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Top tip: after eating Weetabix - wash the bowl straightaway! If you don't the remnants solidify into something that resembles concrete and believe me, it takes some hefty scrubbing to remove!
If you've made this mistake fill the bowl with cold water with a little washing up liquid in, and leave to stand for two days. Then the concrete becomes movable. Don't leave it much longer or it goes mouldy (or indeed moldy)
You forgot to mention the most important element inside Christmas crackers - the paper hat. After groaning at the joke and dismissing the cheap trinket, it's compulsory for everyone at the table to put on their paper hat and wear it for the rest of the day.
… or at least the next couple of minutes 😉, generally we discard ours after max. 5 minutes, but it’s ‘poor form’ not to make a gesture to the custom, haha bah-humbug 🤣.
I hate those hats, apart from always being the wrong size I really can't come to terms with wearing headgear indoors. I was brought up to always take off my hat when indoors to the extent that it feels decidedly uncomfortable to leave it on.
The most important part of the contents of a Christmas Cracker are the really silly jokes. It is absolutely compulsory for everyone to read out the joke in their cracker and wait for the unanimous groans.
Fun fact for Americans who've never been to the UK, about our front doors: We all live in castles. We all have moats around our castles. Our front doors consist of a drawbridge and a portcullis. We can pour boiling oil on unwanted callers.
I think gaudy bright signs would spoil the look of the countryside so a brown or green is seen but not intrusive. You know we like to understate stuff.
Signs in the UK are so much more subtle than just about anywhere else in the world and, in consequence, very much more effective. If you go to the states or Spain for instance, the equivalent signs are enormous hordings and everyone ignores them unless they are specifically looking for somewhere. The brown signs are easy on the eye.
Here in Germany, we also have brown signs pointing out places of interest. But they're only found on the autobahn and highways, and they're shaped less than a sign post and more square-ish.
Tourist information signs should not be distracting to the driver. They are brown and dull so that other traffic road signs are not 'lost' in a sea of information... Like the billboards in Florida.
Re-Brown signs. There is a reason. You are driving down the road looking for a particular Junction Town Exit You pass a brown sign and you can ignore it and keep your attention on the road. If however you are looking for something like some attraction like your example Lego Land and you know roughly the location then the Brown sign is likely to have pertinant information. That way you only need to concern yourself with Brown signs when necessary. This applies to Historic Sites, Nature Sites and the like. So brown signs are non road navigation information.
I think Kalen was suggesting that instead of brown the signs should be bright yellow or pink, not that they should look like a regular road sign. But she can speak for herself.
@@carltaylor6452 But we have some quite exacting ideas that garish stuff is just not appropriate for the Countryside. Her plan is still fixated on pleasing the motorist ,not quite British enough yet.
Brown signs are information signs that are not related to the national road system. Brown is used as it is nearly the only colour that can make the sign easy to read and easily distinguished. Think of another colour and its either already in use or would make the written information indiscernible for instant recognition.
They are also standardised (brown) throughout most of Europe. So even when on holiday on the continent you may discover interesting hitherto undiscovered tourist spots.
Brown signs aren't only British - in fact we copied the idea from the French who'd been using them for about 20 years previously. They have since become an EU standard (including the specific shade of brown) and can be seen all over the continent. There are many theories about why they are brown rather than another colour but the original idea was for them to stand apart from the usual blue, white or red motoring signs and for them to be less visually disruptive in natural surroundings alongside trees and farms etc
lies lies lies the french claim they used them 20 years before us is bunkum the English have used them since the roman invasion which was a long long time, before the Normans started forcing any one to use silly French words SIGN -The earliest known use of the noun sign is in the Middle English period (1150-1500). OED's earliest evidence for sign is from around 1225, the french call them la-bâtonsign a word borrowed by the french from the Latin signum "identifying mark, token, indication, symbol; proof; military standard, ensign; a signal, an omen; sign in the heavens, constellation." POST - "a timber of considerable size set upright," from Old English post "pillar, doorpost," "post, upright beam," both from Latin postis "door, post, doorpost," in Medieval Latin "a beam, rod, pole,
Bit of a sidenote here. I cannot believe how many people have literally stolen your videos by reacting to them. You have done all the work. I'd blow a gasket. End of rant. Love your stuff.
TH-cam need to treat reaction videos like they treat videos with music in and pass the revenue to the creator of the original. This would mean original people would like that reaction videos are made and bring them more revenue.
The traffic light phases are: Green, Amber, Red, Red-Amber, Green. So you know if you see amber on its own then you should stop as the next light will be red, when it's turning to green, the red-amber indicates you can't go (as there is still red lit), but that green will be next.
The purpose of the red/amber was originally to give drivers a heads up that it’s time to engage 1st gear and release the handbrake (foot on the foot brake of course). Back in the day we were taught to stop with gears in neutral and the hand brake on. I’ve been in Canada for the last 57 years so I don’t know,what’s being taught now.
@@John.Mann.1941it annoys me when I'm behind someone using their foot brake with the lights glaring in my face instead of using their handbrake, and you still have to wait for them to decide to move.
@@John.Mann.1941 If you stop at lights and don't apply the handbrake and take it out of gear you will fail the driving test. At least when I took mine! (I nearly got it wrong and the examiner asked me to recite the sequence when we got back to the test centre).
@@peterbrown1012 I've seen people stopped at up-hill traffic lights holding their car on the clutch instead of using the handbrake, which can't be good for the clutch (obviously the only applies to cars with manual transmissions, which most UK cars have).
I was married to my late husband for 30 years. As a native New Yorker he was always a little perplexed at all things British. Towards the end of his life he was more of a Brit than me x
It's worth pointing out - or not - that when they were first introduced in the UK, duvets were called 'continental quilts'. They are not British by origin but we had them in Germany and France for as long as I can remember. Now, they are almost universal here. You never see them hung out to air like we used to in Germany. Even that is less common there now.
We had quilts, filled with feathers or down, that sat on top of the blankets. They were not washable. That was where the "continental quilt" came from.
@@lat1419 Do you mean counterpanes? That's not the origin of the term, but is an English interpretation of a bed covering found by Paul Rycaut in Hamburg in 1689, which did not become popular in Britain. On the origin of the modern duvet/continental quilt: "Harrods was selling them in the 1950s, but it wasn't until the interior design chain Habitat opened in 1964 that duvets hit the mass market. "Founder Sir Terence Conran, external has revealed his inspiration: 'I had been in Sweden in the 1950s and was given a duvet to sleep under. I probably had a girl with me and I thought this was all part of the mood of the time - liberated sex and easy living. It was wonderful that when you came to make your bed, it was just a couple of shakes.' "Habitat promoted the duvet as a convenience product, allowing users to make a bed in around 10 minutes. Sold initially as the 'continental quilt', it was at first considered avant garde." -Justin Parkinson, BBC New Magazine, 2015.
@PedroConejo1939 as I recall, counterpanes were simple heavy cotton or wool bed covers. In the 60s they were often tufted cotton, with sculpted patterns, like the fashion for sculpted carpets. Up't north we were far, far away from the 60s Habitat and Conran of fashionable London. The term "continental" was used to distinguish them from the usual quilt. Some might have called the feather /down quilt a counterpane, but not in my part of the UK. It is not uncommon for there to be variations in what common words meant - wainscotting for example, meant any type of wooden boundary between wall and floor while in other places it meant a higher panelling. Add in a bit of regional dialect and it was a very different world.
Sometimes I make you cry with heartfelt emotion, sometimes I teach you about obscure differences, and sometimes I talk about Weetabix and duvets...it's a mixed bag, this channel!
I have a duvet that separates or can be clicked back together it is so versatile and I have different covers with matching pillowcases and fitted bottom sheets to change the look of the whole bed I mean why wouldn't you if you can
Nothing beats the adhesive power of Weetabix! For those really tough repair jobs I recommend Weetabix. Simply dip the Weetabix biscuit in a milky solution, apply to the broken part then join together. Leave for 12 hours to set then it's as good as new!🙂
Also, adding banana to Weetabix before heating to 5000 degrees. A small amount of sugar gives an extra strong finish but it can be a bit too shiny if you're not careful.
Duvets were not our idea. When we first started to purchase them, they were marketed as *Continental Quilts* .. Though we did have *Eiderdowns* but they were placed on top of our normal sheets and blankets.
I was 11 when my dad won £100 on the premium bonds and he gave us each £20. I spent my £20 on a continental quilt - the first in our house - that I sent off for from the Observer Sunday supplement. I remember our excitement when it arrived. It must have been about 1973 😊
@@nicolab2075 Your parents read the Observer then? Oooh, posh!! My dad was still reading the Mirror - wouldn't have the Sun in the house, and I still don't to this day (though the Mirror has become somewhat the same as Sun, Daily Fail etc etc - thank god we have newspapers online now.)
