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Original poster

Foreigners in the UK: What do you just not "get"?

389 replies

NotQuiteCockney · 07/10/2006 21:12

I've been in the UK for 10 years now, I think. I do not understand:

  • the Archers
  • tea (why? why? why?)
  • cryptic crosswords

Anyone else?

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 09/10/2006 11:46

The heat in the Southern US gets unbearable, especially b/c it's sooooo humid, too.

You get a huge tumbler full of iced tea, w/plenty of lemon.

It just hits the spot.

And a lovely, icy mint julep of an evening, before supper.

GeorginaA · 09/10/2006 11:49

Hmm, not convinced. You want something cold and caffeinated, you buy a coke!

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 09/10/2006 11:50

Ok, you've named the beverage that's grosser than hot tea, iced tea. It's so sweet. Gah.

The point of hot tea is to make boiled water not taste gross, as historically, unboiled water wasn't safe (cholera etc). But the tap water is safe now! No need to boil it and steep little weird bags of leaves in it, you can just drink the stuff!

(And wtf is an iced tea maker, don't you just make tea, cool it, add sugar and lemon, and drink it?)

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 09/10/2006 11:53

Tea is soooo yummy! Much better than water.

And it gives you that warm feeling in your veins.

Also, an article published by the BBC last week reported the results of a study which found a cuppa helps you cope w/stress on a biochemical level.

Long live the cuppa!

The iced tea maker makes it comes out cold. No need to wait for your brew to cool down or melt a bunch of ice and have it all watered down and gross.

Lipton has 'cold brew' bags now, too, which will do in a pinch.

My fav is sun tea.

I freeze the syrup from canned fruit into ice cubes and use it to sweeten my iced tea.

DH LOVES it!

GuppinBuppin · 09/10/2006 11:58

oh iced tea! I miss iced tea!
whenever we go back to canada we send a care package to ourselves filled with iced tea, aunt jemima syrup, stovetop stuffing, shake'n'bake, cheez whiz, miracle whip, some chocolate bars you cn't get over here, etc....
it costs a bomb but its; sooo worth it!"

expatinscotland · 09/10/2006 12:00

Shake n Bake is brilliant!

blueshoes · 09/10/2006 12:02

why so many adults and children have such sweeeeet tooths. find most sweets cloyingly sweet.

I love it here!

janinlondon · 09/10/2006 12:03

I know I'm goping to regret this, but what is Cheez whizz???

expatinscotland · 09/10/2006 12:04

Cheez Whizz is nasty.

Cheese-its are yummy.

So is Hershey's syrup, especially if it's drizzled into your mouth after a squirt of whipped cream from a can.

meowmix · 09/10/2006 12:08

I never got the point of ice tea in the UK but now I'm overseas and its flipping hot it makes perfect sense. There used to be thsi awful Lift stuff in the UK which was meant to be ice tea and god it was sweet. The real stuff is nothing like that

ditzymum · 09/10/2006 12:20

Grilled tomatoes are yummy!

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 09/10/2006 12:21

Ok, ditzymum, please put up your postal address, I'll mail you all the ones I get (when I forget to say "no tomato please").

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 09/10/2006 12:21

Mmmm, grilled tomatoes!

I agee!

An important part of any full on Scottish fry up brekkie.

hannahsaunt · 09/10/2006 12:27

Expat - chips with brown sauce is an Edinburgh/Lothians thing. Not available where we are (NE Scotland) and I miss it! Heavenly .

expatinscotland · 09/10/2006 12:36

That 'sauce' just tastes like glue, IMO.

The first time DH and I went out 'for a chippy' and he ordered a 'pizza supper' w/brown sauce, it was all I could do not to hurl.

Even DD1 likes brown sauce. She'll eat anything Scottish w/relish, even haggis.

It was years before I started eating chips w/o ketchup.

When we got a chippy in Blair Atholl, though, poor DH asked shyly, 'Is there nae sauce then?'

You could see their Heilan' minds working away, thinking, 'No, you sad Lowland git.'

DumbledoresGirl · 09/10/2006 12:49

The taste of a grilled (or fried) tomato is one of the most evocative in my personal experience. I can never eat one without being transported back to my childhood and cooked breakfast every day but Sunday (wow my mother was superwoman!) and cold frosty mornings, walking to school. I can understand some of you lamenting the lack of things from your own upbringing, like sockets (not plugs!) in bathrooms and automatic cars, but how can anyone object to a grilled tomato?!

expatinscotland · 09/10/2006 12:51

i love a scottish breakfast w/grilled tomatoes.

something about grilled tomatoes w/toast. and beans. and mushrooms and fried egg and bangers and rashers or lorne sausage.

mmmmmmmm.

more for us!

meowmix · 09/10/2006 12:56

lorne sausage! oh expat please have some lorne sausage for me. And a potato scone. or two.

GeorginaA · 09/10/2006 12:57

Oh damn, I really want a fried breakfast now. I hate you all

WideWebWitch · 09/10/2006 12:59

you lot, have you read this, Notes from a small island by Bill Bryson? funny thread!

Astrophe · 09/10/2006 16:07

Ooooh, well tea is one thing I LOVE about living here (although TBH the tea selection in Sydney in much larger than here in Derby - but I'm sure London etc are better) - I love that its a habit and I think making and drinking tea is very relaxing and sociable. Mmmmmmm

BUT - what is the deal with the 1p and 2p coins? I am drowning in them! Why do we still have them? Its madness.

Astrophe · 09/10/2006 16:08

AND, why is it legal to drive onto the wrong side of the road in order to park on the opposite side of the street - facing the wrong way. Its so dangerous!

rustycreakingdoorbear · 09/10/2006 16:12

btw for the people who said rather plaintively that they still don't know what a tombola is:
It's a kind of raffle, often held at school fairs, where the prizes have tickets stuck on them with numbers.You use a book of raffle tickets, which has 2 copies of each number, and you put (for example) the numbers ending in 0 and 5 from one set on the prizes. You then fold up all the tickets from other set and put them in a box or other container.
You sell tickets at say 25p each, or 5 for £1 -the buyer chooses their tickets from the box. If they have a 5 or 0 on the end, they win a prize. If not, they don't.
A bottle tombola is a very good way of making money if you can get people to give you the bottles - but you do have to make sure an adult is there for a child to collect a prize.
You probably do this in other countries, but just call it something else.
If I can be bothered i might just try to find out where the name came from.

rustycreakingdoorbear · 09/10/2006 16:15

OK, it comes from the Italian 'tombolare' meaning to tumble or fall upside down, presumably from when you 'tumble' the tickets to mix them.
If you're posh yoiu can have a tombola drum with a handle to turn it, but a box with a hole in the top does just as well.

You probably didn't want to know as much as this about Tombola.

franca70 · 09/10/2006 16:28

Tombola, one of my nonna's (grandma) favourite things at xmas. also being italian I don't find taxes particularly high in this country. sorry, I know this won't make me v. popular...