So Have you planned you itinerary yet?
Anglosphere
When you do go to Forks, go in July. The average July temperature down in Forks, WA is 68F/49F (20C/9C). Don't come in November, as it's cold 50F/37F, and rains 7 times as much as London (16 inches.)
I look forward to going over to America eventually but as yet no itinerary is planned and nor is an actual visit but rest assured I WILL make it across the Puddle sometime in the future.
Apart from short hops across to the near Continent (which can't really be considered "abroad" in British terms really can it?) my only definitely booked foreign trip at present is one to Libya in November. It's one I was inveigled/enticed into by two mates of mine (both English guys) who are into Roman Archaeology in a big way and Libya is littered with Roman sites as you may well know...Carthage being one of them ...it's just an eight full day break which is fine by me and by then Libya should have cooled down a lot, which is more than can be said for London at the present time - the UK is experiencing an official "heatwave" by British standards with temps reaching 28C/32C - hot for us wilting British blooms.
I dropped in at our local Homebase and bought two electric fans which they delivered to my place.....no aircon and I keep all the windows wide open and try to ignore the noise coming from the Upper Richmond Road, the District Line tube trains as the underground is overground here in Putney and, worst of all, the constant air traffic overhead on its descending flight path to Heathrow airport. As a city lad I am used to extraneous noise (my family home is not far from Edinburgh Airport) but here in London it's really something else!
Washingtonian: thanks for your guidance....I looked up Forks Wa and assume that that's where you live. A city with just 3k+ people living there? Americans seem to call every community a "city" even though it's boundary signposts are virtually back to back!
Here in the UK a city is mostly defined as such only when it is a major conurbation of high population density (eg London, of course, which is a special case anyway - or Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, etc - which all have cathedrals anyway). A place is a city in ecclesiastic terms, when it has a cathedral and is the focal point of a diocese.
Even the smallest of such places is officially called a city as long as it has a cathedral in the full ecclesiastical sense...eg Dunblane, in Scotland, is one such - it has a cathedral and a further claim to distinction is the fact that it is the home of our current Wimbledon tennis star Andy Murray, and has a population of just 10k or so.
America is a vast country and it'd take me aeons to get round it all - but if Stephen Fry can get to every State then theoretically so could I but in practice - no chance. He had the time and got paid for it - I don't and I wouldn't. In any case how many Americans have visited every single one of their own States? Very few I would guess - here in the UK we are under the impression that a substantial number of Americans have never even left the bounds of their own home State, something difficut for most of us to imagine really.
Anyway, I will keep Forks WA in mind........as I will Las Cruces NM and Reno NV.....thanks for all your comments and information, Uriel and Jasper.....I really don't think many Brits actually realise just how hospitable and welcoming Americans generally are as a people until they go there, as Stephen Fry did. Throughout his series on TV he never stopped singing the praises of all the people he met in all of those 50 States on this very issue during his travels.
Jasper - I actually have experience of a desert region - in Egypt - travelling down the entire length of the country down along the amazing Nile Valley, from Alexandria all the way down to Aswan. A very, very narrow green and fertile strip on both sides of that river, with the hot desert sands on either side with just one single step separating one from the other. Again the trip was made in the company of my two mates from the Archaeology group who have probably been to every single Roman site in the British Isles - but of course in Egypt it was the Ancient Egyptian Dynasties we were concerned with.
Of course the UK and any desert terrain are about as opposite ends of the landscape spectrum as it's possible to get.....that's why so many of us feel added sorrow when our military guys have their lives ended so suddenly in the hostile and hot burning sands of places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Uriel - when I ring your doorbell I will be wearing my very own clan kilt and as further means of ID I will yell out "Molesworth" rolling the R in my distinct Edinburgh Scottish accent, hoping that will be sufficient to be allowed over your threshhold.
I, like many Brits, have been told that our accents (but we have so many and some are anything but nice, guys...honest!) will be some kind of passport to an added American welcome over there......I can't really get my head round that one to be honest with you, guys. I'm not sure that I wouldn't find it a wee bit embarrassing really.....it's nothing special after all is it?
Brits don't really have long chats with fellow train travellers even on long journeys - unless they know them of course......most just sit down in their seats and follow various occupations......staring out of the windows, snoozing, reading a book, magazine or newspaper, doing a crossword or other puzzle, working or surfing the laptop, eating and drinking, or constantly getting up to go to the loo and disturbing who ever is sitting on the outside of them. Annoyingly some use their mobiles and when people use their mobiles they invariably do so at top decibels but woe betide them if they do this in the carriages in which the use of mobiles is (officially) banned! Then you can be sure at least one Brit will speak to them and not in a very pleasant way either in many cases!
