It’s a British thing

Well hellooooooooooo to you!!! This is my first time blogging so go easy on me! The point of my blog is to discuss literally about everything and anything…so wish me luck!!!

The beautiful British nation has this urge of doing or saying things that only we tend to do and say, I guess that’s the British culture for you! So here are the top 5 things which I have noticed and thought to myself, ‘It’s a British thing’…so here goes:

1. Drinking tea

   If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you. – William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister

   ‘You look like you need a good cuppa tea!’…who else had been told this? Us the British nation love a good brew because it solve all problems! Why have a war when you prevent it by drinking tea?!? I love the fact this is part of our British culture and it makes my ears bleed if someone doesn’t drink tea, I mean what is wrong with them?!?!

   Despite the statistics showing the rapid growth of the coffee market, still 80% of British drink tea in quantity two times bigger than coffee. While Britons drink approximately 70 million cups of coffee per day according The British Coffee Association, they consume 165 million cups of tea daily according to The UK Tea & Infusions Association –‘To Be Or Not To Be … A Coffee Drinker In The UK’

   With the increase of coffee sales, we’re still a tea drinking nation people and I for one is proud to be a tea drinker!!! In my opinion, a good cuppa tea is one sugar and a splash of milk- if it’s too milky you literally have ruined it!

2. Dunking biscuits

   As well as drinking tea, we do like a good biscuit to accompany our tea. Our great Judi Dench explains perfectly what this whole dunking malarky entails in the film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel:

   Evelyn: Means lowering the biscuit into the tea and letting it soak in there and trying to calculate the exact moment before the biscuit dissolves, when you whip it up into your mouth and enjoy the blissful union of biscuits and tea combined. It’s more relaxing than it sounds.

   Just as I think I have just dunked the biscuit to perfection and I’m about to embrace the biscuit, to my horror I see it slowly breaking away and dropping to the bottom of the tea! I then have to scoop the residue which now turned into baby mush, it’s literally soul destroying!!! To avoid this feeling of despair people (which I know for a FACT that I’m not the only victim of this), follow this link to know how long to dunk the different types of biscuit (you’re welcome): Dunking biscuits

3. Sorry

   I definitely apologise to people when I don’t even need to! For instance, (I do this everyday at work without fail) there’s a narrow hallway heading towards my desk, so when I see someone coming from the opposite direction, I will make way for them to pass me and then say, ‘Sorry!’. Then I think to myself why did I even say that?!?! What do I have to be sorry for??

   

   Then I promise myself that’ll be the last time I’ll do this. Come the next day, surprise surprise I do EXACTLY the same!! I just can’t help it at all, it literally just rolls off my tongue! Oh another classic example is when you perhaps go on a night out and you’ve been asked if you have a lighter, then your response will be along the lines od, ‘Sorry but I don’t smoke, so no I don’t have a lighter’.  I mean I’m not even sorry that I’m not a smoker, didn’t your mother ever told you that smoking is bad for you? Why can’t I just say, ‘No I don’t…’ and NOT to add ‘sorry’ at the end of the sentence? Surely I’m not the only one who falls into this trap???

4. Talking about the weather

   Oh boy this is always the topic we can ALWAYS fall back on either you’re running out of things to say OR it’s the initial topic when trying to strike up a conversation with a  total stranger.

   On another note, I find it hilarious that we moan that it’s too hot or too cold, we just cannot be satisfied of what the weather brings…that’s a British thing right?!

   

5. British manners

   I can talk all day regarding this subject but first and foremost, QUEUING– my gosh we do like to queue don’t we?!? Queueing is definitely our kryptonite, I mean God forbid there was a queue; we would all have the real urge to join the back of the queue and not knowing what it’s for! As we are ever so polite, should someone ACTUALLY queue jumped then we would simple just give them the evil stare and not say anything because that’s just who we are!

   I for one can vouch for this stupid kryptonite! A few years ago, I was about to embark on a trip of a life time, I had to catch the coach to Heathrow. I arrived at the coach station in good time, I chilled for a bit and got super excited about this trip. I saw an orderly queue, so I joined the back of the queue as it’ll be for my coach. As I was getting nearer to the front, I saw one coach leave, when I handed my coach ticket to the driver, he said to me, ‘Oh your coach just left. This is the coach to Victoria station in London’. My initial thought was: FUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!!! I just wanted to cry and I think the driver could see that and (bless him) so he let me onto the coach. I properly freaked out as I was terrified that I would miss my plane. As it was rush hour in the morning, I didn’t know what time I’ll arrive at Victoria station and from there  to get the tube to Heathrow!!! However, I did arrive at Heathrow with plenty of time! So moral of this story is to not just queue for the sake of it and bloody ask what it’s for people!!!