And not a single chav or obnoxious teenage bastard did I encounter there!
I live in Brighton, which is similar to Nice in terms of layout and atmosphere. They're both seaside towns with shingle beaches, popular tourist destinations due to their good weather and restaurants and shopping areas.
But what a difference.
Nice is clean, for a start. It is full of trees and plants; in fact the entire seafront is lined with gorgeous trees. The amazing weather probably helps a great deal too. I didn't encounter a single obnoxious teenage brat or chav. Several gorgeous parks with beautiful playgrounds, lots of fresh food, fish markets etc... It was awesome.
Brighton on the other hand, oh dear. It's dirty, so so dirty. No trees or plants except for the occasional failed little park that is so dirty that you'd never sit in there unless you were a tramp. We're a seaside town - so where are OUR fresh fish markets? There's one hidden away in some back alleys that is open on Sunday mornings, that's all that I'm aware of. The moment I stepped off the plane I was hit by a wave of screaming chavs... a huge difference from the peaceful nature of the teenagers in Nice.
And despite all this, it's still more expensive to live in/buy a house in Brighton than in Nice.
Why can't we sort ourselves out a bit? :(
I have the same with trains.
I travel by train daily and it's I also get annoyed daily by people who stand right in front of the doors when a train arrives, effectively blocking the way out. Why don't they step aside? I don't know.
But on topic: when I was on holiday in Spain the plaza outside my window seemed like an outdoors cafe: it was full of people until five o'clock in the morning, at which time it was covered in empty bottles and trash.
At seven some cleaners came round an cleaned it all in 20/30 minutes. (Why the hell was I up at seven on a holiday?)
I guess those cleaners make all the difference. And when a place is clean people are more inclined to put something in a trashcan.
My original post isn't very well constructed or written, but I hope you all know what I'm talking about... I'm too tired and sad to put an awful lot of effort into it :(
I just wish that we could sort ourselves out over here in the UK and make something more of what we have... and also do something about all these awful loud obnoxious teenagers/chavs that isn't just putting mosquito devices everywhere to make them go cause trouble elsewhere.
Nice doesn't have a ghost train.
Brighton wins.
Perhaps Brighton should change its name to sometime Nicer, like "Jammy Dodger" or some other name of a biscuit.
I live in a seaside town, and the closest we have to a fresh fish market is an old woman with a baby carriage full of fish that she's bought from local derelicts, who have nothing better to do that sit on the end of a pier with a worm on a string tied to the end of their finger.
Plus she sets up shop over a drain.
On the other hand, we do have a 20ft tall rusted chunk of "Installation Art", for the derelicts to lean their flagons of Scrumpy Jack against.
Our county council is run by a sprig of asparagus.
Scrumpy Jack? I love that name! I encourage each and every one of you to personally go out and name your favorite bum Scrumpy Jack today. And give him some change, since all bums are male, obviously.
I feel much as you do about my country, Meowster, but more on an economic/political level. I see special interests and big government gradually syphoning away my personal rights and all I can do is vote against the insanity and hope other people have their eyes open. When you're not paying attention, everything has a tendency toward entropy.
If you feel really strongly about it, do something, act! Organize some of your friends to do a Brighton clean up day where you go around to some of your favorite spots and pick up a little or whatnot. Part of the why places get run down is the sense of apathy and the whole 'well I didn't do it so it's not my problem' mentality. Nothing improves with people like that in the majority! Again, if you feel strongly about it, do something.
Well, first thing, scrumpy jack is a brand of cider. Not particuarly strong, I'm suprised your bums drink it! Most bums prefer white lightning or special brew! Funny joke I heard the other day cocerning the current state of affairs in England. 'an earthquake in Poland kills 10000. The USA sends money, Australia sends clothes, Northampton sends replacements!'
Glad we only have poles in this area and not many chavs. I think the poles may have killed the chavs.
I'm a regular at a bar called The Scrumpy Jack around here. It's a pretty awesome place.
Quote from: LimpingFish on Mon 03/03/2008 20:56:56
Our county council is run by a sprig of asparagus.
Several sprigs.
Quote from: Layabout on Tue 04/03/2008 05:22:45
Well, first thing, scrumpy jack is a brand of cider. Not particuarly strong, I'm suprised your bums drink it! Most bums prefer white lightning or special brew!
Very few places will stock "Tramp Juice", so our bums are limited in what they can buy/steal. Bulmers (Magners) used to be popular, but most bums now choose Tesco Value Cider and such.
I think Special Brew is banned here. Or Tennent's Super. One of those unholy brews.
