Boz-pot

Polishing the London Eye

@Boz-pot That... definitely sounds like a euphemism

In England we call them biscuits...unless Sister England was trying to make Sister America feel more comfortable by using US vernacular.

For a moment I thought Germany was spontaneously growing breasts!

@Boz-pot Same here

@Boz-pot

Your avatar's expression fits that perfectly

Iceland should have a pet hamster called Surtsey...or maybe just a pet rock.

@Boz-pot Or a pet demon.

@Boz-pot Yes! I was thinking the same thing

Aww, so cute! I hope Sister Denmark manages to get off with France.

Good for you, Sister Denmark! Experience is always a good thing.

Eww! I can't stand the Royal Family. *Yawn*

For a moment I thought England had smudged eyeliner. Now I realise they're bags from lack of sleep.

@Boz-pot with our obsession with drag, neither would be surprising

It's a shame because I love salad. In England you sometimes get a little salad garnish on the side, but most people don't eat it and it goes to waste. I suppose, therefore, that it's better if it is an optional extra so that salad isn't needlessly thrown away. Unfortunately, we're very much a salad-discarding nation, so I'm in a minority as somebody who enjoys, and has always eaten, salad.

Haha, I love how America's costume has to be a 'sexy' version of something,

@Boz-pot that was the most common costume the past few halloweens

I love 'Red Dwarf' and have been watching it since I was a kid. I never thought of it as being unsuitable.

@Boz-pot Me either. If it was done by HBO it would be ridiculously unsuitable for *anyone* to watch; but the boys from the Dwarf just play it for a laugh, yeah?

My own kids adore it, ha ha, as do I.

This one is extremely prosaic, but I have only recently realised that 'be there or be square' meant one wouldn't be 'around'.

Also, I was under the impression that the phrase meaning to be out in the middle of nowhere was 'in the Styx', because the Styx was the river leading to Hades and it was therefore difficult to get to and from without certain prerequisites i.e. being dead. It seems the phrase is actually 'in the sticks', meaning in the wilderness/deep in the countryside/somewhere remote - 'sticks' being a heavily wooded area.
I'm inclined to believe that my definition is more interesting.

In public I fit the British/English stereotype of being super polite and very nervous. I hate small talk and keep myself to myself, including preferring to sit alone on public transport. British people have a large sense of personal space and fear of upsetting others, and so many would rather stand than occupy a free seat right next to somebody. I like to remain fairly formal with strangers, though I always try to be friendly. However, in private with friends and family I am loud and exuberant, I laugh a lot (and I swear often). I'm a singer and so I love nothing more than performing on stage. I like coffee as well as tea and I drink alcohol but only in moderation, going against the British lager lout stereotype. I can't stand lager or beer, in fact. I also love salad and strong tasting, spicy food. I'm a vegetarian so I never eat Sunday roasts. I am not at all interested in sport. I don't wave flags (Union, St George or otherwise), I am not a royalist, and I'm not proud to be English/British, though I feel very English somehow. I also feel very European.

I'm glad to say I can speak French (up to a point - I'm rather rusty) and know a little of some other languages. Unfortunately, the vast majority of British people cannot speak other languages and don't care to learn them. Most of us are taught a bit of French, German and/or Spanish at school, but it's woefully inadequate. It saddens me how English is becoming the universal language because it makes us even lazier! Why should other countries be obliged to learn English but not the other way round?

In terms of my appearance I look a little bit like Sister Iceland would if she wore glasses, hence why I picked that avatar, though my hair is a little darker - maybe closer to Sweden's or Norway's*. I'm not sure if I look English because I'm not entirely sure what an English person looks like. We're so varied having been invaded or visited so many times by so many different people and so, genetically, we're a large mixture. I suppose I have stereotypically Nordic colouring, being blonde, blue-eyed and pale, but I'm also rather short. I was once told my face looks Dutch, and my mother is convinced I look Swedish.

*Naturally-blonde hair is usually a mixture of shades. Mine is various colours from platinum to a more golden colour.

Yay for sex-positivity!

Something about FennoSwede's grin reminds me of Joey Tribbiani from 'Friends'.

Haha, yes, this is all completely true! :P

Monty Python 'Pepperpots':
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-wv5priKrH5c/TY1kFxSw82I/AAAAAAAAAH4/5qlB1Djdx60/s1600/PepperpotsBattley.jpg

Benedict Cumberbatch:
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d4/7a/46/d47a46b7ca05b88f319b89d17ec4f9f0.jpg

@Boz-pot I...have no words for the 2nd one. Some men rock the drag look,but I really don't think Benedict's one of them.

I think Sister England looks accurate enough. She looks a bit like my mum.

I wish we could be a bit more like more like Denmark here in England.

The Siblings Finland find showering incredibly tedious.

Mmm...Hello, Sweden...! <3

@Boz-pot perfect avatar for that

I hate it so much when Community Orchestra people come in asking for spare instrumental parts and the parts don't exist. Where has all the spare music got to!? It keeps happening and it makes me look so incompetent when I can't provide anything.

@Boz-pot

Blame Babbage and his crusade.

Ah, go on, then...

R_____

@Boz-pot here are a few guesses;
Rachel?
Rachna?
Rakeem?
Rizwan?
Rosine?

@SpikeylovesSatW
Unfortunately, none of those. Though it does end in an A.

Dear students visiting the library,

Please come to the side of the counter at which I am sitting. What is the point of standing at the side where there is no librarian to serve you. It's not that I'm too lazy to get up and come to you, it's simply I don't understand your logic (or lack of it).

