Mr Saucecraft’s comments on his return to Blighty have made great reading this week.
Here is an entertaining list of observations by a chap from Florida, Scott Waters. Low-key and amusingly perceptive.
Feel free to disagree wildly.
HP sauce is better than catsup
by 13 Comments
‘There is no dress code’ … that’s a bit rich from an American 🙂 Funny though.
He’s right about ‘Cheers’, or ‘Cheers, then’, though these have always struck me as a West Country thing.
I don’t have a passport, though, and I use a fork in my right hand.
“Hot and cold water faucets. Remember them?” – so what do they use over there?
Mixer taps I believe.
Yes, same in Sweden.
You never see separate hot and cold taps here. They haven’t existed for decades.
Interesting. Almost everyone I know who’s been to the U.S. has reported that Americans are, by and large, polite to the point where it becomes irritating to our more sarcastic Celtic temperament. Whereas I found during my time in England (London, admittedly) that day to day exchanges with Homo Britannicus were a couple of notches cooler than at home.
He’s right about “pudding” though – the richest vocabulary in the history of the world and everything on the sweet trolley is reduced to this one unappealing-sounding word..
He’s missed out on our obsession with toilet humour which I think is one of the thing that defines England, or it could just be me. Plus, he obviously never visited Shoreditch where a very strict dress code applies.
He’s got it ‘spot on”. I was a Brit – now an American and I would not disagree with any of the comments
Regarding US vs UK polite. In the US we are polite if you pay us to be (service in shops , restaurants etc) but cut us off in traffic and it can all get a little crazy. I find its the reverse in the UK – service folks often terrible but encounters with regular folks almost too formal and polite (no no it was MY fault).
Spot on pretty much, other than French beer which is excellent. “Un Seize s’plait”.
Non phonetic spelling of places and names:
Obvious example = Leicester “Lie-cester?”
Aigburth
Beauchamp
Cholmondeley
Happisburgh
Ruislip
Slough
Southwark
Southwell
Towcester
Welwyn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_names_in_English_with_counterintuitive_pronunciations
Names as well:
It is spelt Richard Madeley, but pronounced “Cock”
I think it’s in a Simon Hoggart book where he talks of being at someone’s home in the States and asking if he can have a cold can of drink from the fridge. His host was offended, saying that surely he knows that he is welcome to help himself to anything at any time…? Hoggart maintained that he would struggle with that because that’s not how we behave – we always ask if it’s all right, we don’t just help ourselves. A real stand-off.
Always makes me think of Kramer in Seinfeld. First thing he does is Jerry’s flat is go straight for his fridge.
Go on! Have an Up Rigid! Have a beer too. They’re in the fridge.