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Post by juju on May 27, 2017 10:41:06 GMT
Interested in your thoughts so far on this visit to the UK. What do you feel has changed since you were last here? (Availability of coffee, I'm guessing ) Has anything surprised you? What about the election? Observations about being here in the run up? As a USer, what's the biggest differences you've found in the UK in general? What about the differences between regions? Food? culture? People? Landscape? It's always interesting to see things from another's point of view. And you've certainly come at an eventful time...
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Post by Moose on May 28, 2017 17:34:16 GMT
Have you met any nice CATS on your travels?
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Post by whollygoats on May 28, 2017 19:17:34 GMT
Wow...that's a squatload.
Um, right off the bat, yes, it IS easier to find quality coffee, but I have been largely hueing to black tea, although I have sampled the quality coffee outlets (mostly Costa) to compare. It is favorable.
The other thing I have been very cognizant of is the vast improvement in the quality of British toilet paper. Indeed, I would say that in most locales, Brit bogrolls are suprior to US TP. I sit and salute.
Brit F&C has not degraded over the years, either. It still outshines most American F&C.
Yes on the cats. Once in Boot, in Cumbria, amd anotjer somewhere in Wales, in St. David's perhaps. And the, of course, there was my planned visit to tje Mann Cat Sanctuary on the Isle of Man, where I was nearly adopted by Rose Olympia, the gray tortie Manx.
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Post by Moose on May 28, 2017 20:47:28 GMT
I think Luthy came very close to adopting you Her behaviour is still not totally back to normal (she is at the top of the stairs as I type). That is not a criticism, obviously - I think she took a huge shine to you.
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So, Kelly
May 29, 2017 0:15:24 GMT
via mobile
Post by juju on May 29, 2017 0:15:24 GMT
F&C?
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Post by JoeP on May 29, 2017 9:25:03 GMT
Foreign & Commonwealth? Fevers & Chills? Fields & Churches? Farms & Cows?
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Post by JoeP on May 29, 2017 9:25:30 GMT
Or possibly a type of meal ...
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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So, Kelly
May 29, 2017 11:36:11 GMT
via mobile
Post by Deleted on May 29, 2017 11:36:11 GMT
One of them swims
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Post by Kye on May 29, 2017 12:09:42 GMT
Fish and chips...
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Post by JoeP on May 29, 2017 15:21:48 GMT
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Post by Kye on May 29, 2017 16:39:36 GMT
It took me awhile too. I figured it was just another Kellyism.
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Post by juju on May 29, 2017 18:21:06 GMT
D'oh!
I think what threw me was the reference to American F&C. I didn't know that was a thing there.
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Post by Moose on May 29, 2017 19:44:07 GMT
We had an extensive conversation about fish and chips whilst we were nomming them
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 2, 2017 8:45:43 GMT
Yes...fish & chips.
Remember, YUGE fangers. So, when I think I can cut corners, I do. Obviously, I should abandon that assumption.
Sometimes. I smirk and snicker over my unedited materials...like "cut cornets"; who knows what JoeP might have thought of that.
I will need to come back to descriptions of the Atholl Arms Hotel, but just think 'Fawlty Towers'. Having seen the competition, though,I am actually kind of glad I arbitrarily selected it.
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So, Kelly
Jun 2, 2017 11:34:49 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 2, 2017 11:34:49 GMT
On the train hurtling toward Glasgow. Only unknown is negotiating the whole Queen St. To Central station with my millstone. Walk, or taxi. Info sez 0.3 mi...
Wifi has been reasonably good, when offered.
The covfefe offered on Scotrail is for shitgibbons.
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So, Kelly
Jun 2, 2017 11:35:31 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 2, 2017 11:35:31 GMT
On the train hurtling toward Glasgow. Only unknown is negotiating the whole Queen St. To Central station with my millstone. Walk, or taxi. Info sez 0.3 mi...
Wifi has been reasonably good, when offered.
The covfefe offered on Scotrail is for shitgibbons.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 2, 2017 11:38:56 GMT
To what other incisive questions was I supposed to reply?
Working with this finy keyboard and screen on a jostling train car is positively covfefe.
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So, Kelly
Jun 2, 2017 13:41:48 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 2, 2017 13:41:48 GMT
Update: Made it through Glasgow. Pnly with the help of several kind Glaswegean strangers.
I made it out of Queen Street Station, only to lose the trail. I was commisserating with a similarly puzzled Dutch woman when a gent stepped up.and provided excellent directions Central, on foot. It IS about a third of a mile,but it is all flat hard surface with heavy crowds.
