What's life like in the U.K.?

[Norie]

Kristy

****, you beat me to that link.

Greg

As well as that link I would strongly recommend the BBC site.

 

[DonkeyOte]

As for Sports ... in the past the UK has given the world a number of sports - Football (Soccer), Cricket, Rugby to name but a few ... alas we're now mediocre at pretty much everything on the global stage... as a result we've tried to keep a few of the obscure ones for ourselves... Darts & Snooker immediately spring to mind but alas we're losing our dominance there also with the emergence of the Dutch Darts players (eg Raymond "Barney" van Barneveld attempting to usurp Phil "The Power" Taylor) and snooker players from Asia -- I can testify that in China snooker is HUGE ... tables in the streets no less, "al fresco snooker" was a sight to behold in Shijiazhuang on a cold February morning back in 2001...

 

[Colin Legg]

Brits love talking about weather.

It rains a lot here.
If there's so much as a hint of snow then we all stay at home because our infrastructure can't seem to cope with it and schools shut down for fear of being sued if a child slips on some ice in the playground.
If it's sunny and hot then we all sit fully clothed on deckchairs at the beach.

 

[Norie]

What about swimming, cycling, tennis (which I mentioned earlier)?

Did we not pick up a few (gold) medals in the last Olympics?

And 'al fresco' snooker sounds a bit scary to me.

I've played golf, one arm golf, golf in the dark but hitting a snooker ball in what is probably darkness sounds a bit dangerous.

Mind you golf in the dark from the front garden of a friend's lawn, attempting to reach a national treasure doesn't seem like the best idea now.

 

[Greg Truby]

Gabriel has now finished up his Table of Contents and Bibliography and the project is ready for submission on the morrow. And he would like to say "thank you" to everyone. Several of you are quoted and are officially footnoted. Gabriel can't believe his father actually knows this many people in the U.K. [Of course, he is now at the age where his hormone addled brain cannot remember what I told him to do three minutes ago and yet, he's completely sure he's waaaay smarter than I.]

Thanks a bunch to everyone for your terrific insights and information!

 

[Oaktree]

The discussion of English cuisine here reminds me of that old joke:

In Heaven: the cooks are French,
the policemen are English,
the mechanics are German,
the lovers are Italian
and the bankers are Swiss.

In Hell: the cooks are English,
the policemen are German,
the mechanics are French,
the lovers are Swiss
and the bankers are Italian

 

[Mark O'Brien]

I'm surprised no one corrected the four countries statement. Scotland and England are countries, Wales is a Principality and Northern Ireland is a Province.

The CIA World Factbook does a nice little write up on the whole place. I like the religion part:

Religions:
Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1% (2001 census)

Of the 1.6% "Other" a significant portion of people actually listed "Jedi" or "Sith" as their religion.

I still love Eddie Izzard's take on the Church of England. ("The Faith", in England only)

 

[cornflakegirl]

I'm surprised no one corrected the four countries statement. Scotland and England are countries, Wales is a Principality and Northern Ireland is a Province.

But Greg asked what we call them. And we call them countries!

(Cake or death?)

 

[Patience]

I am so sorry I miised this lively discussion! I love talking about home. I hope he gets excellent marks for it - I am sure he shall, reading the calibre of help he received! I had to miss it, as I had an evening semiar on the Politics of Roman Monuments (which was really interesting (and I was really good at! )) for my college work. So I wasn't being idle!

 

[Patience]

Religions:
Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1% (2001 census)

As someone with no religion (not even atheism) I find it slightly insulting that they put 'unspecified' and 'none' in the same category. 'None' implies you have at least thought about it, 'unspecified' suggests you couldn't be bothered. Bah.