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Check out the 3-part drama "Gunpowder", it's a great mini series about Guy Fawkes. Fawkes is played by kit Harington (best known for his character "John Snow" in Game of Thrones). He is an actual direct decendant of Robert catesby, who was the leader of the Gunpowder plot !
Guy Fawkes Night does not commemorate the attempt to blow up Parliament and the King. It commemorates the FOILING of an attempt by a Catholic terrorist to assassinate the Protestant King and restore England to a Catholic state. As such, it IS a patriotic event, not the glorification of an insurgency. There's a huge difference. Fawkes isn't the hero of the festivities. He's the villain. Hence the burning of his effigy.
Also, many of us, particularly in the older houses, just have kitchens too small (not the 'fashion' so much now) However, on talking about tumble dryers, we hear they 'eat up' electricity! Costs of power have gone up HUGELY and, particularly old people on absolute minimum pensions - plus now many can no longer receive Winter Fuel Allowance if they're just above the limit, often by a very few ££££s, for entitlement to 'Pension Credit'.,..many are this winter going to have to choose to 'eat or heat?'! DREADFUL! Yes, I also love the 'fresh' smell of our washing when hung outside; in heatwaves they can dry out there fully..
Re. bonfire night. I am an older chap and Bonfire Night as an occasion has changed significantly since I was young. It used to be that families or neighbours would have their own bonfires and fireworks and there would be only a dozen or so at each event. In the lead up to bonfire night, kids would make an effigy of Guy Fawkes and take it around the local streets asking random strangers for "a penny for the guy" The children would also go arond the neighbourhood looking for scrap wood to burn on the bonfire - we called the activity "Bunny-Wooding" though my family who lived less than twenty miles away called in "Chumpin'" - I gather it was called various names throughout the country. The street where I grew up would have a gathering in probably every fifth or sixth back garden. The bonfires were relatively small and the fireworks were not so grand. The food, however was home cooked and the atmosphere was cosy and family based. On the downside, although my parents were very cautious and we never experienced it, there were always a lot of injuries from kids (and some adults) getting burned by the bonfire and/or fireworks. Working in the NHS for over thirty years, I can tell you that this number has dropped in my experience, I suppose because most people go to large organised bonfires with professional fireworks displays. Around bonfire night, however, you still see and hear lots of individual bonfire parties and people still get burned every year!
@@lesmarsden2058 We used to celebrate both when I was a kid back in the late 60s, early 70s, basically an excuse to have a few fireworks before bonfire night and a barbeque, my mum made little bats and other decorations, none of the US trick or treat rubbish. I didn't realise it wasn't commonplace to celebrate Halloween until one of the other kids in my class who'd apparently seen us in our garden, asked me if we were witches! Out of a class of about 30 of us, I think there was only one other kid who said they celebrated halloween.
my local high street still has 'early closing day' on Thursdays. in a big city different main streets have different days - so my next closest high street's early closing day is Tuesday! So that shop workers could have a half day off - but shoppers still had somewhere to go.
British plugs are an engineering masterpiece As for drying clothes... putting them on the line, running out five minutes later and bringing them in, then putting them back out ten minutes later, then back in, then back out, is pretty much a national pastime. One of the big benefits of children is you can put them on weather watch when theres clothes on the line
@@jonjohnson2844 that tends to be played up too much. Because you can switch them off at the wall you don't unplug them and leave the plug on the floor. If I unplug something it's because I don't currently need it and will put it away in a cuboard until needed again.
@@jonjohnson2844I've managed to live for 45 years without that ever happening. You never really need to have plugs lying around in the UK because you can just turn things off at the socket.
In the US convenience is king. In the UK convenience is only one factor, we also consider: space, history, cost and the environment. What I mean by that is, having a laundry room and a separate dryer is convienent. Space: Our houses are smaller. History: Our houses are often old enough to have been built without plumbing and electricity, so it's difficult to add those things. Cost: Dryers are expensive to run. Environment: Dryers are awful for the environment Those same factors play into a lot of our differences. Cars and roads for example. I would never buy a car in the UK that got less than 30mpg, in the US I rode in vehicles that got 10mpg! Cars are smaller here because of space (less room), history (narrow, winding roads built for horses), cost (we value better mileage) and environment (we don't want to pollute our planet.)
@@SKIDMARKBROWNI don't think there's *any* houses in the UK that don't have electricity and water these days, lol! However in an older house it's often harder to add pipes and electricity in the exact places you need it. Obviously not impossible, but more disruptive and expensive (often it'll involve taking up floorboards, drilling big holes through external walls, running pipes/cables for longer distances etc). Modern houses have loads more sockets, better designed plumbing etc, and often just have a utility room designed in from the beginning.
When you look deeper into the UK electrical plugs, it really is a clever idea that's never really changed over time. Each plug has it's own fuse, so if the appliance on the plug has a fault, it will blow the supply to the appliance but not the circuit breaker at the board. Also the earth prong at the plug is longer than the live and neutral prongs. That's so that the earth connection is engaged first to the system. Children can't stick things in sockets because the live and neutral have an integrated cover which can only be opened when the earth of the plug is inserted. Also the internal fuse is on the live side, so if it blows the appliance is immediately isolated from the electrical system.
There have been two changes Firstly the prongs are now shielded to further increase safety (I think that was a common european thing that all prongs have to be, it wasn't an issue before) Secondly plugs come fitted as standard now - it used to be they didn't, which is why wiring a plug was taught in schools.
@@abzzeus The sleeved L & N pins (never the earth - that's dangerous but the Chinese don't seem to care) was Introduced by MK on their original Safetyplug around 1975 and became a requirement in BS1363 in 1984.
@@abzzeusInsulated sleeving on live and neutral prongs of UK plugs became standard 40 years ago in 1984. Many European plugs to this day have no such sleeving so I think it was once again a British idea.
If you manage to pull the cable out of a plug, the wires disconnect live, then neutral, then earth. Yep all even pulling the cable out has built in safety
@@johndillon5290 the only reason for the fuse is the implicit poor safety in the ring main. Most countries don't have a ring main so the fuse in the fuse box is specific that outlet. That said, the plug fuse is specific to the device, but that could be installed on the device itself rather than in the connector plug.
A lot of local shops opened on Sunday morning just to sell Sunday Newspapers, I can remember a town in South Lincolnshire in the 1960s that no shops opened on Sunday and Sunday papers were sold from the trunk of a motor vehicle!.
@@juliankaye8143yep that would be Wednesday… had an uncle who had a shop and always said if he died it would have to be on a Wednesday lol and yes he died on a Wednesday
Although no American under 65 years old remembers, American shops (except the following: newspaper stores and Chinese restaurants, for the masses and also fancier special occasion restaurants and as you Brits say "petrol;" stations) also were closed on Sundays. Long before Walmart, or membership stores, pre fast food, a very different world.
due to a massive amount of food allergies, I can't 'do' takeaways as there's a risk involved with it that usually requires an ambulance. over the years, I've learnt what's best for my diet and stick to it. serial experimenter though, and yes, there are times I've made slight errors in judgement. haven't eaten out for 14 years and too scared to do so.
Still is for guided professions like butchers and fishmongers here in Edinburgh. They also still have fortnight long September closures to go on holiday.
You say that but... even in 1930, '1066 and all that' argued that we were reminding the government that they needed to keep in mind the possible consequences of their actions.
I’m English, and UK and Western European plugs and their sockets are reassuringly firm. American plugs and sockets seem unnervingly loose. It certainly felt a little freaky the first time I visited the US.
Re all the sheep: three things - 1) we eat lamb much more than you do in the States, 2) wool cloth was so important economically for England in the Middle Ages that the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords still sits on a wool sack and areas like the Cotswolds were full of wealthy wool towns which then became much poorer when imported cotton took over, hence preserving all that old grand architecture 3) the sheep crop the grass in the fields and so contribute to the overall look of much of our countryside.
Did you know different wildflowers grow according to whether the land has had sheep or cattle as sheep crop much closer to the soil than cattle which some plants prefer/can't handle.
Also you can farm sheep on steep and rocky ground where other farming is impossible. Many of the similarly hilly areas in the US are too forested or too arid for sheep.
In the UK insects only tend to come in through windows after dark as they are attracted by the light, so if you just close your window when it gets dark you never have to worry about insects.
You do get flies coming in to the house during the daytime, and the thought of them walking on my food - 🤮! My husband told me that British houses didn’t need screens as they had net curtains!😂
Bloody bluebottles get in when ever you leave a window open for fresh air hate them buzzz buzzz little shits it’s a constant battle till autumn /winter
Nah. I'm UK and had to velcro insect screens to our windows and we use a fly net door now too. In the summer when all the windows are open, the house fills with bluebottle flies and it's awful. Maybe depends on your area but we're very rural and bugs are a huge issue. Plus at night time having windows open still during summer is nice as it gets so stuffy, but like you say every bug ever wants to come in and party on the ceiling. What eventually made me buy netting was the fact that one night during the summer, I sat up til midnight playing on my computer, went to bed and suddenly realised my ceiling was basically black with midges, squitos, moths, daddy long legs etc. There was so many of them. I WISH screens were the norm over here, I have no idea why they aren't.