Growing up in Canada, I didn't know other people didn't have Christmas crackers. All our Christmas photos show us gathered around a laden table , wearing our crowns. I have a charming picture of my mom in her paper crown and wearing a gag clip-on mustache... priceless memory! There is a trick to making them pop.
I didn't know until my friend moved out there that in Canada, there's an actual thing called the Windsor Pumpkin Regatta. People racing inside gigantic pumpkins is fantastic 🎃
Girl gone London & Adventure & Naps are proper OGs as far as my TH-cam watching goes, a lot of channels either fall off or just become meh but after years of watching these two I still get a little buzz when they upload. Last year I got hacked and when I made a new account it was these two channels I subbed to straight away. It can't be easy to keep a channel fresh and interesting after years of uploads.
That means so much! I love Adventures & Naps as well. Thanks for watching - it's definitely not easy to keep it going, but having people like you who say they enjoy the content keeps me motivated!
Hey, I subscribe to both the channels, they are great - you may also like to try The Magic Geekdom who have travelled a lot around the UK but don't live here - yet.
@nahha9529 in fact it was my Mum who first noticed them about 50 years ago and suggested that the term 'historic ' should be replaced by 'hysterical ' 🤣
Marmite. I was once entering the USA at Charlotte NC, and the TSA man noticed I was British. " You're not trying to smuggle in any Marmite, are you ? " he asked. " Why," I responded, looking round shiftily "...do you want some ? ". It was a nice bit of fun, but seriously, you do neeed Marmite more widely.
Wow you actually got a TSA officer who wasn't a complete jobsworthy a-hole?! Everyone I ever encountered when passing through at US immigration control was horrible and condescending, treating you like trash.
We went with brown as a colour for attraction signage specifically because it is neutral and plain (boring even) so that people (tourists and so on) could not confuse them with more important road signs that may save lives. Ziplock is a brand name used across at least the entire English speaking world.
@@igotes ...brown was also cool in the 70's with vibrant greens and oranges - as I recall with the horrible wallpaper we had and even a dress my parents made me wear!! Tramautised
@@KC-gy5xw Purple orange, brown and green. The hippy paintbox. Strong colour hides bad plasterwork lava lamps artex Rizla Rising Damp the fungus and the TV series you could take your kids to watch footy for less than a princes ransom and everywhere and everything was manky and cold, so efffing cold the 70's the decade that style forgot and punk ( my cue)
I like the French traffic lights which have small repeater lights at eye level for drivers stopped at the actual light. Much easier to know when your light has changed than trying to see one on the other side of the junction. Especially some modern junctions with lights everywhere on what were large roundabouts previously.
The brown signs for tourist attractions are all around Europe: France (where I live), Italy, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, you name it... And brown is not to interfer with mre "vital" road sign I guess (speed limit, new intersection...)
When they were first introduced to the UK different parts of the country trialed different coloured variations and then surveys were done to find out which coloured sign motorists noticed the most. The brown sign was the winner. (also some other colours were already taken for other types of sign)
Such a wonderful random list, I had no idea where we were going! Your channel is a recent discovery and it’s cheering me up - as a Brit who has lived abroad and is not always enthusiastic about this country, your perspective is really refreshing for my cynical soul!
I agree america is a bit iffy BUT Americans are generally OK but they defo improve by spending some time in Briton. I think our cynical soul helps to mediate their childlike over enthusiasm.
Re Weetabix. Personally, I prefer the similar looking, but more expensive, Nutribrex which is made from Sorghum and tastes way better. Its also Gluten Free for those who have sensitive stomachs. For the purists, it will still weld itself to the bowl if you don't rinse it afterwards just like Weetabix. I have just come back from three weeks in America and appreciate some of your comments. The one thing that I wish the USA would get a grip on is cheese. They simply do not understand cheese at all, with most local supermarkets having very little choice apart from pre-packed plastic cheese squares.
Crisps: The advantage of bags within bags is not just portion control. It also means you can have a variety of flavours. Whilst you do get bags containing, for example, eight smaller packs of cheese and onion, you'll also get a big bag containing two fox and ferret, two grouse and mushroom, two squirrel and acorn, and two pigeon and pellet. Great if you're packing lunch boxes every day, but don't want to get bored by having the same thing each time, and are not particularly concerned with preserving our natural wildlife. [The grouse and mushroom flavour are only for adults, as you can never be totally sure whether or not the mushrooms used for that batch were hallucinagenic.]
I’m a London Tour Guide working mostly with private American clients. They love our little cultural differences like these, so I’m really enjoying your videos. Thank you!
Living un Portugal its relatively easy to get Weetabix, albeit at vastly inflated prices. What I really miss is Shredded Wheat, which I've never seen sold over here. Always preffered crunchy Shredded Wheat to soggy Wheatabix.
We come to you for the 'weird stuff no-one else has thought of' - so looking forward to this! I've seen several American reactors totally confused by the concept of a 'duvet'. When they see one they assume it's like the comforters they are used to, and get grossed out when they learn we don't generally use a top sheet. They somehow miss the whole 'duvet cover' aspect - which is why we don't need a top sheet.
Interesting to see the things you like that we take for granted. You might have noticed that different road signs are standardised colours; blue is used for motorways, green for 'A' roads, white for more local destinations, yellow for diversions and red for danger (e.g. ROAD CLOSED). So brown signs for tourist attractions stand out as something different.
Yes, we do use the term Zip-Lock in the UK, but most people will not realise it is a brand. It is used as a generic name for the objrct, much in the same way that hoover and biro have lbecome common parlance, and mostly lost their brand specificity.
Ziploc is available in the UK but we have the brand, 'Bacofoil' which is a superior product, IMO. It is similar to how Ziploc used to be in the 90s and 2000s when I lived in the US. Don't find the quality the same now.
American don't know about bunting? Have you ever looked at the average used car lot? I think it was Bill Bryson who described them as having more pennants than Agincourt. 😀
As another American living in the UK, the *only* places I remember seeing stringed triangle flags would be in commercial areas like car lots and therefore they have an air of being a bit tacky, like those giant blow-up noodles. In the UK, bunting seems a lot more…well…cute, mindful, and demure. And that’s a good thing. Man, I need to re-read some more Bryson!
@@lungandfoot Yes, my comment was a bit tongue in cheek. The bunting here is generally hand-made with a lot of thought behind it. My wife is forever making the stuff for some wedding or anniversary, including stitching letters on each triangle to form a message. I suppose the nearest US equivalent would be quilting.
Believe it or not there's a whole science behind road sign design, fonts, sizes, colours, where to put stuff on the signs etc etc. Brown was chosen for tourist signs iirc because it denotes optional information and therefore can afford to blend into the background more than a green sign for a roads, white signs for local roads, or bright blue for motorways. Yellow is reserved for diversions and AA "traffic information" (like "expect delays during these dates on this road for Glastonbury").
I'm Scottish and had the Duvet Kailyn described 30 years ago. The two parts had different Tog ratings and when added together made the Winter Tog rating. I think the Summer duvet was 4.5 Tog and the Autumn one was 10.5 Tog and for Winter you stuck them together. The clips were a pest so my dad attached Velcro to them. Nowadays I'm too hot for a winter one so don't need this.
When you can walk along the coastal cliffs, into coves and along the sands, with your children and your children's children and their dog; pop into a pub and have a delicious meal and a couple of pints... God is in His Heaven and all is well with the world. That was my experience today - joy! There are very few places in the world which are as... accepting... accommodating... civilised. 😉
"...and your children's children....".....theres a word(s) for that...oh yeah...grandchildren, grandson, granddaughter, grandchild and any other similar ones
Talking of sturdy doors, the house I was born in had a front door designed to keep the Scots out; you don't get much sturdier than that. (Yes, it's still there.)
6:24 we have what you described as a comforter in the UK and we call them Eiderdowns because they are filled with down from and eider duck. They are considered old fashioned because you need sheets as they don’t have washable covers.
They are also incredibly heavy - a duvet is really light, but an Eidedown practically stops you moving because it's so heavy! (And if you've never heard an Eider duck's call, you're missing something - it sounds like Frankie Howerd expressing surprise 🙂
@@HDRWabout fifteen years ago I bought a duck filled duvet from M&S and it was heavier slightly with a lovely cotton cover but even with my lovely covers the little feathers kept poking through and stabbing me in the night. Worse buy ever and an expensive mistake. 😂
@@bygjohnuk Indeed we do, at Hack Green. It was a lot more fun before the brown signs were put up when around Nantwich, there were yellow signs pointing to it, as they didn't look like tourist attraction signs and just a normal sign pointing to a Secret Nuclear Bunker caused a lot of puzzlement to non-locals.
Another thing is Chocolate Easter Eggs. Growing up in America during Easter was about colouring hard boiled eggs. Here in the UK, it's about the kids getting lots of chocolate eggs.
Funny thing about the Duvets is that My wife and bought exactly that. You pin the corners with the buttons and instantly have a higher tog. We have never taken advantage of this as the thin one seems to work fine for us. It's still a really good idea though.
