Whats it like to live in England?

"I was just curious...Do you like living in England?"

I like it here in England, but then again I've never left the island so its the only place I know...

 

Its not just scottish people you can shoot with a bow. It is stil legal to shoot a welshman with a bow if its after 8pm in Shrewsbury (waits for the come back). And I have a long bow!

And while I'm on this soap box, whats wrong with the east midlands ? Oh yeah, Nottingham and Derby where sober people fear to tread after dark and anything over 150 years old was bulldozed in the 60's. Lincoln has most of its medieval, even Roman layout in place but what do you do at night?

 

ooooh, think i may have to venture to shrewsbury! i've been once before and found a shop selling one of the factory x captain america shields and a really nice old boozer next to the church!

 

Thats the good thing about doing re-enactment, you get to travel all over the place, staying in old places nd learning loads of interesting stuff.

 

and brushing up on saber skills no doubt...

 

I like Leicester, yeah it's old and industrial and has no coast or nature parks or anything, and has certain places where you wouldn't walk through if you weren't Asian. But it's central, no where in England is too far, that brings a lot of business. I also like the history, it's one of the oldest cities in the UK, site of the Battle of Bosworth, and the town where I live, Hinckley, was mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry IV.

Eventually I think I'd like to move up north, to York or something.

 

Aston vs. The Other part that I can't remember.

Unless the Geography Teachers are getting it wrong, there is lots of violence at the divide between Aston and the other part which I can't remember the name of. This drives down the house prices, and allows them to be bought up as drug/hooker houses.

I'm so glad that you are posting about issues that you nothing about

The part of Birmingham that slips your memory is called Handsworth. What you so foolishly refer to as "Birmingham Race Divides" is in fact violence between rival black gangs called the Burger Bar Boys and Johnson's Crew. For the most part Birmingham enjoys very good race relations.

 

Thanks, Maggs. I won't forget that in a hurry.

 

Whoa, quite a discussion. Basically, Great Britain was as close to heaven as you could get. Everyone was nice, life was fun, but then something happened, just as it did everywhere else - people realised that it wasn't a very nice world out there, and they've let it get to them. Having said that, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Its called Great Britain, and would be called Amazing Britain if a select group of people didn't let the average down...and give us a reputation for some things. If only everyone placed their country first again, like we used to, then we could return to the better days - as history has proven, there aren't a lot of us but when we work together we can do some amazing things.

 

Are any of you really good with a longbow?
I always like archery in Gym class. But I wasn't very good. lol

You've never left hey Jedi Learner? You should travel more.
I wish I could travel more. Usually I only get chances to go to
Canada. But I did go to Sweden one time.

 

Starfish,
I would learn longbow if anywhere nearby taught it, but I still practice on a regular basis the traditional English Longbowman salute to the medieval French soldiers to let them know that I can still shoot at them

Just reverse this ->

 

Lol, Hows that story go? something like the French threatened to
cut off the middle fingers of the English prisoners so they counldn't
shoot the longbow. And then the English escaped and invented the middle
finger gesture to mock the French. lol.

 

woah??! DK, the Burger Bar boys are still goin?? Geeeze I haven't heard them spoken of since i was at school- urban ledgend type stuff i suppose.......thanks for the heads up

 

woah??! DK, the Burger Bar boys are still goin??

Five men, all believed to be members of the gang are currently on trial for the murder of two teenage girls Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare on January 2nd 2003 in what is believed to have been a "botched" gangland shooting. That event led a strong police crackdown but the gangs are still very much active.

Gang war returns to city streets
Jan 16 2005
Sunday Mercury

Warring Midland gangsters have renewed their bloody conflict in a fresh cycle of violence on the streets of Birmingham.

The chilling alert comes after a week of tit-for-tat shootings between the city's two notorious black street gangs the Johnson Crew and Burger Bar Boys.

Last Wednesday four men were injured after a lone gunman fired a volley of shots into a cafe frequented by some members of the Johnson Crew gang in Perry Barr.

The victims, all in their 20s and two of whom are believed to be members of a Birmingham rap group, were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds described as serious but not life threatening.

Police said one victim, a 29-year-old man, received only minor wounds and was discharged.

The gunman, desribed as black, 6ft and wearing dark clothing, had been dropped off at Ruthies cafe in Aston Lane by an accomplice riding a black motorbike.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: "The pillion passenger enterted the cafe and fired a number of shots from a handgun before leaving.

"Both men then escaped on the motorcycle heading towards Witton Lane and Aston Villa football ground."

Then, two days later masked gunmen targeted a property in Old Smithy Place, in Hockley, in what is believed to be a reprisal attack.

A number of shots were fired through an upstairs front room window but no-one was injured in the attack on early Friday night.

The police spokesman said: "Officers were called to a firearms incident in Old Smithy Place during which three shots were fired at a first floor window from a handgun.

"No-one was injured though there were people in the house.

"Shortly after the incident three black males aged 15-18 and dressed in black were seen riding off on pedal cycles towards Abby Street."

Police said they are not linking the two incidents but gangland sources have told the Sunday Mercury that the attacks point to a renewed clash between the two groups.

He said: "The attack on Ruthies was a deliberate attempt to target a place that is a known hangout of some Johnnies (Johnson Crew).