Only time I've had a separate laundry room in the UK was when I used to live on a farm, as soon as you walked in the backdoor there was a laundry room with a shower room next to it, so when you'd been muck spreading all day you could have a shower and put your clothes in the washing machine before entering the main house.
@@garethjones6082 It wasn't an old stone farmhouse, it was a brand new house the farmer built for his son, so as you walked in the backdoor it really was a proper laundry room with a shower room attached, there was a Belfast sink and separate washer and dryer, just like an American style laundry room.
There used to be a TV show called One Man and His Dog (not sure if it's still going) that shepherds used to compete with their sheep dog rounding up sheep into pens. I know I'm probably not selling it but it used to be on a Sunday night and people tuned in to see Mr. Bloggs with his collie dog Ben from a farm in Lancashire versus Mr Jones and his dog Megan from a farm in Wales. Again you can see sheep at agricultural shows throughout the UK, some may have sheep dog trials as part of this. Or perhaps check out in the UK any sheep dog trials in the area where you may be visiting at that time.
@@garyskinner2422 Same here, it was one of those odd shows i found out my dad watched. And if i had been a good boy or dad was in a good mood, i could sit and watch it with him (It was on quite late if i remember correct) so it was a treat to be able to stay up that late. "Away Shep Away! Shep! SHEP.. Oh crap. FENTON COME HERE... FENTON!"
The three pronged plug is also to make the socket safe, the earth (longer prong) opens the live and neutral ports. So kids or who ever, can’t stick things into the socket so easily and electrocute them selves
With regards to the English shops, the law is only stores above 3,000m2 are subject to limited opening hours on Sundays. Smaller shops can remain open -- which is one of the reasons why the bigger food chains -- Tesco, Sainsbury's and so on -- have developed smaller Express or Metro formats. You can find them on a lot of high streets.
Another option for Bonfire Night is the Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival. It's on the nearest Saturday to the 5th November every year and is one of the biggest illuminated night carnivals in Europe.
Jeremy you are so right, anybody who doesn’t like food in the UK is eating in bad places. Our food is amazing. We embrace food from across the world, we have wonderful core ingredients & we have amazing quality & choice.
I'm sure people have said this, but yeah, the washing machine being in the kitchen is pretty standard. Tumble dryers are definitely not, you have to make a choice to invest in one as a home-owner rather thna it being standard white goods. Most people in my experience use airers. And even owning a tumble dryer doesn't mean you always use it! My mum pretty much only uses theirs to do towels and bedding or when its been wet and rainy consistently - if she can, she'll always opt to hang outside, because it saves energy!
Shepherd and sheep farmer aren’t really the same. The shepherd is (in uk) the person who, with the aid of his trusty sheep dog, manages the movement of the sheep. A sheep farmer may be a shepherd (especially on smaller hill farms), but on larger farms the sheep farmer may employ shepherd(s). An interesting aspect of British humour is the fact that the audience are often left to fill in the punch line themselves; this can often mean that the real laughter can build as we individually construct the elements. I agree that a lot of American humour (certainly 20 years ago) ended with the joke being virtually explained to the audience (which for Brits was like “yeah we got it and don’t need it explains”). If you come to Cov’ again you should think about the castles of Warwick and Kenilworth and Stratford upon Avon.
Fun fact - the reason we have a lot of sheep is down to the Black Death. Prior to that we were mainly a cattle farming nation, but that required whole teams of workers. Afterwards, when there was hardly anyone left, we focussed on sheep because that can be done with one person and a couple of well trained dogs. Massive oversimplification, of course, but broadly true.
Sorry but this 'fun fact' is wrong. Wool was one of the main exports and British wool was considered some of the best at least a century before the earliest of the Black death. Sheep are the preferred choice in much of Britain due to the terrain.
On the Chinese takeaway - in Newcastle Upon Tyne, in the old Chinatown area near the city walls, opposite the Chinese gate, there's a takeaway (you can eat in too, but there's not a lot of seats), where the Chinese university students eat. It's not fancy - plastic chairs and formica tables, but the food is good. (Assuming it survived the pandemic.)
The older I get, the more I realise that my country, England, is a very very old country. The only way to understand the present is by exploring the past in England, and sadly that past has some very hard and sad elements… but also some proud and wonderful parts too. It is not in the least difficult to find medieval buildings and landscapes in England, and it is not even difficult to find Roman ones. I recently went to a church and stood in the very spot that John Ball, one of the key people in the 1381 “Peasants’ Revolt” would have stood. He has sometimes been called the father of British democracy. It’s a lovely idea and if we keep fighting, we might have something like it one day. I am very proud that Mary Wollstonecraft was British. I am proud of John Stuart Mill. I am rather sorry that there is plenty to feel ashamed of, too. But not everything. And I would add that I have lived in other countries and the British three-pin plug is just best!
England is one of the oldest continuously existing nation states. The English are one of the oldest attested still existing ethnic groups, dating as far back as Roman writings by Tacitus with the Anglii (translates to modern English as 'Engli') in 98 AD. Although we now know with modern genetics (and much to the contrary of popular tropes) the English are actually about half Celtic Briton and half Germanic - not a mish mash of various people who temporarily invaded, nor just simply Germanic. It used to be fairly common knowledge that England and the English had quite a long and rich history but modern academia and the general culture has long since forgotten (arguably purposely, in some instances) this, to the point that many English no longer even think of themselves as anything more than some abstract legal category.
We don't really get many bugs coming indoors in the UK (usually just a solitary fly which can't find its way back out. Only places that I've seen fly screens have been restaurant kitchens.
I think this is the most common way in UK homes. Dry them outside when the weather is right and dry them either in a tumble dryer or on clothes airers etc. indoors, when the weather says no.
@@AngelaVara-i4l Norwegian here.... Not a big fan of dryers. My building, erected in 1960, as a coop, has a laundry on the ground floor. There are four washing mashines, and two rooms with heated fans.
Sunday opening hours only apply to stores over a certain floor area and this tends to exclude smaller store. The main supermarkets have "express","metro", "local" stores that stay open much longer than the large stores on Sundays. Also the UK has a large number of stores run by families that don't observe Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter. These shops are extremely useful when you realise that you have forgotten a pack of AA batteries for one of your kid's new toys.
I never thought about some of the store owners not observing some of the holidays. They were some of the few days everything was closed here, but that's changed over the last few years.
I feel I need to add here, a local store to my parents, where I grew up (Braintree, Essex), is owned and staffed by a Muslim family, and they are all bloody lovely, they do open on Christmas day, the store is decorated with lights, tinsel and other Christmas tat, if you go in there on Christmas day they wish you "happy Christmas" and have a table setup with free mince pies. They did get their shop spayed with "go home to your own country" crap a few years ago, this was reported to the Police who said they would "look into it" but the local community delt with the people that done it..... Errrr, sternly I think is the best phrase I can use.
@@TheMagicGeekdomif memory serves, it’s stores over 5,000sqft and the only day that the stores have to be closed for is Easter Sunday, shops tend to be closed on Christmas Day but there’s no legal requirement. Before the Sunday trading laws were brought in, it was down to the local councils if stores could trade or not.
@@stephenlee5929 I worked for a Jewish firm they opened on Saturday. I think the only Jewish shop I know that shut on a Saturday is a camera shop in New York in the US on 9th avenue if my memory serves me well.
Im going back to the 60's here, my uncle was a shepherd his dog Rover, at Christmas family gatherings was definitely in charge of where we would have to sit. Ushering each one of us to his chosen seat . This is one of my treasured memories of childhood Christmases it would always be a cause of fun and laughter no matter your age.
When I was younger, my Grandmother never wanted to celebrate Bonfire Night. We were a Roman Catholic family, and Grandmother didn't want to celebrate the failure of the Catholic Gunpowder Plot.
but we might also celebrate the man for trying and incompetently getting caught. thats a british thing, like if someone drops a glass in a pub we all go 'yay!' and laugh.
thats the historic reason, but then, people burning Boris Johnsons, Tony Blairs, and Margaret Thatchers on their bonfires has raised questions about some of its modern intent
As a Brit? I think it's probably left to Brits to understand. I hate the program myself, My parents never missed it and howled with laughter. Only Fools and Horses or Fawlty Towrs are the best.
also the earth known as ground pin is longer than the two other pins is because we have a spring loaded shutter installed in the sockets which means you can not insert anything in the live snd neautral holes which is why the earth pin is longer is to push the shutters down so you can insert the plug
I cannot understand why shops are allowed to sell 'baby-proof' socket covers which actually make the socket more dangerous by opening the shutter to make the socket live.
On my first trip to America in 1982 I noticed how the electrical sockets and switches seemed primitive and flimsy compared to ours, great videos by the way ❤️
When I was young the kids all used to make a life size dummy of Guy Fawkes and push it around in a wheelbarrow asking for “a penny for the guy” in order to raise money for fireworks. Then on November 5th it would be placed on top of the bonfire before lighting it. It is purely symbolic as that is not how he died.