Soo... How highly valued is this observation that you guys seem to be performing towards the so called "bums" around there? Because as far as I know, they do drink here too, but the brand the favour is a mystery to me mostly out of uninterest. Is it kind of common knowledge to know what they street-inhabitants are enjoying?
Yes.
Hard to miss really, since you either see them congregating or the aftermath thereof.
Bums aren't that bad. Better than junkies.
...
Or chavs.
Quote from: LimpingFish on Wed 05/03/2008 00:11:44
Bums aren't that bad. Better than junkies.
...
Or chavs.
The worst are the junkie-chavs who bum around Grafton Street. They lie down in the middle of the street, with a blanket wrapped around their dirty Nike gear, and shout "Waaaa, gimme sum yerros, roit? Me babby's sick, sure!", and after giving them a tenner, they turn around say "Wah? Ya got sum more? No? How 'bout if I knife ya for the craic."
I'm always surprised by how polite the bums are in, say, New York. They're all like "Please, sir, I would greatly appreciate it if you were to present me with any change you might not want." and after giving them a few pennies they respond with "Thank you kind, gracious, noble gentleman. May God smile upon you."
And all this makes me wonder even more why exactly does my girlfriend want to study English culture and spend a year in the GB :P Though I bet she hasn't heard what I have... I must warn her of all of this
Quote from: Tuomas on Wed 05/03/2008 14:47:43
And all this makes me wonder even more why exactly does my girlfriend want to study English culture and spend a year in the GB :P Though I bet she hasn't heard what I have... I must warn her of all of this
Tell her to study english in Ireland. All the greatest English cultural influences were really from Ireland :P
I thought it was India :P
Anyway, I shant, I'm only coming along that year for the tea and the football and the black pudding :)
Quote from: Tuomas on Wed 05/03/2008 15:33:38
I thought it was India :P
Are you joking?
Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, Bram Stoker... all Irishmen who have been unceremoniously stolen by the British, used as human shields by historians to make up for the fact that Great Britain hasn't had a decent writer native to their country in centuries...
Quote from: Emerald on Wed 05/03/2008 15:42:29
Are you joking?
Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, Bram Stoker... all Irishmen who have been unceremoniously stolen by the British, used as human shields by historians to make up for the fact that Great Britain hasn't had a decent writer native to their country in centuries...
Douglas Adams. There I said it
Quote from: Emerald on Wed 05/03/2008 15:29:00
Quote from: Tuomas on Wed 05/03/2008 14:47:43
And all this makes me wonder even more why exactly does my girlfriend want to study English culture and spend a year in the GB :P Though I bet she hasn't heard what I have... I must warn her of all of this
Tell her to study english in Ireland. All the greatest English cultural influences were really from Ireland :P
If she does study in Ireland, make sure to mention our awful roads system, the health service of a third world country, our tendency to screwdriver people to deathhttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3451678.ece (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3451678.ece) and a government run by chimps with ADHD.
Which all combine to make truly great writers.
Granted, most of them probably died stuck in traffic outside Crummy (Crumlin) Hospital after being shivved with a screwdriver, but at least we have the potential...
...MARTIN AMIS
JANE AUSTEN
ANTHONY BURGESS
LEWIS CARROLL
DANIEL DEFOE
CHARLES DICKENS
E.M. FORSTER
SAMUEL JOHNSON
JOHN KEATS
D.H. LAWRENCE
CHRISTOPHER MARLOLWE
ALEXANDER POPE
JOHN RUSKIN
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
MARY SHELLEY
ALFRED TENNYSON
J.R.R. TOLKIEN
P.G. WODEHOUSE
VIRGINIA WOOLF
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH...
Quote from: Antonio on Wed 05/03/2008 16:53:45
...MARTIN AMIS
JANE AUSTEN
ANTHONY BURGESS
LEWIS CARROLL
DANIEL DEFOE
CHARLES DICKENS
E.M. FORSTER
SAMUEL JOHNSON
JOHN KEATS
D.H. LAWRENCE
CHRISTOPHER MARLOLWE
ALEXANDER POPE
JOHN RUSKIN
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
MARY SHELLEY
ALFRED TENNYSON
J.R.R. TOLKIEN
P.G. WODEHOUSE
VIRGINIA WOOLF
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH...
Ah but you also gave the world Jeffrey Archer! Explain that one away!
Duly noted...
Fair enough, then explain to me why, if you have so many literary geniuses, that when you go to study English literature, half of them are Irish...
Just a guess here... Too many Irish teachers?!
