Is the UK ready.....

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Originally posted by Rick:
If that’s the answer you got from asking directions, just how did you phrase the question, or are they bilingual there?

Something like Can you tell me where xxxx street is, please? Rather prosaic, I know!

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Don’t think I’d want to receive heart surgery training in Yorkshire. Don’t think I’d want anyone that received heart surgery training in Yorkshire within several miles of my heart.

That was in Lancashire, Rick - separated from us by the Pennines, and the Wars of the Roses.
And of course the amazing M62. Highest motorway in England

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Remind me never to get lost in Yorkshire, and if I do get lost, remind me to plan to stay there a very long time. If I ever do go there, how would I know if I pissed someone off, or is the middle finger a universal symbol for hatred?

They (and I) would probably think you were pointing to Lancashire.
Only if you add the fore finger as well at an angle of 30 degrees, I think!

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Originally posted by Rick:
Remind me never to get lost in Yorkshire, and if I do get lost, remind me to plan to stay there a very long time.

Not a bad idea, but house prices are going up!
I came here in 1973 - I am a stone's throw from the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District. Not that far from the Lakes, either!

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
That was in Lancashire . . .

Yorkshire – Lancashire, to an American you Shires all look alike.

Found the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District National Parks in the atlas, but the only “Lakes” is in Barbados. I found a Lake District National Park, but that’s too far away from you. I also see there’s a North, South, and West Yorkshire, but the other quadrant is called East Riding of Yorkshire. Is there a story there, or did some poor horseman get lost and couldn’t understand the directions he got from someone visiting from Lancashire?

I did spend a little time in Manchester (weeks versus months or years – it was well after the U.S. occupation of England), which looks close to you. I remember driving up to Scotland, but have no idea what motorway I used (at the time my hands were full trying to stay on the right (left) side of the road and contemplating the metaphysical meaning of round-abouts).

I didn’t realize “The War of the Roses” was in your neighborhood. The big problem with English history is that there’s too much of it - much shorter course in the States. But, being global newbies, we are trying very hard to make up for lost time.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
Not a bad idea, but house prices are going up!

Hey, if you’ve got cellars in the attics, it’s only natural that everything should be raising (IMNotSoHO).

What I remember most about my stays in the area is I never stay where there is any central heat and every place I stay has a curtain covering the door, inside. What I like..very nice people! Of course, some are my Dad's relation.

An English man married to a Geman woman during WWII. Tough decision – bomb London or Berlin.

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Originally posted by Rick:

Found the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District National Parks in the atlas, but the only “Lakes” is in Barbados. I found a Lake District National Park, but that’s too far away from you.

It was the Lake District, Rick - colloquially 'Lakes'. Not too far, and easy motorway access.

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I also see there’s a North, South, and West Yorkshire, but the other quadrant is called East Riding of Yorkshire. Is there a story there, or did some poor horseman get lost and couldn’t understand the directions he got from someone visiting from Lancashire?

Originally they were West, North and East Ridings, but one county. Riding, IIRC, is a mediaeval term based on how far you could ride around the boundary in a day.
When England rearranged the counties in the 1970s, North, West and South Yorkshires became autonomous counties, and Cleveland and North Humberside were created from the old bit of Yorkshire.
There was an outcry in the 1980s or 90s, so North Humberside went back to its original name of East Riding.

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I did spend a little time in Manchester (weeks versus months or years – it was well after the U.S. occupation of England), which looks close to you.

35 miles away or so - across the Pennines, but maybe not in winter!

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I remember driving up to Scotland, but have no idea what motorway I used (at the time my hands were full trying to stay on the right (left) side of the road and contemplating the metaphysical meaning of round-abouts).

M62+M61+M6 probably, then A74 (or if more recent, M74) probably.
I only realised recently that there were no roundabouts in USA. Or are there some?
I find that there is not really a problem driving on the right in Europe - everyone else is doing it!

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I didn’t realize “The Wars of the Roses” was in your neighborhood. The big problem with English history is that there’s too much of it - much shorter course in the States. But, being global newbies, we are trying very hard to make up for lost time.

We also have the pub just down the road where the Luddites arranged their meetings, and where Patrick Bronte (he of daughters Anne, Emily and Charlotte fame) lived 1/2 mile away and worked at a nearby church - this being the highest one in the county - as a vicar.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
There was an outcry in the 1980s or 90s, so North Humberside went back to its original name of East Riding.

