chris955

Some unusual ones here but again its hard to really disagree with many of them. Whether some make the country great is debatable I guess.
20 reasons why Britain is Great | Express Comment | Comment | Daily Express

carolina212

I tried watching Downtown Abbey but I didn't get it (it looks wonderful, tho) -- this is making me want to give it another go!

Moses2013

And again the weather When will the media realise that we have great weather for our location. Mentioned it in the other post: Kent has more sunshine hours than Cologne and is on par with Paris.

chris955

I really dont get it when people say the weather is rubbish seemingly because the sun doesnt shine non stop. We have had a lovely summer but as soon as it turned a bit wet and overcast I started hearing the same stuff again about how the weather is rubbish. Apart from anything else there is just so much more to life than the weather.

chris955

Nobody can do period drama like the English, we did watch a few episodes of Downton Abbey but like you it wasnt our thing. Very well acted, produced etc and the locations were wonderful.

Moses2013

Yes, you'd think people want the UK to be a desert with water shortages.
I bet tea doesn't taste as good in the desert and it would be harder to maintain a garden

Mallory

You wrote in another thread yesterday about why you wouldn't want to live in Switzerland. You said it was clean, beautiful, and very well run. But you said you wouldn't want to live there because you found it boring. I think Herefordshire is beautiful, and probably well run, but it wouldn't be for me. I would find it boring. Same as your opinion of Switzerland. We think alike.

chris955

Having grown up in Victoria in Australia I know all about deserts or at least dry drown countryside and I certainly wouldnt want this beautiful place to look like that. The rain makes things lovely and green and thats the way I like it.

Bud the Wiser

You don't have to live in a desert to experience water shortages............and as the population grows.............

Giantaxe

No definition of what "stress" means so essentially useless. I am going to hazard a guess it's nor California style stress though.

Moses2013

True, but at least you have an option to collect your own rain water and we just need to change our ways. I think the problem is far bigger in places like Las Vegas.

Rosie Lee

The weather isn't rubbish. It's unpredictable! This keeps things interesting, and is the cause of the British obsession with the weather.
The South East gets lots of sun, however it doesn't get the temperatures as much as elsewhere, and it is windy, which can make it feel colder. Get the wind and the rain together.....
Also being an island it doesn't hold it's heat in the evenings, as a big continent would. But this in turn means we don't get the -20 temps!!
We also don't get the damn MOSQUITOES! sorry, I'm not at all aggravated at night!

Bud the Wiser

Water stress: Where supply does not keep up with demand. i.e. water shortage.

zzrmark

Sorry to disappoint you on that one, there may not be as many of them as in Florida but down in Devon we definitely get mossies.
...And it's not actually that hard to obtain a gun if you want. Most of the farmers round here possess shotguns and just yesterday I took the niece and nephews into the neighbouring field for a spot of shooting coke cans (with air rifles mind, mind you, there is no way I'm giving a five year old a shotgun to play with - not until she can support it's weight and hold it still!!).
...As far as the earlier comment on racism goes, a mate of mine came over to Florida for my marriage recently and was surprised at how many people made openly racist comments, especially towards Mexicans.

On topic:
It's easy to take the range of flora for granted here in the UK, the great English country garden takes some beating.
It's great that I can travel just a few miles to experience a totally different scenery from the one on my doorstep. I've travelled reasonably extensively in Europe and have yet to find another country with such a diverse range of landscape in so small an area.
It's great that I can turn on the tap and know that the water is safe to drink (excepting the odd mishap)
It's also not too shabby knowing there's a National Health Service to pick me up when I fall and not needing a second mortgage if I break my leg.

chris955

And a great many areas of Australia, we have lived through numerous droughts over the years, not just hose pipe bans but genuine droughts with 100's of 1000's of animals dying, widespread bush fires, lakes drying up.