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O, To Be In England...

Ronnie Jersey said:
How I wish I was in England with all you guys. Would love to visit Whitechapel and go on the Jack The Ripper Walk Tour.
Oh, to be in England...
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Whitechapel is a rubbish strewn over populated concrete dump where every available open space has or is being built on. The pace of life there, like many inner city dumps, is frenzied and there are a lot of very rude people. The standard of driving is basically 'chuck the Highway Code out the window'.

Having said that, I have been on a Jack the Ripper tour that started at Aldgate and finished at the Blind Beggar pub (made famous by the Krays). It really was excellent and highly informative. The bloke who took it has written several books on the subject and is often used as an advisor of film and tv program about Jack the Ripper.
 
Dick Turpin said:
the nations smallest pub.
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I remember when the Green Dragon in Colney Street was so small that they only had enough room to fit in a small 'L' shaped pool table.
It were a bugger to play on cos it was placed in the corner of the room so a lot of shots had be rebounded off the back rail.
The pub is now a private house.
 
escargot said:
That's because you were't eating them correctly, as per the TV adverts.

What you do is carefully unwrap your Flake and place a couple of inches in your mouth, then hold it firmly with your lips while rubbing your tongue all round the end. Guaranteed satisfaction.
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You also have to be sitting in a bath with the water sloshing about everywhere.
 
Lb8535 said:
And Pears soap is made in India. I almost had a heart attack.i
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Port Sunlight, where it used to be made, is now a tourist attraction with a cracking art gallery and museum. WELL worth a visit. :cool:

I first went there on a high school trip. We were shown round tha factory, which smelled divine, and each given a bar of soap to take home.

Since then I've had a fondness for Pears soap. It seemed sooo luxurious compared to the horrible green Fairy soap my family had at home, and which my old dear once tried to forcibly feed me to satisfy some sadistic whim. :chuckle:

Used to buy Pears for my father when I picked some up for myself. Like showing him how things could be, y'know. :wink2:
 
escargot said:
Port Sunlight, where it used to be made, is now a tourist attraction with a cracking art gallery and museum. WELL worth a visit. :cool:

I first went there on a high school trip. We were shown round tha factory, which smelled divine, and each given a bar of soap to take home.

Since then I've had a fondness for Pears soap. It seemed sooo luxurious compared to the horrible green Fairy soap my family had at home, and which my old dear once tried to forcibly feed me to satisfy some sadistic whim. :chuckle:

Used to buy Pears for my father when I picked some up for myself. Like showing him how things could be, y'know. :wink2:
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Probably not vegan though.
 
Yes, I forgot your fabulous 'Notting Hill', and that Hadrian's Wall, which I have not seen yet. Oh and the Roman baths!
And no one can touch your Fish and Chips, when 'Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips' was open here in the States, I found myself constantly there, but they closed some years back, and they were the closest to the English Fish and Chips.
What you have, I think, is History. And of course the English wit!
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Yes, I forgot your fabulous 'Notting Hill', and that Hadrian's Wall, which I have not seen yet. Oh and the Roman baths!
And no one can touch your Fish and Chips, when 'Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips' was open here in the States, I found myself constantly there, but they closed some years back, and they were the closest to the English Fish and Chips.
What you have, I think, is History. And of course the English wit!
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There was a wonderful restaurant near me that closed due to pandemic that had fish and chips and sauce (all homemade) for $25. It was excellent and was not served in newsprint.
 
escargot said:
That's because you were't eating them correctly, as per the TV adverts.

What you do is carefully unwrap your Flake and place a couple of inches in your mouth, then hold it firmly with your lips while rubbing your tongue all round the end. Guaranteed satisfaction.
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Half Man Half Biscuit's 'Dickie Davies Eyes'.

Which is relevant in this context, and a work of sublime genius by Birkenhead's finest.

 
Mythopoeika said:
When did it change?
I'm wondering if there's a correlation with my eczema coming back.
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Years ago I remember reading that some people who used Pears soap came out in a rash from sunlight.
 
cycleboy2 said:
Half Man Half Biscuit's 'Dickie Davies Eyes'.

Which is relevant in this context, and a work of sublime genius by Birkenhead's finest.

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These lines

And all those people who you romantically
like to still believe are alive
are dead

reminded me that back in the '70s one of the Flake advert actresses was sadly killed in a car crash before the advert aired.
So those words are indeed apt. :(
 
Mythopoeika said:
Made in Poland now, AFAIK.
So not British anymore!
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In my neck of the woods, there are a few choc bars that were effectively boycotted for ages as the Cadbury/Frys factory was one of the big local employers. Even now sales of Curly Wurlies, Chocolate Creams etc are lower than other brands in South Bristol.

