This is a good non-fiction book about British culture :)
I'm learning Russian, can you recommend me any good books (fiction or non-fiction) in return which have 'Russian spirit'? (especially that go beyond the common stereotypes?) I can read quite well so fine if it's in Russian!
I thin it’s Atrixo Atrixo
AQA A Level Sociology Book One Including AS Level: Book one https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954007913/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_M98ZPYT2Q1MWRK9DMDZ9?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 This is a sociology book and there is a huge section on Education, how it’s changed through the years and all sorts it really in-depth but very simple. Studied it for my A-levels, it was really interesting! Ended up getting a B in my exam on it
VERY common, very everywhere, very fun.
I think sellers are more likely to make more at car boots than yard sales; there's a much higher number of potential customers, so you don't need to drop prices in order to clear stuff.
Most of my kitchen stuff comes from car boots, though i mainly went to buy paperback books, vintage clothes, and sewing supplies. Some are huge, stretching over acres, with hundreds of cars- https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=car%20boot%20sales
All kinds of groups organise them. Schools have them in their playgrounds; its useful extra income from unused space on a weekend.
Other places hold car boots- anywhere with a large enough space, really. Race courses, farmers' fields, cricket grounds (similar to baseball grounds). They're everywhere, every sunday morning, and sometimes weekdays or saturdays too. Some are run by private companies who just run car boots, other times its a local group or charity- eg hospice care, or animal shelter etc.
Cars are charged £5- 15 to be able to enter and pitch up. Sometimes its free for buyers to enter, usually entry's 0.50- £1.
So if you have 60s cars x £5 each, then 300 customers x £1 each, that's ££££.
They're even in city centres- eg London ones: https://www.timeout.com/london/shopping/londons-best-car-boot-sales
There are two things that might be going on.
The first is that the trains you are booking for have already sold out their advanced ticket fares. This is pretty unlikely if you’re checking a bunch of different trains a long way out.
The second is that the advanced tickets might not have been released yet. Train companies release them approximately (but not exactly) 12 weeks in advance so if you try to book for say 13 weeks I’m advance then you’ll be offered only the super expensive standard fare.
Trainline has a live tracker of which companies have released their tickets by date here: https://www.thetrainline.com/ticketalert
I think that’s a lot of cities for 7-10 days you’ll probably not see much of any. Checkouttrainline for city to city train tickets. When you’re in each city you will need to purchase day tickets, tube in London and bus everywhere else in the city.
You could find this information really easily by searching for thermostats on uk amazon. Here's a popular choice: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hive-Heating-Thermostat-Professional-Installation/dp/B011B3J6KY/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=thermostat&qid=1623454555&sr=8-7
I just did some research, and yeah wow shampoo is considerably cheaper in the UK than in the US. You are so lucky! my sister spends nearly $24 every couple of months for shampoo. Gosh, if you ever stop by NYC, bring me a bottle would ya? LOL
for comparison, this is what I buy
This torch that was £20 off for Black Friday. Wide enough beam on it to light up my back yard and garden in one go.
Looks like Amazon sell Christmas puddings as well but I imagine you could find them elsewhere to (or even make your own), this is the kind of thing you're looking for:
Traditionally you light them on fire (yes really). Heat up about a ladle full of brandy in a pan, turn the lights off, pour the hot brandy over the top and light with match. Serve with ice cream, cream and/or brandy butter - which is butter creamed with sugar and more brandy.
Bargain: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Regency-Slang-Revealed-Dictionary-Organised/dp/1534626794
(She’s a super-prolific romance novelist who sets works in the period, and was fed up with trying to research terms using online dictionaries not organised by theme.)
Concord grape jelly is probably the most popular. I grew up on my mom's homemade strawberry preserves, lovingly made at home with a paraffin wax seal.
Nowadays it's probably just plain peanut butter or with a small amount of apple butter spread on the other side of the bread.
Yes of course you can.
I know that us British people have a habit of making a single cup of tea but in other countries, they tend to make a lot in one go. Here in China, it is very common to make tea in kettles. Kettles which are designed to make tea are common too, you can indeed even buy them in the UK..You don't even need to put the bag it 'after' it boils, feel free just to leave it in from the get go, although perhaps that is not such a good idea with strong British black tea.
However, the key difference here is that the kind of kettle you would normally use like this would be a glass one. The standard metal affair will be much harder to clean and it's likely trace amounts of tea will remain. If you are drinking strong black tea, I'd definitely expect some tannin to remain.
If you want to boil for another reason then, maybe some trace tea will remain. I doubt you would notice this unless you drink hot water on its own.
tl;dr, go for it, its extremely common elsewhere.
I haven't used an app based step counter for quite some time now as my watch does it instead. I used to use this one that was fairly simple and uncluttered and should use the hardware step counter which doesn't use very much battery at all: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.j4velin.pedometer&hl=en_GB&gl=US
I think the Google Fit app can also do step tracking on the phone, so that's another option.
