Why yes, it is a mini travel journal. Only broken down in handy bullets. Cause this is the internet. And the internet loves lists. 

  • Raincoats have the unique ability to make rain go away by the mere act of fishing them out of a backpack and putting them on. Removing the raincoat will make it rain again. The same applies for sunglasses and the appearance of the sun.
  •  The sound of the sea retreating from a pebble beach is really quite awesome.
  • The National Trust, quite like the mafia, has a tendency to make offers you can’t refuse. Unlike the mafia, failure to comply will not result in a bullet to the head, but in a constant harassing and the need to pay money to see things that are out in an open field.
  • The British not only have ‘slow down’ signs for the elderly, children, badgers and dog walkers, but also for kittens.

kittenssign

  • Being ‘invited to donate’ is another way of saying you have to pay. There’s really no invitation there.
  • The British roundabouts and inner city road signs systems are an enigma and are meant to confuse and befuddle the weary tourist for the amusement of locals.
  • People will wear crocs and flip flops *anywhere* including up tall cliffs.
  • British Trivial Pursuit is extremely Britain-centred. I’m talking TV shows from the fifties that never made it outside the country (I still won though).
  • The British are fairly gallant in traffic, to the point where it confuses more ‘active’ drivers from other countries.
  • Larger book stores now have a ‘supernatural romance’ shelf. This is not Sam and Dean fanfic, but the classic genre of trashy romance novels (the kind with painted portrait of bare-chested, long haired hunk clutching a woman on a windswept heath on the cover), only with vampires and werewolves. Vampire porn is now officially a literary genre. I blame Twilight.
  • Students at some British colleges are not content to merely get drunk a lot and study occasionally. They have Traditions. Like walking backwards for an hour when the clocks change. This is considered grand and quite possibly elitist, not merely quirky.
  • There is a Secret Chain of undercover fast food restaurants operating in Britain. They buy large old pubs and turn them into affiliates, without ever changing the name of the old pub, or displaying the big brand name anywhere. But we’re on to them, oh yes. Because they’re too cheap to change their menus from town to town.
  • Conveyor belt sushi is an awesome invention, and entirely not British.
  • Being woken up by a fire alarm is definitely not awesome.
  • Dogs are either stupidly enthusiastic, or just plain stupid. Playing fetch with pebbles on a pebble beach is an idea so idiotic I can’t wrap my head around it. But the dog seems to enjoy it.