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Monday 6 October 2008

Claps for Blighty

                                                             (wikipedia commons).

After all the post love for South Africa going around, I feel I owe England some post love too. After all, it has so graciously hosted me for the last 5 years.

I am not going to mention C-R-I-M-E, because that has SO been done. Obviously it is nice, the low crime rate. Duh.

What I enjoy about living in England:

1) Chocolate digestive biscuits. Even if I couldn't think of any other good things, these little beauties are sufficient reason to live in England. But in a country where a pack of biscuits costs 30p and your average vegetable costs about £1, you can imagine the state of my and the nation's nutrition.

2) The superb public transport system. Ha, I know any locals reading this must be choking on their tea and scones, but it is all relative. Relative to South Africa, the UK has a great public transport system. As in, it actually exists. I simply choose to treat those anomalies such as "No train for 3 hours because of a leaf on the track" as if they do not exist.

 Interestingly, in the googlefight of leaf vs train, train won. Leaves vs train? Train won. Foliage vs train? Train WON. Just SAYING.

3) The weather. Mwahahahahaha, I got you there, didn't I? Didn't I? Huh? Huh? Moving on.

4) Mobility scooters. Everybody here has them. G and I have a bizarre fascination with them. Especially G. He has this dream of turfing  a Granny off her scooter and riding off into the sunset. So far it remains but a dream. I will keep you updated on his quest.

5) The llamas. And alpacas, and other South American beasties. This country has a love affair with these animals. Which is fine by me because I love them too. When I walk north of my house I see alpacas, when I walk south I see guanacos. A person in the next village has 2 llamas in his garden. When I used to take the train to Cambridge every day, a llama used to graze right near the track. I do find myself wondering if I should be learning Spanish and complaining about the gringos that seem to have taken over the place.

6) Accents. It is unbelievable how many distinct accents there are in such a teeny weeny country, and I am just talking England. I love almost all Northern accents, especially Geordie, the Yorkshire variants and Scouse. I also love the South West accent. I have great fun trying to "guess the accent" and getting it horribly wrong. "Um, actually I from Poland. I no speak English." Well, Po-English is the future I will have you know. You read it here first.

There are many more things that are great about this place, but these are the definitive ones. As defined by me.

25 comments:

Janine / Being Brazen said...

Llamas?? BWHAHAHHAAHAHA....

I love chocolate digestives..yum yum

Cam said...

Hey Po, that Llama's standing at Machu Picchu...not England!

Cam said...

Hold on...Llama's in England?

Cam said...

You're joking?

Tamara said...

hehehe... this post rocked. But the tag was the best thing ever!

Unknown said...

Ha ha, loved the bit about the weather...seriously fun post! Love the sound of the biscuits...

po said...

Tamara: I know! I can take on a train any day. Raaah!

Kitty: the biscuits are great but way too cheap.

po said...

Ches: there are llamas everywhere in England. I will give you the llama tour if you come over. I hope to go to Machu Picchu some day and see some llamas in a more llamary environment.

po said...

being bazen: I know, its weird but true about the llamas.

Sweets said...

hold onto your chair darling~ we have choc dig biscuits in SA now... they are divine :)

llamas?? they spit right? hehe

scooters... i get that... i wish everybody would torch their cars and buy scooters~!

i secretly watch bbc JUST to hear the english accents... i love it :)

just remember... first world... third world... so all in all we are pretty cool... come back home!!!

:)~

po said...

Sweets, are you serious? Chocolate digestives back home? That's it I am coming home. Maybe I can start a llama farm? They are the pets of the future!

6000 said...

Well done you - although sweets is correct, choccy digestives are now readily available in SA.

I have a weird accent. Part Yorkshire, a hint of geordie from my Uni days and a touch (or more) of Saffa.

My parents live just down the road from an award winning llama farmer.

I have no more for you right now.

po said...

6000 your accent sounds like my ideal accent! A bit of everything good.

So it is not just me who has noticed the abundance of llamas then? Was wondering if I was projecting my love for the creatures on my surroundings.

Anonymous said...

Great post, yay for Llama's and anything chocolate!

Also, I am now totally fixated on googlefight... awesome.

6000 said...

No - they're big business these days - more profitable than other animals or crops due to EU rules and regulations. Ostrich is the next big thing for UK farmers. Possibly.

6000 said...

P.S. You have made it onto my rather exclusive blogroll. Congrats.

po said...

Rox: I know googlefight is cool.

6000: I cracked the blog list! yay! Thanks. My bloglist is longer than "The Lord of the rings" but I really do read all those blogs and more!

At a farmers market the other day they were selling ostrich burgers so I see it has already started.

KaB said...

I loooooooooooove those biscuits too...you get them here in the odd Spar but the small packet & they are of course extremely expensive...dammit...we always have a gimp bring us some of them to sunny SA!

I dig a llama too...too cute!

po said...

Hi KaB: Maybe I should start importing them over.

Yeah, llamas are so cute. But apparently they spit. Haven't experienced this myself.

Moe Wanchuk said...

What about the Teeth?

6000 said...

Do you think that there's a market for a swallowing llama?

po said...

Swallowing llamas? Whatever for? (Po's super innocent voice here). Hahaha, that's a good one!

Moe: I haven't encountered the teeth yet. Are they bad?

mylifescape said...

Llama's wow, i never knew that... i once saw 3 Llama's in Germany! Funny looking creatures.

great post!

po said...

mylifescape: Thanks! Have you ever watched the emperors new groove? It was all about llamas and it was my favourite disney ever.

mylifescape said...

no i haven't seen it yet.. but sounds like i should :) thx .. have an awesome day!