rosiedoes | Entries tagged with britain

So, I'm watching a programme about houses - people relocating from the city to the country - and all the woman who's hosting it can think of is alcohol.

"Perfect for a G&T in the evening!"

"Loads of space for wine storage!"

"Excellent built in wine rack!"

"Just down the road from the country's largest wine cellar!"

I hate that. It feels like sometimes this country runs and is driven by alcohol, and the single-minded urge to get as trolleyed as possible all the time. In this country, if you say you don't drink, people look at you like you've just told them you have a predilection for zoophilia. Most people don't even understand the concept of straight edge - even once you've explained it to them. We have programmes specifically studying binge-drinking culture in the UK and enough material for them to run series' called things like "Binge Britain".

Yes, I understand that in our past we lived on mead and ales because the water wasn't safe to drink, but fucking hell. It's the 21st century! We need to move on, now.

It's fucking embarrassing to be British, sometimes.

A year on, eh? Can't believe it's gone so fast... Like many people on my flist I'm going to link to

tyrell's list of quotes from the day - I think three of my own are in there, in fact - and just say well done, England. Well done, London. We coped spectacularly on that day and really made me proud to be among you. The total absence of hysteria, the strength and dry humour we displayed as a nation is a real inspiration; I don't often feel this way, but it was an honour to be British (for all my varied heritage, and my insistence that I am English, rather than British, that day - and in the weeks that followed - I did feel part of a greater whole).

We held a two-minutes silence outside our building, at noon - the whole street and St. John Square was packed with people just standing; remembering. There was a little feel of unity, again - an echo of the blitz spirit people talked of at the time.

So, here's to Britain and all its brave, stoic and hardy residents - both those who survived, and those who died: cheers!

Alan Titchmarsh's The British Isles: A Natural History - which is literally that: a historical nature program on the British Isles - always makes me cry.

It's a nature program!

It's just that I love Britain so much - our countryside and our history - that sometimes I'm awed by it. I wonder why I want to leave so much. It wasn't long ago that I couldn't imagine even holidaying outside of the British Isles. I wanted to explore it and get to know the land - I've already seen an awful lot of it, having been in the ATC and travelling around to other cities so much in my teens.

I'm proud to be English; I am.

But I'm also proud of my Canadian, Sicilian and Lakota heritage. I'd like to go to Wounded Knee, one day. I've already lived in Sicily. And now, I'm gradually finding out about my ancestors in Ontario. I want to visit there, too, but I think it's too remote for my city-slicker roots to live there permanently.

So, Vancouver it is. Where you can see the mountains and the sea at the same time.

Can anywhere be more perfect for me?

This Is Not A Democracy

Entries tagged with britain

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One Year On.

Land of my Fathers.

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