.
There are countless places to visit if you decide to travel in the UK. One of the most beautiful places to go is the city of Bath. This city is located in the southwestern part of England and is famous for a lot of things. To say the least, it has been designated as a World Heritage Site.
This year, the annual Taste of Bath Festival is going to be held from the 3rd of July till the 6th of July. Visitors are in for a treat of the senses as the best chefs of the area congregate to present a wonderful culinary experience. Many local restaurants will be participating in the festival – you only have to take your pick. More than this, you can also participate in hands on cookery classes, in which you can learn how to make delectable dishes using the freshest local produce.
There are four different types of tickets which you can choose from:
Standard-£12
Entry only. (Children aged 6-14yrs – £8, Children under 5 – Free)
Premium-£25
Entry plus £15 worth of Crowns.
VIP-£40
Entry plus £15 worth of Crowns, entry to VIP area and a glass of Laurent-Perrier Champagne.
Connoisseur-£65
Entry plus £15 worth of Crowns and exclusive entry into the Laurent-Perrier Champagne Masterclass and Connoisseur’s Lounge.
In case you are wondering, Crowns are the official currency for the festival and each Crown is worth 50p. I’d say that the entry fees are not such a bad deal, don’t you think?
Photo courtesy of Randy Son of Robert
While the Americans (and other nationalities of the world) may relish waking up to the aroma of coffee, there is no doubt that the British prefer sipping a hot cup of tea in the morning (and mayhap other parts of the day). I love coffee, I am not denying that, but there are times when I simply need tea as my drink for the day. One of my favorites is the English Breakfast Tea, which I can drink at any time of the day. What is this tea anyway?
The English Breakfast Tea is usually a blend of different black teas. The blend may consist of teas coming from areas such as India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Malawi and China. The fact is that the English Breakfast Tea was first invented in Edinburgh, Scotland by a man named Drysdale, a well known tea master. His idea was to market the blend under the label Breakfast. The rest is history.
This kind of tea is a perfect accompaniment to the traditional English breakfast and goes well with milk and sugar. If you want a more technical description of this tea, here is Mr. Breakfast’s take:
It is a robust, full-bodied beverage with light floral undertones (sometimes referred to as “coppery”). When blended with milk, it produces a comforting aroma eerily similar to warm toast and honey. And as we know, the olfactory receptors in our noses are responsible for 80% of what we perceive as flavor.
Indeed, English breakfast tea can give you a warm fuzzy feeling just as you brush away the cobwebs of sleep in the early morning. Why not have a cup today?
Photo courtesy of Scott Feldstein
Guess who this person is? Here are some clues:
-He is British.
-He is only 23 years old.
-He is well known among motorsports fans.
Any ideas yet? If you are not a fan of motorsports, you may be at a loss right now. Yet even if you didn’t really like this sport, I think that you would at least have an idea what Formula 1 racing is all about, right? Well, Lewis Hamilton is one of the most popular figures in F1 racing right now and he is British.
Some pertinent information on Hamilton:
Name: Lewis Carl Hamilton
DOB: 7th January 1985
Age: 23
Nationality: British
Home town: Tewin Wood, Hertfordshire, England
Place of Birth: Stevenage, UK
Marital Status: Single
Height: 1.74m
Weight: 67kg
Last year, he had the distinction of finishing second at the 2007 Formula One Championship. At his age, this is quite a feat. He currently drives for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team and continues to be at the head of the pack. He is poised to race once again later on today at the French leg of the 2008 race. Even though he has suffered a huge setback due to an accidental collision with Kimi Raikonnen of Team Ferrari in the Canadian leg of the race, Hamilton continues to have a good chance this year.
If you have the time, perhaps you should try and see what this young driver can do. He has been penalised 10 places from the starting position for today’s race and that will prove to be a challenge for him – making the race all the more interesting to watch.
Summer is always here and for many British of the older generation, this season is akin to preserving the fresh fruits of the season. Though making homemade preserves may not be necessary today – thanks to modern processing plans – it would still be a good activity to engage in this summer. Have you ever made preserves or jam in your own kitchen? Maybe you should try out this age old tradition that our elders engaged in. Not only will you have homemade jams and jellies to consume throughout the winter months, but you’ll also have memories to last for the rest of your life.
