we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence

[Simon F]

Aside from anything else, dental care isn't actually free in the UK. General healthcare is though and it certainly isn't something we would class as a bad thing.

Absolutely! It may not be lightening fast if you are not an emergency case but, from personal experience, things happen very quickly if someone's life is in danger. It's not something I wish to witness again, however.

i wonder how many people know what that means

Probably a lot of Aussies as we got lots of repeats of the Goodies - not that it's a bad thing

 

[DeanoC]

Probably a lot of Aussies as we got lots of repeats of the Goodies - not that it's a bad thing

We don't get repeats of the Goodies in the UK very often, so its likely you Aussies will know it better than some of us Brits.

I have had to educate many a person to the wonder of Kitten Kong!

 

[Gubbi]

And an utter crap steak.

I had the best beef, EVAR, in Scotland. A highland cattle steak the size of the (big) plate.

Better than any U.S., argentine, belgian or domestic stuff I've tasted (haven't had Kobe yet though).

They do have some special cuisine in Great Britain though. Deep fried frozen pizza, deep fried Mars bar (battered first) and in Scotland, pizza with haggish

Cheers

 

[Dooby]

MIZE: Im getting the feeling that you're a sales guy or some such who only travels around local to London. You eat in crappy hotel restaurants, where food is badly cooked by underpaid workers, and coffee is bought for its quantity, not its quality. You should really get out more.

Sunday lunches in decent pubs are huge shoulders of lamb, with herbed carrots, fluffed roast potatoes, peas, home made gravy and huge soft yorkshire puddings. Delicious. Fish and chips from a decent shop are awesome too. Not greasy, just tasty and crunchy. Admittedly, you probably don't get this level of knowledge just travelling from A->B, as I'm assuming you do, but decent places are not hard to find, anywhere.

Nearly everywhere that isn't a "greasy spoon cafe" will sell you a decent brewed cup of coffee, and if you're buying it in yourself from a supermarket, theres about 40 different kinds of instant, from sharp to mellow, from strong to fruity and all variations in between. Theres caramel coffees and flavoured coffees. We aren't a third world country as you seem to think, we don't have just one of everything.

Last point. Your image on the front page of this thread was not a M-way intersection. That was from an M-way (70mph) to a standard road (30mph). Im fairly sure even USA has lights when those two kinds of roads meet. What you should have been looking at is something like:

Which is where two motorways cross. This is more analogous to your US version. Travelling north on the M6 there are no traffic lights to get on to the M62. There are a couple of parttime lights in the middle, but Ive very rarely seen them active. (This is a junction I use a lot)

 

[Mize]

Hey Dooby.

I'm actually an engineer (phd materials science) who owns his own process controls company. I've had tons of amazing meals in the UK. Just few of them are traditional English cuisine. Mirabelle is probably one of the best restaurants I've ever experienced. Had great food in Wales and Scottland too...just really not fond of overcooked vegetables and meats.

I have been to several wonderful "carveries" and realize that there is such a thing as properly prepared meat, however, Lamb, IMHO, is universally overcooked in the British isles. I have never seen it served rare and that's how I like it best (sort of like trying to get seared rare Ahi in the midwest USA).

As to Russ finding only poor curries, my experience is just the opposite. I've had many a late night after drinking run to the curry house and my experiences have been universally positive. I've only had Vindaloos a couple times and both were quite flavorful (and bloody hot).

That said, you can keep the black pudding, kidney pies and the like. I get enough "unusual" stuff when I visit our subsidiary in Beijing.

 

[Simon F]

We don't get repeats of the Goodies in the UK very often, so its likely you Aussies will know it better than some of us Brits.

I've been in the UK for many years now and not seen a single episode

I have had to educate many a person to the wonder of Kitten Kong!

The one with the solid concrete tower blocks one was also good.

 

[Mariner]

I've been in the UK for many years now and not seen a single episode

I think Bill Oddie killed 'em off with all his wildlife programming!

Graeme Garden is still pretty funny on some of the Radio 4 comedy programmes as is Tim Brooke-Taylor.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Lol, I live about 4 inches from the bottom left of that pic. And yes, that junction is very good but in my experience pretty much any UK motorway to motorway junction works like that. As you say its only when going from motorways to A roads that you get lights and even then thats not always the case.

