The British Weather!!!!

[Mord]

I can afford to pay double for a movie, I'll stay out of the corner pub, and I won't feed the pigeons, but PLEASE don't call me an American. What can I do to protect myself. Should I tatoo a maple leaf on my right cheek??

Thanks for the advice. Your suggestions all sound interesting as I'll be traveling with two 14 yo boys - and my a gray-haired old grandma

m

take tham to the pub and they will come out men

just kidding.

but seriously,

i will give you a couple translations:

if someone apotches you and says "oi blad you got a mobile phone" it means they are trying to mug you for a cell phone

if someone says "you want a fag" they are not offering you a homosexual sex slave they are offering you a ciggerette say no there bad for you.

if someone makes a non sensical bartering noise towards you in an area of london called church street, portabello, or camden they are trying to sell you somthing just say no thanks.

and finaly some areas to avoid

dont ever ever ever go to brixton or hackney at night under any circumstance.

if you say aluminium people will laugh at you just avoid that word.

act like you hate the french and everyone will like you apart from french people of course.

oh and slag off george bush and tony blair for extra kudos.


i will give the person that can tell me what pub means a prize* (no brits allowed in the contest)


*the prize may both suck and blow at the same time, I am not liable in any way

 

[crap freakboy]

Luckily there is decent beer in London, you just know where to look.
As a Northerner living darn' sarf' I'll been bloody lucky to end up living 200 yards from The Red Lion which while a bit shabby round the edges does serve some crackin' beer.

I agree on the Brixton comment above, I'd add quite a few more but hey, adds to the excitement of travelling doesnt it?

If any 'Johnny Foreigner' is coming to London then I'd suggest they get the Rough Guide to London, a recent Time-Out magazine and a credit-card with a fair amount of credit available ...London is sooooo expensive.

Personally I'd visit other areas of GB before London, Dorset, Cornwall, well actually all counties...Scotland is amazing as well...British Isles is varied, never tire of travelling. Avoid Middlesborough...its a dump!

 

[Roger1]

In the part of Michigan where I live, it's normally in the 80's-90's this time of the year. Since the beginning of June, we've had only about 9 days where the temp has been above 80 degress (farenheit). The rest of the time, it has been cool, cloudy and rainy. Yesterday is was mid 80's and sunny; today it is raining and about about 70-72 degrees. So much for summer

 

[iGav]

a pint of beer: £1.50-£2.00 dont pay more.

You'll go thirsty then.... you'll do incredibly well to find any pub in the West End/Soho/Noho/Shoreditch area that will sell a pint for anything less than £2.20, and frequently in any pub worth its salt expect to pay upto £3.20+

 

[za9ra22]

And you think YOU have it bad!

Well, well. So the weather in BritLand is crap again? What a surprise! And who (my age at least) doesn't remember Michael Fish declaring that rumours of an impending hurricane were completely silly.... 4 hours before much of the south east was flattened by it!

And I thought I'd got away from all that. Here I am, escaped to a life in the wilds of the colonies, kept awake by thunderstorms that last 8 hours at a time, with lightning so fierce and frequent you could sit a read a book by it, and a 24hour weather that can't even correctly tell me what the weather is like NOW let alone later or tomorrow. I remember whinging that Manchester was the wettest place I'd been - I know rather better than that now!

Here, where summer temperatures are typically close to 100f and stepping out of the office is like jumping into a washing machine on a hot rinse, Manchester seems rather a good place to be!

 

[iGav]

I agree on the Brixton comment above, I'd add quite a few more but hey

Same goes for the whole South of the River area... unless one happens to be frequenting either Tate Modern, The Design Museum or the fab OXO Tower, other than that.... never, ever venture South of the River.

 

[iGav]

I remember whinging that Manchester was the wettest place I'd been

No... it could be the worst place you've ever been though! heheheh

 

[za9ra22]

No... it could be the worst place you've ever been though! heheheh

Well now, THAT I cannot argue with!!

 

[Awimoway]

I would give my left nut for some cold, soggy British weather. I moved to the desert from Britain, and I've never recovered from the climate shock. Day after day of inhumanly hot, dry weather in the summer makes me psychotic. Air conditioning is too expensive to run 24/7 and sleeping at night in the sultry air is impossible.

And, believe it or not, 360 days a year of sun can make blue sky weather induce depression.

 

[Mord]

You'll go thirsty then.... you'll do incredibly well to find any pub in the West End/Soho/Noho/Shoreditch area that will sell a pint for anything less than £2.20, and frequently in any pub worth its salt expect to pay upto £3.20+

i love cheapo student pubs

i dont drink much in london pubs mostly when i go places like bristol alcahole is so cheap there mmmmm.

i have a horrible feeling that a south londoner will come and stick up for his home

i live in queens park, fifth avenue w10 (it's on the bakerloo line 2/3 of the way up)

can none guess what pub acctually means i'll give you a clue it's an abriviation

 

[iGav]

Well now, THAT I cannot argue with!!

just wait till the MR guys who live their read my comments I'll be for the high jump I can tell ya!!! hahahahaha

 

[za9ra22]

can none guess what pub acctually means i'll give you a clue it's an abriviation

Send me an Old Speckled Hen or a Theakson's XB and I'll tell you!