I can understand that – I’d much rather be an East Ridingian than a North Humbersideian.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
M62+M61+M6 probably, then A74 (or if more recent, M74) probably.

15 or so years ago. Not sure if that’s considered recent in England – probably not.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
I only realised recently that there were no roundabouts in USA. Or are there some?

I’ve only seen a few, but then I’m not a road-touring person. I suspect the ones over here are more for show than for practically. The only one that comes to mind is in Vail, but I think that’s more to give the tourist a feeling of Alpine skiing.

It looked like we were going to get a medium-sized one. The city had a billboard at the intersection with a diagram of the roundabout. But, the natives, fearing carnage, repealed the idea. Instead, there’s the typical square intersection with left/right turn lanes and left turn arrows. Say, what happens to the pedestrians in roundabouts, or is it “survival of the fittest”?

Don’t understand why they aren’t popular in the States. It’s not like our first street designers weren’t somewhat influenced by England. The starting and stopping at traffic lights must be a grand waste of fuel, and hard on breaks, transmissions, and fenders from cross traffic accidents. Maybe we have a proclivity to right angles.

I could be way off on this, but I think roundabouts are something one has to be raised with, and not something one can easily adapt to. I believe, that if any terrorists were determined to inflict large-scale casualties to the U.S. civilian population, their best bet would to install roundabouts. Grant it, it would be a long term assault, but effective.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
We also have the pub just down the road where the Luddites . . .

Are there no bars or nightclubs in England – just pubs?

I had to look up Luddites. Sounds like they thought the Industrial Revolution was the Industrial Riot.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
. . .and worked at a nearby church - this being the highest one in the county - as a vicar.

Is that in altitude, authority, or hallucinogens? I assume you’re discussing the building and not the
vicar, or the parishioners.

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M62+M61+M6 probably, then A74 (or if more recent, M74) probably.

15 or so years ago. Not sure if that’s considered recent in England – probably not.

Subjective, I suppose - at that time the A74 (dual carriageway) was becoming the M74 (motorway)

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It looked like we were going to get a medium-sized one. The city had a billboard at the intersection with a diagram of the roundabout. But, the natives, fearing carnage, repealed the idea. Instead, there’s the typical square intersection with left/right turn lanes and left turn arrows. Say, what happens to the pedestrians in roundabouts, or is it “survival of the fittest”?

A lot of the main intersections in/near towns and cities have pedestrian underpasses, others have traffic lights (pelican crossings) near roundabouts.
The roundabout to end all roundabouts!
BTW, priority is to traffic already on the roundabout, with the occasional exception clearly marked. Some busy ones have a slip road that bypasses the next exit.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
We also have the pub just down the road where the Luddites . . .

Are there no bars or nightclubs in England – just pubs?

We have both. Bars and clubs are mainly in cities, and places to avoid. You can have the privilege of paying to go in and drinking beer, wine and spirits with a big markup on price, and having your eardrums assaulted with some cacophonous racket.
Me - I like actually talking to people over a drink, so it is pubs.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
. . .and worked at a nearby church - this being the highest one in the county - as a vicar.

Is that in altitude, authority, or hallucinogens? I assume you’re discussing the building and not the
vicar, or the parishioners.

About 900ft above sea level!

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
The roundabout to end all roundabouts!

A TEE-SHIRT FOR A ROUNDABOUT? I won’t say I’ve seen everything, but that’s one less thing for me to see. The roundabout looks like a nightmare. That would be the ideal place to send any Americans that you don’t want to leave the country (that may be a contradiction) – just give them a car and point it in the direction of Magic Roundabout. It sounds like a Disney ride. Regarding the last picture in the link you provided – is that a poorly designed parking lot or are those cars actually moving? That roundabout might also be a good place to execute Americans convicted of a capital offense. Good idea to give them a very cheap car (no need to waste money), or perhaps a scooter would be better – more humane that way – less needless suffering.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
You can have the privilege of paying to go in and drinking beer, wine and spirits with a big markup on price, and having your eardrums assaulted with some cacophonous racket.

Yes. I suspect with the popularity, and volume, of rap music that the when the current kids become adults that the stock in companies that provide hearing aids will soar.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
About 900ft above sea level!

Was your use of feet to be accommodating to a metric illiterate?

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Originally posted by Rick:
A TEE-SHIRT FOR A ROUNDABOUT? I won’t say I’ve seen everything, but that’s one less thing for me to see.