 

[Verge]

I've had many a late night after drinking run to the curry house and my experiences have been universally positive.

Everything tastes good when ur smashed.

 

[Mize]

Everything tastes good when ur smashed.

admittedly. However, many have also been pre-pints with customers

 

[nthd]

I'm surprised that this hasn't come up yet.

 

[Mize]

The Brits win. English roads are simply the cat's meow and traffic flows so much better than elsewhere. Roundabouts, this particular sub-topic, are wonderful beyond belief and there is never any point where they cause problems in the UK (save when someone from the continent doesn't realize that the circulating has right of way, but that's another matter).

In a few simple words, England is a driver's paradise.
(oh yeah, and the food is better than Italy, France & Spain in that order).

Whew.

 

[Geo]

We found the "coffee" in Scotland to be dishwater, unless you asked for "Coffee American" in which case it was almost strong enough to kickstart the heart, if one had 5 or 6 cups.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

The Brits win. English roads are simply the cat's meow and traffic flows so much better than elsewhere. Roundabouts, this particular sub-topic, are wonderful beyond belief and there is never any point where they cause problems in the UK (save when someone from the continent doesn't realize that the circulating has right of way, but that's another matter).

In a few simple words, England is a driver's paradise.
(oh yeah, and the food is better than Italy, France & Spain in that order).

Whew.

Thats the spirit!

 

[_xxx_]

(oh yeah, and the food is better than Italy, France & Spain in that order).

Sorry, but: ROTFL? LMAO? ROTFLMAO?

Anyway, you owe me a new keyboard this way or the other

 

[Mariner]

Roundabouts, this particular sub-topic, are wonderful beyond belief and there is never any point where they cause problems in the UK (save when someone from the continent doesn't realize that the circulating has right of way, but that's another matter).

Good to see you're coming over to our way of thinking.

I've only once encountered difficulties with roundabouts and that was last year in Swindon. Clap your eyes on this beauty:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Swindon_Magic_Roundabout_eng.png

I managed to cross it without problems a couple of times and avoided hitting anything. I'm still not quite sure how I managed this, however. It was scary.

 

[Mize]

Yes, I drove that one last week whilst sipping a kidney & instant coffee smoothie. It was vastly superior to those Yank roads.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

Good to see you're coming over to our way of thinking.

I've only once encountered difficulties with roundabouts and that was last year in Swindon. Clap your eyes on this beauty:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Swindon_Magic_Roundabout_eng.png

I managed to cross it without problems a couple of times and avoided hitting anything. I'm still not quite sure how I managed this, however. It was scary.

Yeah there is one of those at Hemel. They are certainly quite terrifying the first time you come across them. They work very well once you know your way through them though, I think that Magic Roundabout is a far too pleasant name for them. I think I prefer 'Wheel of Death!'
Seriously though they acutally work very well for high volumes of commuter traffic (i.e. large volumes of vehicles which know where they are going), if you don't know where you are going on them then you are doomed to spend eternity driving round in circles. They are a good example of the kind of thing you have to do without properly designed road system.


Mize, no wonder you don't like british food, you don't make smoothies out of kidney pie, that is what the blood sausage is for! ;-)
CC

 

[Geo]

roundabouts are making more and more appearances in the US. I'm not a big fan, personally. At least for multi-lane ones. Those scare the spit out of me. Doing multi-lane roundabouts at freeway speeds the wrong direction (for an American) while in Scotland was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.

 

[AlphaWolf]

roundabouts are making more and more appearances in the US. I'm not a big fan, personally. At least for multi-lane ones. Those scare the spit out of me. Doing multi-lane roundabouts at freeway speeds the wrong direction (for an American) while in Scotland was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.

We used to have what we called a traffic circle a few blocks from where I live. There were some really good things about it, but there were some really horrible things about it. Mostly people who had never driven on one before didn't have a clue what to do and would cause all manner of accidents or traffic jams. A few years and millions of dollars later, we have a clover leaf.