Yes, we have ziploc bags. My wife's pet hate about the multipack crisps is that it often seems to be the only way to get Smoky Bacon flavour (her favourite) but they usually come bundled up with a load of others she doesn't like.
@@pamcanning8592 Yes, It's finding them that's the problem. We have a Waitrose and Tesco, who both obviously stock Walkers, Maybe they're so popular they just disappear almost instantly.
Theres an American guy in London that picked a multi bag af crisps up, taking the piss out of our bag's of crisps being larger than the typical ones in Americs, unfortunately he wasn't quite bright enough to realise that it wasnt a singular pack but a multi pack !
@@greg5639 Yep,a rare mistake by Evan,who usually quite good on those things,but his taste-vid on the Top25 British Crisps (range) was overall very funny,espec. as I had tried all of the types featured ! 😂
The UK traffic light sequence is: Red = Stop, Red & Yellow(AKA Amber) together = prepare to start, Green=go, Yellow alone = prepare to stop. Really effective but until I lived in the USA for a few years I didn't realise just much safer it was!
@@HNH421 Haha, is that the actual German name for it? I love how Germans just stick a bunch of words together to make a new ridiculously long word. Many English words are actually German donor words.
@@igotes ha ha no i just translated "mechanism to seal a bag - interlocking groove and ridge that form a seal when pressed together" in to German - ha ha -but it is prolly close' to wot the do realy call it. note :- i just watch a video -survive in Briton for one month using only German words note 2 - the closet lang to english is Freashian - becouse we are the "freashion-jute-saxi-angles" note 3 - France is not real norrmen is just northmen and the rest are just britons
Brown is fine for attraction signs, they may also indicate scenic routes and picnic areas. There are also the bright yellow signs. These can direct you to new housing developments, but more useful are the yellow temporary AA signs that direct you to special events.
Yes ziplok is a thing and weetabix with hot milk was a favourite breakfast in our house when I was a kid. It was half soft biscuit bordering on porridge but still just about maintaining the weetabix shape. It's making me hungry just remembering it now.
Think most Weetabix is produced in one factory and the wheat is grown within a short distance of the factory. Regarding tourist brown signs, the symbol on the sign shows what type the attraction is, for example castle, garden, racecourse, church. Brighter colours already in use for road signs.
Weetabix is all made in Burton Latimer, which used to be a separate village but is now effectively a suburb of Kettering, Northamptonshire. And it smells absolutely fantastic in the summer when a light breeze wafts the smell of baking Weetabix across the whole town!
The brown signs are there to direct traffic safely to the attraction. I like that they’re brown. It’s easy to ignore them when you’re not doing the tourist thing and you can just follow the regular signs without confusion
Traffic light sequences are a common question on driving tests. You can be asked which light is next after red etc, there is a particular sequence to them so you always know which is next. They go red, red & amber, green, amber, red, red & amber, green etc.
2:38 the signs are brown so that they do not spoil the view of the scenery with a blot. Your brain has been blasted with McDonalds and bubblegum so you’re accustomed to the low-hanging brightness bomb, but learn ye well, student of Britannia, we prefer underfuckingstated.
On the subject of the signposts to attractions - I agree they're very useful, but I'm glad they're brown. They're often located beside roads in rural areas and brighter colours wouldn't complement the natural palette, which is predominantly greens and browns.
On attraction signage by the road, I did come across 1 in the US, In Tenessee, 'Vintage Car Museum. NEXT FIELD' and there it was in the next field, lots of classic cars....... on bricks............
If you want an extra tough door you can get what’s called a London bar. It’s heavy strip of metal that’s anchored into the ground over and around the key way and into the ceiling. It makes your door basically kick proof.
I always thought this meant us British are greedy and eat crisps more regularly as a snack whereas other cultures only have them at a party where a big bag would be needed 😂
@lozyoung4110 Not quite. Amber + red is to be treated like a stop sign with a minor extra check. Come to a complete stop, check the crossing is completely clear, then proceed if it's safe to do so. Amber alone is stop and stay stopped if safe to do so. Honestly always felt those two are the wrong way around, surely staying stopped should be what a red light indicates since it's such an obvious association.
I live in Canada now and electric kettles, duvets, and tourist signs are all here. I had been using a duvet from the 70's but I think my folks brought them back from Denmark. We use bunting all the time, farm weddings, birthdays, showers anything! I have literally 100s of metres of a variety of colours and all my friends borrow them😊
Sorry, you know she only knows just native speaker of English (or the American derivatives). Any other than those languages get disregarded, no French for her, not Spanish or German... What she forgot: those Brown signs have their origin in German, not the UK. Though in Germany they are usually signs motorway signs: Which Ausfahrt to take to visit some town, Permanent Exhibition and the like.
For the brown tourist signs, Thailand has equivalently good blue signs in both Thai and English that do the same job. The brown colour is good as it is distinctively different from other information and instruction signs. For traffic lights, Thailand flashes both the red and green lights a few times just before changing, this is even better than the instant transition to amber.
I love your channel. I find it so fascinating, never thought about these comparisons before. On the subject of traffic lights.. best ones are in Bangkok they have digital count down monitors to when they go green. Brilliant. Love your insight into our culture/ habits etc Keep it up and a very merry Christmas to you and your family xxx
Weetabix is actually an Australian not British- invented in Sydney by Bennison Osborne in the 1920's originally called Weet-Biscs in Australia, it expanded to South Africa and then Osborne set up a factory in Northamptonshire. Interestingly in the UK Weetabix is now owned by Americans. In Australia the product is called Weet-Bix and is owned separately by the Australian company Sanitarium.
It’s interesting that it’s practically the same product and the change seems to be down to the financial backer of the original selling it out twice and the original inventors wanting to secure their own ongoing venture at the time. So the name change because they couldn’t use the original but gather they also changed the recipe, so it’s the same but different 😊
Really looking forward to Kaylin's new channel. An ingenious idea - and the lady's a _natural_ journalist and communicator. Insatiable curiosity is one of the signs of what I choose to call the Higher Intelligence - and the UK is a treasure trove of quirks, oddities, and eccentricities for the inquisitive!
7:31 not only the front door but the whole house. One of the shocks I felt visiting Canada was how flimsy construction was. In the UK every house has cavity walls. Two layers of brick separated by an insulated air gap sometimes filled with insulation.
Only in houses built from the start of the 20th century (approximately). Most 19th century terraces have solid walls (two layers of brick but no cavity), for example. Stone buildings also don’t generally have cavities.
@@bygjohnuk good point. Some of the oldest are actually just lime plaster on wood but they are rare. I can’t imagine kicking my way into a uk property.
I suspect that the brown colour is deliberate as it is nothing like the colours of signs that impact road safety or the signs that indicate directions to actual settlements. Brown is not going to distract drivers who are intent on checking 'more important' road signs.
I've definitely gotten on board with the bunting! I first bought a cute, colorful strand of triangular fabric flags for my son's birthday. It was easy to store and use again, so I've gotten Halloween, Christmas, 4th of July, Mardi Gras, the UK flag (for the Queens Jubilee) and cute burlap flags with apples on them for our annual cider press day.
Doors here are made from different materials besides wood too. We built our house 52 years ago and it's always had an insulated fiberglass door. When we visited back in 1993 my friend's house (and everyone else's) had an alarm system on it, hmmm, still generally unheard of where I live in the US.
@@MsKaz1000 I don't know what sort of people you've fallen in with, but you need to join a group and stop all that chocolaty nonsense right now. That way madness lies.
I remember when duvets (continental quilts) first came out in the UK, probably about 50 years ago. Before that it was cotton sheets and blankets, winter time you changed your cotton sheets for flannelette sheets. Also it was before central heating, coal fire in the front room. You hung on as long as you could before you ventured upstairs to the freezing toilet then back down to the cozy living room. Come bedtime you all got your hot water bottles ready and went off to bed, shivering for the first ten minutes until your body heat was trapped in the sheets, if it was really, really cold an extra blanket. When Duvets first came out, they were duck down or feathers. The cheaper ones with feathers often pricked you when the quill end of the feather stabbed you through the cotton.
I think brown was chosen to avoid confusion with other road signs - such as green for A roads, blue for motorways, etc. - while still being clear and readable, and many will be in rural locations so bright colours might be considered an eyesore out there. Also, the use of brown directional signs for tourist attractions started in France, and was seen as a distinctive colour to use, so it has been adopted by many other countries, particularly in Europe
The other genius point about the traffic lights in the UK, is that when they are going from red to green, the amber is displayed alongside the red. When going from green to red, it is amber only. So you know what is coming after the amber.
One I would add that is very specific to London is the tap in/tap out system of payment on the London Underground. I've been travelling through Berlin, Barcelona and Paris recently and their fare systems are needlessly complicated in comparison. Some have advantages that London could benefit from, but the automatic application of price capping instead of having to try to work out before you travel what combination of tickets is most cost effective is excellent.