Here's another! Don't look at the Teasmaniacs link on the home page..........

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Regarding the last picture in the link you provided – is that a poorly designed parking lot or are those cars actually moving?

They are moving, Rick. Just.

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Yes. I suspect with the popularity, and volume, of rap music that the when the current kids become adults that the stock in companies that provide hearing aids will soar.

It is amazing how a misplaced 'c' has changed things.
The audio volume of this rubbish would be banned in a factory by the Health and Safety nannies here.
There will indeed be a generation of the prematurely deaf - it is becoming noticeable now.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
About 900ft above sea level!

Was your use of feet to be accommodating to a metric illiterate?

Nope - we use the Imperial system for such things here - it is Europe that is solely metric. We use metric, say 50% of the time, for weights and small measures.
Distances and heights are almost solely miles and yards.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
Don't look at the Teasmaniacs link on the home page..........

Thanks for the warning.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
It is amazing how a misplaced 'c' has changed things.
The audio volume of this rubbish would be banned in a factory by the Health and Safety nannies here.
There will indeed be a generation of the prematurely deaf - it is becoming noticeable now.

Boy, do we sound like a couple of old farts or what? What kind of music did you listen to when you were a kid, Mike? Don’t tell me it was The Beatles, or did they come from the wrong side of the shire? The Stones? Jimi Hendrix? Were you a hippie (driving a Citroen, of course, instead of a VW bus)?

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Originally posted by Rick:

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
It is amazing how a misplaced 'c' has changed things.
The audio volume of this rubbish would be banned in a factory by the Health and Safety nannies here.
There will indeed be a generation of the prematurely deaf - it is becoming noticeable now.

Boy, do we sound like a couple of old farts or what? What kind of music did you listen to when you were a kid, Mike? Don’t tell me it was The Beatles, or did they come from the wrong side of the shire? The Stones? Jimi Hendrix? Were you a hippie (driving a Citroen, of course, instead of a VW bus)?

None of these, Rick!
I must have a gene or two missing that makes people enjoy whatever pop music thay enjoyed when they were teenagers. Cannot get my head around it - most of the music I liked then is no different from what I like now! Tends to vary from 1750 to 2005, but pop-free.
It does get (incorrectly) called 'Classical' but this is from a particular period only.

'Serious' is another epithet; this gives the wrong idea. The serious bit means that it is music that has been composed properly, not scribbled in the nearest envelope.
A serious piece, say the last bit of Beethoven's 9th, is very lively and jolly - more so than the dreary and monotonous thumps of some of the efforts now, interspersed with some foul-mouthed yob babbling incomprehensible (c)rap. Live music? Anything but! As live as a cemetery.
Sorry, not a hippy, either! As for Citroens, that is a need that originated from researching my requirements.

In the 60s I drove an Austin Seven
The Beatles seemed to be (mainly McCartney) reasonably good composers, I can actually listen to them without switching off after five seconds!

Mike,

Must have been tough as a kid doing the Frug, the Bump, the Monkey and the Hustle to Wagner. Any bellbottom pants in your past?

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Originally posted by Rick:
Mike,

Must have been tough as a kid doing the Frug, the Bump, the Monkey and the Hustle to Wagner.

It probably was, Rick, but I don't think that I had even heard of them until I read this - (they sound like a company of dodgy solicitors!), and I have never been a fan of owld Dick Wagner.

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Any bellbottom pants in your past?

IIRC, I think there must have been, but I tend not to give too much precedence to recording such events.

A Yorkshire man goes to the vets...

Yorkshireman: "will you have a look at my cat"

Vet: "Is it a tom?"

Yorkshireman: "No, it's in t'basket!"

R2

I had to read that a couple of times before I *got it* R2, I must do a crappy Yorkshire accent.

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Originally posted by Bartelby:
I had to read that a couple of times before I *got it* R2, I must do a crappy Yorkshire accent.

There are quite a few different ones, Lexie, but the t' = the is from the Western side, and the same in the Eastern side of Lancashire.

Sheffielders sound more like Nottingham and North Yorks sound a bit like Geordies. Hull and Leeds are very distinctive and unmistakable as well. 'Four' and 'Pour' sound like 'far' and 'par'.

No-one can figure mine out as I was born in Somerset, but lived in Lancashire and West Yorks. I have been asked if I was Australian!

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I have never been a fan of owld Dick Wagner.

WAGNER: Love his music or hate his music; there is no in-between.