
I topped the second wood shot off the island, did a dam busters few bounces on the water, hit a floating bit of wood and rolled up to the green.

There's a bridge off the island and this club member was stood on it, so was unavoidable.

"Jammy Bast@rd," was all he said as I walked passed.

Okay, I shot 122 in total, but... first ever round.

One of the guys I was with had been playing for many years. He swore loudly, said he'd not spent *****ing thousands on lessons and clubs and fees, just to shoot two better than I had. He swore he'd never play again...and I don't think he has.

 

[Threeteas]

I've just been submitted to a New Yorker who thinks they can do a Brit accent. Perhaps a Brit that needs their adenoids removing!

This cackling hariden found great delight in doing a Dick Van Dyke, trying to mimic every word I was saying, and to make matters worse, I was doing a three tea tour presentation at the time, so everyone else was quiet.

Sometimes, bloody Americans drive me up the wall with this accent thing.
"You Australian?"
"No, English"
"You're not, you're an Aurzzie," whatever an Aurzzie is?

And while we are at it...it's Mazzzda, not Marsdar and the 'h' in herb isn't silent, unless you are French!

Jish! Sometimes I wonder how you have the temerity to call it English.

 

[Threeteas]

I often wonder if the Brits are losing their tongues this mistaken identity as Aussies sounds criminal.

I asked someone in a small out of the way Washington town , why they thought I sounded like an Aussie. They said they didn't know, but that's Aussies travel more, so they thought we must be.

I'm not sure how true that is.

What I think throws people is the variance in the English accents. They can pin down Scots or Irish, but the nuances of English mean that anyone who doesn't sound quinticentially BBC broadcaster, must be from somewhere else that speaks English, so by elimination, Australia.

 

[Threeteas]

Oh yes, and has any Brit here, ever heard of a band from Nottingham called, 10 years later, or, 10 years beyond, or, 10 years anything?

My formative years were in Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire is only a gnats away, so I'm sure if they'd been anything other than a pub band in the UK I'd have heard of them.

Export only?

 

[Threeteas]

Do you mean 10 Years After?

Kevster,

That's them. Did you ever hear of them in the UK, because I didn't?

 

[Threeteas]

Vaguely recall them, had some friends in Nottingham so used to hang out in the pubs there.

If you Google them, you'll see that they wern't just a pub band, played at Woodstock etc. some excellent blues riifs on the YouTube videos.

Ah that explains it, a Woodstockian type band would never be on my radar.

 

[Threeteas]

Do any of you still exercise your rights to vote, back in the UK?

How is it done, on your last address, or do ex pats go into a pot that just decides which party you've voted for?

I assume it's only general and not local elections that we are allowed to participate in?

Have you found that you are sufficiently abreast of the issues to make a valid choice at a national or local level?

What sources would you advocate; relatives, web, TV (I see 'Little Britain does America' starts this weekend on BBC America...we may need to take cover for a while after it first airs!).

So, do you, or don't you?

 

[lockster]

I dont think we have much to worry about, there is only a gifted few in the US that would understand Little Britian. I tried the Fast Show with my wife and she just didnt get any of it. I also tried Blackadder and Red Dwarf, all to no avail.
You will have to ask your neighbours if they get it... In the organisation I work there is only 2 that have the capacity to laugh at real Brit humour out of about 25

 

[Threeteas]

I dont think we have much to worry about, there is only a gifted few in the US that would understand Little Britian. I tried the Fast Show with my wife and she just didnt get any of it. I also tried Blackadder and Red Dwarf, all to no avail.
You will have to ask your neighbours if they get it... In the organisation I work there is only 2 that have the capacity to laugh at real Brit humour out of about 25

A BIG APOLOGY>>>It's on HBO!

 

[Threeteas]

What part of the UK does the most adventurous people come from ?

I don't know...what part of the Uk do the most adventurous people come from?

(expecting a punchline to a joke here!)

The Scots seem to have migrated a lot, but some of that was due to historical intollerances and poverty, so adventurous or just looking for a better way to survive?

Same goes for the Irish, adventure out of neccesity.

English had the opportunities with the navy and saw prosperity through trade, but then so did the Scots, Irish and Welsh who also made up the crews.

When it boils down to it, the UK is a small palce and folks are more closely intertwined than perhaps some of the nationalists would like to admit, so, in summary, I'd say, historically those with access to the sea, then the religious zealots who wanted to spread the word, with a few adventurers thrown in, then those that needed to explore new lands to survive, then the financially sound that found the idea glamorous, and now, it's a mixed bag...obviously motorcyclists have a travel urge somewhere in the system, so rather than a location in the UK, it's the sort of people you find in the UK. Probably the same sort you'll find anywhere.

 

[Threeteas]

Yes, the British Adventurers are well storied in the press, you rarely hear of an American Adventurer, Italian Adventurer, or even a Pakistani Adventurer. One just can't seem to out ink them. In recent history the Brits had heroic individuals going to the South Pole to sailing down the Mississippi River in a juice container.