Ive tried chocollate spread, marmalade, peanut butter and jam as well. (not all at the same time). Strawberry jam and cream works ok. Not every thing is successful and probably smooth peanut butter is better than crunchy.
I have one of those 'clip' duvets. I use the thin one from late April to late September, and the other one the rest of the year. My house doesn't really get that cold so I've never used them clipped together. It just seemed a cost effective way to get two duvets!
Best tourist roadsign in the UK? "Secret Nuclear Bunker -->" 😂 These days, combinable duvets are less of an issue, as there are "all season" ones claiming to do just that. (Some cost hundreds of pounds, mind.) I can't say if they actually do that though, as I've only just got one. The doors thing is interesting. My house has an outer front door, a small area with utility offset (e.g. washing machine) and then the inner front door. It's like an airlock. So when I go back to my parent's house, where the front door opens directly onto the porch (not even street) I feel nervous about how unsecure that feels. And yet I never questioned that growing up there. Or how sturdy that door actually was. ("They were different times..") Great list of random things. Stuff like this really starts my brain off on random journeys into new places, and I love it. Thanks for posting your also pretty random thoughts. 😊😊😊
Not sure it was clear that UK Traffic lights have a sequence. Amber ONLY means that Red is the next colour. Red & Amber displayed at the same time means that Green is next to be illuminated
How very dare you!!! You should be locked in the tower for just thinking such a thing let alone committing it to print. Our brown signs are glorious in their magnificence, not like the filthy foreign signs you'll find over in Johnny Foreigner land. Sorry I came over all 1950s there for a minute. 🙂
1) In the US, brown signs are used for National Parks, and Monuments and some states use them for attractions also. The national highway signs use green for information on services and attractions for travelers. 2) Red to yellow might be a benefit. Are they safer? 3) You can by Weetabiz or it's equivalent in the US, if you really want it. Alternatively you can get large shredded wheat which has no added sugar, but does have a different texture. 4) Crisps, or potato chips, certainly can be bought in packages of individually packaged servings. However, for home use and parties, that would be a waste of plastic. 5) We've tried a duvet and was a pain to take apart and put back together. What seems to work better are layers that aren't clipped together. 6) Many American front doors are flimsy, 7) Christmas crackers, meh, US doesn't need to make even more trash. 8) Scooters, we have a little kid next door, probably 3yo, that goes into the street from the sloping driveways. It is scary considering how some people drive. On the paved trails, the little kids are usually on the bikes with no pedals or on bikes with training wheels. I do see them on scooters occasionally. 9) The bunting in the US is often semicircle in shape and used for independence day decorations or political rallies. In the US, the triangle bunting is used mostly by businesses, especially car dealers and food trucks. The end.
Americans do this sort of thing too, there are a number of savoury casserole recipes that actually use things like cornflakes as a crust. - it’s far better than it sounds
christmas crackers can be customised, get a kit and target your party, then the gifts can be as much fun as you can bear, or they can bear. and do them at the right time for your party, before any food is good , before main course gives chef/cook a window. if there are small kids around add things that can be traded and let them sort it out. sing a song for the gift you want etc. Adults only events can make it up from there. good luck.
Duvet ratings (tog measures thermal resistance). comes mostly in 4.5 tog, 10.5 tog 13tog and 15tog. most people I know just use 13tog as standard, but you can mix and match the duvet inside the cover to suit individual needs.{avail in various bed sizes}
And you're welcome... 😄 Duvets were an import to the UK, they were called continental quilts when they first arrived. I remember getting one for xmas in 1975. When I first went to Germany (I was in the army) I was initially surprised at seeing duvets hanging out of bedroom windows. I was posted in Wildenrath (close to Roermond) and loved the fact that I could go shopping in the Netherlands, pay with German Marks and get change in Gilders. As I recall the German shops were not so accommodating they wouldn't accept Gilders.
We have all that stuff in Australia. We don't have Weetabix but something very similar called Weetbix. Our traffic lights go straight from red to green.
can't get enough of my annoying American accent and overly complicated video essays on British and American life? Get an exclusive weekly video over not shared on TH-cam at www.patreon.com/girlgonelondon!
Top tip: after eating Weetabix - wash the bowl straightaway! If you don't the remnants solidify into something that resembles concrete and believe me, it takes some hefty scrubbing to remove!
They used to call it Weetabix the builder. Wasn't for nothing.
Definitely could be the solution to our pothole problem!
Or just fill the bowl with water and leave for a while.
So does porridge. Add milk to the oats and microwave, eat and soak the dish in water. Even then it needs a scrub.
If you've made this mistake fill the bowl with cold water with a little washing up liquid in, and leave to stand for two days. Then the concrete becomes movable.
Don't leave it much longer or it goes mouldy (or indeed moldy)
You forgot to mention the most important element inside Christmas crackers - the paper hat. After groaning at the joke and dismissing the cheap trinket, it's compulsory for everyone at the table to put on their paper hat and wear it for the rest of the day.
… or at least the next couple of minutes 😉, generally we discard ours after max. 5 minutes, but it’s ‘poor form’ not to make a gesture to the custom, haha bah-humbug 🤣.
I hate those hats, apart from always being the wrong size I really can't come to terms with wearing headgear indoors. I was brought up to always take off my hat when indoors to the extent that it feels decidedly uncomfortable to leave it on.
very true...and then yell at other family members who aren't wearing it!
The most important part of the contents of a Christmas Cracker are the really silly jokes. It is absolutely compulsory for everyone to read out the joke in their cracker and wait for the unanimous groans.
@@richardpiper4828If it was actually a decent joke we'd feel ripped off.
Fun fact for Americans who've never been to the UK, about our front doors:
We all live in castles.
We all have moats around our castles.
Our front doors consist of a drawbridge and a portcullis.
We can pour boiling oil on unwanted callers.
Yes, we've got our road signs well sorted out.
I just release the hounds.
@@phillipnash2843 Not by yourself, surely?😲
Get the houndmaster to do it.
@@Jill-mh2wn Where’s Jeeves?
The moats around our houses are mostly due to flooding
The doors are more sturdy in the UK because the inside is made of Weetabix
😂😂
That made me laugh out loud!
Brilliant lollllll
hahaha!
and nearly as edible (not really)
I think gaudy bright signs would spoil the look of the countryside so a brown or green is seen but not intrusive. You know we like to understate stuff.
Signs in the UK are so much more subtle than just about anywhere else in the world and, in consequence, very much more effective. If you go to the states or Spain for instance, the equivalent signs are enormous hordings and everyone ignores them unless they are specifically looking for somewhere. The brown signs are easy on the eye.
Here in Germany, we also have brown signs pointing out places of interest. But they're only found on the autobahn and highways, and they're shaped less than a sign post and more square-ish.
Tourist information signs should not be distracting to the driver. They are brown and dull so that other traffic road signs are not 'lost' in a sea of information... Like the billboards in Florida.
This is the exact reason and green is used for public footpaths.
@@nikibordeaux Aren't they green here?🇩🇪
Re-Brown signs. There is a reason.
You are driving down the road looking for a particular Junction Town Exit You pass a brown sign and you can ignore it and keep your attention on the road.
If however you are looking for something like some attraction like your example Lego Land and you know roughly the location then the Brown sign is likely to have pertinant information.
That way you only need to concern yourself with Brown signs when necessary. This applies to Historic Sites, Nature Sites and the like.
So brown signs are non road navigation information.
I think Kalen was suggesting that instead of brown the signs should be bright yellow or pink, not that they should look like a regular road sign. But she can speak for herself.
@@carltaylor6452 But we have some quite exacting ideas that garish stuff is just not appropriate for the Countryside.
Her plan is still fixated on pleasing the motorist ,not quite British enough
yet.
Brown signs are information signs that are not related to the national road system. Brown is used as it is nearly the only colour that can make the sign easy to read and easily distinguished. Think of another colour and its either already in use or would make the written information indiscernible for instant recognition.
They are also standardised (brown) throughout most of Europe. So even when on holiday on the continent you may discover interesting hitherto undiscovered tourist spots.
@@carltaylor6452 I think "shit brown" is the ideal colour.
Brown signs aren't only British - in fact we copied the idea from the French who'd been using them for about 20 years previously. They have since become an EU standard (including the specific shade of brown) and can be seen all over the continent. There are many theories about why they are brown rather than another colour but the original idea was for them to stand apart from the usual blue, white or red motoring signs and for them to be less visually disruptive in natural surroundings alongside trees and farms etc
When she says 'the rest of the world', she means 'The USA'. 😉
Brown 'tourist signs' are one of the MANY 'WORLD standardized' road markings.
They are seen in the US, but she would need to go outside.
lies lies lies
the french claim they used them 20 years before us is bunkum the English have used them since the roman invasion which was a long long time, before the Normans started forcing any one to use silly French words
SIGN -The earliest known use of the noun sign is in the Middle English period (1150-1500). OED's earliest evidence for sign is from around 1225, the french call them la-bâtonsign a word borrowed by the french from the Latin signum "identifying mark, token, indication, symbol; proof; military standard, ensign; a signal, an omen; sign in the heavens, constellation."