The ability to boil water is a staple for sure. Even on modern British Challenger 2 tanks, arguably the best tank on the planet, there is a water boiling/ tea-making facility for the crew.
I think you are not understanding Bonfire night - it isnt a celebration of guy fawkes, its a celebration of a failed catholic plot against the king. They burn guy fawkes.
The sheep are lovely. When the lambs are born it's wonderful. The plugs, because the wire comes from the bottom you can push furniture to the wall. It would bug me if everything had to be away from the wall or it bends the cable... petty, but it's the little things that niggles ❤️ from Northeast England ❤️
Dryers can release harmful chemicals and pollutants into the air, which can harm your health. Hanging clothes outside to dry is a natural and safe way to dry your clothes without exposing yourself or your family to these chemicals.
Sunday trading in the UK is a relatively new thing. It isn’t totally possible to point to a turning point, but Sundays were initially a day of rest called for by religion, but then morphed into a day of rest called for by the workers. In the US you have the board game 'Chutes and Ladders'. Originally a game from India the British adapted it from its Hindu basis and converted it to a christian one. In the UK it is called Snakes and Ladders, if you can find an old antique set you'll see each ladder is labelled with a 'virtue' and each snake with a 'sin'. The game was supposed to be a life lesson how virtues - ladders - would speed you to the end point (heaven) while sins would set you back. The observance of Sundays in Victorian times was so strict, that Snakes and Ladders was one of the very few things kids were allowed to do for recreation on the day. - the other one begin to play with a 'noahs ark' toy - you will find a few of these still being made, but antique shops used to be full of them. While Sundays were supposed to be for church, under pressure from unions, workers finally became entitled to a two day weekend. However, this did not fit the needs of retail workers who were often forced to work saturdays. Instead, many retail stores, including small stores like butchers and bakers, would close at lunchtime on Wednesdays. This continued quite widely into the 1970s. In the English soccer league there is actually a team called Sheffield Wednesday. Originally an amateur team made up of shopkeepers, (butchers I think?) they were only able to play on Wednesdays, as Saturday was a trading day.
In Europe, especially Germany... only petrol stations, bakers, leisure attractions and similar are open on a Sunday. RuhigTag is priceless. The UK lost its desire for rest decades ago and explains a lot about the decline of the country as a whole..
As an experienced "Bonfire" goer Lewes bonfire night is always the 5th November unless it falls on a Sunday in which case it will be held the day before It is the equivalent in Sussex and beyond to the Rio Carnival in Brazil or the Diseyland grand parade but with a little more risk. Bonfire season starts on the 1st weekend in September and runs through to around three weeks beyond the 5th Nov, with a different Sussex village or town having their celebrations, (bonfire, parade and firework display), on successive Saturdays. Sometimes a couple of villages/towns will hold it on the same day. Each Village and town have their own "Society" this normally comprises of members who fund raise for local charities and fund raise for the fireworks used for the display. Each Society over the years would have formed a 2 basic dress theme that a lot of members adhere too. The main one is the bonfire jerseys a loosely based on English Smugglers outfits the colours i.e Red & Black hooped jerseys means they represent one of the Societies from Lewes or Green / Black Hoops, a local town around 8 miles from Lewes,( Jerseys are always hoops). The other dress code can be a novelty theme that individual societies concentrate their interest in such as Native American indians, Vikings, Cavaliers, Tudor costume, American Civil war etc all costumes mostly hand made and trying to be as authentic as possible. Each society takes great pride in their outfits. If you do manage to get to Lewes check out the strong historical links to Tom Paine and a local village Ringmer connections to William Penn and John Harvard who both married gals with links to the village. Sorry I digress. Lewes is split into what Americans call "Wards" and each one of these have their own Society to name as many as i can, There is "Cliffe" Bonfire Society (BS), "South Street" BS, Waterloo" BS, Borough" BS, "Commercial Sq" BS, "Southover" BS, & Neville Juvenilles" BS. Each marches with invited local village/town societies on Nov 5th in a separate small parades around the town, culminating in what is called the United Grand Parade where they all join forces and put on a very noisy colourful spectacular show. Please be aware to grab a good vantage point you need to get there late afternoon as crowds of up to 10,000 people have been known to flood the small streets of Lewes. I will guarantee it is an experience you will never ever forget. Oh I forgot to say it's great to hang around in the town after a lot of the crowd has gone as there are a few things still going on to see. please watch this as a taster. ruclips.net/video/gvMiYN9BGrc/видео.html
In the UK we don't have fly screens - but we do have net curtains! They pretty much do the same thing but don't restrict the airflow too much! Everywhere I have lived has had net curtains (plain tulle is most common these days, but you can get fancy lacey ones) for privacy and bug prevention! (but yeah - we don't really have so many bugs here)
Never been, but apparently in Eyam in Derbyshire, on bonfire night (5th November) they have a special torch light parade and burn a willow effigy of a rat 🐀 since it was a rat carried in a carpet being delivered from London that that took the Black Death plague to the village in 1665!! Would love to visit for this sometime!
I visited Eyam and it's fascinating. I believe that the Great Plague of 1665 was spread to the village in a bundle of cloth infested with fleas. Very sad story.
On 5th November the town of Ottery St Mary, Devon has an event where townspeople run through the streets carrying barrels of flaming tar, it's very chaotic!
The competition is called 'Sheepdog Trials'. Where i live in the Pennines the local farmers used to hold the trials on the local cricket ground every Easter Monday.
Bonfire night started as a celebration that we CAUGHT Guy Fawkes. It all started with effigy burning. Modern times it’s pretty much flipped around though and is very much the weird way that you see it. A nice celebration of anti-establishment dreams.
Lewes Bonfire IS overwhelming! But well worth a visit if you can get there - the town basically closes to traffic and most public transport as they try to restrict the number of peope crowding into a very small town. The other thing Lewes is famous for is that Thomas Paine, one of the American Founding Fathers, lived and worked there before he met Benjamin Franklin and moved to America.
However if people want to get away from England, while visiting the UK, then Inverness has done a great Bonfire night for decades. Bug parade through the streets to a giant bonfire, followed by a huge fireworks display, hot food and drinks available too.
EVERYWHERE has a dryer, it is wind and solar powered and called a 'washing line', rotary dryer, drying rack or something similar. We only use the plug-in ones when the weather's bad. I have drying racks and hangers which I can use indoors or out. There's nothing nicer than going to bed on freshly sun-and- wind dried pillowcases; they smell divine.
Roundabouts are generally an excellent way to handle traffic flows at junctions to keep traffic moving efficiently. Sometimes traffic lights are needed because one dominant flow can lock out the others. We also have mini roundabouts which take little extra land, there's one very near me, and the central island is only about a metre in diameter.
Sunday trading laws aren't unique to the UK! In France, supermarkets usually close at lunchtime on Sunday, and in Spain and Germany they are generally closed all day. So England & Wales having 10am to 4pm is pretty generous by European standards! Kettles are great, they boil water so much faster than a hob and more efficiently. If I'm cooking veg, I'll usually boil the water in the kettle first. Some great UK TV comedy, if you haven't found it yet, is Vicar of Dibley, and anything with Victoria Wood (stand-up, Dinnerladies). Glad to see you appreciate House of Games, one of the best shows on TV!
If you travel to the UK in spring time You can go to any local farms, for a lambing event and see the lambs being born, lots of locals take their children to give the lambs a bottle of milk to give the ewes a rest from feeding
When I was a child, all stores were closed all day on Sunday. I believe it was a religious thing about not working on Sundays. So when they changed the rules to allow them to open for 6 hours, it was a major change for us. Additionally, most towns and villages had an "early closing day" when all the shops closed at about midday. This was usually, but not always, a Wednesday. If you're ever in the UK in early November, Lewes is definitely worth visiting. Yes, there are several bonfire societies. Just pick one at random - they're all good. Burning torch-lit processions through the streets, burning crosses, flaming tar barrels, effigies of Guy Fawkes, the Pope and disliked politicians are burned. There have been as many as 80,000 people attending the Lewes bonfires.
Your comment about Bonfire Night and Lewes in particular brought back memories. I grew up close to Lewes and remember the 'celebrations' with affection. Good to know it still happens
...or go to Northern Ireland for the 12th of July. Although the bonfires are on the night before. Also some places have New Year bonfires, like Biggar in Scotland.
I’m aged 63, have 3 children and have never had a dryer for my washing. I either put the washing outside on a washing line which every garden had in those days and some still do now, or dried the clothes etc indoors on a clothes airer which’s what I use today either indoors or out. Indoors it mostly within 24 hours as I place the airer in the bathroom that has an a ceiling extractor fan. The cost of electricity is exorbitant compared to the US!
All British cities have something on bonfire night - either big public shows or small household ones. His old school in York didn't celebrate - a past headteacher said 'we don't burn old boys'! There's a very nice hotel in York called the Guy Fawkes Hotel which I think you'd like to stay at - it's very quirky and the dining room is lit by candles.