 

[winwintoo]

I was getting to it... pub is short for publican - which now means the owner of a "public house" but started out meaning the tax collector.

Don't know about over there, but since about 95% of the price of booze over here is actually tax, publican = tax collector is still very true.

What did I win????

m

 

[iGav]

i have a horrible feeling that a south londoner will come and stick up for his home

I reckon the Mancs will as well

I actually used to live South of the River a few years ago, Mill St (off Tooley St, on the Thames near Tower Bridge) and that was cool, the only issue I really have with South London is it's lack of a decent Tube service, I hate buses and for some reason whenever I'm in South London, usually after a gig I have to catch Night Buses, and I have no idea what numbers I need.

 

[winwintoo]

I reckon the Mancs will as well

I actually used to live South of the River a few years ago, Mill St (off Tooley St, on the Thames near Tower Bridge) and that was cool, the only issue I really have with South London is it's lack of a decent Tube service, I hate buses and for some reason whenever I'm in South London, usually after a gig I have to catch Night Buses, and I have no idea what numbers I need.

Here you go http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/

m

 

[iGav]

Here you go http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/

m

much obliged.

 

[wdlove]

It doesn't really do all that much good to complain about the weather. At the moment there is nothing that we can do except heating or A/C. In most areas the weather change frequently. My me psychologically, I know that in a little over a month the weather will be better over more extended period of time.

 

[Mord]

I was getting to it... pub is short for publican - which now means the owner of a "public house" but started out meaning the tax collector.

Don't know about over there, but since about 95% of the price of booze over here is actually tax, publican = tax collector is still very true.

What did I win????

m

your prize is........

a pint of my home brew (if you care to collect it from bristol where my barrel is at the moment)

 

[Loge]

the only issue I really have with South London is it's lack of a decent Tube service

I think some would argue that North London lacks a decent Tube service as well.

OK, I've lived on both sides (now South), there's good and bad points either way.

 

[kettle]

Yeah British weather is getting more unpredictable. Its all down to global warming. Give it a couple of years and it will be so hot in August, people would stay indoors.

I was walking around wearing a shortsleve shirt and shorts holding an umbrella. Some people thought I was a lunatic

British weather has always been unpredictable, "catkins in june will surely bring doom" sort of naysaying is just a provider of political leverage and about as accurate as a floating witch.

 

[iGav]

I've lived on both sides (now South), there's good and bad points either way.

I've lived South, North and East... South London wasn't bad, but I was bang on the River front (just down from Shad Thames) so it wasn't like the depths of hell... heheheh, I'd live their again but I wouldn't go any further south, the lack of tubes is a problem for me and everything I like is pretty much north of the River (apart from the Tate Modern, Design Museum and OXO Tower, but they're all riverside so it's easy enough just to walk across a bridge.

The one place I'd never live is West London, a dreadful place, you definitely need to be a married 40 something to want to live out there, Suburban hell with no soul.

I actually like living in East London, I like it's continuous state of decay, renewal and reinvention.

 

[kettle]

my favorite brewed in the uk drink is any type scrumpie (cornish cider) it's so nice that i'd drink it even if it was not alcaholic. but it's ahrd to get in london and at best your hard pushed to find a bottle of newcastle brown or 6x (nice cider not any of that strongbow crap)

I'd say that the best and usually unmarketed scrumpy is focused in the Somerset Devon Hereford and Gloucester areas. The cornish are pasty and icecream peeps. The stuff you get in cornwall is tourist stuff sold with clotted cream and sticks of rock at dodgy petting zoos and farms. Shame cos cornwall relies on tourist pap because of the death of native fishing and mining.

Also, Scrumpy is from year dot, beer/hops were from the german invaders (the first couple of times) and vinyards from the bloody romans.

also to clear up misinterpretation for the non native, I don't think Hector meant to describe newcastle brown ale or 6x as a cider, these are just emergency alternatives.

tip. people new to scrumpy, if the farmer sells by the plastic gallon can, use this for transportation and transfer to glass containers as soon as possible, else drink it all on the day of purchase. If you leave it in the plastic, the cider starts to taste plasticy and in extreme cases actually eats through the the plastic leaving "extra" floaty bits in amongst your tasty floaty bits.

 

[Mord]

wow thanks igav

i live in nw london in westminster.

i'm lucky with the tube as i live on the bakerloo line but if i want to go to anywhere neer hampstead i have to take the silverlink which is the suckyest train line in the world.

where i live is nice theres a giant skate park down the road and i live near the canal. and there is a bus that go's to oxford street (6) and one that go's to euston (18 one of those bendy ones that set themselfs on fire) west london isent that bad it's just far west london like kingston, pinner and watford there like the most boring places on earth ecpecially teddington ugh total suburban hell.

the only downside to where i live is that there is a horrible looking estate down the road giant concrete type thing.

 

[kettle]

when i went to bristol a few weeks ago i went to the ashton court festival they had a fair few small brewers on a stand bit pricey but some nice ale.

Ashton Court is a great place, preferred it when they allowed the Tractor Pulling and the North Somerset Show, much better than smelly hippies getting jiggy with a glorified mobile disco.

 

[evil_santa]

Respectable Street

The one place I'd never live is West London, a dreadful place, you definitely need to be a married 40 something to want to live out there, Suburban hell with no soul.

Welcome to eSanta's surburban hell.