So how do you go about making jam? Helen Gaffney of The Great British Kitchen provides tips that have been tried and tested by time. Here they are for your reading (and jam-making) pleasure.
1. It is most important to have jars, saucepan or preserving pan and spoons ready and scrupulously clean before you start, so that you prevent any micro-organisms from getting into the jam.
2. Choose sound firm fruit. A mixture of ripe and rather less ripe fruits is best, unripe fruits contain more pectin and fruit acid (both needed to obtain a good set) than ripe fruit.
3. Use fruit as soon as possible after picking. Wash only if necessary.
4. Cook the fruit with or without water for 20-30 minutes prior to adding the sugar. Simmer it gently to draw out the pectin.
5. Warm the sugar before adding it to the fruit to help it dissolve quickly.
6. When you have added the sugar to the hot, softened fruit, stir it over a gentle heat until it has completely dissolved before returning the jam to the boil.
7. Boil rapidly until set, stirring from time to time to prevent sticking at the bottom. Test frequently to avoid over-cooking.
There’s more from where this came from. I suggest that you visit Helen’s article and read for yourself!
Photo courtesy of Noah McMurray
Tennis is one of the major sports in England and has long since been quite as popular in other parts of the world. This year, the biggest event in the world of tennis is about to be witnessed – the 2008 Wimbledon Championships. This tennis tournament has a long and renowned history. In fact, this year’s tournament is already the 132nd edition of the Wimbledon Championships! Running from the 23rd of June to the 6th of July this year, the 2008 Championships will take place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London.
What’s up for this year’s tournament? There are varying events, which include:
• Gentlemen’s Singles (128 player draw)
• Ladies’ Singles (128 draw)
• Gentlemen’s Doubles (64 draw)
• Ladies’ Doubles (64 draw)
• Mixed Doubles (48 draw)• Boys’ Singles (64 draw)
• Boys’ Doubles (32 draw)
• Girls’ Singles (64 draw)
• Girls’ Doubles (32 draw)• Gentlemen’s Invitation Doubles (8 pairs Round Robin)
• Senior Gentlemen’s Invitation Doubles (8 pairs Round Robin)
• Ladies’ Invitation Doubles (8 pairs Round Robin)
• Gentlemen’s Wheelchair Doubles (4 pairs)
What’s special about Wimbledon? It’s just that Wimbledon is the end all be all of tennis. It is the premier tournament – if you make it to Wimbledon, then you have made it in tennis. This year, some of the notable names that we will be seeing at the tournament include, Federer and Nadal – two of the most known names in tennis today.
Photo courtesy of wallyg
Most people know Clive Staples Lewis because of The Chronicles of Narnia, one of the greatest (if not the greatest) series of children’s books. If you pay any attention to the movies, you would know that two of the books in this series have been made into movies recently.
C.S. Lewis is much more than a children’s book writer, though. In fact, his work spans a lot of topics and interests. From medieval literature to Christian apologetics to literary criticism – Lewis has touched upon all these. So who is C.S. Lewis and why are we writing about him in the English Blog?
He was born on November 29 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was a close friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the classic Lord of the Rings. Like Tolkien, Lewis was one of the most known figures in the English department of Oxford during their time. Lewis was born and baptised into the Church of Ireland but digressed from his faith as an adult. It was only till he was 30, due to the influence of friends –Tolkien among them – that he came back to his faith. Since then, his works have become known all over the world.
Aside from The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis is known for his works such as:
-The Pilgrim’s Regress
-Mere Christianity
-The Screwtape Letters
-The Abolition of Man
These are only among of my favorites. If you have not experienced the work of C.S. Lewis, I suggest that you start now. You just might find what you are looking for.
We all hear these terms a lot but which means which? Can we interchange the names or do they refer to something specific? The truth is, they each refer to something specific although even the British may not all be aware of that.
Great Britain refers to the largest island in the whole of Europe. When you say Great Britain you use it to mean three countries. That is, England, Scotland, and Wales. Other small adjacent islands are included except for the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. When did this term come into being? It was actually during the reign of King James VI of Scotland (also known as King James I of England), when England and Scotland became one kingdom. This union didn’t mean that only one government managed the two countries. It was basically having one crown recognized as the head of two separate states.