Gravy...we make it in different ways, and when doing a roast, we will use the roasting pan with the stock from the meat or a saucepan on the hob, and add water using the kettle to boil it or water that the vegetables have been cooked in, and cornflour/browning to thicken it. Some meals we like with gravy but dont have stock, so we use premade freeze dried gravy like Bisto or Oxo granules and add boiling water from the kettle.
@@eileenhildreth8355 I have allot of family living in NZ, we have close and wonderful ties the UK and NZ, Australia too of course... wonderful characters.
We love using solar and wind power to dry washing on the line 😅 its free. Electricity is so expensive. During the winter we dry everything on radiators and hanging over the bannister. When i was little we used to collect wood about a week before bonfire night and build it up in the back garden. On the night dad used to light the fire and all the fireworks but we could hold sparklers. Mum always made meat and potato pie with suet crust pastry , treacle toffee, toffee apples, parkin (ginger cake). So it was a great time. We wrapped potatoes in foil and cooked them at the edge of the fire as it dwindled. It was always on 5th November, whatever night ....😅
We need to celebrate bonfire night more. Its been hijacked by Halloween. You don't need bug screens When you move in to a house, the first thing you unpack is the kettle
Just discovered your channel and watched a couple of videos - it's great to see how much you guys like about the UK, especially the humour which is such a key part of the national culture. If either of you are readers I'd recommend the book 'Watching the English' by Kate Fox
Sussex is the best place for bonfire night. All the big towns have their own Bonfire Societies and they usually burn an effigy of something or someone relevant to the year. The processions are awesome!
If you wanted to, you could get a UK plug socket installed. This can be done by simply doubling the wiring to the socket. In US homes, this is done for the kitchen stove, and sometimes for the tumble dryer. It is also often done for thermostats for baseboard heating. A house owned by my parents in the UK had been owned by a U.S. airforce colonel based in the UK. The front part of the house was a very old cottage, while the much larger part of the house was a long single storey addition that he had had built. Since he was able to get goods delivered free on Air Force flights to airbases in the UK, the new part of the house was quite American. It had forced air heating - unknown of in the UK at the time, it also had both UK and US outlets everywhere. And came with appliances like the huge US fridge, waste disposal system etc.
Please watch Stephen Fry on why American and British humour differ , It will answer your question, :) All the best from Wales Bhaaaa Bhaaa ( Sheep noise ) x
regarding bonfire night - there's traditional foods. treacle toffee (the real stuff, not anything in a bag individually wrapped - it's not the best.) is awesome!! get a slab of that and a toffee hammer and have at it. there's no right or wrong way to enjoy it, but it tastes better on bonfire night out in the open. preferably when there's a smokey atmosphere. also Parkin. get that from a bakery, not a supermarket... it's delicious!! home made is usually best. another treat that's best served on bonfire night itself. jacket potatoes are awesome when wrapped in tin foil and done in a bonfire (provided the fire is hot enough, and the potato cooks all the way through...) and sometimes, a good hearty hotpot hits the spot. there's no right or wrong way to make a hotpot either, so don't stress! some of us appreciate the food aspect of bonfire night, and some appreciate the fireworks and a roaring fire with a 'guy' atop it 😀
I remember watching an episode of M.A.S.H once when they’d accidently left the laughter track on! (The BBC usually removed it). It’s was awful,just so inappropriate.
Ive not been on RUclips for a month or so. I commented on another video, that you should advertise more. I'm glad you are. You are brilliant at it. You're not supposed to, but put your clothes on the radiator for a few hours. If there is cooling rack, they work better. You need to air them out every few hours(move around), to stop the stale/damp smell setting into your clothes. You guys are amazing!! I'd forgotten 'Are you being served'. Such a great show, that kinda shows what we are all about.
There are bonfire events at nearly every village and small town in Sussex, between September and December. They're smaller versions of Lewes. I recommend Lindfield as it's a pretty village.
I'd love to know where Americans go to eat when they say "I didn't like the food in England" because like you said there's so much variety from around the world to choose from. You'll have to catch a new BBC comedy called Daddy Issues. It's hilarious.
Remember that bonfire night is in November, in England November is dark, cold and wet. A bonfire with hot soup, baked potatoes etc while bundled up in coats and hats , is a great way to keep warm while watching fireworks! Also the wool industry was one of the major financial powerhouses of Britain from mediaeval times , even today the Speaker of the House Of Lords in Parliament sits on The Woolsack- a cushion type sack of wool, because it was so vital
Oh, and humour.. I'm generalising, but, US Comedy - laugh at others, British Comedy - laugh at ourselves British humour generally is very self-depracating
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Check out the 3-part drama
"Gunpowder", it's a great mini series about Guy Fawkes. Fawkes is played by kit Harington (best known for his character "John Snow" in Game of Thrones).
He is an actual direct decendant of Robert catesby, who was the leader of the Gunpowder plot !
Guy Fawkes Night does not commemorate the attempt to blow up Parliament and the King. It commemorates the FOILING of an attempt by a Catholic terrorist to assassinate the Protestant King and restore England to a Catholic state. As such, it IS a patriotic event, not the glorification of an insurgency.
There's a huge difference.
Fawkes isn't the hero of the festivities. He's the villain. Hence the burning of his effigy.
UK plugs and sockets are genius.
Driers use so much energy.
Also the smell of laundry freshly dried outside is one of life’s simple pleasures
Also, many of us, particularly in the older houses, just have kitchens too small (not the 'fashion' so much now) However, on talking about tumble dryers, we hear they 'eat up' electricity! Costs of power have gone up HUGELY and, particularly old people on absolute minimum pensions - plus now many can no longer receive Winter Fuel Allowance if they're just above the limit, often by a very few ££££s, for entitlement to 'Pension Credit'.,..many are this winter going to have to choose to 'eat or heat?'! DREADFUL! Yes, I also love the 'fresh' smell of our washing when hung outside; in heatwaves they can dry out there fully..
Also also driers require a vent to the outside of your house - which is not do-able in lots of houses
I'm so surprised that warmer parts of the us don't line dry. It's free, massively reduces creases and smells so nice
@nixxie2390 not all dryers need a vent. Convector dryers catch the steam, and you empty the water out.
Re. bonfire night. I am an older chap and Bonfire Night as an occasion has changed significantly since I was young. It used to be that families or neighbours would have their own bonfires and fireworks and there would be only a dozen or so at each event.
In the lead up to bonfire night, kids would make an effigy of Guy Fawkes and take it around the local streets asking random strangers for "a penny for the guy"
The children would also go arond the neighbourhood looking for scrap wood to burn on the bonfire - we called the activity "Bunny-Wooding" though my family who lived less than twenty miles away called in "Chumpin'" - I gather it was called various names throughout the country.
The street where I grew up would have a gathering in probably every fifth or sixth back garden. The bonfires were relatively small and the fireworks were not so grand. The food, however was home cooked and the atmosphere was cosy and family based.
On the downside, although my parents were very cautious and we never experienced it, there were always a lot of injuries from kids (and some adults) getting burned by the bonfire and/or fireworks. Working in the NHS for over thirty years, I can tell you that this number has dropped in my experience, I suppose because most people go to large organised bonfires with professional fireworks displays. Around bonfire night, however, you still see and hear lots of individual bonfire parties and people still get burned every year!
@@tonycasey3183 family bonfires seem to be a thing of the past because gardens are much smaller nowadays.
And people have quite rightly realised how terrifying it is for pets and any wildlife
Ah, the good old days! Before tacky Halloween came along and practically buried our traditional bonfire nights.
@@TheWhisperDragon but are they more terrifying then the large display ones that can be heard and seen for mills rather then only for a few streets.
@@lesmarsden2058 We used to celebrate both when I was a kid back in the late 60s, early 70s, basically an excuse to have a few fireworks before bonfire night and a barbeque, my mum made little bats and other decorations, none of the US trick or treat rubbish. I didn't realise it wasn't commonplace to celebrate Halloween until one of the other kids in my class who'd apparently seen us in our garden, asked me if we were witches! Out of a class of about 30 of us, I think there was only one other kid who said they celebrated halloween.
When I was a child, the shops were closed on Sundays and from midday on Wednesdays. I don't remember it being problematic.
Even in the 1980s the tv stopped on a Wednesday afternoon and the wacked on the teletext or cefax pages
my local high street still has 'early closing day' on Thursdays. in a big city different main streets have different days - so my next closest high street's early closing day is Tuesday! So that shop workers could have a half day off - but shoppers still had somewhere to go.
We still have half day closing in our small towns
I remember Sundays as a kid being very boring.
British plugs are an engineering masterpiece
As for drying clothes... putting them on the line, running out five minutes later and bringing them in, then putting them back out ten minutes later, then back in, then back out, is pretty much a national pastime.
One of the big benefits of children is you can put them on weather watch when theres clothes on the line
British plugs are so much sturdier.
Until you stand on one
@@jonjohnson2844 that tends to be played up too much. Because you can switch them off at the wall you don't unplug them and leave the plug on the floor. If I unplug something it's because I don't currently need it and will put it away in a cuboard until needed again.