POST - "a timber of considerable size set upright," from Old English post "pillar, doorpost," "post, upright beam," both from Latin postis "door, post, doorpost," in Medieval Latin "a beam, rod, pole,
Bit of a sidenote here. I cannot believe how many people have literally stolen your videos by reacting to them. You have done all the work. I'd blow a gasket. End of rant. Love your stuff.
TH-cam need to treat reaction videos like they treat videos with music in and pass the revenue to the creator of the original. This would mean original people would like that reaction videos are made and bring them more revenue.
The traffic light phases are: Green, Amber, Red, Red-Amber, Green. So you know if you see amber on its own then you should stop as the next light will be red, when it's turning to green, the red-amber indicates you can't go (as there is still red lit), but that green will be next.
The purpose of the red/amber was originally to give drivers a heads up that it’s time to engage 1st gear and release the handbrake (foot on the foot brake of course). Back in the day we were taught to stop with gears in neutral and the hand brake on. I’ve been in Canada for the last 57 years so I don’t know,what’s being taught now.
@@John.Mann.1941it annoys me when I'm behind someone using their foot brake with the lights glaring in my face instead of using their handbrake, and you still have to wait for them to decide to move.
@@John.Mann.1941 If you stop at lights and don't apply the handbrake and take it out of gear you will fail the driving test. At least when I took mine! (I nearly got it wrong and the examiner asked me to recite the sequence when we got back to the test centre).
@@peterbrown1012 I've seen people stopped at up-hill traffic lights holding their car on the clutch instead of using the handbrake, which can't be good for the clutch (obviously the only applies to cars with manual transmissions, which most UK cars have).
I was married to my late husband for 30 years. As a native New Yorker he was always a little perplexed at all things British. Towards the end of his life he was more of a Brit than me x
I'm sorry for your loss 😢
It's worth pointing out - or not - that when they were first introduced in the UK, duvets were called 'continental quilts'. They are not British by origin but we had them in Germany and France for as long as I can remember. Now, they are almost universal here. You never see them hung out to air like we used to in Germany. Even that is less common there now.
you avatar is a flee or a bed bug LOLZ we had them in Germany and France but we only lived on rats when we first moved to Briton
We had quilts, filled with feathers or down, that sat on top of the blankets. They were not washable. That was where the "continental quilt" came from.
@@lat1419 Do you mean counterpanes? That's not the origin of the term, but is an English interpretation of a bed covering found by Paul Rycaut in Hamburg in 1689, which did not become popular in Britain.
On the origin of the modern duvet/continental quilt:
"Harrods was selling them in the 1950s, but it wasn't until the interior design chain Habitat opened in 1964 that duvets hit the mass market.
"Founder Sir Terence Conran, external has revealed his inspiration: 'I had been in Sweden in the 1950s and was given a duvet to sleep under. I probably had a girl with me and I thought this was all part of the mood of the time - liberated sex and easy living. It was wonderful that when you came to make your bed, it was just a couple of shakes.'
"Habitat promoted the duvet as a convenience product, allowing users to make a bed in around 10 minutes. Sold initially as the 'continental quilt', it was at first considered avant garde." -Justin Parkinson, BBC New Magazine, 2015.
Yep I remember getting my first 'continental quilt' as a kid in the 80s. Before that my mum used blankets which were horrible for my asthma.
@PedroConejo1939 as I recall, counterpanes were simple heavy cotton or wool bed covers. In the 60s they were often tufted cotton, with sculpted patterns, like the fashion for sculpted carpets. Up't north we were far, far away from the 60s Habitat and Conran of fashionable London. The term "continental" was used to distinguish them from the usual quilt. Some might have called the feather /down quilt a counterpane, but not in my part of the UK. It is not uncommon for there to be variations in what common words meant - wainscotting for example, meant any type of wooden boundary between wall and floor while in other places it meant a higher panelling. Add in a bit of regional dialect and it was a very different world.
Sometimes I make you cry with heartfelt emotion, sometimes I teach you about obscure differences, and sometimes I talk about Weetabix and duvets...it's a mixed bag, this channel!
And that's the best thing about you and the channel.
Yes mate we have ziplock bags too‼️😆😆😆♥️
I’m here for it lol 😊
😂😂❤
I have a duvet that separates or can be clicked back together it is so versatile and I have different covers with matching pillowcases and fitted bottom sheets to change the look of the whole bed I mean why wouldn't you if you can
Nothing beats the adhesive power of Weetabix!
For those really tough repair jobs I recommend Weetabix. Simply dip the Weetabix biscuit in a milky solution, apply to the broken part then join together. Leave for 12 hours to set then it's as good as new!🙂
Also, adding banana to Weetabix before heating to 5000 degrees. A small amount of sugar gives an extra strong finish but it can be a bit too shiny if you're not careful.
Duvets were not our idea. When we first started to purchase them, they were marketed as *Continental Quilts* ..
Though we did have *Eiderdowns* but they were placed on top of our normal sheets and blankets.
I remember my parents first getting continental quilts in the early 80s.
I was 11 when my dad won £100 on the premium bonds and he gave us each £20.
I spent my £20 on a continental quilt - the first in our house - that I sent off for from the Observer Sunday supplement.
I remember our excitement when it arrived.
It must have been about 1973 😊
@@nicolab2075 Your parents read the Observer then? Oooh, posh!! My dad was still reading the Mirror - wouldn't have the Sun in the house, and I still don't to this day (though the Mirror has become somewhat the same as Sun, Daily Fail etc etc - thank god we have newspapers online now.)
@@KC-gy5xw Yeah, remember the Sunday supplements? They still exist I suppose, I haven't bought a newspaper for years now 😁
I always thought duvets originated in Scandinavia but were made popular here in the 70s by Habitat
Growing up in Canada, I didn't know other people didn't have Christmas crackers. All our Christmas photos show us gathered around a laden table , wearing our crowns. I have a charming picture of my mom in her paper crown and wearing a gag clip-on mustache... priceless memory! There is a trick to making them pop.
I didn't know until my friend moved out there that in Canada, there's an actual thing called the Windsor Pumpkin Regatta. People racing inside gigantic pumpkins is fantastic 🎃
As for duvets we cover them so we can wash the covers weekly, hygiene!
Christmas Crackers are a tradition! Also followed in Canada I believe
Girl gone London & Adventure & Naps are proper OGs as far as my TH-cam watching goes, a lot of channels either fall off or just become meh but after years of watching these two I still get a little buzz when they upload. Last year I got hacked and when I made a new account it was these two channels I subbed to straight away. It can't be easy to keep a channel fresh and interesting after years of uploads.
That means so much! I love Adventures & Naps as well. Thanks for watching - it's definitely not easy to keep it going, but having people like you who say they enjoy the content keeps me motivated!
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial No thank you for keeping us all entertained.
I love both of these reactions channels!
Simple Scottish Living is another channel I started following recently. It follows a couple who recently moved from the US to Scotland.
Hey, I subscribe to both the channels, they are great - you may also like to try The Magic Geekdom who have travelled a lot around the UK but don't live here - yet.
In the US the equivalent of British brown signs are those that say 'historic', which means anything over ten years old 😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@nahha9529
in fact it was my Mum who first noticed them about 50 years ago and suggested that the term 'historic ' should be replaced by 'hysterical ' 🤣
Marmite. I was once entering the USA at Charlotte NC, and the TSA man noticed I was British. " You're not trying to smuggle in any Marmite, are you ? " he asked. " Why," I responded, looking round shiftily "...do you want some ? ". It was a nice bit of fun, but seriously, you do neeed Marmite more widely.
The US needs marmalade, thick cut, preferably Chivers Olde English! I was once told I was cross to eat orange peel in my orange jelly!!
@@andrrwprice7281 .
My son lives in Germany, he was just telling me that a friend visiting him from the UK was bringing him some marmalade.
Wow you actually got a TSA officer who wasn't a complete jobsworthy a-hole?! Everyone I ever encountered when passing through at US immigration control was horrible and condescending, treating you like trash.
Marmite could have used that scenario as one of their ads.
@@ferrarifilly Indeed! 😅
Another great video Kalyn.
And thank you for all the nice things you say about the UK.
We went with brown as a colour for attraction signage specifically because it is neutral and plain (boring even) so that people (tourists and so on) could not confuse them with more important road signs that may save lives. Ziplock is a brand name used across at least the entire English speaking world.