"In retaliation the Johnnies fired at a house in Hockley which is considered to be Burger Bar territory.

"They were after a particular Burger Bar member who the gunmen believed was in the house at the time.

"There were people in the house but they were not injured."

Last week's shootings come after a recent quell in the vicious gang wars that have blighted Birmingham over the last five years. A crackdown by West Midlands Police has led to prominent members of both gangs being arrested and charged with firearms and drug-related offences.

The source said: "This has led to the gangs becoming splintered and now you have off-shoots of the Burgers and Johnnies running around in small cliques and crews.

"The more the gangs break up the more chance there is of further conflict and further marking of territories and post-codes."

The new breed of gangsters include 'youth' factions of the Johnson Crew gang.

Calling themselves Cash Money crew and Baby Johnsons the gangs are said to be even more violent than their predecessors.

 

I live near York, and I love it. It's an amazing city and if you do come here then the Minister is worth a visit.

The main problem with living in England is the rain. At the moment there is no point listening to the weather forcast because it is almost certain to contain the word RAIN somewhere.

 

York is where I'm looking to go for a semester. As long as I can afford it.

And I don't mind rain too much. Don't you ever go dancing in the rain?
The only thing is I would keep whishing for it to turn to snow like it
alwats does here. lol

 

I live in america but i always wanted to move to England... I always wanted to move anywhere except america.

 

Its a good nation most of the time
respected around the world for many things.

 

I live in america but i always wanted to move to England... I always wanted to move anywhere except america.

Don't let the door hit you in the bum.

 

If Britain was a human he'd be sitting on a life buoy in the ocean shouting at the nearby desert island full of other humans because they speak a different language and shouting should help them understand better when the Britain human just wants to find the nearest bar.

 

You lost me there.

 

I demand an arguement!

HELLO PEEPS.

 

Well, it seems as if I'm a late comer to this conversation, but here goes. But before I start I'd like to inform you all that I'm not a foreigner living here, but rather what Americans call a "WASP" (White. Anglo. Saxon. Protestant) working-class Englishman. As English as you can get. I even refer to myself as "English" rather than "British" because I know of the one way hatred towards me as an Englishman that exists on the other side of both borders of Wales and Scotland due to ancient history!

Okay, I know I'm going to offend a few people here, but I don't care. I'm going to have my say, and be done with it...

Well, to answer your question, Starfish, I've lived in several places around the world, and I have to say, I dislike living in England, very much so.

The place is so compacted, everyone is everyone elses face - the English are a rude race of people; albeit not as rude as the Scottish or the Northern Irish. Work-wise, the bosses here try to screw you down and pay you very little (admittedly, our minimum wage is slightly more than the US), and they try to make you feel obligated to them for working for them...And they make you feel trapped, because they don't care if you leave because if you do, they know there are a million other suckers out there to fill your shoes.

The British are jealous of success.

The weather here is miserable...Don't expect a summer, because you will never get one.

The houses here are small, and to buy something decent, in a decent area can cost you over £300,000 (That's about $550,000 to you).

Speaking of expensive...Wait until the prices of things hit you...Been to New York? Think that expensive? Ha! You haven't been to London...That place will grab you by the testicles and twists them until they turn blue!

Food here is a lot more expensive.

Cost of living here is more expensive.

Here's an example...You know over the course of the last 12 months in the states, you've all been in a snit about the price of gas going over $2 a gallon? Guess what! We pay double that already!!!

Trust me...I had the same preconceptions about England before I came here...It's going to be this...It's going to be that...It all looks great from the photographs.

BOLLOCKS! Boy, was I wrong!

Another example...When I was at University, I was in a meeting with exchange students from the USA...University of Arizona, I think they were from. All of them said that during the time they were living in England, not one of them had not been mugged! - One girl even had her laptop stolen that had 3 years of course work on it.

Trust me, for the love of god, you are better off where you are.

From personal experience most of this is true, however the weather, despite being schizoid (cold and raining one day, sunny and warm the next) we do have some long lasting very hot weather (between 30 and 32 degrees C) on some summers.

Hey, what do you want? I said I'm not going to sugarcoat my answer. I'm going to say what I honestly think...That's the beauty of living in a democracy! So what if I happen to highlight the negatives of this place? Better for me to tell him now then for him to come over and then find them out for himself.

You know what your problem is? Because you've never lived anywhere else apart from the UK, you have no frame of reference. If you have, you would see the bad points as well. My parents, born and raised in this country, have told me that they would NEVER live anywhere else, but they have also said that this place is a shadow of its former self. You haven't noticed these things, because you've got accustomed to them.

Too true. Since we've been a doormat for every third world sob story that's come along this country has lost its own culture. As Kilroy Silk has said, we have allowed third world people and their cultures to hijack our country at the expence of our own identities. As has been said on this very thread, one such example is that of us not being able to wave our own flag whilst any third worlder w

 

The weather here is miserable...Don't expect a summer, because you will never get one

Now thats not entirely fair
In 2003 we had a massively hot summer
But last year it rained

90% of the time its rain & greyness, but we sometimes get a summer heatwave.

(every half decade)

 

Hi again. Im still lost but that's OK because Im starting to get used to it!