Published 23/03/2011
1. Indifference |
2. Pubs Need we say more? |
3. Swearing |
4. Gardening An English Country Garden is a cliché; it can also be a thing of outstanding, glorious beauty. Any historical house must have an equally impressive garden. An English rose is possibly the most universally romantic symbol of summer. |
5. Tea - cups of The rest of Europe just don’t understand. Russia has samovars on its overnight trains, one in each carriage, but nowhere except Yorkshire could have produced something as mighty and fulfilling as the Tetley Tea Bag. Tea abroad always tastes rubbish; I don’t know why, perhaps it’s the air. Tip: always travel with your own tea bags. |
6. Queuing The thing that makes it so great is how the people queuing relate to each other, making friends or sighing so loud the Cherubim can hear when the person in front doesn’t quite move into the newly vacated empty space in the queue. I especially like the way we deal with queue jumpers; it starts with glaring at the jumper, then maneuvering oneself in front of the jumper from the side, or finally, when none of this works into shaming the jumper into submission, we march over to said jumper, heart pumping and hands shaking, and inform them “there is a queue” and stalk off trying to suppress the rush of excitement that we felt for having ‘stood up’ for our fellow queuers. |
7. Food The UK’s reputation for bad cooking comes from the French, who felt we were encroaching on their ‘territoire gastronomique’. In fact London has the most diverse culinary offerings of any city in the world, even more than New York. You can’t get Bulgarian mountain food in any restaurant over the pond or a choice of several Ethiopian restaurants of excellent quality all along the same suburban street. |
8. Animals |
9. Weirdness Forget the British Eccentric, that’s a polite way of saying totally weird. We do weirdos like no other country. British Surrealism is a manifestation of this weirdness. Any migrant out of the UK takes Albion’s inherent oddness with them and spreads it as they go; any migrant moving into the UK will soon succumb to the all-conquering malaise of being bonkers in Blighty. |
10. Lists The mania for lists is a phenomenon which the media doesn’t want to let go of and the Bridgeman UK marketing department is no exception. Stand by for lists covering our Top 10 of a variety of items in the coming months. Nothing to do with the ‘To Do’ list, which we are treating with deliberate indifference. |