I assumed it was because they chose the colour in the 1960s when brown was cool 😆
@@igotes ...brown was also cool in the 70's with vibrant greens and oranges - as I recall with the horrible wallpaper we had and even a dress my parents made me wear!! Tramautised
@@KC-gy5xw Purple orange, brown and green. The hippy paintbox. Strong colour hides bad plasterwork
lava lamps
artex
Rizla
Rising Damp the fungus and the TV series
you could take your kids to watch footy for less than a princes ransom
and everywhere and everything was manky
and cold, so efffing cold
the 70's the decade that style forgot
and punk ( my cue)
@@KC-gy5xw YES brown Y-fronts with horrible green or yellow edging - wot were they thinking/smoking ?
It's an EU standard.
I like the French traffic lights which have small repeater lights at eye level for drivers stopped at the actual light. Much easier to know when your light has changed than trying to see one on the other side of the junction. Especially some modern junctions with lights everywhere on what were large roundabouts previously.
The brown signs for tourist attractions are all around Europe: France (where I live), Italy, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, you name it... And brown is not to interfer with mre "vital" road sign I guess (speed limit, new intersection...)
When they were first introduced to the UK different parts of the country trialed different coloured variations and then surveys were done to find out which coloured sign motorists noticed the most. The brown sign was the winner. (also some other colours were already taken for other types of sign)
Such a wonderful random list, I had no idea where we were going! Your channel is a recent discovery and it’s cheering me up - as a Brit who has lived abroad and is not always enthusiastic about this country, your perspective is really refreshing for my cynical soul!
I agree america is a bit iffy BUT Americans are generally OK but they defo improve by spending some time in Briton. I think our cynical soul helps to mediate their childlike over enthusiasm.
Re Weetabix. Personally, I prefer the similar looking, but more expensive, Nutribrex which is made from Sorghum and tastes way better. Its also Gluten Free for those who have sensitive stomachs. For the purists, it will still weld itself to the bowl if you don't rinse it afterwards just like Weetabix.
I have just come back from three weeks in America and appreciate some of your comments. The one thing that I wish the USA would get a grip on is cheese. They simply do not understand cheese at all, with most local supermarkets having very little choice apart from pre-packed plastic cheese squares.
Crisps: The advantage of bags within bags is not just portion control. It also means you can have a variety of flavours. Whilst you do get bags containing, for example, eight smaller packs of cheese and onion, you'll also get a big bag containing two fox and ferret, two grouse and mushroom, two squirrel and acorn, and two pigeon and pellet. Great if you're packing lunch boxes every day, but don't want to get bored by having the same thing each time, and are not particularly concerned with preserving our natural wildlife. [The grouse and mushroom flavour are only for adults, as you can never be totally sure whether or not the mushrooms used for that batch were hallucinagenic.]
I’m a London Tour Guide working mostly with private American clients. They love our little cultural differences like these, so I’m really enjoying your videos. Thank you!
Living un Portugal its relatively easy to get Weetabix, albeit at vastly inflated prices. What I really miss is Shredded Wheat, which I've never seen sold over here. Always preffered crunchy Shredded Wheat to soggy Wheatabix.
We come to you for the 'weird stuff no-one else has thought of' - so looking forward to this!
I've seen several American reactors totally confused by the concept of a 'duvet'. When they see one they assume it's like the comforters they are used to, and get grossed out when they learn we don't generally use a top sheet. They somehow miss the whole 'duvet cover' aspect - which is why we don't need a top sheet.
They were available over there 20 years ago when I lived there.
I and my daughters still us a top sheet under the duvet as it is easier to wash a flat sheet than a duvet cover every week.
@@christine899 How is it easier to wash? We just chuck both sheets and duvet covers in the washing machine.
Probably my favourite channel on TH-cam right now. You are smashing it .
When I drove manual cars, red & amber together was the sign to select 1st gear ready to move.
Also if you have stop/ start it's the prompt to restart the engine
Originally it was for steam waggons to get them ready.
Interesting to see the things you like that we take for granted. You might have noticed that different road signs are standardised colours; blue is used for motorways, green for 'A' roads, white for more local destinations, yellow for diversions and red for danger (e.g. ROAD CLOSED). So brown signs for tourist attractions stand out as something different.
Also, the colours are international, the same (almost) wherever you go.
@@iansmith241Glad to see that someone else also noticed this! Plus that the USA is total different to everywhere else in the world! NSW in Oz 🇦🇺
Yes, we do use the term Zip-Lock in the UK, but most people will not realise it is a brand. It is used as a generic name for the objrct, much in the same way that hoover and biro have lbecome common parlance, and mostly lost their brand specificity.
ah, interesting, thank you!
@@richardwilliams7692 Like google/googling/googled has become a noun, a verb and an adjective.
Ziploc is available in the UK but we have the brand, 'Bacofoil' which is a superior product, IMO. It is similar to how Ziploc used to be in the 90s and 2000s when I lived in the US. Don't find the quality the same now.
My favourite brown sign near my parent's place is 'Crocodiles of the World'. I've not been yet, but every time I see it, joy is sparked 😂❤
Near Witney in Oxfordshire
American don't know about bunting? Have you ever looked at the average used car lot? I think it was Bill Bryson who described them as having more pennants than Agincourt. 😀
As another American living in the UK, the *only* places I remember seeing stringed triangle flags would be in commercial areas like car lots and therefore they have an air of being a bit tacky, like those giant blow-up noodles. In the UK, bunting seems a lot more…well…cute, mindful, and demure. And that’s a good thing.
Man, I need to re-read some more Bryson!
@@lungandfoot Yes, my comment was a bit tongue in cheek. The bunting here is generally hand-made with a lot of thought behind it. My wife is forever making the stuff for some wedding or anniversary, including stitching letters on each triangle to form a message.
I suppose the nearest US equivalent would be quilting.
@@alfresco8442Wow! I didn’t know bunting was often handmade.
@@lungandfoot IF IT IS NOT HAND MADE IS IT EVEN REAL BUNTING ?
Believe it or not there's a whole science behind road sign design, fonts, sizes, colours, where to put stuff on the signs etc etc. Brown was chosen for tourist signs iirc because it denotes optional information and therefore can afford to blend into the background more than a green sign for a roads, white signs for local roads, or bright blue for motorways. Yellow is reserved for diversions and AA "traffic information" (like "expect delays during these dates on this road for Glastonbury").
AA as in Automobile Association. Not to be confused with Alcoholics' Annonymous.
I'm 50 and British, never heard of the duvet thing, you learn something new every day 👍
I'm Scottish and had the Duvet Kailyn described 30 years ago. The two parts had different Tog ratings and when added together made the Winter Tog rating. I think the Summer duvet was 4.5 Tog and the Autumn one was 10.5 Tog and for Winter you stuck them together. The clips were a pest so my dad attached Velcro to them. Nowadays I'm too hot for a winter one so don't need this.
When you can walk along the coastal cliffs, into coves and along the sands, with your children and your children's children and their dog; pop into a pub and have a delicious meal and a couple of pints... God is in His Heaven and all is well with the world. That was my experience today - joy!
There are very few places in the world which are as... accepting... accommodating... civilised. 😉
"...and your children's children....".....theres a word(s) for that...oh yeah...grandchildren, grandson, granddaughter, grandchild and any other similar ones
@Benson...1 Nicely researched.
Weetabix with warm milk and brown suger 👌🏻
O yes 🥰
Talking of sturdy doors, the house I was born in had a front door designed to keep the Scots out; you don't get much sturdier than that. (Yes, it's still there.)
But does it actually keep Scots out (speaking as one)?
@@alanj9391 Yep, its a coin operated turnstyle and only takes quids! 😋
Had to be said but love you guys, my mum lives up there for last 30 years!
@@paidwitness797the wealthiest part of the country outside of London and the south east.
6:24 we have what you described as a comforter in the UK and we call them Eiderdowns because they are filled with down from and eider duck. They are considered old fashioned because you need sheets as they don’t have washable covers.
They also slid off at every opportunity!
They are also incredibly heavy - a duvet is really light, but an Eidedown practically stops you moving because it's so heavy! (And if you've never heard an Eider duck's call, you're missing something - it sounds like Frankie Howerd expressing surprise 🙂
@@HDRWabout fifteen years ago I bought a duck filled duvet from M&S and it was heavier slightly with a lovely cotton cover but even with my lovely covers the little feathers kept poking through and stabbing me in the night. Worse buy ever and an expensive mistake. 😂
One of my favorite Brown Signs is in Kent and directs you to a Secret Nuclear Bunker :-)
We have one in Cheshire, too, and I’m sure I’ve seen a sign for one somewhere else. Always raises a giggle!
There are quite a few dotted around the countryside
There are several of these. The one in Essex (Kelveden) is well worth a visit.
@@bygjohnuk Indeed we do, at Hack Green. It was a lot more fun before the brown signs were put up when around Nantwich, there were yellow signs pointing to it, as they didn't look like tourist attraction signs and just a normal sign pointing to a Secret Nuclear Bunker caused a lot of puzzlement to non-locals.
Is that the one with the "Spider Farm" brown sign underneath it ?
Nuclear & Spiders.
What could possibly go wrong ?