Apart from short hops across to the near Continent (which can't really be considered "abroad" in British terms really can it?) my only definitely booked foreign trip at present is one to Libya in November. It's one I was inveigled/enticed into by two mates of mine (both English guys) who are into Roman Archaeology in a big way and Libya is littered with Roman sites as you may well know...Carthage being one of them ...it's just an eight full day break which is fine by me and by then Libya should have cooled down a lot, which is more than can be said for London at the present time - the UK is experiencing an official "heatwave" by British standards with temps reaching 28C/32C - hot for us wilting British blooms.
I dropped in at our local Homebase and bought two electric fans which they delivered to my place.....no aircon and I keep all the windows wide open and try to ignore the noise coming from the Upper Richmond Road, the District Line tube trains as the underground is overground here in Putney and, worst of all, the constant air traffic overhead on its descending flight path to Heathrow airport. As a city lad I am used to extraneous noise (my family home is not far from Edinburgh Airport) but here in London it's really something else!
Washingtonian: thanks for your guidance....I looked up Forks Wa and assume that that's where you live. A city with just 3k+ people living there? Americans seem to call every community a "city" even though it's boundary signposts are virtually back to back!
Here in the UK a city is mostly defined as such only when it is a major conurbation of high population density (eg London, of course, which is a special case anyway - or Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, etc - which all have cathedrals anyway). A place is a city in ecclesiastic terms, when it has a cathedral and is the focal point of a diocese.
Even the smallest of such places is officially called a city as long as it has a cathedral in the full ecclesiastical sense...eg Dunblane, in Scotland, is one such - it has a cathedral and a further claim to distinction is the fact that it is the home of our current Wimbledon tennis star Andy Murray, and has a population of just 10k or so.
America is a vast country and it'd take me aeons to get round it all - but if Stephen Fry can get to every State then theoretically so could I but in practice - no chance. He had the time and got paid for it - I don't and I wouldn't. In any case how many Americans have visited every single one of their own States? Very few I would guess - here in the UK we are under the impression that a substantial number of Americans have never even left the bounds of their own home State, something difficut for most of us to imagine really.
Anyway, I will keep Forks WA in mind........as I will Las Cruces NM and Reno NV.....thanks for all your comments and information, Uriel and Jasper.....I really don't think many Brits actually realise just how hospitable and welcoming Americans generally are as a people until they go there, as Stephen Fry did. Throughout his series on TV he never stopped singing the praises of all the people he met in all of those 50 States on this very issue during his travels.
Jasper - I actually have experience of a desert region - in Egypt - travelling down the entire length of the country down along the amazing Nile Valley, from Alexandria all the way down to Aswan. A very, very narrow green and fertile strip on both sides of that river, with the hot desert sands on either side with just one single step separating one from the other. Again the trip was made in the company of my two mates from the Archaeology group who have probably been to every single Roman site in the British Isles - but of course in Egypt it was the Ancient Egyptian Dynasties we were concerned with.
Of course the UK and any desert terrain are about as opposite ends of the landscape spectrum as it's possible to get.....that's why so many of us feel added sorrow when our military guys have their lives ended so suddenly in the hostile and hot burning sands of places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Uriel - when I ring your doorbell I will be wearing my very own clan kilt and as further means of ID I will yell out "Molesworth" rolling the R in my distinct Edinburgh Scottish accent, hoping that will be sufficient to be allowed over your threshhold.
I, like many Brits, have been told that our accents (but we have so many and some are anything but nice, guys...honest!) will be some kind of passport to an added American welcome over there......I can't really get my head round that one to be honest with you, guys. I'm not sure that I wouldn't find it a wee bit embarrassing really.....it's nothing special after all is it?
Brits don't really have long chats with fellow train travellers even on long journeys - unless they know them of course......most just sit down in their seats and follow various occupations......staring out of the windows, snoozing, reading a book, magazine or newspaper, doing a crossword or other puzzle, working or surfing the laptop, eating and drinking, or constantly getting up to go to the loo and disturbing who ever is sitting on the outside of them. Annoyingly some use their mobiles and when people use their mobiles they invariably do so at top decibels but woe betide them if they do this in the carriages in which the use of mobiles is (officially) banned! Then you can be sure at least one Brit will speak to them and not in a very pleasant way either in many cases!
<<What kind of rubbish is that? >>
How long do you think the government will allow individuals to travel around just for the heck of it? (vacations, sightseeing, diversion, etc.) I suppose you'll still be able to walk, cycle, do rowboating on your local pond, etc.
Already, it's rumored that you won't be able to sell your house unless it's up to the very latest energy standards. You may have to install new windows, doors, furnace, (and A/C), insulation, appliances, air exchangers, etc. For a really old house, it may be cheaper to bulldoze it and sell the improved land, rather than retrofit the house.
How long do you think the government will allow individuals to travel around just for the heck of it? (vacations, sightseeing, diversion, etc.) I suppose you'll still be able to walk, cycle, do rowboating on your local pond, etc.
