Things you rather like about this country

[Dec66]

really?
I thought it had been made illegal.
Am old enough to remember getting fish and chips in newsprint, then it stopping, and for a brief period there were "food safe" paper wrappings or whatever they were called with imitation newspapers to help the nervous transition.

Personally I was always doubtful that the old newspapers did anyone any harm - am sure there are foodie progs where they will lovingly show rustic types cooking in holes in the ground or whatever. While middle class foodies bill and coo about the authenticity or whatever.

It's not illegal at all.

It was one of the things the Vote Leave campaign told people the EU had made illegal, when in fact the EU didn't give a shiny sh!te about how British people wanted their heart attacks served to them.

 

[Blue Hills]

It's not illegal at all.

It was one of the things the Vote Leave campaign told people the EU had made illegal, when in fact the EU didn't give a shiny sh!te about how British people wanted their heart attacks served to them.

NACAs yard is thataway.

 

[Reynard]

definitely, but Road names are great also, a recent trip took me along Four Mills Lane - says everything you need to know about that Lane if you actually stop and think about it. but that's the issue sometimes, just too busy to take it in. i think that's why the bike is the best way to explore, bar none

There's a Brick Kiln Lane here, and a Burnt Chimney Drove. Plus Dunkirk, California and O Furlong.

 

[swee'pea99]

OS maps.

In the same vein, public footpaths. I don't know of any other country where so much of the country is so accessible to anyone with a functioning pair of feet.

 

[Cathryn]

There's a Brick Kiln Lane here, and a Burnt Chimney Drove. Plus Dunkirk, California and O Furlong.

We have a Dragon Lane in a nearby village! I’ve always wondered and hoped…

 

[Andy in Germany]

In the same vein, public footpaths. I don't know of any other country where so much of the country is so accessible to anyone with a functioning pair of feet.

Germany has full right to roam and very few hedges.

 

[Andy in Germany]

After yesterday: Trains where the bogs work. Why can't German railways manage this? Siemens Desiro HC's have been running for a year now and yesterday one unit had both kludgies out of action. I swapped to the next unit, but what do you do if you aren't as mobile?

It's doubly annoying because they were part of an investment and advertising package to get people using trains and one selling point is that they have low floor access for people with disabilities.

 

[swee'pea99]

Germany has full right to roam and very few hedges.

Really? Well, I learn something new every day. Does that basically mean you can go anywhere (within reason)? Do they have footpaths too, or do you just make your own way? Do farmers come out snarling 'git offa moi land', or are they not allowed to? Genuine interest.

 

[Reynard]

After yesterday: Trains where the bogs work. Why can't German railways manage this? Siemens Desiro HC's have been running for a year now and yesterday one unit had both kludgies out of action. I swapped to the next unit, but what do you do if you aren't as mobile?

It's doubly annoying because they were part of an investment and advertising package to get people using trains and one selling point is that they have low floor access for people with disabilities.

I dunno... You really don't want to be using the ones on Great Northern trains...

 

[Andy in Germany]

Really? Well, I learn something new every day. Does that basically mean you can go anywhere (within reason)?

Within reason, yes. if you trample on crops expect to be challenged, and if it's fenced, there's a reason so keep off, but apart from that the land is open. There's evenm a right to walk and spend time in forests.

Do farmers come out snarling 'git offa moi land', or are they not allowed to? Genuine interest.

Not really, unless you're being stupid. I remember just after I arrived, walking on a Feldweg* and being very apprehensive when a farmer pulled up alongside me, but he wanted to know where I was from and to suggest some nice places I could walk through. Between my German and his Bavarian it took us almost ten minutes to work out what we were saying but we got by.

*A Feldweg is a traffic tree agricultural track/road. There's a dense network of them all over the countryside.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I dunno... You really don't want to be using the ones on Great Northern trains...

Stop spoiling my attempts to be optimistic with your factual experiences.

 

[Blue Hills]

road users giving the palm as thanks for a road favour.
Maybe happens in other places - don't know.
used to drive a foreigner now and again who told me i was being stupid/somehow subservient for doing it.
As a cyclist these days (car gone) I still thankfully quite often have reason to give the palm to drivers.

 

[Blue Hills]

Libraries - though am all too well aware that they are under terrible/previously unimaginable threat these days.
I love the fact that in many towns/areas the library is often one of the most impressive and central buildings.

 

[Blue Hills]

Free public museums and galleries.

 

[Mike Ayling]

Yep, I'll admit a bit of a (healthy to my mind) antidote to some of the habitual knee-jerk Brit hating that goes on in the dreaded NACAS yard, but what, despite its many clear faults, warms your heart about this damp isle and its people?

One I was reminded of earlier today.

Folk saying thank you to bus drivers.

I mean they are clearly paid to drive the buses, and are going that whatever way anyway, but many folk of all sorts of backgrounds, very often, me included, often say thank you when getting on and off.

(maybe this happens abroad as well - maybe some of our foreign correspondents can educate us)

Another one - folk saying sorry after a minor pedestrian collision, even if it's clearly not their fault - but done without even a hint of sarkiness or obsequiousness - just a sorry generously freely given.

Folk saying thank you to bus drivers.
Common in Melbourne Australia