No prob's going off-topic - ramble away, I enjoy it.

I've read a few posts in this forum here and there, where Americans and other non-Brits seem to envy our history. I didn't realize you were a 'History Nut', so from that point of view I can understand it (it's diverse, interesting, and above all - old).

Sometimes though, I read stuff and sorta' sit here grinning to myself thinking "Yeah, they've been watching fairy-tales again", either that, or they've been listening to some nut who's only visited and seen England from a short-term visitors point of view.

When I think of America for example (I've never been there), I think wide-open roads, a Burger-bar every 500 yards, and folk sticking on their shades to take a ride on their Harley. I don't even think about the history.

On the other hand, when I think of the UK (where I 'do' live), I think;

Ah yes - the UK! Land of the crazy-cows! The only island surrounded by water where you have to pay water-bills, yet are 'still' subject to water shortages (I mean pump it from the f*ckin' ocean for crying out loud).

A land where everyones TV entertainment must suffer at the hand of a certain entertainment monopoly which buys-up the programs that WE paid for in our licence fee, and then forces us not only to pay to watch it again - but also to pay for the priviledge of letting them 'do' it again!

A land where you're expected to get up, sit in a jam, work your ass of, sit in another jam, watch bullshit, go to bed... and so the cycle begins again... and for what?

To get a mortgage you'll probably never pay-off, an ID card rammed down your throat (coming to a UK near you soon), and be bled dry of any possible earnings which, god forbid, you thought you might actually be entitled to keep once in a while.

That's England sir!
(As I see it)

Hammer - good, but yes, sometimes corny.

Ryder nude photographs; WHERE! WHERE! WHERE!
(And how did you know of them - you old goat?)

Len.
(Link please) ;-)

The wait can be horrific, but the outcome can be worse - pumeco 2006