Also, when I am busy away from the counter, RING THE DAMN BELL! Don't just stand pointlessly because I don't know you're there.

Sincerely,
Bored Music Librarian (who wishes they could be doing more singing instead).

Dear bloke on the bus,

I know you are bigger than me, but that is no excuse to attempt the largest example of leg-spreading I have ever seen and take up one and a half seats. I do not appreciate being pressed up against the window because you are incapable of keeping your legs closed.

Sincerely,
Little squashed person in the other seat

Regarding bonfire night: Why, when we are celebrating something not getting blown up, do we blow things up? Is it something to do with the British sense of irony?

@Boz-pot And why do you burn Guy Fawkes? He was never the brains behind the operation, he was basically just hired muscle.

@kamakrazee_warboy
I know. Personally, I have never liked the idea of burning effigies of anyone, and Guy Fawkes was merely the scapegoat. It's all rather horrible.

This year an effigy of our Prime Minister is being burned. The man is total scum, but I still don't like the idea of burning things.

@Boz-pot

I always suspected Britain was trying to copy America's 4th of July, but perhaps I'm just being nationalistic

And assuming the fireworks didn't become popular prior to 1776

I'm generally speaking not at all interested in Hallowe'en (or any festivals, really), and I find the idea of Trick or Treat disgusting. However, I have been invited to the party of a friend I haven't seen in months, so I am going. Costumes are compulsory, so I'm dressing as The Silent Singer from 'Psychoville', a dark comedy series by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, who were two of the creators of the equally dark 'The League of Gentlemen'.

I did want a tragus piercing.

@Boz-pot

How did you decide that? I always found it a little odd that a lot of women won't ever consider something like a tattoo, but piercings are almost universally accepted; I wonder how the double standard arose.

(I'm not criticising, just wondering aloud)

@EnglishCheeseMan
Oh, I'd been thinking about it on and off for a while. I already have three piercings in one lobe, two in the other and one in the nose, and having the tragus as well was an excuse to wear more jewellery (altogether a combination of long earrings and studs), I suppose. I have no intention of having any other body parts pierced, however.

Personally, I am not interested in tattoos. Obviously a piercing will leave a small scar if left to heal up, but otherwise the jewellery can be removed or changed. One cannot remove or change a tattoo without spending a great deal of money, which I don't have. Also, I think I might become bored by the design, or annoyed if it were imperfect in some way. If I had a tattoo it would be something small and discreet like a treble clef or a cat's pawprint, but I simply lack the desire to be inked. I can't say I've noticed the double standard you mention. I know many women who are both pierced and tattooed, and there seems to be an increase in tattooing throughout all genders. I was thinking about the cause of this and, aside from it being fashionable at present, maybe tattoos and piercings are more common now because they are no longer indicative of any particular lifestyle or group (e.g. Goths, Punks, or Hell's Angels*). These days anybody can decide to have one without question. I feel as if I chose to be pierced for personal reasons rather than fashion, because I never consciously follow fashion. However, I do believe in the possibility of being at the mercy of the so-called Collective Unconscious, so maybe it's the power of suggestion instead. In either case I have no regrets and am looking forward to being able to wear a little treble clef tragus stud in the not too distant future.

I'm curious to know why you consider it a double standard - why do you equate piercings with tattoos? Yes, they're both forms of body-modification, but are otherwise quite different. Many women have a single set of lobe piercings but not even the slightest desire for a tattoo. Or is it simply that because I have more than one pair of piercings you might assume I was also intending to be tattooed?

*I have nothing against these groups; they were merely examples of people who have traditionally undergone a lot of body-modification.

@Boz-pot

Since both were permanent (more or less) body modifications using needles. Like coming from a Jewish background, it was (and is) still very taboo to get tattoos, but people never really object to piercings, so maybe I'm noticing a specific cultural bias from my community.

EDIT: The 2nd part of my question wasn't really with you in mind in particular, but just generally. As someone with no body modification, I wondered why seemingly across multiple cultures, people often seemed deeply repulsed by tattoos, but ear rings are just totally normal; they always seemed like similar things to me...

@EnglishCheeseMan
I understand your logic, but I think you must be correct regarding cultural bias. Are multiple piercings acceptable in your community?

I am from a non-specific background, so I haven't had the same kinds of experiences as you in terms of cultural expectations. In my experience it's more down to personal preference than anything else. Personally, I don't much care for most tattoos and also dislike the idea of having a very large number of piercings, and particularly if they're on areas of the body other than the ears or the side of the nose. I'd never have my eyebrow, septum, or tongue pierced, for example, never mind anywhere else! But that's just my taste. Some of my friends are decorated in various ways; others are not. I know you weren't specifically referring to me, but I'm afraid I honestly couldn't say why people react differently, unless it is that, wrongly or rightly, tattoos are considered more permanent than piercings. It could also be the subject matter of the artwork which provokes dislike in some cases.

All I've noticed is a general growing acceptance for body-modification over the last decade or so, including some fads (the so-called 'tramp stamp' tattoo, or the 'helix' - a piercing at the top of the pinna). It's almost become the norm within certain demographics, to have at least one tattoo.

160cm (5'3").
I've always wanted to be 5'2", but alas, I got to 16 and grew that tiny bit more.

Size 37 (UK 4).

Not my native language, but it amuses me that in French the word for 'bitch' (salope) and 'dungarees' (salopettes) are so similar. "Tu est une salopette" sounds like an insult, but it isn't.