@@jonjohnson2844I've managed to live for 45 years without that ever happening. You never really need to have plugs lying around in the UK because you can just turn things off at the socket.
I disagree it's when you stand on them you realise how study they are lol😊@@jonjohnson2844
In the US convenience is king.
In the UK convenience is only one factor, we also consider: space, history, cost and the environment.
What I mean by that is, having a laundry room and a separate dryer is convienent.
Space: Our houses are smaller.
History: Our houses are often old enough to have been built without plumbing and electricity, so it's difficult to add those things.
Cost: Dryers are expensive to run.
Environment: Dryers are awful for the environment
Those same factors play into a lot of our differences. Cars and roads for example. I would never buy a car in the UK that got less than 30mpg, in the US I rode in vehicles that got 10mpg! Cars are smaller here because of space (less room), history (narrow, winding roads built for horses), cost (we value better mileage) and environment (we don't want to pollute our planet.)
If a house has a washer, it has had water electric and drain added
@@SKIDMARKBROWNI don't think there's *any* houses in the UK that don't have electricity and water these days, lol! However in an older house it's often harder to add pipes and electricity in the exact places you need it. Obviously not impossible, but more disruptive and expensive (often it'll involve taking up floorboards, drilling big holes through external walls, running pipes/cables for longer distances etc). Modern houses have loads more sockets, better designed plumbing etc, and often just have a utility room designed in from the beginning.
When you look deeper into the UK electrical plugs, it really is a clever idea that's never really changed over time. Each plug has it's own fuse, so if the appliance on the plug has a fault, it will blow the supply to the appliance but not the circuit breaker at the board. Also the earth prong at the plug is longer than the live and neutral prongs. That's so that the earth connection is engaged first to the system. Children can't stick things in sockets because the live and neutral have an integrated cover which can only be opened when the earth of the plug is inserted. Also the internal fuse is on the live side, so if it blows the appliance is immediately isolated from the electrical system.
There have been two changes
Firstly the prongs are now shielded to further increase safety (I think that was a common european thing that all prongs have to be, it wasn't an issue before)
Secondly plugs come fitted as standard now - it used to be they didn't, which is why wiring a plug was taught in schools.
@@abzzeus The sleeved L & N pins (never the earth - that's dangerous but the Chinese don't seem to care) was Introduced by MK on their original Safetyplug around 1975 and became a requirement in BS1363 in 1984.
@@abzzeusInsulated sleeving on live and neutral prongs of UK plugs became standard 40 years ago in 1984. Many European plugs to this day have no such sleeving so I think it was once again a British idea.
If you manage to pull the cable out of a plug, the wires disconnect live, then neutral, then earth. Yep all even pulling the cable out has built in safety
@@johndillon5290 the only reason for the fuse is the implicit poor safety in the ring main. Most countries don't have a ring main so the fuse in the fuse box is specific that outlet. That said, the plug fuse is specific to the device, but that could be installed on the device itself rather than in the connector plug.
At one time all shops were closed on a Sunday in UK
Yes and for some reason as a kid it would bore the hell out of me, only the corner shops were open till around 12:00
@@Steve14ps and they had a half day closing during the week. And were shut by 6pm in the evening.
A lot of local shops opened on Sunday morning just to sell Sunday Newspapers, I can remember a town in South Lincolnshire in the 1960s that no shops opened on Sunday and Sunday papers were sold from the trunk of a motor vehicle!.
@@juliankaye8143yep that would be Wednesday… had an uncle who had a shop and always said if he died it would have to be on a Wednesday lol and yes he died on a Wednesday
ENGLAND IS FINISHED ANGLOPHOBIC
Although no American under 65 years old remembers, American shops (except the following: newspaper stores and Chinese restaurants, for the masses and also fancier special occasion restaurants and as you Brits say "petrol;" stations) also were closed on Sundays. Long before Walmart, or membership stores, pre fast food, a very different world.
Haven't quite hit 65 yet, but I do remember when less things were open on Sundays. Practically everything is now though.
Not all British people live on take away food!! Some of us live on healthy fresh ingredients!!
Fakeaways.
I mean, we don't need to drive for the most part, as most stores that sell fresh ingredients are mostly in walking distance.
due to a massive amount of food allergies, I can't 'do' takeaways as there's a risk involved with it that usually requires an ambulance. over the years, I've learnt what's best for my diet and stick to it. serial experimenter though, and yes, there are times I've made slight errors in judgement. haven't eaten out for 14 years and too scared to do so.
British plug design is brilliant, and very safety conscious.
When I was growing up Wednesdays was half day closing 😊
Oh, that's interesting.
It was a different day in different towns.
still are in places near me
Still is for guided professions like butchers and fishmongers here in Edinburgh. They also still have fortnight long September closures to go on holiday.
Butchers were always closed on Mondays. To do with cleaning and stocking.
Nov 5th celebrates the FOILING of the gunpowder plot, not the plot itself. That would be silly!
I dunno, Guy Fawkes has become a kind of folk hero Xd
You say that but... even in 1930, '1066 and all that' argued that we were reminding the government that they needed to keep in mind the possible consequences of their actions.
Net curtains were the traditional way providing privacy and keeping most pests out, although less popular now.
Feels like some days that half of RUclips is full of videos talking about UK plugs lol, never known as many people get excited over a plug before :)
I’m English, and UK and Western European plugs and their sockets are reassuringly firm. American plugs and sockets seem unnervingly loose. It certainly felt a little freaky the first time I visited the US.
I've just given this answer a 'thumb's up' because I thought it deserved a plug.
It's reassuringly safe, unlike older European plugs.
Re all the sheep: three things - 1) we eat lamb much more than you do in the States, 2) wool cloth was so important economically for England in the Middle Ages that the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords still sits on a wool sack and areas like the Cotswolds were full of wealthy wool towns which then became much poorer when imported cotton took over, hence preserving all that old grand architecture 3) the sheep crop the grass in the fields and so contribute to the overall look of much of our countryside.
Did you know different wildflowers grow according to whether the land has had sheep or cattle as sheep crop much closer to the soil than cattle which some plants prefer/can't handle.
Also you can farm sheep on steep and rocky ground where other farming is impossible. Many of the similarly hilly areas in the US are too forested or too arid for sheep.
Love the fact you get the humour. Have you watched Detectorists
@@doctorf1144 didn’t the Spencer’s (Princess Diana’s family) come to prominence in early Tudor times due to wool?
In the UK insects only tend to come in through windows after dark as they are attracted by the light, so if you just close your window when it gets dark you never have to worry about insects.
You do get flies coming in to the house during the daytime, and the thought of them walking on my food - 🤮! My husband told me that British houses didn’t need screens as they had net curtains!😂
Bloody bluebottles get in when ever you leave a window open for fresh air hate them buzzz buzzz little shits it’s a constant battle till autumn /winter
@@patriciachirgwin3238I put a net curtain across the back door in the summer when it's open all the time and it really does stop the flies coming in.
Nah. I'm UK and had to velcro insect screens to our windows and we use a fly net door now too. In the summer when all the windows are open, the house fills with bluebottle flies and it's awful. Maybe depends on your area but we're very rural and bugs are a huge issue. Plus at night time having windows open still during summer is nice as it gets so stuffy, but like you say every bug ever wants to come in and party on the ceiling. What eventually made me buy netting was the fact that one night during the summer, I sat up til midnight playing on my computer, went to bed and suddenly realised my ceiling was basically black with midges, squitos, moths, daddy long legs etc. There was so many of them.
I WISH screens were the norm over here, I have no idea why they aren't.
Only time I've had a separate laundry room in the UK was when I used to live on a farm, as soon as you walked in the backdoor there was a laundry room with a shower room next to it, so when you'd been muck spreading all day you could have a shower and put your clothes in the washing machine before entering the main house.
That's a boot room
Same here, chicken muck too, beautiful 👍🇬🇧Yorkshire
@@garethjones6082 It wasn't an old stone farmhouse, it was a brand new house the farmer built for his son, so as you walked in the backdoor it really was a proper laundry room with a shower room attached, there was a Belfast sink and separate washer and dryer, just like an American style laundry room.
We love Americans who get our jokes.
There used to be a TV show called One Man and His Dog (not sure if it's still going) that shepherds used to compete with their sheep dog rounding up sheep into pens. I know I'm probably not selling it but it used to be on a Sunday night and people tuned in to see Mr. Bloggs with his collie dog Ben from a farm in Lancashire versus Mr Jones and his dog Megan from a farm in Wales. Again you can see sheep at agricultural shows throughout the UK, some may have sheep dog trials as part of this. Or perhaps check out in the UK any sheep dog trials in the area where you may be visiting at that time.
I used to love that programme.
Yeah " come by" sorry I'll get my coat.
Yep , I used to watch that around 1977 i was 10 years old
It’s no longer a stand alone programme but it is featured as part of Countryfile at least once a year.
@@garyskinner2422 Same here, it was one of those odd shows i found out my dad watched. And if i had been a good boy or dad was in a good mood, i could sit and watch it with him (It was on quite late if i remember correct) so it was a treat to be able to stay up that late.