The rates of smoking dropped a lot when they shut the tobacco factories too, but that was as much due to the sudden huge drop in availability of contraband losing its way between packing area and loading bay ;) .
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
LOL - You guys are too funny!
But just think what you have - Ilkley Moor, Liverpool (I'm thinking of The Cavern and The Beatles), Windsor Castle, Whitechapel, Carnaby Street (where Fashion exploded in the 1960's and was the center of everything), Cadbury Flake Bars, and (the best) those Fish and Chips!
And perhaps it's because we're living in the most densely populated are of the country in NJ, every time I google various spots in England, I am constantly amazed at all the wide open spaces and greenery! Seems every square inch here is built up and ruined. And your buildings are ancient and beautiful. (Catherine's Court in Bath - which Jane Seymour owned at one time)
I think the word is Charm, I remember my grandmother lived on Chesterton Green in Beaconsfield at one time, which is still beautiful when I look at it on google. I was a child when we lived on Upper Riding, and it is still surrounded by green fields and forests, very impressive that open spaces are kept.
As for the weather, of course our summers are lovely with lots of sun and heat - but the humidity is a killer!! LOL
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You have some amazing national parks though, and actual wilderness, which I'd love to explore. Plus Bigfoot, Skin Walkers and Wendigos.

We should do a cultural exchange
 
SleepyPanda said:
You have some amazing national parks though, and actual wilderness, which I'd love to explore. Plus Bigfoot, Skin Walkers and Wendigos.

We should do a cultural exchange
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How about trading Nessie for Bigfoot, with maybe a Chupacabras thrown in to sweeten the deal?
 
As an Englander who lives abroad, there are some things I do miss about my home country:

* Regional diversity. You only need to travel twenty miles from a place and the accent changes. Travel a bit further and you have a different dialect and maybe some different culinary traditions. (This is by no means the same in all countries, and is odd for such a small one).

*Curious little culinary traditions: sherbet dips, mushy peas, Lee and Perrin's Sauce, chutney, shepherd's pie and, yes, of course, fish and chips.

*Yes, the tradition of the Public House.

*A parliamentary party political system coupled with a broadcast media which is not too governmentally controlled. Despite some glaring deficiencies, this does allow for some vigorous public debate in which different views get aired quite freely.

* Tolerance - even encouragement - of eccentricity.

*The kind of civil liberties that allow one to be out and about without your I.D being checked and purpose ot travel being enquired about.

* A firm reputation for good and innovative theatre. Ditto popular music.

*A temperate climate where so me refreshing rain is always assured.

*Little market towns like Chesterfield.

* The undulating fields of Northamptonshire.



Some caveats though: Even when I was there Pubs were on their way out - either closing altogether or morphing into hoity-toity `gastropubs` (which just aren't the same). Fish and chips, from being an easily available working-man's food is turning something that is expensive enough to be `once-a-week-if-you're lucky`` As for Civil liberties and eccentricity: I really fear for its survival in post- Covid Britain. And the climate is hotting up to the extent that you just don't know what season you're in in the UK anymore: is it winter, spring...what?

And the Royal Family, and all the corresponding paraphenalia, can sail their nates in a sauceboat the lot of them!
 
And what passes for extreme behaviour in other countries is often ignored as fairly regular eccentricity here in the UK.
For example, the guy roller-skating naked down the motorway, holding a hockey stick, and wearing a full-head mask, in the US not so long ago . . . . if that happened here in one of our major cities it would probably be referred to as 'Thursday'.
 
The whole of the UK does history like nowhere else though. I'm always astounded that Americans get so carried away by the fact that a proportion of the population lives in houses that predate Victoria, and we're quite casual about it. Even people who live in houses that are Tudor don't really think about it unless the place is listed to the eyebrows.
 
Britain's pretty alright as a place to live. I mean, we moan like no other people on Earth, and most of us don't take the time to explore our history and countryside nearly enough. But the countryside in the US is also beautiful, and in spite of what many citizens of the States seem to think, there's a great deal of very worthy history there, too. There's a reason we love westerns and pirate movies set in the Americas. We romanticize those times as much as we do European medieval and renaissance times.

I know England is specified in the thread title, but Scotland is truly beautiful. It rains an awful lot, but I've been in torrential downpours in Pennsylvania that put our measly showers to shame.
 
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