Thursday 30 August 2007

England

As a Belgian with an English girlfriend, I feel I should write something about her home country.
England isn't exactly a beach holiday destination due to the weather issue, but it's still one of my favourite places to go to for holidays or short breaks and this for the following reasons :

I cannot say no to a full English breakfast. Eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomato, black pudding --more on the puddings later--, sausages, beans and some other ingredients if you wish.
The traditional "fish and chips" isn't really "haute cuisine" but it's a "must do" when you visit England.
It still is a mystery to me why the English call everything "pudding" or "pie". As a Belgian, the words pudding or pie bring a complete different picture to my mind. Sweet things like cake pop up. Not for the English though. Some examples : "Yorkshire pudding", "Sheppard's pie,"steak and ale pie", "Fish pie", "steak and kidney pudding", to name a few.
Another strange name for a dish (and not very appealing) is "toad in the hole". God knows where they got that name from.

Another thing I like is the English sence of humor. Not all of it is
distinguised (see Benny Hill), but I've always been a fan of Monty Python just to name one of the great programs I watched on the BBC in my younger days.

The English traditions are also worth mentioning of course. Like the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace in London. The double deck buses, the old taxi's and so on.
It was quite an experience for me when I drove on the left side of the road for the first time. But I managed quite well. I was only honked at once lol. I drove all the way up from Dover to Newcastle.

Should you ever visit Newcastle, I have one good piece of advice for you. Be careful with the local beer called "Brown Ale". I tried it once and they didn't warn me it also works as a laxative ;-).

3 comments:

justmedebs said...

Sometimes I wonder if I was chosen because of the lure of full English breakfasts ^o):p I would also like to add a small piece about these. We found a place along the road here in Belgium that serves full English breakfasts, complete with English sausages(also known as 'bangers'), which are Rudi's favourites. One day we went there and Rudi was extremely upset when his breakfast turned up with normal Belgian sausages on it.He was still chuntering about it when we got into the car. He said to me...it says 'badgers' on the menu so they have to give you badgers!!!! I just burst into laughter and explained to him his mistake. I really think he would worry if he had a badger on his plate!!!Maybe I'll share some more of his funny little language mistakes with you all later ;)

Rudi said...

That was a comment from my English girlfriend if you hadn't already guessed lol. She likes to make fun of my language mistakes. I'm not native english if you didn't already know. Good thing I love her so much isn't it ;-)

Anonymous said...

well i got to say im from england to and i know rudi and debs and have met them both got to say lovely peeps they are but rudi lol well i once spoke to him and for the word three he would say tree lol its not easy been from another country and trying to work out all the diff accents but got to say your gettin there rudi lol