I'm a 51 year-old American Anglophile... and I've never heard that lemonade and ginger beer were "better in Britain".
In the UK, "lemonade" is what they generally call things like Sprite and 7-Up. American-style lemonade was actually invented in Paris in 1630, although the French version often uses carbonated water instead of still.
Ginger beer is more popular in the UK than the US. It's typically much more "gingery" than ginger ale, although that's not always the case. Canada Dry actually was invented in Ontario (the "dry" refers to sweetness, like a dry wine). However, there are regional brands that aren't as bland. Red Rock ginger ale, created in Atlanta, will take the roof of your damn mouth off.
Very popular in Glasgow back in the 80’s. I think it was used as a front to sell drugs but personally I think it was the love of a single nougat or an oyster that caused it.
It's not a "traditional" looking kettle is it, because they are meant to make a loud noise when it boils....
Other than that I would probably go and ask on r/askanamerican as the kettles there are different to some of ours.
I have something similar to this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Russell-Hobbs-20460-Buckingham-Stainless/dp/B00K8S89YI/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=1DSKO9GUNO23A&keywords=kettle&qid=1655126597&sprefix=kettle%2Caps%2C329&sr=8-13
I haven’t planned next week yet, thats a Friday-night job. Here’s last week:
Weekday lunches are soup, salad and/or sandwiches
Youre right, it's all easily verifiable, "British" DNA makes up 36% of the DNA of and average UK citizen.
I guess you could say that because it makes up the majority, we are "British", but it's non-sensical. Would you say a colour made up of 60% blue and 40% yellow is blue? No, it's green.
The other poster is absolutely correct, clinging to this idea of ethnic make-up is the kind of thing that's caused genocide throughout history. It's not important.
I'm more of a YouTube guy, and thus don't watch TV much except when I catch something downstairs (I occasionally stay around, usually for Family Guy, usually until an ad break or the credits) or experiment with receiving it on my bedroom TV. I recently got an aerial, so that should be helpful with reception and receiving more channels, including BBC or radio ones. I may get around to it when I have the time while optimising files with FileOptimizer.
The ‘middle class’ thing really does come up a lot here, and it slightly confuses me as the best book I’ve read about the British class system is an American book about the American class system.
Class: A Guide Through the American Status System by Paul Fussell
It’s clearly out of date, but still worth a read
So one thing to note is that the requirements to enter the country at boarder control are completely different to those you need once within the country to access places like nightclubs. Theae later checks are brand new (think they start today?)
You can use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.gov.dhsc.healthrecord to check if your barcode is compatible with the UK system. If it isn't them you'd still be allowed into the country with the items listed by /u/vinylemulator but would not be able to access areas like nightclubs where you need a pass.
If your vacine QR code doesn't scan you can instead obtain a temporary pass with a negative covid test although I have no idea if this is possible for tourists. Converting your US pass to a British one is very difficult, untill very recently (2/3 days ago) completely impossible - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59642107 - I've got no idea how possible or not that would be as a tourist.
If you do decide to go anywhere then be aware that this different in standards between a covid check at the boarder and within the country is very common.
Christmas Cracker Snap Strips - 144 count for all holiday occasions https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BCFKQJ6/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_BB56KGQX15EQ8ENQARF6
These are the snaps you need for an authentic British Xmas cracker. For some reason all the ones I’ve seen on Amazon US are non snap. It just doesn’t make sense!
you can still go on https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer, set up an account, click "Yes I have a TV License" and then watch it. The US doesn't have a ban on it I don't think. Personally I missed it and didn't even know there was one, but I absolutely love the show it's really well written - another couple of good BBC shows are: His Dark Materials, What We Do In The Shadows, and Stephen Moffat's Dracula (2020).
Canadian living in the US here, I order my daily tea from here: https://www.teapalace.co.uk
It's not cheap but I make a big order once or twice a year and enjoy it most days. My fav is their Earl grey with blue flowers and some summery blends with strawberries but every taste is different.
Also can't recommend these enough. Great design, have lasted me over a decade, loose tea for the win: Finum Reusable Stainless Steel Coffee and Tea Infusing Mesh Brewing Basket, Medium, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I68NCS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_TTKN4PJ0VQB1TJ1D8S4K?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Massively. I loved chocolate in the UK. Moving here has stopped me buying it. I do a random delivery of a lot of English chocolate from time to time. Cadbury Flake
Get them. The Flake is a gateway chocolate. It will open your eyes to a lot more out there.
This was the only one with Prime shipping. If you like it there is a lot more shipped from the UK.
Am behind the 8-ball on instant noodles as well! (They barely existed when I was in college.) But that's about to change. I recently Wish-Listed these.
.
At the moment, I'm going through a box of Earl Grey.
Ordered, and in transit: Yorkshire Gold, Lapsang Souchong, and one I've never heard of called Make Mine a Builder's.
