What I love about Britain...

Sunday morning with a brunch and a Sunday newspaper - is there anything better?

I must admit that I am usually a Sunday Times kind of girl - a good balance of culture, fashion and news. But today, we went for the Sunday telegraph (my darling boyfriend wanted to read the article on wind farms - he works in planning, so it makes sense).

As I was flicking through the many supplements, I noticed an article in 'Seven', entitled "What foreigners love about Britain". Reading this article made me think: I have been living here for more than 8 years now and I am, let's be honest, more familiar with the culture, customs, likes and rats of English than French people. Yes, I moan about living here a bit (not too much though to be honest), but there are quite a few things that, over time, I have started to take for granted, just like any other English-native.

So I decided to go for a spontaneous article, and list a few here 

(as well as a few things I truly hate)...

Things I love

1. Having fresh milk delivered straight to your door

2. Having an never-ending supply of green countryside

3. Charming old cities: Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, Chester

4. The Queen, which though I do not understand, I do find rather amusing and entertaining

5. It is ALWAYS tea time!

6. Sunday newspapers

7. Traditional pubs (with dog, fireplace and stone walls)

8. Red phone boxes and letter boxes with the Queen's (or late King's) initials

9. Different accents (sometimes hard to understand, but so much fun)

10. BBC Radio 6

11. Daring architecture (in big cities anyway)

12. Parks, everywhere

13. The love and ubiquity of cards and card-shops

14. Living in the first 'non-White' city in Europe

15. The thriving of small, independently-owned shops

16. London (its markets, its people, its museums)
17. Afternoon and cream teas

Things I loathe:

English people's love of football

Drunkenness 

People being loud and brash and very un-stylish

People mocking foreigners and their accents and stereotyping them 

The never-ending focus on celebrity culture

The lack of unpretentious cafés

Crisps (though yummy I ought to eat less of)

Cadbury's chocolate - far far too sweet

Too many people and all of them being in a hurry, all the time

London is better than anywhere else (yes, we know but no need to keep saying it)
How quickly waiters come to take your order (and you haven't even sat down yet!)