Another thing is Chocolate Easter Eggs. Growing up in America during Easter was about colouring hard boiled eggs. Here in the UK, it's about the kids getting lots of chocolate eggs.
in the North East of England we still make coloured paste eggs and roll them down the hills.
Funny thing about the Duvets is that My wife and bought exactly that. You pin the corners with the buttons and instantly have a higher tog. We have never taken advantage of this as the thin one seems to work fine for us. It's still a really good idea though.
Yes, we have ziploc bags. My wife's pet hate about the multipack crisps is that it often seems to be the only way to get Smoky Bacon flavour (her favourite) but they usually come bundled up with a load of others she doesn't like.
oh yes I hate that too! I find it with hula hoops - I like the plain ones, don't want the rest and sometimes all I can find is the multi-flavor packs!
Walkers do a 6 pack of Smoky Bacon. I have one in my cupboard at the moment from Sainsbury's.
@@pamcanning8592 Yes, It's finding them that's the problem. We have a Waitrose and Tesco, who both obviously stock Walkers, Maybe they're so popular they just disappear almost instantly.
We have ziploc bags, but they are generally known as resealable bags or freezer bags.
Theres an American guy in London that picked a multi bag af crisps up, taking the piss out of our bag's of crisps being larger than the typical ones in Americs, unfortunately he wasn't quite bright enough to realise that it wasnt a singular pack but a multi pack !
Seems that American could not read English, as it says how many packs are in the bigger pack in big bold letters.
I think that was Evan Edinger on his YT-channel and he was quickly corrected by his UK colleague Matt Gray ! 😂
@MrSinclairn thanks for that , me duck . I couldn't remember who's channel it was .👍🏴
@@greg5639 Yep,a rare mistake by Evan,who usually quite good on those things,but his taste-vid on the Top25 British Crisps (range) was overall very funny,espec. as I had tried all of the types featured ! 😂
I'm pretty sure it would have said Multipack on the front somewhere.
The UK traffic light sequence is:
Red = Stop,
Red & Yellow(AKA Amber) together = prepare to start,
Green=go,
Yellow alone = prepare to stop.
Really effective but until I lived in the USA for a few years I didn't realise just much safer it was!
Not many people know this, but Brown Signs have to be applied for and the tourism destination pays for them!
Zip lock is the name of the mechanism to seal a bag - interlocking groove and ridge that form a seal when pressed together.
There is a brand called "Ziploc" which I think has become genericised. I've seen that type of seal described as a grip seal.
ineinandergreifende-Nut-und-Kante-die-beim-Zusammenpressen-eine-Dichtung-bilden YOU SEE WHY THE WORLD USES ENGLISH NOT GERMAN 🙄
@@HNH421 Haha, is that the actual German name for it? I love how Germans just stick a bunch of words together to make a new ridiculously long word. Many English words are actually German donor words.
@@igotes ha ha no i just translated "mechanism to seal a bag - interlocking groove and ridge that form a seal when pressed together" in to German - ha ha -but it is prolly close' to wot the do realy call it.
note :- i just watch a video -survive in Briton for one month using only German words
note 2 - the closet lang to english is Freashian - becouse we are the "freashion-jute-saxi-angles"
note 3 - France is not real norrmen is just northmen and the rest are just britons
@@HNH421 I'm impressed by your English description of it, anyway. Sounds like something from a patent filing.
Brown is fine for attraction signs, they may also indicate scenic routes and picnic areas. There are also the bright yellow signs. These can direct you to new housing developments, but more useful are the yellow temporary AA signs that direct you to special events.
AA is Automobile Association not alcofrolics anonymous
Yes ziplok is a thing and weetabix with hot milk was a favourite breakfast in our house when I was a kid. It was half soft biscuit bordering on porridge but still just about maintaining the weetabix shape. It's making me hungry just remembering it now.
Think most Weetabix is produced in one factory and the wheat is grown within a short distance of the factory.
Regarding tourist brown signs, the symbol on the sign shows what type the attraction is, for example castle, garden, racecourse, church. Brighter colours already in use for road signs.
Weetabix is all made in Burton Latimer, which used to be a separate village but is now effectively a suburb of Kettering, Northamptonshire. And it smells absolutely fantastic in the summer when a light breeze wafts the smell of baking Weetabix across the whole town!
The brown signs are there to direct traffic safely to the attraction. I like that they’re brown. It’s easy to ignore them when you’re not doing the tourist thing and you can just follow the regular signs without confusion
5:22 yeah multipack crisps are popular but sometimes I have more than one anyways 😄
Traffic light sequences are a common question on driving tests. You can be asked which light is next after red etc, there is a particular sequence to them so you always know which is next. They go red, red & amber, green, amber, red, red & amber, green etc.
2:38 the signs are brown so that they do not spoil the view of the scenery with a blot. Your brain has been blasted with McDonalds and bubblegum so you’re accustomed to the low-hanging brightness bomb, but learn ye well, student of Britannia, we prefer underfuckingstated.
On the subject of the signposts to attractions - I agree they're very useful, but I'm glad they're brown. They're often located beside roads in rural areas and brighter colours wouldn't complement the natural palette, which is predominantly greens and browns.
Try Weetabix and warm milk, and a little sprinkle of brown sugar. Delicious!
Bingo ! Regular white sugar is lovely too
On attraction signage by the road, I did come across 1 in the US, In Tenessee, 'Vintage Car Museum. NEXT FIELD' and there it was in the next field, lots of classic cars....... on bricks............
I love watching your videos Kalyn and I'm subscribed to your second channel too! ❤
If you want an extra tough door you can get what’s called a London bar. It’s heavy strip of metal that’s anchored into the ground over and around the key way and into the ceiling. It makes your door basically kick proof.
Brits also like to buy “balance bikes” (small bicycles without the chain or pedals) for 3+ year-olds to learn cycling 😊 🚴 🚲
for 3 year-olds to learn about bleeding and crying 😫🚴spare the rod spoil the child
We have these in Canada too.
We call them striders.
Nice list 😊 things you take for granted ❤️
Multi-pack crisps are good for portion control & product freshness!
The US portions are just too big, especially for sodas 😊
I always thought this meant us British are greedy and eat crisps more regularly as a snack whereas other cultures only have them at a party where a big bag would be needed 😂
Traffic Lights: you are spot-on, Get Ready is exactly what is meant by the Amber light and is obviously quite a sensible step.
Pedant here, amber means stop (if it is safe to do so), even in conjunction with red
@lozyoung4110
Not quite.
Amber + red is to be treated like a stop sign with a minor extra check. Come to a complete stop, check the crossing is completely clear, then proceed if it's safe to do so.
Amber alone is stop and stay stopped if safe to do so.
Honestly always felt those two are the wrong way around, surely staying stopped should be what a red light indicates since it's such an obvious association.
I live in Canada now and electric kettles, duvets, and tourist signs are all here. I had been using a duvet from the 70's but I think my folks brought them back from Denmark. We use bunting all the time, farm weddings, birthdays, showers anything! I have literally 100s of metres of a variety of colours and all my friends borrow them😊
A much more accurate title would have been: '9 normal things most of the world has but the USA does not'
Indeed, a tenth thing Americans need is the realization there is a world outside the two countries they have been in.
Sorry, you know she only knows just native speaker of English (or the American derivatives). Any other than those languages get disregarded, no French for her, not Spanish or German... What she forgot: those Brown signs have their origin in German, not the UK. Though in Germany they are usually signs motorway signs: Which Ausfahrt to take to visit some town, Permanent Exhibition and the like.
Or 'Nine normal things the U.S. needs'
@@Paul_C It's not a language thing, it's just a matter of not confusing the USA with the world.
Well that’s nonsense. There are a number of things that are really quite specific to the UK. Colonial arrogance being one of the most obvious.
For the brown tourist signs, Thailand has equivalently good blue signs in both Thai and English that do the same job. The brown colour is good as it is distinctively different from other information and instruction signs.
For traffic lights, Thailand flashes both the red and green lights a few times just before changing, this is even better than the instant transition to amber.
In Essex there is a brown direction sign that says Secret Nuclear Bunker.
There's one in Cheshire as well, called Hack Green. Very interesting day out. And another in the Kingdom of Fife.
I love your channel. I find it so fascinating, never thought about these comparisons before. On the subject of traffic lights.. best ones are in Bangkok they have digital count down monitors to when they go green. Brilliant.
Love your insight into our culture/ habits etc
Keep it up and a very merry Christmas to you and your family xxx
Weetabix is actually an Australian not British- invented in Sydney by Bennison Osborne in the 1920's originally called Weet-Biscs in Australia, it expanded to South Africa and then Osborne set up a factory in Northamptonshire. Interestingly in the UK Weetabix is now owned by Americans. In Australia the product is called Weet-Bix and is owned separately by the Australian company Sanitarium.
