Tell me all of the wonderful things about living in the UK.

[beam me up scottie]

(and also if you know any lonely single men :* )

[D-Notice]

1. I'm one of 'em!

;-)

[beam me up scottie]

4. A lonely single Englishman or

one of the wonderful things about living in the UK ?
(bats eyelashes)

[D-Notice]

5. Both...

(Offers to buy drink)

[beam me up scottie]

8. Gin and tonic, please.

(smiles coyly)

[D-Notice]

9. One G & T

Here you go



Now... tell me about yourself. Do you come here often?

[beam me up scottie]

11. No, not really.

Okay, I have to tell you I really suck at flirting.
I have a friend from Atlanta who tried to teach me how, since some southern women are born able to melt men, but I'm hopeless.
I'm a good conversationalist, an accomplished dancer, and I've been known to drink Marines under the table.
Oh, and I'm pretty cute.
Will that do ?

[D-Notice]

12. Yeah...

I'm better at talking when I've had a few, not bad at dancing & can hold my drink...

I'm not that good at flirting either...

Been told I have a smile which the ladies can't resist, not bad looking & am very slim.

Same again?

[beam me up scottie]

19. Have a good smile and use it often.

Left a trail of broken hearts behind me in my younger years, lol.

[Benbow]

2. The gun laws

It is really difficult to get a fire arms certificate in the UK.

What else? Um,

* the British idiotic love of pet animals (I love my dog, too)
* gardens - National Trust, city parks, national collections
(eg of roses or apples, etc), private gardens and window boxes
* tolerance (more or less)
* temperate climate (but we do have some vineyards, and
someone is trying to grow tea now in the West Country)
* our "creative and cultural industries"
* real beer
* people from other cultures living here (when peaceably)
* anyone can start a small business
* the 400-year old (or more) churches still in use
* never having known what it is to be occupied (unlike
the Channel Islands)
* Red Nose Day
* being near France (her food, culture, castles, wine, language - I am a tremendous francophile - if I could afford it, I would live in Brittany and commute to London by helicopter).

There are lots of downsides too, of course.

[beam me up scottie]

6. Sounds ideal for

a vegetarian, animal-loving, culturally-starved, left-leaning, liberal gardener.

What's "Red Nose Day" ?

[Benbow]

15. Red Nose Day, and Comic Relief

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rednoseday/
http://www.rednoseday.com/index.shtml

Red Nose Day is a UK-wide fundraising event organised by Comic Relief every two years which culminates in a night of extraordinary comedy and moving documentary films. It's the biggest TV fundraising event in the UK calendar. On Red Nose Day everyone in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is encouraged to cast inhibitions aside, put on a red nose, and do something a little bit silly to raise money - celebrities included. It is an event that unites the entire nation in trying to make a difference to the lives of thousands of individuals facing terrible injustice or living in abject poverty.

http://www.comicrelief.com/

Comic Relief was set up by comedians and uses comedy and laughter to get serious messages across, as well as making sure that everyone can have some fun at the same time. Over the years, more than 2050 celebrities have given their time and talent to Comic Relief, you name 'em, they've helped us. From Lenny Henry, Billy Connolly, John Cleese and Jerry Springer to Johnny Depp, Ali G, Davina McCall, Robbie Williams, Steve Coogan, Paul Whitehouse, Whoopi Goldberg and Woody Allen. Top comedy teams who've given us a lorry-loads of laughs while helping us raise a lot of cash include the League of Gentlemen, The Fast Show and Smack the Pony.

[beam me up scottie]

17. What a wonderful idea.

Are there many people without a sense of humor ?
(we've got LOTS here, especially in the Bible belt)

[Anarcho-Socialist]

3. Free health care

The BBC. BBC News 24, and lots of good TV on BBC2, BBC4 and Channel Four. BBC Radio has a tremendous amout of variety in their channels.

No voting machines in our elections. (Just paper ballots)

British society is much more progressive as far as feminism is concerned. (Most university graduates are women)

[beam me up scottie]

7. I forgot about the BBC.

I adore the BBC. I executed my tv months ago and I get all of my news and other programs from the internet.
I practically LIVE at their website on the weekends.

