Anyone from the UK?

[TheWorldBuilder]

Really? 6am on Christmas morning, what were you all thinking?



Oh yeah, er, Merry Christmas.

 

[Bettytheboo]

Joyful festivities then.

Then we chase each other around the house waving tinsel. It's a standard British tradition really and wards off evil spirits and unwanted visitors.

 

[Bettytheboo]

Really? 6am on Christmas morning, what were you all thinking?



Oh yeah, er, Merry Christmas.

Some of us have four grandchildren thumping around the house at 6am, oh the joys!

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Setting all the clocks two hours slow during the night of 23rd/24th doesn't work any more, the little bastards have tablets and mobile cameras.

 

[Meekly_Anna]

Then we chase each other around the house waving tinsel. It's a standard British tradition really and wards off evil spirits and unwanted visitors.

I really thought I knew everything about English love life, after all, I've seen ‘What a Girl Wants’ at least three times.
But the fact that you get a foot job from your first visitor at Christmas or New Year's Eve is... interesting, I find. Especially when they all get together afterwards for Yule.
When Mari Lwyd gains access to every house early in the morning and you hear cheerful shouting and moaning, well, you English know how to make Christmas happen.

 

[Bettytheboo]

It's an idea to set the clocks back, but their Border Collie can tell the time to within fifteen minuets

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Regularity needed for input or output?

....and it's appealing that it can do that one dance.

 

[Bettytheboo]

I really thought I knew everything about English love life, after all, I've seen ‘What a Girl Wants’ at least three times.
But the fact that you get a foot job from your first visitor at Christmas or New Year's Eve is... interesting, I find. Especially when they all get together afterwards for Yule.
When Mari Lwyd gains access to every house early in the morning and you hear cheerful shouting and moaning, well, you English know how to make Christmas happen.

Wait till the Haggis hunting season starts, men wear skirts and go up to the Highlands, and you think our Christmases' are weird?

 

[Meekly_Anna]

I know Haggis. They are relatives to our Antlerhare.
Very tasty.
I know why they are wearing skirts. They want to attract female Haggis by the smell. They don't wash for weeks beforehand I guess.

 

[Bettytheboo]

I know Haggis. They are relatives to our Antlerhare.
Very tasty.
I know why they are wearing skirts. They want to attract female Haggis by the smell. They don't wash for weeks beforehand I guess.

Yes, indeed. It's how the jockstrap was invented.

 

[Bettytheboo]

.. the midges can be savage.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Hasn't Silliband effectively banned first-footing with lumps of coal because burning it contributes 0·000001% of the carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour that a single parliamentary debate emits?

Culicoides impunctatus Scotiæ, Betty?

 

[Bettytheboo]

Hasn't Silliband effectively banned first-footing with lumps of coal because burning it contributes 0·000001% of the carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour that a single parliamentary debate emits?

Culicoides impunctatus Scotiæ, Betty?

It's the water vapour that contributes to global hydrolyses, it causes mist and ice during the winter contributing to global accident figures

 

[Meekly_Anna]

It's the water vapour that contributes to global hydrolyses, it causes mist and ice during the winter contributing to global accident figures

Good heavens! It's unbelievable what I'm learning today. Until now, I thought it had something to do with the Atlantic frontal front. But the leader of the older colony banned that because Iceland renamed it the Gulf of Iceland frontal front.

 

[Bettytheboo]

There are many fronts here, some good and some very bad, but we are now on frontal fringes of sanity. We are all slowly going crazy, it's something to do with the arsenic in the wall paper print hanging on the walls in ones mansions. It gets absorbed by the tea in our cups you know. Those who are completely bonkers call it tiffin. A cup of tiffin anyone?

 

[TheMarksman]

You want to stuff your family with friends or vice versa?
British Christmas traditions are somewhat astounding to me.

I would hope getting a good stuffing isn’t just a British Christmas tradition. I for one would wish it to everyone around the world (unless your name is Melania, maybe).

 

[Mickyb9669]

Really? 6am on Christmas morning, what were you all thinking?



Oh yeah, er, Merry Christmas.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Good heavens! It's unbelievable what I'm learning today.

Did you know that 4 January is the longest day of the year (whichever hemisphere you're in)?

 

[Mickyb9669]

Did you know that 4 January is the longest day of the year (whichever hemisphere you're in)?

Morning every one, Merry Christmas i hope you a nice day

 

[Meekly_Anna]

There are many fronts here, some good and some very bad, but we are now on frontal fringes of sanity. We are all slowly going crazy, it's something to do with the arsenic in the wall paper print hanging on the walls in ones mansions. It gets absorbed by the tea in our cups you know. Those who are completely bonkers call it tiffin. A cup of tiffin anyone?

I have read about that. The wallpaper is so contaminated that it is recommended not to remove it, or at least to have it done by a specialist company. Presumably, there are also lead pipes in the houses. They have been banned here for about 200 years.
On the other hand, we have a remote water supply because the infant mortality rate was five times higher than in the rest of the country, with everyone fetching their water from the same shallow pond. ‘If the animals don't want to drink it anymore, we'll just drink it ourselves.’

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

we have a remote water supply because the infant mortality rate was five times higher than in the rest of the country, with everyone fetching their water from the same shallow pond.

One of the main contributory causes of the Brontë's deaths was typhoid from drinking Haworth's contaminated water. Having collected on the fell, it ran through/under the graveyard to settle underneath the communal pump.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Did you know that 4 January is the longest day of the year (whichever hemisphere you're in)?

Conversely, 4 July is usually the shortest day. I once used a lighthouse to help demonstrate the relevant orbital mechanics through dance, whilst waiting for a Solar eclipse.

 

[Meekly_Anna]

One of the main contributory causes of the Brontë's deaths was typhoid from drinking Haworth's contaminated water. Having collected on the fell, it ran through/under the graveyard to settle underneath the communal pump.

There are many excellent wells in my area. The water supply issue was again in the south.
Anyway.
One of the wells is very rich in minerals, even more so than the others. The common joke is that this is because the well is located below the cemetery. Is that recycling? Upcycling? Whatever. The water is good, if a little bitter because of the magnesium sulphate. Bitter salts.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

Recycling. The taste of the water will also vary due to its pH.

There are so many water treatment works along the Isis/Thames that a joke in these parts is that Pennine water is filtered through peat, whereas London's water is filtered through Pete and Ann and John and Sally and....

 

[Bettytheboo]

I have read about that. The wallpaper is so contaminated that it is recommended not to remove it, or at least to have it done by a specialist company. Presumably, there are also lead pipes in the houses. They have been banned here for about 200 years.
On the other hand, we have a remote water supply because the infant mortality rate was five times higher than in the rest of the country, with everyone fetching their water from the same shallow pond. ‘If the animals don't want to drink it anymore, we'll just drink it ourselves.’

My grandchildren's dog doesn't drink our tap water, and sometimes you can actually smell the chlorine in it. I don't blame him x