Already, it's rumored that you won't be able to sell your house unless it's up to the very latest energy standards. You may have to install new windows, doors, furnace, (and A/C), insulation, appliances, air exchangers, etc. For a really old house, it may be cheaper to bulldoze it and sell the improved land, rather than retrofit the house.
Och, Damian -- be sure to come in March -- that's our windy season!
Believe it or not, a few years back there was a British military contingent stationed just over the mountains from me, in White Sands Missile Range, for the express purpose of training them for desert combat and survival. We also have a number of Germans stationed nearby at Holloman Air Force Base. So sharing bases in foreign countries goes both ways....
Believe it or not, a few years back there was a British military contingent stationed just over the mountains from me, in White Sands Missile Range, for the express purpose of training them for desert combat and survival. We also have a number of Germans stationed nearby at Holloman Air Force Base. So sharing bases in foreign countries goes both ways....
Uriel - what a wee minx you are for sure! Don't worry about the seasons when you come to Scotland - it's windy all the year round.
I hope those British Forces guys out there in the New Mexico desert managed to slake their thirst in a nice wee local pub.......like the Golden Cactus or the Sage Bush Inn?
btw....those windy days....aye, it is true! The only guy we need to be concerned about is Jack Frost.
I hope those British Forces guys out there in the New Mexico desert managed to slake their thirst in a nice wee local pub.......like the Golden Cactus or the Sage Bush Inn?
btw....those windy days....aye, it is true! The only guy we need to be concerned about is Jack Frost.
“Extraneous noise” writes Damian, and Damian writes extraneous noise. What has the following to do with the English language? . . . what does it have to do with the culture of an English speaking nation . . . very little. What is interesting about the following? Nothing! Why must we be subjected to this pedantry?
<<Apart from short hops across to the near Continent (which can't really be considered "abroad" in British terms really can it?) my only definitely booked foreign trip at present is one to Libya in November. It's one I was inveigled/enticed into by two mates of mine (both English guys) who are into Roman Archaeology in a big way and Libya is littered with Roman sites as you may well know...Carthage being one of them ...it's just an eight full day break which is fine by me and by then Libya should have cooled down a lot, which is more than can be said for London at the present time - the UK is experiencing an official "heatwave" by British standards with temps reaching 28C/32C - hot for us wilting British blooms.
I dropped in at our local Homebase and bought two electric fans which they delivered to my place.....no aircon and I keep all the windows wide open and try to ignore the noise coming from the Upper Richmond Road, the District Line tube trains as the underground is overground here in Putney and, worst of all, the constant air traffic overhead on its descending flight path to Heathrow airport. As a city lad I am used to extraneous noise (my family home is not far from Edinburgh Airport) but here in London it's really something else!>>
And
<<In any case how many Americans have visited every single one of their own States? Very few I would guess - here in the UK we are under the impression that a substantial number of Americans have never even left the bounds of their own home State, something difficult for most of us to imagine really.>>
I imagine this statement says more about the British who hold such perceptions than the people of whom those perceptions are held. I am not everyone, but, in my brief stint in this world, I have visited 40 of the 50 incorporated states. The least traveled people in my acquaintance have visited at least ten. I won’t say that there aren’t people who have visited other states, but this British assumption is (as most of the ones you have put out) very far from reality. I do hope that your journalistic writing is not as dull, pedantic, and incorrect as the bull you post on here ALL the time.
<<Apart from short hops across to the near Continent (which can't really be considered "abroad" in British terms really can it?) my only definitely booked foreign trip at present is one to Libya in November. It's one I was inveigled/enticed into by two mates of mine (both English guys) who are into Roman Archaeology in a big way and Libya is littered with Roman sites as you may well know...Carthage being one of them ...it's just an eight full day break which is fine by me and by then Libya should have cooled down a lot, which is more than can be said for London at the present time - the UK is experiencing an official "heatwave" by British standards with temps reaching 28C/32C - hot for us wilting British blooms.
I dropped in at our local Homebase and bought two electric fans which they delivered to my place.....no aircon and I keep all the windows wide open and try to ignore the noise coming from the Upper Richmond Road, the District Line tube trains as the underground is overground here in Putney and, worst of all, the constant air traffic overhead on its descending flight path to Heathrow airport. As a city lad I am used to extraneous noise (my family home is not far from Edinburgh Airport) but here in London it's really something else!>>
And
<<In any case how many Americans have visited every single one of their own States? Very few I would guess - here in the UK we are under the impression that a substantial number of Americans have never even left the bounds of their own home State, something difficult for most of us to imagine really.>>
I imagine this statement says more about the British who hold such perceptions than the people of whom those perceptions are held. I am not everyone, but, in my brief stint in this world, I have visited 40 of the 50 incorporated states. The least traveled people in my acquaintance have visited at least ten. I won’t say that there aren’t people who have visited other states, but this British assumption is (as most of the ones you have put out) very far from reality. I do hope that your journalistic writing is not as dull, pedantic, and incorrect as the bull you post on here ALL the time.
