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Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: GarandMarine on 08 Jan 2014, 16:34

Title: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: GarandMarine on 08 Jan 2014, 16:34
Quote from: Barmymoo on 08 Jan 2014, 11:22
I live in a dry village! I also live in a working men's social club, aka a pub. Britain: full of contradictions since 1066.

I'd ask why you'd live in such a hellish place, but since there's a bar downstairs it's pretty clear no one else would want to either.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Barmymoo on 09 Jan 2014, 09:01
It's a lovely place, and there's a very good pub just a few minutes' walk away in the next village. This one was built by Quakers for their employees to live in, and Quakers don't drink. Plus the social club isn't a bar, it's a small, quiet pub-type place. It's always silent by midnight and usually quiet on weeknights.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: GarandMarine on 09 Jan 2014, 09:15
The next village is a few minutes WALK away?

The mind, she boggles!
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Barmymoo on 09 Jan 2014, 09:30
It's not really a village exactly, it's weird. It's a section of the outskirts of the city, but there's a definite difference between the two areas. British cities are kind of different from American ones, they grew organically so they can be a bit odd.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 09 Jan 2014, 10:49
As an example, I live in Walkley, the villages of Crookes, Upperthorpe, Stannington and the town of Hillsborough are all a few minutes walk from my house and all of them are in the city of Sheffield which has over 130 identifiable neighbourhoods. These can be towns, villages, parishes, roads and districts.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Barmymoo on 10 Jan 2014, 08:19
Yeah, I meant to add that in places which aren't odd village-like suburbs of large cities, villages are still only a few minutes' walk apart quite often. You've got to remember that you could fit the whole of England into the state of Michigan (if you chopped it up and reorganised the bits).
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: GarandMarine on 10 Jan 2014, 09:37
Takes us back to that old quote "In America a 100 years is a long time, and in the U.K. a 100 miles is a long drive"
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 13 Jan 2014, 06:13
Of course part of the problem with being such a small country is that occasionally villages grow so big that they connect to the neighbouring one. This leads to this sort of thing.

(click to show/hide)

At this point I feel compelled to suggest that the next passing mod should probably excise a portion of this thread to the English is Weird thread as being far more appropriate for posts that have veered a little bit away from Whiskey.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: BeoPuppy on 13 Jan 2014, 06:19
Probably a lot of work, maintaining that lake.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Barmymoo on 13 Jan 2014, 10:26
My mum and stepdad live near the Welsh border. At one point, Wales had a law against pubs serving alcohol on Sundays, but England didn't. One of the pubs was right on the border, with the result that the front room was in one country and the back was in the other. At midnight on Saturday, the drinkers simply moved into the English room and continued to drink (this may be apocryphal, but I love the story!).
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: celticgeek on 13 Jan 2014, 10:44
There is another story, probably also apocryphal, about pubs having to close at midnight.  However, they opened for the next day's business promptly at 12:05 AM. so the drinkers merely had to go outside for a few minutes. 
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Carl-E on 13 Jan 2014, 11:35
Just long enough to clear away the empties and change the register tape for the next day's business...
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 13 Jan 2014, 14:57
The Lion of Llanymynech.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanymynech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanymynech)
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: GarandMarine on 13 Jan 2014, 15:01
Quote from: celticgeek on 13 Jan 2014, 10:44
There is another story, probably also apocryphal, about pubs having to close at midnight.  However, they opened for the next day's business promptly at 12:05 AM. so the drinkers merely had to go outside for a few minutes.

I would totally do that.

"Alright you lot, bar's closed! Out on the streets all of you!"
*locks door, checks watch, unlocks door*
"Good morning folks, we are now open for Breakfast service"
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 13 Jan 2014, 15:52
I have had a full Scottish breakfast at 1am with all the "trimmings". Awesome.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Thrillho on 14 Jan 2014, 01:02
I was at a pub in Oxford the other night called the Three Goats, and they closed at 11.30pm. On a Friday night. Literally were taking the drinks out of people's hands. ON A FRIDAY NIGHT.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Barmymoo on 14 Jan 2014, 11:56
My new local seems pretty awesome. I've only been in once, but I know it to have a food menu which includes, in addition to all the usual pub food, five vegan options (FIVE! That is more than the local vegan cafe!) and has a back room with an open fire. In the summer, apparently, it hosts a beach party in the beer garden by covering the patio with sand and putting up palm trees for the local children. Every two months it has a family-friendly comedy night (family-friendly not meaning "pitched at children" aka "moronically stupid" but simply "not crude and insulting") and although I am not an expert in such things, the drinks range seems pretty good. I'm looking forward to going there in the first week of February when my friend comes to visit - he is a big fan of beer and meat, neither of which he will find in my flat.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 14 Jan 2014, 16:21
What's on the taps
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Grognard on 14 Jan 2014, 19:46
one of these years....
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Barmymoo on 15 Jan 2014, 07:16
I shall check out the taps and report back.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: GarandMarine on 15 Jan 2014, 07:25
Good, May's going in as recon, and I'll assault by fire once she identifies a clear path.

By recon I mean "saving a table" and by "assault by fire" I mean drinking at least one keg dry.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Barmymoo on 15 Jan 2014, 08:53
You may well be able to assault by fire by the fire, if I get a good table.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 15 Jan 2014, 09:45
GM, I challenge you to drink dry a keg of Russian Imperial Stout before you expect May to do so with any other ale.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Barmymoo on 15 Jan 2014, 09:48
It takes me one glass of wine to get tipsy and one bottle of cider to get drunk, one keg of anything at all would kill me.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: GarandMarine on 15 Jan 2014, 10:32
The keg is for me, May's just checking for flankers.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 15 Jan 2014, 10:36
The challenge stands.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: BeoPuppy on 15 Jan 2014, 11:18
Being drunk is boring anyway.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: GarandMarine on 15 Jan 2014, 13:46
Quote from: The Seldom Killer on 15 Jan 2014, 10:36
The challenge stands.

The volume's the only issue, the booze is not.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Grognard on 15 Jan 2014, 18:23
gheez.
I'd be a freaking casualty (comatose, drooling on the floor) pretty damn quick.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: ChaoSera on 17 Jan 2014, 02:44
Whole England can be weird. You drive on the wrong side of the road, for god's sake. :psyduck:
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: Barmymoo on 17 Jan 2014, 08:26
We drive on the correct side - if we drove on the other side, the wheel would be on the wrong side of the car.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: pwhodges on 17 Jan 2014, 08:31
And we'd meet all those cars coming the other way.
Title: Re: English villages: pretty weird sometimes
Post by: The Seldom Killer on 17 Jan 2014, 10:51
All those road signs at roundabouta would be useleas too. I'll concede that it does happen occaisionally but it's pretty rare and usually involves drugs or psychosis.