"Away Shep Away! Shep! SHEP.. Oh crap. FENTON COME HERE... FENTON!"
I find a kettle being referred to as a 'tea kettle' irrationally infuriating!
And me 👀 I just visualise murky stewed tea being unceremoniously “boiled” to make a fresh cuppa 😬🤢
The three pronged plug is also to make the socket safe, the earth (longer prong) opens the live and neutral ports. So kids or who ever, can’t stick things into the socket so easily and electrocute them selves
On bonfire night, we, generally are not celebrating the gun powder plot (though some might), we are celebrating that it failed
That probably depends on how you view a current government !! HAHA
They said "Commemorate"; not "Celebrate". Commemorating is about remembering - not celebrating.
Not this fkin year we aren't. Unless you are one of the missing Liebor voters.
@@PhilR0gers She definitely says celebration the first time she mentions it, at 6:04. She does say Commemorate after that though.
Speak for yourself lol.
With regards to the English shops, the law is only stores above 3,000m2 are subject to limited opening hours on Sundays. Smaller shops can remain open -- which is one of the reasons why the bigger food chains -- Tesco, Sainsbury's and so on -- have developed smaller Express or Metro formats. You can find them on a lot of high streets.
We have noticed that on the high streets.
Another option for Bonfire Night is the Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival. It's on the nearest Saturday to the 5th November every year and is one of the biggest illuminated night carnivals in Europe.
An electric jug/kettle is used for any reason you need hot/boiling water quickly. I never think of using anything else.
If I make myself a cup of tea, I only put water to minimum mark and it takes around 1 minute to boil.
lol that you think we commemorate the gunpowder plot, not preventing it
Jeremy you are so right, anybody who doesn’t like food in the UK is eating in bad places. Our food is amazing. We embrace food from across the world, we have wonderful core ingredients & we have amazing quality & choice.
I'm sure people have said this, but yeah, the washing machine being in the kitchen is pretty standard. Tumble dryers are definitely not, you have to make a choice to invest in one as a home-owner rather thna it being standard white goods. Most people in my experience use airers.
And even owning a tumble dryer doesn't mean you always use it! My mum pretty much only uses theirs to do towels and bedding or when its been wet and rainy consistently - if she can, she'll always opt to hang outside, because it saves energy!
Shepherd and sheep farmer aren’t really the same. The shepherd is (in uk) the person who, with the aid of his trusty sheep dog, manages the movement of the sheep. A sheep farmer may be a shepherd (especially on smaller hill farms), but on larger farms the sheep farmer may employ shepherd(s).
An interesting aspect of British humour is the fact that the audience are often left to fill in the punch line themselves; this can often mean that the real laughter can build as we individually construct the elements. I agree that a lot of American humour (certainly 20 years ago) ended with the joke being virtually explained to the audience (which for Brits was like “yeah we got it and don’t need it explains”).
If you come to Cov’ again you should think about the castles of Warwick and Kenilworth and Stratford upon Avon.
Difference between American and British humour, it's the second u!
Haha I see what you did there
i wonder if Americans also have dad jokes
Fun fact - the reason we have a lot of sheep is down to the Black Death.
Prior to that we were mainly a cattle farming nation, but that required whole teams of workers.
Afterwards, when there was hardly anyone left, we focussed on sheep because that can be done with one person and a couple of well trained dogs.
Massive oversimplification, of course, but broadly true.
Sorry but this 'fun fact' is wrong. Wool was one of the main exports and British wool was considered some of the best at least a century before the earliest of the Black death. Sheep are the preferred choice in much of Britain due to the terrain.
Lowlands tended to be cattle and Highlands/ steeper slopes for sheep. Generally not always .
On the Chinese takeaway - in Newcastle Upon Tyne, in the old Chinatown area near the city walls, opposite the Chinese gate, there's a takeaway (you can eat in too, but there's not a lot of seats), where the Chinese university students eat. It's not fancy - plastic chairs and formica tables, but the food is good. (Assuming it survived the pandemic.)
8:50 yeah, but your country is mostly long stretches of straight roads...
The older I get, the more I realise that my country, England, is a very very old country. The only way to understand the present is by exploring the past in England, and sadly that past has some very hard and sad elements… but also some proud and wonderful parts too. It is not in the least difficult to find medieval buildings and landscapes in England, and it is not even difficult to find Roman ones. I recently went to a church and stood in the very spot that John Ball, one of the key people in the 1381 “Peasants’ Revolt” would have stood. He has sometimes been called the father of British democracy. It’s a lovely idea and if we keep fighting, we might have something like it one day. I am very proud that Mary Wollstonecraft was British. I am proud of John Stuart Mill. I am rather sorry that there is plenty to feel ashamed of, too. But not everything. And I would add that I have lived in other countries and the British three-pin plug is just best!
England a very old country! The Celtic nation is older than England
England is one of the oldest continuously existing nation states. The English are one of the oldest attested still existing ethnic groups, dating as far back as Roman writings by Tacitus with the Anglii (translates to modern English as 'Engli') in 98 AD.
Although we now know with modern genetics (and much to the contrary of popular tropes) the English are actually about half Celtic Briton and half Germanic - not a mish mash of various people who temporarily invaded, nor just simply Germanic.
It used to be fairly common knowledge that England and the English had quite a long and rich history but modern academia and the general culture has long since forgotten (arguably purposely, in some instances) this, to the point that many English no longer even think of themselves as anything more than some abstract legal category.
Timestamps would be helpful in your video. I want to skip to the next point but I have no idea where to go to.
A place to go for Bonfire Night is Ottery St Mary in Devon to witness the tar barrels.
Came here to say this! It's a wild night!
Who gets to carry the flaming tar barrels is passed down the local families.
Also, why would you use a drier in a country that, as far as I know, has actual summers?
COMEDY:
*UK* a Sharp kitchen knife
*USA* a Blunt Heavy Axe
We don't really get many bugs coming indoors in the UK (usually just a solitary fly which can't find its way back out. Only places that I've seen fly screens have been restaurant kitchens.
I dry clothes outside when the weather is windy and warm but in the dryer when its cold or rainy
I think this is the most common way in UK homes. Dry them outside when the weather is right and dry them either in a tumble dryer or on clothes airers etc. indoors, when the weather says no.
The shoulder seasons are when nothing dries without the tumble. Too cold and damp to hang outside and too warm for radiators yet. Nightmare!
@@AngelaVara-i4l
Norwegian here....
Not a big fan of dryers.
My building, erected in 1960, as a coop, has a laundry on the ground floor. There are four washing mashines, and two rooms with heated fans.
I don't have a dryer, can take me ages to dry really heavy clothing in my flat when the weather's bad.
People often put clothes on radiators too.
Extra points for loving Garth Marengis dark place. Hilarious poke at US 60 n 70s daytime TV.
Sunday opening hours only apply to stores over a certain floor area and this tends to exclude smaller store. The main supermarkets have "express","metro", "local" stores that stay open much longer than the large stores on Sundays. Also the UK has a large number of stores run by families that don't observe Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter. These shops are extremely useful when you realise that you have forgotten a pack of AA batteries for one of your kid's new toys.
I never thought about some of the store owners not observing some of the holidays. They were some of the few days everything was closed here, but that's changed over the last few years.
Also Sunday trading laws used not to apply if the shop was Jewish, but had to close on Saturday instead, don't know if that is still a thing.
I feel I need to add here, a local store to my parents, where I grew up (Braintree, Essex), is owned and staffed by a Muslim family, and they are all bloody lovely, they do open on Christmas day, the store is decorated with lights, tinsel and other Christmas tat, if you go in there on Christmas day they wish you "happy Christmas" and have a table setup with free mince pies.
They did get their shop spayed with "go home to your own country" crap a few years ago, this was reported to the Police who said they would "look into it" but the local community delt with the people that done it..... Errrr, sternly I think is the best phrase I can use.
@@TheMagicGeekdomif memory serves, it’s stores over 5,000sqft and the only day that the stores have to be closed for is Easter Sunday, shops tend to be closed on Christmas Day but there’s no legal requirement. Before the Sunday trading laws were brought in, it was down to the local councils if stores could trade or not.
@@stephenlee5929 I worked for a Jewish firm they opened on Saturday. I think the only Jewish shop I know that shut on a Saturday is a camera shop in New York in the US on 9th avenue if my memory serves me well.
Im going back to the 60's here, my uncle was a shepherd his dog Rover, at Christmas family gatherings was definitely in charge of where we would have to sit. Ushering each one of us to his chosen seat . This is one of my treasured memories of childhood Christmases it would always be a cause of fun and laughter no matter your age.
Guy Fawkes Night is really a celebration of the CAPTURE and prevention off the plot, not the plot itself
When I was younger, my Grandmother never wanted to celebrate Bonfire Night. We were a Roman Catholic family, and Grandmother didn't want to celebrate the failure of the Catholic Gunpowder Plot.
but we might also celebrate the man for trying and incompetently getting caught. thats a british thing, like if someone drops a glass in a pub we all go 'yay!' and laugh.
thats the historic reason, but then, people burning Boris Johnsons, Tony Blairs, and Margaret Thatchers on their bonfires has raised questions about some of its modern intent
@@emmaprocter3289 yup. Some people still refer to it as "Burn a Catholic Day".