But, once in Central, I was lost. Three separate ScotRail employees intervened to get me to the wrong platform. When I realized my mistake, I bolted and once again sought Scotrail staff, and,as I was doing so, a woman frkm the train I had bolted from returned my backpack, which I had unwittingly left on the train.
I finally made it to the right platform, and the right train and have been rewarded with a table seat with an outlet AND A/C!
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Post by Kye on Jun 2, 2017 13:53:01 GMT
Wow! You'll go back home with many travel stories!
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So, Kelly
Jun 2, 2017 18:58:20 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 2, 2017 18:58:20 GMT
This experience just reinforces my good impressions from past dealings with Scots. They seem ever willing to assist the puzzled and disoriented visitor. I need to pay this forword whenever I get the opportunity.
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So, Kelly
Jun 3, 2017 20:26:53 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 3, 2017 20:26:53 GMT
And, today...I took the local bus service to Culzean, 15 miles south of Ayr. I got there just fine, only to find that access to the castle was almost a mile from the bus stop...after I finally arrived. The castle is another Georgian mansion and quite interesting...but, hey, had they ever comsidered running a shuttle from the main road?
Anyway, I toured the castle and a tiny part of the grounds and was sitting in tbe Old Stable courtyard, drinking an expensive coffee,when I noticed the species of little bird which had provided the live sex show at Pooley Bridge at Ullswater. They were woking the dropped crumbs from sandwiches and desserts served by the cafe.
I was dreading the walk back up to the road, so I steeled my resolve by acquiring some nread crusts and attempting to lure the little birds (definitely identified as 'finches') close enough for pix. I failed in my objective, but the sight of a bearded old geezer feeding (and talking to) tiny finches was enough to engender friendly conversation with other coffee drinkers. In my case, a couple from London, visiting Scots relatives. In the extended conversation, which ranged over a wide number of topics, I mentioned in passing my dread of slogging back up to the road to catch the bus back to Ayr.
Come time to leave, I started out with schoolboy reluctant resolve and they decided to offer me a ride, which I readily accepted. When told they could drop me at the bus stop on the main road and I would ecstatic, they refused and stated that they had to go through Ayr town center, any way. They dropped me at Wellington Square, not a hundred feet from my guesthouse door. Such wonderous beings be here...Scotland had this effect upon even English visitors!
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Post by JoeP on Jun 3, 2017 20:36:39 GMT
My sister worked in Culzean Castle grounds, many years ago. All I know is that she gave guided mushroom walks. People walking to mushrooms, not the other way round.
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Post by Moose on Jun 3, 2017 21:13:25 GMT
The second half of your sentence disappointed me. I was thinking how lovely your sister was to be showing mushrooms around.
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Post by ceptimus on Jun 4, 2017 0:15:16 GMT
A person on a mushroom walk is a fun guy to be with.
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Post by JoeP on Jun 4, 2017 10:14:14 GMT
The problem comes when there are too many people on the walk. Then there's not mush room.
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Post by ceptimus on Jun 4, 2017 14:39:32 GMT
But if it's a group of amphibians on the walk then they can use the toad's tools to make the paths wider.
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Post by JoeP on Jun 4, 2017 19:54:28 GMT
Why go to so much truffle?
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So, Kelly
Jun 4, 2017 20:12:35 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 4, 2017 20:12:35 GMT
*groan*
Things I do not understand about UK...What's the deal about:
- Grilled tomatoes
- Toast racks
- Square/rectangular toilet seats
- Duvets and their covers
- Advertising products the outlet does not have in stock
- Exceedingly black and often oversized eyebrows painted on otherwise pale and ordinary-looking adolescent girls
- Why so damned many extra pillows on beds in tiny guesthouse rooms and where are guests expected to put them?
- The runner across the foot of the bed
- The utter paucity of pegs, hooks, or other means to hang things in guesthouse and hotel rooms
- Leaving outdated bus scheduled times posted at bus halts
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So, Kelly
Jun 4, 2017 20:24:33 GMT
via mobile
Post by whollygoats on Jun 4, 2017 20:24:33 GMT
- Why interior spaces are heated to sauna temperatures
- How British males manage to keep their trousers up with all the heavy change whoch accumulates in pant pockets
- How do I explain how I spent two sprong months in Britain and came home with a frikken TAN?
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Post by Moose on Jun 4, 2017 21:38:56 GMT
You don't have duvets in the US?!
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