Not a Brit but I own an apartment building built in the 1800s. They have what I think you’re talking about, and they are called Night Latches. They can come with a outside key or not.
Is this what you’re thinking of?
Saying all of our chocolate is terrible because of plain Hershey's is like saying there's no good pizza in the US because you had some Papa John's.
Regular Hershey's may not be great, but Hershey's Symphony is really good.
Yes, a lot of Lithuanians were shipped out to Siberia. In fact, my oldest cousin was born in a cattle truck on the way to Siberia and my other cousins were born in Siberia and my uncles family only returned to Lithuania in the 1960s. From what I have pieced together things were very rough there, so much so that my cousins simply don't talk about their time there, ever.
For an insight into what happened, I suggest reading Between shades of gray by Ruta Sepetys
I've recommended them on here before and I highly recommend them again - try these? You put loose leaf tea in them, then take them out and the lid is a handy drip base for it. Fits a mug or a pot. I've been using the same set for 10 years now. Dishwasher friendly.
A good read about this is Polly Toynbee’s Hard Work
So as you can see, it was written in 2003. The minimum wage was introduced to the U.K. in April 1999, and some younger redditors might be surprised to learn it was very controversial at the time. I can remember the run up to the 1997 election, and the opposing Conservative party tried to stress how devastating its introduction would be to businesses and would lead to mass unemployment as companies wouldn’t be able to afford to pay staff a decent rate. That was obviously proved to be false.
What is problematic, as Toynbee sets out in her book, is firstly the challenge of actually,living off it - but more to the point is the unreliability of it. Toynbee discovered as she posed as a low paid worker what was expected: she worked IIRC as a hospital Porter via an agency where she was expected to pay for her own uniform and DBS (CRB then) , in a cake factory where the work was ad hoc and she had to make repeated return visits to demand her money, at personal cost to her, commission only based call centre work, working as a dinner lady for only two hours a day and working in a care home, it was that last one she really trounces.
I know she’s a bit of a champagne socialist but I do think everyone should read it tbh.
You need to educate yourself on all the swears:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viz-40th-Anniversary-Profanisaurus-Piss/dp/1781066779/?&tag=vizmag-21
Actually I only meant don't use a *too small* tea ball. Leaves need room to percolate.
I personally have a set of these I've been using for 10+ years. They fit in a mug or a pot (but I only brew by the mug), the top is a rest to put it on after you're done. They are delightfully well designed, go in the dishwasher and last forever.
When I worked for a British company I read this book and it helped me tremendously.
Brit-Think, Ameri-Think: A Transatlantic Survival Guide, Revised Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142001341/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabt1_1B7RFb9WV1NQR
I have never been to (or heard directly of) even an open-casket funeral in the UK.
Two of my grandparents even had ‘services of thanksgiving’ without the casket in the church, rather than a funeral (each followed by a very small ceremony at a crematorium). I appreciate this might be a Nonconformist thing though.
I was horrified as a youngster when I first heard about US ‘funeral homes’ where one could go and ‘visit with the body’.
(I do highly recommend Being Dead Is No Excuse for a very amusing trip through Southern US funeral traditions.)
Also, for reference, these are my favorite: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Baked-Beans-Ounce-Cans/dp/B002W002IQ?th=1
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I prefer the Vegetarian because I'm not a fan of a big hunk of pork fat randomly appearing in my mouth. These are sweet, spicy and have a mild onion-like flavor. They will also produce farts that will tear the head off of a horse.
when i meant boiling i meant boiling, i had it specially installed so i wouldnt need to boil water in a pot or kettle for small things. its actually super useful, it’s like a separate faucet. heres the one i use , it was annoying that it needed extra parts but in the end it was an amazing investment since i use it multiple times a day
Coleman's Mustard powder.
You can buy it on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Colmans-Dry-Mustard-Pack/dp/B01IW9TQHI/ref=sr_1_4_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1549760655&sr=8-4&keywords=coleman%27s+mustard+powder
> With an electric kettle it would take 20-30 mins guaranteed.
That's rather different to answers to this question on an example Amazon review of a US 1.7L electric kettle here.
>how long does it take to boil?
>Answer:
If I remember correctly, a full pot of cold water takes no more than 5 minutes.
By Larry Dee on November 14, 2016
I timed it twice...The first time it boiled in 4:37 , the second time, 4:45.....each time using a full pot (to the full line).
By Angie on March 12, 2017
1.7 lt of cold water - took 7 minutes
By mari on December 20, 2016
I'd say 3-5 minutes
By dancemom on November 14, 2016
just a few minutes, depending on how much water is in there, less than 5 minutes for a liter
By Laura Mendley on November 14, 2016
Approximately one minute.
By Mary on November 14, 2016
Did not actually check the minutes to reach boiling point, but it is really quick. I find it very good and fast. It's a keeper with daily uses. Love it
Clearly those kind of answers not the ultimate in scientific tests, but...