When you say United Kingdom, you are referring to Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In fact, British passports now say “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.” This term came into use in 1922.
The third term, the British Isles, is quite different from the other two in that is of a geographical nature and not political. When you hear someone talk about the British Isles, he probably means this group of islands:
Great Britain, the whole of Ireland, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Isle of Wight, the Scilly Islands, Lundy Island, the Channel Islands and many other smaller islands
The Angel of the North is a relatively new landmark in Great Britain. Some say it is popular, some say it is controversial. If you have not heard of it, then it is about time that you did. This landmark is a modern sculpture made of steel and is located in Gateshead. As the name implies, the steel sculpture is of the figure of an angel. Wikipedia describes the Angel of the North as:
Standing 66 feet (20 metres) tall, with wings measuring 178 feet (54 metres) across — making it wider than the Statue of Liberty’s height. The wings themselves are not planar, but are angled 3.5 degrees forward, which Gormley has said aims to create “a sense of embrace”.[1] It stands on a hill, on the southern edge of Low Fell overlooking the A1 road and the A167 road into Tyneside and the East Coast Main Line rail route.
The angel is definitely something that you must see if you ever find yourself in this part of the world. As you can see from the description above, it is VERY big and can be quite overwhelming. You can just imagine the effect that the work of art can have on a person. While it was being built, there were some sectors who were saying that it would never work; that it would be a menace to motorists. Some even went as far as to call the work as an angel of death.
Well, we now know that Antony Gormley, the designer, has been right all along. The Angelf of the North is a sight to behold.
Any self-respecting music lover would know at least a teeny bit about Pink Floyd. If I were to describe Pink Floyd in one word, I would say psychedelic and I am sure that many people would agree with me. This English rock band is in fact, an icon in the music world. Their music continues to span generations.
So where does Pink Floyd come from? In the 1960s, Syd Barrett and a couple of other guys got together to play music. They got their name from two blues musicians – Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Though Syd Barrett was the lead man for a while, his erratic behavior led to his decline and departure from the band in 1968. It was also after his departure that the band started to experiment with other sounds, leading to the emergence of Roger Waters as the front man of the band. It was during his time that the phenomenal album The Wall was created.
Waters left the band in 1985, leaving David Gilmour as the lead member. Today, what is left of the band is more of solo acts. Despite the fact that a lot of the original members left the band, Pink Floyd remains influential in many people’s music preferences. From modern day musicians to people who merely appreciate music, Pink Floyd definitely holds a special place in their hearts.
Royalty is something that not everyone has had personal experience with. For most of us, our brushes with royalty are limited to movies and books. Yet, perhaps, our lives have been shaped by royalty without our being consciously aware of it.
I came across this very witty article on British Royalty and pop culture and I could not resist sharing it with you. For example, did you know how the sandwich came to be?
One of the king’s minions was a fellow known as the Earl of Sandwich, who as we all know developed the concept of putting a slab of meat between two slices of bread. Of course it became known evermore as a sandwich. Except for little cucumber thingies served on bread with the crust sliced off, the sandwich was created to provide nourishment for the working class. A peasant could hold a sandwich in one hand and still do work with the other making him or her much more efficient.
How about the lawn?
One of the other lesser royals, a fellow named the Earl of Lawn saw how efficient the Earl of Sandwich’s peasant were and decided he should develop efficiencies in his peasant ranks, while at the same time earning a bit of silver. First he had a bunch of sheep and as we all know what goes in one side of a sheep comes out the other, and Lawn decided to call his by-product fertilizer.
He didn’t really know what to do with it until he spread some on the grass beside his castle’s moat. The grass grew and his peasants were told to cut it. Other royals saw what they perceived as beauty in the Lawn’s grass and wanted some fertilizer, too. Soon everyone began calling the mowed grass lawns after the Earl of Lawn. They sat on “lawn chairs” and drank their mead as they watched peasants clipping the grass short.
I don’t know how accurate the anecdotes are but they do make for an interesting read, don’t they?
Powered by WordPress | Custom theme by Randa Clay | Copyright © English Blog | Top
Posted on Jun 26, 2008 by