For British humour, you can't do better than, if you can find it, 'Yes Minister' and its sequel, 'Yes Prime Minister'.
... and Father Ted out of Ireland. Bloody brilliant!
Although the Gay Daleks were pretty good too!
As a Brit? I think it's probably left to Brits to understand. I hate the program myself, My parents never missed it and howled with laughter.
Only Fools and Horses or Fawlty Towrs are the best.
Also add the Vicar of Dibley and Blackadder.
@@FionaMacintyre-o8p Can't stand fools & horses. Truly dire!
also the earth known as ground pin is longer than the two other pins is because we have a spring loaded shutter installed in the sockets which means you can not insert anything in the live snd neautral holes which is why the earth pin is longer is to push the shutters down so you can insert the plug
I cannot understand why shops are allowed to sell 'baby-proof' socket covers which actually make the socket more dangerous by opening the shutter to make the socket live.
On my first trip to America in 1982 I noticed how the electrical sockets and switches seemed primitive and flimsy compared to ours, great videos by the way ❤️
Same here. The state of a typical US fuse box scared the daylights out of me
When I was young the kids all used to make a life size dummy of Guy Fawkes and push it around in a wheelbarrow asking for “a penny for the guy” in order to raise money for fireworks. Then on November 5th it would be placed on top of the bonfire before lighting it. It is purely symbolic as that is not how he died.
The ability to boil water is a staple for sure. Even on modern British Challenger 2 tanks, arguably the best tank on the planet, there is a water boiling/ tea-making facility for the crew.
I think you are not understanding Bonfire night - it isnt a celebration of guy fawkes, its a celebration of a failed catholic plot against the king. They burn guy fawkes.
Maybe once. Now it's an excuse for a party and a kind of veiled warning to the government of the consequences of overstepping the mark.
originally the effigy burnt was of the pope
When I was young shops didn’t open AT ALL on a Sunday & when they first started Sunday opening you couldn’t buy alcohol until 12 midday.
The sheep are lovely. When the lambs are born it's wonderful.
The plugs, because the wire comes from the bottom you can push furniture to the wall. It would bug me if everything had to be away from the wall or it bends the cable... petty, but it's the little things that niggles
❤️ from Northeast England ❤️
Hanging clothes out to dry is much better if you have the garden space.
My mums says it’s healthier too than a dryer machine
Dryers can release harmful chemicals and pollutants into the air, which can harm your health. Hanging clothes outside to dry is a natural and safe way to dry your clothes without exposing yourself or your family to these chemicals.
Sunday trading in the UK is a relatively new thing. It isn’t totally possible to point to a turning point, but Sundays were initially a day of rest called for by religion, but then morphed into a day of rest called for by the workers.
In the US you have the board game 'Chutes and Ladders'. Originally a game from India the British adapted it from its Hindu basis and converted it to a christian one. In the UK it is called Snakes and Ladders, if you can find an old antique set you'll see each ladder is labelled with a 'virtue' and each snake with a 'sin'. The game was supposed to be a life lesson how virtues - ladders - would speed you to the end point (heaven) while sins would set you back.
The observance of Sundays in Victorian times was so strict, that Snakes and Ladders was one of the very few things kids were allowed to do for recreation on the day. - the other one begin to play with a 'noahs ark' toy - you will find a few of these still being made, but antique shops used to be full of them.
While Sundays were supposed to be for church, under pressure from unions, workers finally became entitled to a two day weekend. However, this did not fit the needs of retail workers who were often forced to work saturdays. Instead, many retail stores, including small stores like butchers and bakers, would close at lunchtime on Wednesdays. This continued quite widely into the 1970s. In the English soccer league there is actually a team called Sheffield Wednesday. Originally an amateur team made up of shopkeepers, (butchers I think?) they were only able to play on Wednesdays, as Saturday was a trading day.
In Europe, especially Germany... only petrol stations, bakers, leisure attractions and similar are open on a Sunday. RuhigTag is priceless. The UK lost its desire for rest decades ago and explains a lot about the decline of the country as a whole..
I see the S word is mentioned
The word should be FOOTBALL ⚽
I couldnt live without a kettle, we live for our tea.
As an experienced "Bonfire" goer Lewes bonfire night is always the 5th November unless it falls on a Sunday in which case it will be held the day before It is the equivalent in Sussex and beyond to the Rio Carnival in Brazil or the Diseyland grand parade but with a little more risk. Bonfire season starts on the 1st weekend in September and runs through to around three weeks beyond the 5th Nov, with a different Sussex village or town having their celebrations, (bonfire, parade and firework display), on successive Saturdays. Sometimes a couple of villages/towns will hold it on the same day. Each Village and town have their own "Society" this normally comprises of members who fund raise for local charities and fund raise for the fireworks used for the display. Each Society over the years would have formed a 2 basic dress theme that a lot of members adhere too. The main one is the bonfire jerseys a loosely based on English Smugglers outfits the colours i.e Red & Black hooped jerseys means they represent one of the Societies from Lewes or Green / Black Hoops, a local town around 8 miles from Lewes,( Jerseys are always hoops). The other dress code can be a novelty theme that individual societies concentrate their interest in such as Native American indians, Vikings, Cavaliers, Tudor costume, American Civil war etc all costumes mostly hand made and trying to be as authentic as possible. Each society takes great pride in their outfits.
If you do manage to get to Lewes check out the strong historical links to Tom Paine and a local village Ringmer connections to William Penn and John Harvard who both married gals with links to the village. Sorry I digress.
Lewes is split into what Americans call "Wards" and each one of these have their own Society to name as many as i can, There is "Cliffe" Bonfire Society (BS), "South Street" BS, Waterloo" BS, Borough" BS, "Commercial Sq" BS, "Southover" BS, & Neville Juvenilles" BS. Each marches with invited local village/town societies on Nov 5th in a separate small parades around the town, culminating in what is called the United Grand Parade where they all join forces and put on a very noisy colourful spectacular show.
Please be aware to grab a good vantage point you need to get there late afternoon as crowds of up to 10,000 people have been known to flood the small streets of Lewes. I will guarantee it is an experience you will never ever forget. Oh I forgot to say it's great to hang around in the town after a lot of the crowd has gone as there are a few things still going on to see.
please watch this as a taster.
ruclips.net/video/gvMiYN9BGrc/видео.html
you wisely missed out the religious undercurrant
No Popery!
You can still get Bisto gravy that you cook on the stove. We call it 'old lady gravy' and we prefer it to the instant stuff
Yikes! Who hung that laundry out!!?
If you can get it in the US, try 'Green Wing' from Channel 4! It's mad, dark and brilliant!
Green Wing didn't get the recognition it deserved, in my opinion.
In the UK we don't have fly screens - but we do have net curtains! They pretty much do the same thing but don't restrict the airflow too much! Everywhere I have lived has had net curtains (plain tulle is most common these days, but you can get fancy lacey ones) for privacy and bug prevention! (but yeah - we don't really have so many bugs here)
Never been, but apparently in Eyam in Derbyshire, on bonfire night (5th November) they have a special torch light parade and burn a willow effigy of a rat 🐀 since it was a rat carried in a carpet being delivered from London that that took the Black Death plague to the village in 1665!! Would love to visit for this sometime!
I visited Eyam and it's fascinating. I believe that the Great Plague of 1665 was spread to the village in a bundle of cloth infested with fleas. Very sad story.
On 5th November the town of Ottery St Mary, Devon has an event where townspeople run through the streets carrying barrels of flaming tar, it's very chaotic!
In Britain we had nets for the windows.
Still do
But they don't keep out bugs.
The competition is called 'Sheepdog Trials'. Where i live in the Pennines the local farmers used to hold the trials on the local cricket ground every Easter Monday.
Bonfire night started as a celebration that we CAUGHT Guy Fawkes. It all started with effigy burning. Modern times it’s pretty much flipped around though and is very much the weird way that you see it. A nice celebration of anti-establishment dreams.
screens don't work on most UK windows. most open out and the handles are also in the way. sash windows would work.
Lewes Bonfire IS overwhelming! But well worth a visit if you can get there - the town basically closes to traffic and most public transport as they try to restrict the number of peope crowding into a very small town.
The other thing Lewes is famous for is that Thomas Paine, one of the American Founding Fathers, lived and worked there before he met Benjamin Franklin and moved to America.
However if people want to get away from England, while visiting the UK, then Inverness has done a great Bonfire night for decades. Bug parade through the streets to a giant bonfire, followed by a huge fireworks display, hot food and drinks available too.
EVERYWHERE has a dryer, it is wind and solar powered and called a 'washing line', rotary dryer, drying rack or something similar. We only use the plug-in ones when the weather's bad. I have drying racks and hangers which I can use indoors or out. There's nothing nicer than going to bed on freshly sun-and- wind dried pillowcases; they smell divine.
Instead of screens we have net curtains. It deters flies and nosey Parker’s looking in your living room.