<<try to ignore the noise coming from the Upper Richmond Road, the District Line tube trains as the underground is overground here in Putney and, worst of all, the constant air traffic overhead on its descending flight path to Heathrow airport. As a city lad I am used to extraneous noise (my family home is not far from Edinburgh Airport) but here in London it's really something else!>>
If you turn your bedroom fan on high, with any luck it will drown out the noise from everything (assuming the planes aren't really low).
BTW, I used to live near the end of the runway at a B52 base in South Dakota. Fortunately, there's a whole lot less air traffic there than at a commercial airport, but when one of those B52s did come along, it was really loud --pure turbojets, no noise suppressors, and lots of wingwash noise, especially when it's cold. (How's that for being off topic.) I grew to love fans when I was there, too, since there was no A/C, and the temperature got as high as 111F while I was there.
If you turn your bedroom fan on high, with any luck it will drown out the noise from everything (assuming the planes aren't really low).
BTW, I used to live near the end of the runway at a B52 base in South Dakota. Fortunately, there's a whole lot less air traffic there than at a commercial airport, but when one of those B52s did come along, it was really loud --pure turbojets, no noise suppressors, and lots of wingwash noise, especially when it's cold. (How's that for being off topic.) I grew to love fans when I was there, too, since there was no A/C, and the temperature got as high as 111F while I was there.
Yeah, South Dakota is one place to skip in the summer and the winter. The west coast is the only place where the weather is mild all year round, except the northern part of the Alaskan panhandle, where it gets a bit chilly in the winter.
>> The least traveled people n my acquaintance have visited at least ten <<
The least traveled people in my acquaintance have visited 2. But some of the states in the West are a lot bigger than in the East.
>> The least traveled people n my acquaintance have visited at least ten <<
The least traveled people in my acquaintance have visited 2. But some of the states in the West are a lot bigger than in the East.
I mean there's a difference between never leaving Texas or California or Alaska, than never leaving Rhode Island. I pitty anyone who has never been outside of Rhode Island.
In my "po' white trash" days, I had to take the Greyhound bus to get around. It was a blessing in disguise.
I have seen about 30 of the 50 states. What an adventure!
I have seen about 30 of the 50 states. What an adventure!
<<I have seen about 30 of the 50 states. What an adventure! >>
Since 1990 or so, my travels have been confined to NY, VT, MA, CT, NJ, and perhaps PA. My passport expired decades ago. I guess I'm one of those folks the Europeans complain about: a non-cosmopolitan, monolingual, passportless, "white trash", ex-military (i.e. war criminal) American, who doesn't travel around the world.
BTW: between moving to various places, vacations, and military serivce, I did manage to get to about 42 states long ago (not TX, OK, LA, AR, MS, AL, AK, HI), but I've been to only vbeen across the pond twice, to one European country.
Since 1990 or so, my travels have been confined to NY, VT, MA, CT, NJ, and perhaps PA. My passport expired decades ago. I guess I'm one of those folks the Europeans complain about: a non-cosmopolitan, monolingual, passportless, "white trash", ex-military (i.e. war criminal) American, who doesn't travel around the world.
BTW: between moving to various places, vacations, and military serivce, I did manage to get to about 42 states long ago (not TX, OK, LA, AR, MS, AL, AK, HI), but I've been to only vbeen across the pond twice, to one European country.
I would say that there are very few Americans who haven't left their home state. I mean, I can't imagine that anyone who lives in Las Cruces has never driven over the Texas state line only 20 minutes away. El Paso doesn't thrill me much, but it's the nearest big city, and what Las Crucen hasn't gone down there to eat, shop, take the kids to the El Paso Zoo, or go out to the bars and clubs at night (including the only real gay bars in the area, of which El Paso has quite a few -- while haven't seen one in Cruces in the last few years)?
And given that most states border on other states, and millions of people live a stone's throw away from those junctions, I don't know where people get the idea that we would have any reason to stay locked up within Connecticut or Nebraska! In fact, Americans have a high rate of domestic mobility,and are always moving around from state to state due to job opportunities, marriage, and schooling. Most people have close relatives who live in other states, and make the trip to visit at least once in a while. I'm sure there are people who've never left home, but they can't be a very big section of the population!
And given that most states border on other states, and millions of people live a stone's throw away from those junctions, I don't know where people get the idea that we would have any reason to stay locked up within Connecticut or Nebraska! In fact, Americans have a high rate of domestic mobility,and are always moving around from state to state due to job opportunities, marriage, and schooling. Most people have close relatives who live in other states, and make the trip to visit at least once in a while. I'm sure there are people who've never left home, but they can't be a very big section of the population!