Quote from: Antonio on Wed 05/03/2008 17:09:14
Just a guess here... Too many Irish teachers?!
Tell that to Mary Hanafin...
This has become the most Irish thread in the history of AGS.
...and I've just died a little inside.
I have that effect on threads. What can I say, I'm a patriot...
You don't see yufster or meowster or whatever she is called these days being very patriotic. Why does the Irish girl living in Brighton complain about her adopted country? Yes there are chavs here. Yes the uk needs to sort itself out, but it ain't that bad.
Quote from: Layabout on Thu 06/03/2008 15:33:09
Yes the uk needs to sort itself out, but it ain't that bad.
Compared to what, North Korea?
Quote from: Emerald on Thu 06/03/2008 16:37:30
Quote from: Layabout on Thu 06/03/2008 15:33:09
Yes the uk needs to sort itself out, but it ain't that bad.
Compared to what, North Korea?
Calm down now, we dont want this to turn into a Sinn Fein thread now do we? Britain is a lovely place and so is ireland, I'd venture to say that we produce more lovely girls per head of population but the British did give the world afternoon tea, which im having right now.....mmm.....oh sorry.
Quote from: Jack Sheehan on Thu 06/03/2008 16:41:38
I'd venture to say that we produce more lovely girls per head of population
It's more the other way around. The hot-to-not ratio is in bad favour, but when an Irish girl is hot, she's really hot...
Quote from: Emerald on Thu 06/03/2008 17:05:23
It's more the other way around. The hot-to-not ratio is in bad favour, but when an Irish girl is hot, she's really hot...
Just like everywhere else, I'm sure the following rule applies:
1. Single
2. Attractive
3. Mentally stable
(pick two)
I'm the type of guy to go for 2&3 and take my chances...
England isn't my adoptive country. I was born here. I'm English.
I don't know what's worse, irish chavs or english chavs. I went to a really good school in Ireland, but then my mum moved and so I had to go to college at a really chavvy place. It was pretty dire. I had no friends for those two years because they were all such really rubbish and pointless people. Their idea of fun was to go "knacker drinking" (buying cheap booze and hiding somewhere such as a ditch to consume it), or car racing along the quay. 'Cos I didn't like doing these things, I was considered snobby and was therefore not accepted by them. Which is fine 'cos I am very snobby and they were right - I would have spent all my time mocking their pointless lives, rubbish accents and cheap slaggy clothes.
But at least most Irish chavs still go to uni and sort themselves out a bit, and by the time they emerge they're not quite so bad... have probably developed a slight sense of style, stopped buying their shoes in Primark, stopped drinking Fat Frog etc. All the horribly pointless individuals I went to college with ended up going to university, even if it was to study something like childcare or hairdressing (though most did fairly good courses...)
But most english chavs, even if they manage to finish school, generally just hang around on streets causing trouble thereafter. Then they have babies and knives and drugs and stuff.
Quote from: Emerald on Wed 05/03/2008 17:05:20
Fair enough, then explain to me why, if you have so many literary geniuses, that when you go to study English literature, half of them are Irish...
It was their decision to write their literature in English...
Quote from: Stupot on Sat 08/03/2008 16:16:44
Quote from: Emerald on Wed 05/03/2008 17:05:20
Fair enough, then explain to me why, if you have so many literary geniuses, that when you go to study English literature, half of them are Irish...
It was their decision to write their literature in English...
I mean 'English literature' as in 'Literature written by English People'. When Americans study 'English Lit', they spend a lot of the time on Irish writers...
eah, but that's because they're American and most of them don't know the difference between Ireland and England.
Gotta keep those stereotypes alive. Because they make you seem so witty! :=
How do you call a clever cultured man in america?
A tourist ;)
This topic starded about Nice
QuoteI didn't encounter a single obnoxious teenage brat or chav
Maybe its because this city is one where numerous aged (and fortunated) peoples establish to live peacefully.
i dont know ireland and I hope to be able one day to visit this country.
At this moment my favourite country is Scotland and I love Edinburgh which is, in my opinion, a more beautiful city than Paris (Im french and living near Paris).
QuoteI'd venture to say that we produce more lovely girls per head of population
Sorry about that but its French privilege for centuries ;D
Quote from: ProgZmax on Sun 09/03/2008 07:40:06
Gotta keep those stereotypes alive. Because they make you seem so witty! :=
Well, to be perfectly fair, you wouldn't believe the amount of times my friends and I were mistaken as British over there. Even during St. Patrick's weekend, in an Irish pub...