Roundabouts are generally an excellent way to handle traffic flows at junctions to keep traffic moving efficiently. Sometimes traffic lights are needed because one dominant flow can lock out the others. We also have mini roundabouts which take little extra land, there's one very near me, and the central island is only about a metre in diameter.
Sunday trading laws aren't unique to the UK! In France, supermarkets usually close at lunchtime on Sunday, and in Spain and Germany they are generally closed all day. So England & Wales having 10am to 4pm is pretty generous by European standards!
Kettles are great, they boil water so much faster than a hob and more efficiently. If I'm cooking veg, I'll usually boil the water in the kettle first.
Some great UK TV comedy, if you haven't found it yet, is Vicar of Dibley, and anything with Victoria Wood (stand-up, Dinnerladies).
Glad to see you appreciate House of Games, one of the best shows on TV!
If you travel to the UK in spring time
You can go to any local farms, for a lambing event and see the lambs being born, lots of locals take their children to give the lambs a bottle of milk to give the ewes a rest from feeding
When I was a child, all stores were closed all day on Sunday. I believe it was a religious thing about not working on Sundays. So when they changed the rules to allow them to open for 6 hours, it was a major change for us.
Additionally, most towns and villages had an "early closing day" when all the shops closed at about midday. This was usually, but not always, a Wednesday.
If you're ever in the UK in early November, Lewes is definitely worth visiting. Yes, there are several bonfire societies. Just pick one at random - they're all good. Burning torch-lit processions through the streets, burning crosses, flaming tar barrels, effigies of Guy Fawkes, the Pope and disliked politicians are burned. There have been as many as 80,000 people attending the Lewes bonfires.
Thursday was early closing where I live
Your comment about Bonfire Night and Lewes in particular brought back memories. I grew up close to Lewes and remember the 'celebrations' with affection. Good to know it still happens
Bonfire Night: go to Ottery St. Mary for the barell run!
I used to go there when I was a child and it wasn't so crowded. I grew up in Devon. It was fun then.
...or go to Northern Ireland for the 12th of July. Although the bonfires are on the night before. Also some places have New Year bonfires, like Biggar in Scotland.
I’m aged 63, have 3 children and have never had a dryer for my washing. I either put the washing outside on a washing line which every garden had in those days and some still do now, or dried the clothes etc indoors on a clothes airer which’s what I use today either indoors or out. Indoors it mostly within 24 hours as I place the airer in the bathroom that has an a ceiling extractor fan. The cost of electricity is exorbitant compared to the US!
We don't celebrate the plot, we celebrate the failure of the plot.
I’m a catholic so we see him as a freedom fighter but the irony of this is I’m patriotic and love the monarchy I’m English 😂
We literally burn the protagonist - Guy Fawkes. The American invention of Halloween has become more popular here now.
Any excuse for a party!
@@dragonmummy1Halloween originated in Scotland. All hallows eve I believe it was called.
@@dragonmummy1 Halloween is not an American invention it comes from a Celtic festival
Have you ever heard of bridge water bonfire night illuminated caravial..biggest in Europe..brilliant a must see ..lv somerset
All British cities have something on bonfire night - either big public shows or small household ones. His old school in York didn't celebrate - a past headteacher said 'we don't burn old boys'! There's a very nice hotel in York called the Guy Fawkes Hotel which I think you'd like to stay at - it's very quirky and the dining room is lit by candles.
Gravy...we make it in different ways, and when doing a roast, we will use the roasting pan with the stock from the meat or a saucepan on the hob, and add water using the kettle to boil it or water that the vegetables have been cooked in, and cornflour/browning to thicken it.
Some meals we like with gravy but dont have stock, so we use premade freeze dried gravy like Bisto or Oxo granules and add boiling water from the kettle.
Would it ve awfully British of me to say you were in the wrong lane on the roundabout clip? 😆
We kiwis have lots of roundabouts and I was thinking the same
Yes, went ouch mentally.
The roundabout with the palm tree on is near where I live and it has just been demolished and turned back into a normal crossing!
@@eileenhildreth8355 I have allot of family living in NZ, we have close and wonderful ties the UK and NZ, Australia too of course... wonderful characters.
We love using solar and wind power to dry washing on the line 😅 its free. Electricity is so expensive. During the winter we dry everything on radiators and hanging over the bannister.
When i was little we used to collect wood about a week before bonfire night and build it up in the back garden. On the night dad used to light the fire and all the fireworks but we could hold sparklers. Mum always made meat and potato pie with suet crust pastry , treacle toffee, toffee apples, parkin (ginger cake). So it was a great time. We wrapped potatoes in foil and cooked them at the edge of the fire as it dwindled. It was always on 5th November, whatever night ....😅
We need to celebrate bonfire night more.
Its been hijacked by Halloween.
You don't need bug screens
When you move in to a house, the first thing you unpack is the kettle
Just discovered your channel and watched a couple of videos - it's great to see how much you guys like about the UK, especially the humour which is such a key part of the national culture. If either of you are readers I'd recommend the book 'Watching the English' by Kate Fox
That looks really interesting. We'll have to check the book out.
We just put our washing on the radiators if the weather is wet.
Sussex is the best place for bonfire night. All the big towns have their own Bonfire Societies and they usually burn an effigy of something or someone relevant to the year. The processions are awesome!
sadly UK schools don't teach Gunpowder plot anymore Haloween taking over bonfire night and it anoys me
When did that happen? It used to be in the KS1 history curriculum.
Halloween has history too
Halloween, All Hallows Eve, its Samhain a Celtic festival
If you wanted to, you could get a UK plug socket installed. This can be done by simply doubling the wiring to the socket. In US homes, this is done for the kitchen stove, and sometimes for the tumble dryer. It is also often done for thermostats for baseboard heating.
A house owned by my parents in the UK had been owned by a U.S. airforce colonel based in the UK. The front part of the house was a very old cottage, while the much larger part of the house was a long single storey addition that he had had built.
Since he was able to get goods delivered free on Air Force flights to airbases in the UK, the new part of the house was quite American. It had forced air heating - unknown of in the UK at the time, it also had both UK and US outlets everywhere. And came with appliances like the huge US fridge, waste disposal system etc.
We have had warm air heating in houses for over 50 years, I have installed it
Please watch Stephen Fry on why American and British humour differ , It will answer your question, :) All the best from Wales Bhaaaa Bhaaa ( Sheep noise ) x
regarding bonfire night - there's traditional foods. treacle toffee (the real stuff, not anything in a bag individually wrapped - it's not the best.) is awesome!! get a slab of that and a toffee hammer and have at it. there's no right or wrong way to enjoy it, but it tastes better on bonfire night out in the open. preferably when there's a smokey atmosphere.
also Parkin. get that from a bakery, not a supermarket... it's delicious!! home made is usually best. another treat that's best served on bonfire night itself.
jacket potatoes are awesome when wrapped in tin foil and done in a bonfire (provided the fire is hot enough, and the potato cooks all the way through...) and sometimes, a good hearty hotpot hits the spot. there's no right or wrong way to make a hotpot either, so don't stress! some of us appreciate the food aspect of bonfire night, and some appreciate the fireworks and a roaring fire with a 'guy' atop it 😀
I remember watching an episode of M.A.S.H once when they’d accidently left the laughter track on! (The BBC usually removed it). It’s was awful,just so inappropriate.
I remember that. It was awful and totally ruined it.
I recall some pretty obnoxious laugh tracks on UK sitcoms
Mash is better without the laugher track
Ive not been on RUclips for a month or so. I commented on another video, that you should advertise more. I'm glad you are. You are brilliant at it.
You're not supposed to, but put your clothes on the radiator for a few hours. If there is cooling rack, they work better. You need to air them out every few hours(move around), to stop the stale/damp smell setting into your clothes.
You guys are amazing!! I'd forgotten 'Are you being served'. Such a great show, that kinda shows what we are all about.
Cara you should check out an old British tv show called 'One man and his Dog'. The skill of the shepherds to work their dogs to herd sheep.
There are bonfire events at nearly every village and small town in Sussex, between September and December. They're smaller versions of Lewes. I recommend Lindfield as it's a pretty village.
I'd love to know where Americans go to eat when they say "I didn't like the food in England" because like you said there's so much variety from around the world to choose from. You'll have to catch a new BBC comedy called Daddy Issues. It's hilarious.
You do have such a great amount of choice in the foods available. We'll have to check out Daddy Issues.
Remember that bonfire night is in November, in England November is dark, cold and wet. A bonfire with hot soup, baked potatoes etc while bundled up in coats and hats , is a great way to keep warm while watching fireworks! Also the wool industry was one of the major financial powerhouses of Britain from mediaeval times , even today the Speaker of the House Of Lords in Parliament sits on The Woolsack- a cushion type sack of wool, because it was so vital
If you have window screens any flies coming in the doors can't get out again.
Oh, and humour.. I'm generalising, but, US Comedy - laugh at others, British Comedy - laugh at ourselves
British humour generally is very self-depracating
And I find US humour much more ‘slapstick’, I.e. hit you in the face obvious. Good British humour is more subtle.