[D-Notice]

10. Yeah

BBC 6 Music is the way forward

[ben_packard]

13. NHS, BBC, OU and pub quizes (no acronym yet) NT

[mr blur]

14. Also, the countryside,

the Lake District (where I come from); tea shops; Kendal Mint Cake; lack of guns; Hadrian's Wall; the music; the fact that Ian McKellan and Anthony Sher, both wonderful actors and both openly and proudly gay, have been knighted; separation of church and state; ironic, dry and self-deprecating sense of humour; Cadbury's chocolate; Stonehenge; allotments; canals; BBC Radio 4; the Glastonbury Festival; London; Bath; York; Manchester; Edinburgh, Glasgow; Brighton; the fact that "a nice cup of tea" is a cure for anything; Private Eye; Portobello Road Market; Camden Lock Market; garden centres and open gardens; tolerance, by and large; the Chelsea Flower Show; the media, on the whole; (oh, I could go on...)

[beam me up scottie]

16. GASP!!!

THE CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW !!!
Have you ever been?
One of the seed houses here gives away an all expenses paid trip to the show each year and I've always dreamed of winning.

And of course, everything else you mentioned makes me want to move there even more.
I think a liberal US citizen would be in shock for quite some time after moving to your country. They talk about freedom here, but I doubt that anyone even realizes what that means anymore.
When I traveled to Europe, things were not too terribly bad in the states.
Now I can barely stand living here.
I'm originally from Vermont, which is a very liberal state but for now I'm living behind enemy lines in the Bible belt.

[mr blur]

18. Yes, we went last year.

Truly something anyone interested in gardening should do at least once.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/chelsea/2005/index.asp

(check out some of the show gardens)

[Spider Jerusalem]

27. re: gay actors, the late Sir John Gielgud, too...

Great line from him (can't remember who he said it to): "My dear boy, of course I can play a heterosexual! I am, after all, an actor!"

[beam me up scottie]

20. Leaving work now and

will be home after running some errands.

Temperatures here have been in the 90's now for 2 weeks, we have high humidity and insects the size of small imported cars.

Wish you were here. :evilgrin:

[LeftishBrit]

21. The National Health Service..

The BBC

The "Guardian" and even the more conservative broadsheets for a good range of news (avoid the tabloids, though).

The weather (yes, this remark will make everyone faint, especially on this very rainy day, but we don't have a lot of really unpleasant or dangerous extremes in the weather)

The fact that there are still many places where a non-driver can live.

The roads are safer than in some countries.

The fact that most of our politicians, horrible as some of them are, don't try to impose their 'moral values' on the rest of us.

Few guns around

Relatively 'liberal' laws; e.g. death-penalty abolished 40 years ago.


(I'm female - sorry!!!)

[beam me up scottie]

22. It's sounding better and better

all the time.
The non-driving thing would probably be a good thing, what with driving on the opposite side of the road and all.

[mr blur]

23. You're forgetting -

it's foreigners who drive on the wrong side of the road and all. You wouldn't notice it here because everyone drives on the right side of the road :-)

[beam me up scottie]

30. Ah, see, I tried not to use the words "right" and "wrong" side

of the road.
I was being diplomatic.

[Spider Jerusalem]

31. THe tricky thing would be remembering to look right...

when crossing the street instead of left, I'd think.

[beam me up scottie]

32. Yes!

Good point.

[moggie]

24. Some more

Jane Horrocks, Kew Gardens, a largely secular society, Billy Bragg, fish and chips, plenty of good cheap Indian restaurants, socialism isn't extinct yet nor a universal term of abuse, and the deep-fried Mars bar.

[D-Notice]

26. Are deep-fried Mars bars

a good thing about the UK?

[moggie]

29. I'd never eat one, myself

But you have to admit that the concept demonstrates a remarkable culinary inventiveness. And people say that the French are culinary masters! Pah! What confectionary have they deep-fried, eh?

[beam me up scottie]

34. I would try the

deep fried Mars bar.
What's a secular society ?
(kidding, of course, I've always dreamed of living in one)

[Guy_Montag]

25. BBC comedy

TV & Radio

[Benbow]

28. The quality of the light

in the hour before sunset on the Sussex coast, and the hour after sunrise in Suffolk ("Constable country").

And larks singing high above the South Downs Way on sultry summer's day.

[beam me up scottie]

33. Yes, I'd heard about the

difference in the light.
Doesn't it also stay light later than in the states?
Right now it starts to get dark around here at 8pm.

[Guy_Montag]

35. Depends how far north you go,

In Shetland, it never really gets dark in the summer, or light in the winter.

[mr blur]

36. Just leaving the South Downs tomorrow

for a couple of weeks in my "home country" of the Lake District. Now there's a beautiful part of the country.

[Benbow]

37. The sound of church bells change-ringing n/t