St George's Day

April 24, 2010

St George's Day

So this post is also a day late, given that St George's Day was actually yesterday - April 23rd. Oh well. At work i organised a little St George's Day party, and all of the children and staff in my room came in wearing something red, we made English flags to wave, watched a video on St George and the dragon, and had a picnic snack of traditional British foods. It was really good fun! i think in general, we don't celebrate our Britishness enough in this country, so in honour of good old St George i'm going to list here 10 things which are great about our country:








1. The weather - i know people complain a lot about the British weather, including me, but i think it's great to live in a country with such a wide variety of weather - from hot and sunny, through to cold and snowing, including rain, hail, sleet, wind, thunder and lightning and even the odd hurricane in between. Better than living in a country where the weather is pretty much constant throughout the year - i.e. always hot and sunny, or always cold and snowy - and also better than living in a country with extreme weather such as tornadoes, blizzards, monsoons and droughts.

2. The food - i lovvvvvve so much of our traditional British food and really miss it when i go away on holiday somewhere. You just can't get the same in another country, even if they try to replicate what we have here. Some of my favourite British foods are: roast dinners, toad in the hole, bread and butter pudding, trifle, quiche, shepherds pie, fish and chips, strawberries and cream, scones, crumpets.... mmmmmm i'm making myself hungry now. Even simple things like sandwich pickle they haven't heard of in other countries, so i really really appreciate having all the lovely food that is available here.

3. The music - though other countries produce some good pop-stars and bands as well, i think that Britain has some really good talent musically that just can't be found in the rest of the world - starting with The Beatles, The Bee Gees and Queen and moving onto more modern singers and groups such as Take That, Wham, Coldplay, Lily Allen, Robbie Williams, Oasis, and winners of Pop Idol or X Factor such as Leona Lewis, Will Young and Alexandra Burke, we have music that is unique to our country and some of the best in the world!
  
4. The royal family - some people think they are old-fashionned and out-dated, but i'm really proud that we have a royal family, and i love all the pomp and ceremony that goes with them, such as when the Queen wears all her gear or the trooping of the colour parade, the splendour of her palace and the way people have to bow to her and sing the National Anthem and all that.

5. The capital city - i loveeeeeee London, it's such a cool and interesting and busy and diverse place. i wouldn't want to live there because it's too noisy and dirty and smelly and unsafe, but it's a great place to visit. And especially i love all the famous landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, St Pauls, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, etc.

6. The diversity of the landscape - considering we are such a small country, we have got such a diverse landscape, from mountains and hills to rivers and streams to woodland and meadows to fields and moors to beaches and cliffs to lakes and ponds, and there are so many fantastic places to visit. i could go on holiday to a different part of Britain every year and never get bored.

7. The sense of humour - i know some other countries think the British have no sense of humour, or a really dry boring sense of humour, but actually on the whole we have a really good sense of humour and we have some really funny comedians - Jimmy Carr, Alan Carr, Alistair McGowan, Jack Dee, French and Saunders, Rowan Atkinson and some great comedy shows like Fawlty Towers, Mr Bean etc.

8. The resilience -  i think the 'stiff upper lip' of the British is famous, and is something to be proud of. When there's a problem we deal with it to the best of our ability and try not to let it affect us too much, and we tend to pull together really well in times of crisis. This was particularly noticeable in big tragedies such as the London tube bombings, the IRA bombs, the recession, and so on. And i'm really proud of us for that.

9. The SAS - yeah ok, so i have a bit of an obsession with them, but i do truly believe that the SAS are the original and the best elite fighting force in the world, and they are so sexy cos of that.

10. The NHS - lots of people would think i am mad for putting this on the list, and yeah parts of it can be rubbish and it could do with improving, but just the fact that everyone in this country is entitled to free healthcare, no matter what they need or what their condition is, i think is amazing and i would hate to be worried about medical bills.

Happy St Georges Day and yayyyyyy for England! :)