Would You Live Anywhere Else?

England is a funny place really.
It is just- different.

Those of you who don't live here can't get it for one of two reasons.

Firstly, I think it's true to say that NO old world country is quite like it.
The continental countries are just different. They have their differences, but ultimately, there is such a thing as European History, which involved all of Europe.
We sometimes got involved in European affairs, but the reverse never happened.

This has made us an island, not just geographically, but in any way you can think of.
Even in this closer, more cosmoplitan world, we think differently this side of the channel.

The world's other Anglophone countries are more similar in some ways. Culturally, this is where it all began for them. But I still think Americans, Canadians and Australians find this country different to what they expected.

We take for granted that the country is littered with buildings built before the US existed. We walk past them every day and do not notice. Four hundred years old isn't that old, really. Not in England.
Even Norman castles and churches are interesting to us, but they don't AMAZE us. We take them for granted.

We forget that history in this country can be continuously tracked back for far longer than can be said even for our European neighbours- there has just been far less disruption here. Ownership of fields can be tracked back to before the Norman conquest.

But this can lead tourists to come here expecting a vast museum.
It's not like that.
Where do you think sixty million people live?
In thatched cottages?
With the local squire riding past on horseback?



It always amuses me that places in America that call themselves cities would be counted as small towns here. In this country, a city isn't REALLY a city, unless it has about a quarter of a million people. And of course, they're all a LOT closer.

This is a built up country in the way that North Americans and Australians probably cannot comprehend, in much the same way as looking at the map, I cannot really comprehend the huge spaces in their countries. To me, Wales is sparsely populated.

And in reality, much of it is modern. It is a land of motorways, tower blocks, housing estates and out of town shopping centres. Some of it is drab, some of it is pretty grim, but most of it is homely in its mediocrity.
Personally, I think Birmingham is a shining example of what can be done with glass and concrete.

Believe it or not, you miss that when you are abroad. You miss that peculiarly English quality- England is real.

I remember coming back from Amsterdam once and coming back into London. It was a funny feeling. Amsterdam of course, has a lot to recommend it. But it's difficult to take it seriously as a capital city.

Standing in the centre of London breathing in the fumes, watching the scurrying workers elbow eachother in front of taxis, looking at the buildings, listening to the perpetual beeping of horns, I knew what it was I missed. This was a real city, A REAL capital, of a REAL country.

Not a land of cyclists and trams and windmills and legalised pot smoking.

But a land of congested motorways, of grimy tower blocks, of executive housing estates, of packed supermarkets, of long working hours, but a real sense of how to play.



The continent is very clean and tidy, but they don't really talk to eachother in the bars. Their countries just don't feel...lived in. I think that's it really, this is a LIVED IN country.

It doesn't matter what tw*ts run this place, it'll still be the only place you could feel at home.
Which is why, I guess even when Brits go abroad, they try as hard as they can to turn abroad into Britain.

I guess we miss sitting around in bars moaning to other Brits about how crap Britain is.