I was trying to figure out how this UK adventurous spirit has become a culture, and provided world recognition for a group of people ( I wanted to add to a race of people but we reside in a PC world ). This image could even be considered a curse to many seeking funding because there so many Brits in competition for the Sunday Times and a few Pounds Sterling.

Could be, that where ever we go, it's always cheaper than staying at home!
Plus, it is a little crowded on the British Isles and sometimes we need room to swing a cat.

More realistically, we have a history of doing it. I know that the Chinese were all over the place, the Vikings too and Alexander and his pals went hither and thither and not to forget the Romans, who were some of the first 'recorded' tourists with antiquity showing they had travel agents arranging trips to ancient Greece and Egypt (even then the pyramids were a mystic draw from ancient times).

I suppose what the Brits did, is what the Brits do best...organised it all and documented it...being in English helped too, no translations needed. And we did it last and in a bigger way than anyone before, because the technology allowed it, we owned half the planet and what we didn't own was usually favourable to us, because they needed us as a trading partner, or market.
That's simplistic I know, but may have something to do with it.

Modern day adventuring, from my personal perspective is simply because the opportunity has arisen. Granted I've worked to make it arise, but even so, there's a degree of fate that has lead to this opportunity. Not everyone gets the same hand dealt them.

Americans travelling?
We'll it's such a vast country and so varied, there's more than a life-times things to see here...problem with that is, an isolationist attitude and stance may result.

Plus, and this will get me into trouble, for the land of the free, well, you just aren't that free. The work ethic is wrong, drastically wrong...how you can be less productive yet not have the time off that europeans have is amazing...it's all the meetings about meetings. Then there's the "we are the best" brainwashing. If you are the best, then at what exactly? At somethings you are, some you most certainly are not. But the unquestioning belief fostered by the unending propoganda that you are, probably makes some folk wonder why they should go places that are "inferior".
Then there's fear. A more paranoid nation I have yet to encounter. (A vast generalisation I know, however, it's what I've found. Unless everything is planned and sorted to the nth degree, fear ensues.
Politics are another issue. Not being able to understand that foreigners will accept Americans as individuals when they meet them. That doesn't mean foreigners can't dislike your Government policies or Americanisation of their cultures, but it doesn't mean they resent you as an individual...unless you are an ar5e of course (see Rick Steves). So fear, fear of the unknown, fear from ignorance (not being ignorant), but from a culture that celebrates isolation (we stand alone, we lead the way and all that sort of verbage) and whose most visible recent excursions into foreign lands are accompanied by violence, be it neccessary or not (a debate for the Tavern if it opens).

So, perhaps that is why the explorers are from Scandanavian and European countries, more so than American, culture differences.

Plus of course, Europe has been discovered many times.

 

[Threeteas]

Little Britain USA...well what can I say...I'm think I'm Australian might be the only safe way out!

Were you ready for that!!!!!

 

[Threeteas]

Don't you mean raped and pillaged ? Discovered seems so mundane.

That was only on weekends

I am not sure if the Brits adventurous soul is from seeking bold new worlds.
Penal colonies?
Maybe their destiny was to find a land, build a railroad, and establish order cloaked in democracy. Something like do you wish another cup of tea when one is riding economy class.

"That'll be 2 quid for a polystyrene cup of tepid brown bath water please Sir"


anyway, it was you guys that went to the Moon!

 

[Threeteas]

Thanks to some Nazi Scientist.

I thought it would be impolite to mention Herr Braun, especially as I'm only a guest here.

 

[Threeteas]

A young Alfie Bass as the presenter and I think the hecklers might be Mike Burton and the Animals. Not sure, it's a bit before my time.

 

[tonkandy]

I am not sure if the Brits adventurous soul is from seeking bold new worlds.

It's from trying to get as far away from the awful cooking back home as you can.

 

[lockster]

awful cooking ?

I beg to differ, my grandad made the worlds best stew, all home grown, picked that morning from his little plot across the road. We might not have the best cuisine in the world but not many people cant eat a Brit Meal.
Where as I know thousands who would chuck if they were made to eat a McDonalds.

 

[Threeteas]

My Wife is over in England...she just emailed me a picture of a cream filled Victoria Sponge (I'm not sharing it with anyone). How dare anyone say our food isn't great, we have 5 of the top 20 restaurants in the world in and around London. The whole of the USA has 2, The French Laundry being particularly good though.

What I think may be fair, is that we do have some god awful places too though, but they are the mass catering establishments that the tourists tend to hit by sticking to main roads.

Do not judge the whole culinary design of the UK by service stations. It's like saying the whole of the US's food is Mc D's crap.

 

[tessler]

I agree Lamble. You guys have got some compelling Michelin stars over there now.

The general perceptive myth of bland, horrible British food most certainly originated from the French (it probably started with Napoleon, but was most assuredly perpetuated by De Gualle).

Vive la difference!