It’s interesting that it’s practically the same product and the change seems to be down to the financial backer of the original selling it out twice and the original inventors wanting to secure their own ongoing venture at the time. So the name change because they couldn’t use the original but gather they also changed the recipe, so it’s the same but different 😊
Weetbix just don’t taste the same though, unfortunately. The texture is off
@@carrie5490 You can always try Vita Brits- they are the ones we always ate as kids in Australia anyway.
Really looking forward to Kaylin's new channel. An ingenious idea - and the lady's a _natural_ journalist and communicator. Insatiable curiosity is one of the signs of what I choose to call the Higher Intelligence - and the UK is a treasure trove of quirks, oddities, and eccentricities for the inquisitive!
7:31 not only the front door but the whole house. One of the shocks I felt visiting Canada was how flimsy construction was. In the UK every house has cavity walls. Two layers of brick separated by an insulated air gap sometimes filled with insulation.
Only in houses built from the start of the 20th century (approximately). Most 19th century terraces have solid walls (two layers of brick but no cavity), for example. Stone buildings also don’t generally have cavities.
@@bygjohnuk good point. Some of the oldest are actually just lime plaster on wood but they are rare. I can’t imagine kicking my way into a uk property.
Yeah moved to Canada and now live in a glorified shed
I suspect that the brown colour is deliberate as it is nothing like the colours of signs that impact road safety or the signs that indicate directions to actual settlements. Brown is not going to distract drivers who are intent on checking 'more important' road signs.
4:42 try weetabix with warmed milk on a winter morning ❤
I always have them with warm milk.
I've definitely gotten on board with the bunting! I first bought a cute, colorful strand of triangular fabric flags for my son's birthday. It was easy to store and use again, so I've gotten Halloween, Christmas, 4th of July, Mardi Gras, the UK flag (for the Queens Jubilee) and cute burlap flags with apples on them for our annual cider press day.
Traffic lights in the Uk are not quite that simple - amber alone means they are going red. Red and amber together means that they are going green.
Yes, but it shares that feature with the USA.
Doors here are made from different materials besides wood too. We built our house 52 years ago and it's always had an insulated fiberglass door. When we visited back in 1993 my friend's house (and everyone else's) had an alarm system on it, hmmm, still generally unheard of where I live in the US.
Three words for you... 'Banana flavoured Weetabix'. It's the future.
There is a chocolate flavour as well
@@MsKaz1000 I don't know what sort of people you've fallen in with, but you need to join a group and stop all that chocolaty nonsense right now. That way madness lies.
I remember when duvets (continental quilts) first came out in the UK, probably about 50 years ago. Before that it was cotton sheets and blankets, winter time you changed your cotton sheets for flannelette sheets. Also it was before central heating, coal fire in the front room. You hung on as long as you could before you ventured upstairs to the freezing toilet then back down to the cozy living room. Come bedtime you all got your hot water bottles ready and went off to bed, shivering for the first ten minutes until your body heat was trapped in the sheets, if it was really, really cold an extra blanket. When Duvets first came out, they were duck down or feathers. The cheaper ones with feathers often pricked you when the quill end of the feather stabbed you through the cotton.
Multipack bag - not to be sold separately
I think brown was chosen to avoid confusion with other road signs - such as green for A roads, blue for motorways, etc. - while still being clear and readable, and many will be in rural locations so bright colours might be considered an eyesore out there. Also, the use of brown directional signs for tourist attractions started in France, and was seen as a distinctive colour to use, so it has been adopted by many other countries, particularly in Europe
UK traffic light sequence: red, red and amber, green, amber, red.
Try Shredded Wheat breakfast cereal; one ingredient, wheat.
Alternatively just eat a bale of hay!
The individual bags in a big bag of crisps is a multi-pack
Once again, so enjoyed, 😂😊
thanks so much. :)
The other genius point about the traffic lights in the UK, is that when they are going from red to green, the amber is displayed alongside the red. When going from green to red, it is amber only. So you know what is coming after the amber.
The brown tourist signs are something I think we stole from the French, that's where I first saw them but I wouldn't bet a fiver on it.
One I would add that is very specific to London is the tap in/tap out system of payment on the London Underground. I've been travelling through Berlin, Barcelona and Paris recently and their fare systems are needlessly complicated in comparison. Some have advantages that London could benefit from, but the automatic application of price capping instead of having to try to work out before you travel what combination of tickets is most cost effective is excellent.
The Manchester Metrolink trams have tap in/tap out systems; you tap your travel card/pass on the reader.
Weetabix and butter... sighs with happiness :))
Ive tried chocollate spread, marmalade, peanut butter and jam as well. (not all at the same time). Strawberry jam and cream works ok. Not every thing is successful and probably smooth peanut butter is better than crunchy.
I have one of those 'clip' duvets. I use the thin one from late April to late September, and the other one the rest of the year. My house doesn't really get that cold so I've never used them clipped together. It just seemed a cost effective way to get two duvets!
Best tourist roadsign in the UK?
"Secret Nuclear Bunker -->"
😂
These days, combinable duvets are less of an issue, as there are "all season" ones claiming to do just that. (Some cost hundreds of pounds, mind.)
I can't say if they actually do that though, as I've only just got one.
The doors thing is interesting. My house has an outer front door, a small area with utility offset (e.g. washing machine) and then the inner front door.
It's like an airlock.
So when I go back to my parent's house, where the front door opens directly onto the porch (not even street) I feel nervous about how unsecure that feels. And yet I never questioned that growing up there. Or how sturdy that door actually was. ("They were different times..")
Great list of random things. Stuff like this really starts my brain off on random journeys into new places, and I love it.
Thanks for posting your also pretty random thoughts. 😊😊😊
I love that sign 😂😂😂
It's not important how sturdy a door is. Thieves either pick the lock or brake the frame where the lock is.
Not sure it was clear that UK Traffic lights have a sequence. Amber ONLY means that Red is the next colour. Red & Amber displayed at the same time means that Green is next to be illuminated
Brown signs are brown because they are brown in Europe - and we adopted it from the French :)
How very dare you!!! You should be locked in the tower for just thinking such a thing let alone committing it to print.
Our brown signs are glorious in their magnificence, not like the filthy foreign signs you'll find over in Johnny Foreigner land.
Sorry I came over all 1950s there for a minute. 🙂
@@jaidee9570 🤣🤣
I wonder if there's one pointing to Agincourt? ;-)
@@HDRW There are - and it's Azincourt :P
1) In the US, brown signs are used for National Parks, and Monuments and some states use them for attractions also. The national highway signs use green for information on services and attractions for travelers.
2) Red to yellow might be a benefit. Are they safer?
3) You can by Weetabiz or it's equivalent in the US, if you really want it. Alternatively you can get large shredded wheat which has no added sugar, but does have a different texture.
4) Crisps, or potato chips, certainly can be bought in packages of individually packaged servings. However, for home use and parties, that would be a waste of plastic.
5) We've tried a duvet and was a pain to take apart and put back together. What seems to work better are layers that aren't clipped together.
6) Many American front doors are flimsy,
7) Christmas crackers, meh, US doesn't need to make even more trash.
8) Scooters, we have a little kid next door, probably 3yo, that goes into the street from the sloping driveways. It is scary considering how some people drive. On the paved trails, the little kids are usually on the bikes with no pedals or on bikes with training wheels. I do see them on scooters occasionally.
9) The bunting in the US is often semicircle in shape and used for independence day decorations or political rallies. In the US, the triangle bunting is used mostly by businesses, especially car dealers and food trucks.
The end.
Weetabix is more versatile than you think. I often crumble it in to a stew or casserole to help bulk it out.
Americans do this sort of thing too, there are a number of savoury casserole recipes that actually use things like cornflakes as a crust. - it’s far better than it sounds
christmas crackers can be customised, get a kit and target your party, then the gifts can be as much fun as you can bear, or they can bear. and do them at the right time for your party, before any food is good , before main course gives chef/cook a window. if there are small kids around add things that can be traded and let them sort it out. sing a song for the gift you want etc. Adults only events can make it up from there. good luck.
Weetabix with a sprinkle of sugar then add warm milk. So much better than porridge.
Duvet ratings (tog measures thermal resistance). comes mostly in 4.5 tog, 10.5 tog 13tog and 15tog. most people I know just use 13tog as standard, but you can mix and match the duvet inside the cover to suit individual needs.{avail in various bed sizes}
We have these things in the Netherlands, including duvets and weetabix.
And you're welcome... 😄 Duvets were an import to the UK, they were called continental quilts when they first arrived. I remember getting one for xmas in 1975. When I first went to Germany (I was in the army) I was initially surprised at seeing duvets hanging out of bedroom windows.
I was posted in Wildenrath (close to Roermond) and loved the fact that I could go shopping in the Netherlands, pay with German Marks and get change in Gilders. As I recall the German shops were not so accommodating they wouldn't accept Gilders.
We have all that stuff in Australia. We don't have Weetabix but something very similar called Weetbix. Our traffic lights go straight from red to green.