English culture

Spotted Dick pudding? Is this a sexually transmitted disease?

[QUOTE=owenwarland]Spotted Dick pudding? Is this a sexually transmitted disease?[/QUOTE]
you wish. It's a tasteless blob of a pudding.

[QUOTE=owenwarland]Spotted Dick pudding? Is this a sexually transmitted disease?[/QUOTE]
joking aside, spotted dick is a suet pudding containing currants. see recipe below for further explanation.

Hey Trypt, Snowy says it's a bland pudding and then you give a recipe. My question to you and Snowy is: is this stuff worth making? And eating?

Why must everything be so dreary?

Does the entire country appear as if it were created by Edward Gorey?

Is there a stage between super-sexy british accents and nasal-sounding british accents?

how does the english public feel about The Auteurs & Black Box Recorder?

[QUOTE=owenwarland]Hey Trypt, Snowy says it's a bland pudding and then you give a recipe. My question to you and Snowy is: is this stuff worth making? And eating?[/QUOTE]
I don't see the big deal about it to be honest. It's a very old recepe.

[QUOTE=Capo]Why must everything be so dreary?

Does the entire country appear as if it were created by Edward Gorey?

Is there a stage between super-sexy british accents and nasal-sounding british accents?[/QUOTE]
If you were refering to the weather, shame on you.

Although Edward Gorey's stuff was brill, I'd say it's more Beano, unfortunately.

Yes, there is, it's called being born in Croydon.

[QUOTE=Wesley Sonck]how does the english public feel about The Auteurs & Black Box Recorder?[/QUOTE]
Not much. When they appeared on the scene, shitty English bands like Five and the Spice Girls were stealing all the limelights. You may be able to find one of their songs on VH1, however.

Hey Snowy, explain this whole English boarding school thing to me. In elaborate detail, as I'm curious how one compares to an American public school.

I'm not sure where to start. They're more lenient that you'd think. The final year's more like college. We have a different boarding house to the rest of the school, and it's mixed. No mixed dorms, i'm afraid.

I wake up around 7:50 and had to walk down a floor in my towel to the showers- which is pretty crap. Breakfast starts from around 7:30 and they stop serving at 8:15 in the big dining hall. Lessons start at 8:45, so if I'm really tired I sometimes wake up at 8:30 and skip breakfast.
First break is around 11, and then it's back to lessons at 11:45. They go on until about 1. Then there's a big lunch break for just over an hour. Then it's 'games', which in literal terms means either jolly hockeysticks/free time (to get out of school)/or doing manual labour, like looking after the surrounding nature, like flowers, or asking to ride the one horse with the most massive 'dog.'
Then there's another break which is a little shorter than the others, then two more lessons till 5:30. After that, it's just hanging around till dinner. All week i've just eaten marmite sandwiches as there's nothing else, really.
We're allowed to hang around in the boy's dorms till roughly about 9:30 or 10, then we've got to go back to our own one's for 10:30. There's no exact lights out, thank god.

I share a room. You can have your own room, but most people opt for a two. Maximum is three, as you really wouldn't want more than that, especially with all the exams. Outside my room, which has a stupid slanting roof (so I sometimes bang my head in the mornings) is a tiny toilet where they really need to fix the light. It's like some sort of weird strobe effect they've got going.
The corridors are long and rabbit-warren like. Very Shining-esque.

Anything i've missed?

Tell me about East End, and, if you can, the tube stop that might take you there from a nicer London School say.

It's for a story.

The east end is pretty vast...

[QUOTE=SnowWhite]The east end is pretty vast...[/QUOTE]

All right, just tell me some tube stop names in the west end and some in the East End.

And are they on the same line?

How does that work in the Underground? The line system and such.

[url]http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/tubemap/default.asp[/url]

Thanks.

I'd still not mind a personal tube account though.

What's a marmite sandwich, Snowy?

There are lots of different lines.

Leicester Square: big tourist attraction in west end. Here you'd find lots of cinemas, and hell of a lot of chinese restaurants. Tottenham Crt Rd is also very cool, and is in the West: some good comic places and book shops there.
Bethnal Green/Mile End: very east London, where the Krays grew up and knifed loads of people.
Canary Wharf is even further to the east, but it's a different sort of place: where all the big business people work. The skyline's sort of impressive too.
----
Marmite is a very English spread which is made up of yeast etc. You're supposed to spread it very thinly on toast or bread as it's a very strong taste. It looks like tar, but is very yummy. Foreigners hate it.

Have any idea where I can find a recipe for marmite?

when I've finished making Jody and Pooka their parcels i'll send you some.

[QUOTE=SnowWhite]when I've finished making Jody and Pooka their parcels i'll send you some.[/QUOTE]

You are definitely the Kindest Cultist.

[QUOTE=owenwarland]Hey Trypt, Snowy says it's a bland pudding and then you give a recipe. My question to you and Snowy is: is this stuff worth making? And eating?[/QUOTE]
my nan loves the stuff. good with custard, apparently. i'm not a dried fruits/fruit cake fan, so I wouldn't know.
Someone should give you the recipe for black pudding

I can't stand fruitcake. Frigging disgusting.
Everyone always forgets about the best of Brit cooking, like Yorkshire Puddings...

