At St. Andrew’s in Norfolk
Medieval, Bristol, England
photo via freier
You know those videos that talk about things in Japan that are "mindblowing" (often they're not that common or just small little touches). Well fuck it, here's a load of things that I think will blow people's minds about the UK that are just common knowledge here.
- If you find a road that's oddly straight out in the countryside, chances are it was originally a Roman road. Several Major roads and sections of motorway follow the route of Roman Roads. There's a Roman Road that goes under the end of my street, part of it is still in use.
- Every hour, on the hour, BBC radio 4 plays a series of beeps that tell you when it's exactly on the hour so you can set your clocks and watches.
- We have a TV show made for Amateur Astronomers that has been going on since 1957. They cover major events and discoveries in Astronomy.
- We have a Gameshow called Countdown wherein people take semi random letters and try create the longest word they can from it, and then take semi random numbers and try to use them to get to a random number. It is one of the Longest running and popular daytime gameshows and is a national treasure.
- In Scotland, a lot of our chip shops were/are opened by Italians or people of Italian descent, so you can also get pizza there. Haggis pizza is a common menu item and it slaps.
- The controllers in charge of the power grid have to watch every major soap opera and sports event because when the event ends or goes to commercial break, so many people get up to go make a cup of tea it risks a blackout, so they have to use Pumped storage stations to generate more power. There's one of these power stations near Wales's Highest Mountain and one at Loch Ness.
- Every major channel rehearses for the death of the current monarch so they don't fuck it up. Under the news desk at the BBC, there's a black tie for the men and a black cardigan for the women that they put on if a major royal dies. You can see this happen if you watch the footage.
- The government announces tests of the EAS system in advance so people know that A) it's a test, don't panic and B) so people with hidden phones (like abused spouses) can turn them off.
- Our lifeboat and lifeguard service, The Royal National Lifeboat Institution, is completely volunteer run and funded through donations. Volunteers have to have pagers on them that ring if they're called up so they can run to the boats and rescue people. They're often in remote areas, and they're a common charity to raise money for because everyone agrees that they're not just heroic, but based as all fuck.
- Most major supermarkets deliver, and by that I don't mean "you can send a gig-worker to do your shopping", I mean Tesco, Sainsbury's, Iceland and ASDA all have fleets of official trucks where you can do your shopping online, a supermarket worker picks your stuff for you, and at a designated time someone comes and delivers your shopping. They're even a common site in rural areas.
- It's a Christmas tradition to go to your local theater to see a Pantomime, which is basically a retelling of a fairy tale done by drag queens aimed at children, but with jokes for the adults and modern cultural references. Famous actors will often take part in these shows. It's a beloved Christmas tradition that's illegal in Tennessee.
- BBC radio 4 Broadcasts a Special Weather Forecast for people who work at sea or even on the water. It's very technical and concise and people who do not work at sea or even live near any major body of water listen to it because it is very, very relaxing.
Christmas tree from Denmark in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, taken in 1938 by Edward G Malindine for the Daily Herald.