[QUOTE=SnowWhite]There are lots of different lines.

Leicester Square: big tourist attraction in west end. Here you'd find lots of cinemas, and hell of a lot of chinese restaurants. Tottenham Crt Rd is also very cool, and is in the West: some good comic places and book shops there.
Bethnal Green/Mile End: very east London, where the Krays grew up and knifed loads of people.
Canary Wharf is even further to the east, but it's a different sort of place: where all the big business people work. The skyline's sort of impressive too.
----
Marmite is a very English spread which is made up of yeast etc. You're supposed to spread it very thinly on toast or bread as it's a very strong taste. It looks like tar, but is very yummy. Foreigners hate it.[/QUOTE]

Thanks much.

[QUOTE=owenwarland]Have any idea where I can find a recipe for marmite?[/QUOTE]
you don't make it yourself, it comes in a jar (like peanut butter). they have it in australia too, i think, called vegemite. (i only know this as I watch too much Neighbours)

[B][edit][/B] quick look on [URL=http://www.marmite.com/marmite/ingred.html]the website[/URL] reveals the ingredients to be:
[I]Yeast Extract, Salt, Vegetable Extract, Niacin, Thiamin, Spice Extracts, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12[/I]

the brits brought us jarvis cocker, so desperately underappreciated in the states, and for that, i am forever grateful.

[QUOTE=Capo]Why must everything be so dreary?

Does the entire country appear as if it were created by Edward Gorey?

Is there a stage between super-sexy british accents and nasal-sounding british accents?[/QUOTE]
thing is, edward gorey was from from cape cod, massachusetts. i always thought that was strange.

[QUOTE=vidalia]the brits brought us jarvis cocker, so desperately underappreciated in the states, and for that, i am forever grateful.[/QUOTE]
He's underappreciated here too.

[img]http://www.lis.net.au/~gemma/pictures/jarvis69.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=SnowWhite]He's underappreciated here too.

[img]http://www.lis.net.au/~gemma/pictures/jarvis69.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
great picture of him! i'm a lyric nut and he really does it for me (i am not jesus, but i have the same initials, etc etc)

It makes me happy that overseas people are into Pulp. I'm up for a Pulp appreciation group... Maybe Wes would too...

[QUOTE=SnowWhite]It makes me happy that overseas people are into Pulp. I'm up for a Pulp appreciation group... Maybe Wes would too...[/QUOTE]
i've loved them ever since they showed up on a mix tape from a friend about seven years ago. they're extremely prolific, so there's lots to love. they're pompous, grandstanding, overly dramatic, extremely wonderful to sing to, and i love them. i also find that i can't help but sing along in jarvis's accent. it's like they're not the same words if you don't. there's some shower singing songs - how about "do you remember the first time?"

oh, and one question - are they very very popular in england, or were they ever? i never got a sense, but some people told me they were huge. now that i think of it, maybe it was common people 8 years ago i heard first - they played a free concert in a park here, but people acted like they were just a novelty band.

Where do you live?

They were never huge exactly, but they've always had a decent following. Not the same size as Oasis or Blur, more like the same level as something like Travis... perhaps a little bigger circa Disco 2000 and Common People. I think it was more a case of people really liking their singles but never buying their albums.

Do You Remember the First Time is a great song. Perhaps my favourite. Actually, I could never make that definite, as I have a new favourite Pulp song every three weeks...

[QUOTE=SnowWhite]Where do you live?

They were never huge exactly, but they've always had a decent following. Not the same size as Oasis or Blur, more like the same level as something like Travis... perhaps a little bigger circa Disco 2000 and Common People. I think it was more a case of people really liking their singles but never buying their albums.

Do You Remember the First Time is a great song. Perhaps my favourite. Actually, I could never make that definite, as I have a new favourite Pulp song every three weeks...[/QUOTE]
i'm in NEW england. that was a funny video, with all those famous people singing about losin' it. i really like "love love" and "dishes." and "pencil skirt" puts me right in the mood... i love how jarvis makes his little moan sound like the crack of a coke can in "common people." your thoughts on cinerama?

[QUOTE=SnowWhite]It makes me happy that overseas people are into Pulp. I'm up for a Pulp appreciation group... Maybe Wes would too...[/QUOTE]

I've liked Pulp for the longest of all the bands I like, they're so refined.

If you have any questions on the following, I can answer them, I think my English experience has been a little different from Snow's:

Yorkshire
The Seaside
Council Estates and the hilarious residents thereof
Buses
Shopping in Leeds
Avoiding ruffians in Hull
Spiders
Old People
Hospitals

Hey, maybe I could ask you about Leeds, Vendetta? I'm going to look around Leeds Met University. Do you know anything about it?

As a University it's awful don't go. You know what's a better University? All of them, seriously. At Leeds Met the choice of degree is limited at best and the atmosphere is more like that of a college. It's good that it's near the centre and all the shops and resaurants and stuff, but if you want to go to university in the city there are better choices for the grades you need to get to go to Leeds Met.

Hull University is really nice, great accomodation, but the city isn't great, Leeds University is full of spoiled types and meatheads. At Leeds you can do a straight Creative writing degree but at Met you can only do stuff like English and history. It's LAME.

It's just that I saw a Film Production course so I thought, cool...Leeds.