Quote:
Originally Posted by The Munster
What's Somerset like ? Always fancied going there and believe me, it couldn't be worse than the spot I'm in right now. Full of :doh: :doh: :doh: 's !
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Somerset is actually a pretty good place to live. The people are friendly, it's on the whole very rural with some beautiful scenery and there's lots of history here (Glastonbury, Roman Baths, Lacock Abbey etc). It's also good from the point of view that it's easy to source food locally. I can see next week's vegetables from my bedroom window (no, I'm not talking about the council). Everyone has their dumbrains however and Somerset has it's share. I won't name names, but there are a few areas that could be termed 'six-toe country' within 30 miles of here. The butt of dumbrain jokes round here tend to be farmers who, while a very laudible and hard-working bunch, do tend to have an unfortunate accent which (like where I come from in Birmingham) has become something of a stereotype for being a bit thick, but of course, it's not true. I offer the following a) as an illustration of what I mean and b) in their defence (no offence to our allies btw, it's just Texas is a big place.)
a) When a Somerset farmer was told by a government vet his flock of sheep had Bluetongue, he replied, "Blimey, Oy didn't even know they 'ad mobile phones...."
b) A Somerset farmer was showing a visiting Texan around his farm. He said, 'See them trees in the distance, moy faaarm goes all the way over there. Takes 45 minutes to drive to the edge of moy faaarm it do.' The Texan replied that back home, he could set off at dawn, drive until sunset and he still wouldn't have reached the edge of his ranch. 'Arrr,' said the farmer, 'Oy used to 'ave a car loyk that.'
I rest my case.
More seriously, the poster thing is really about maintaining village life. A lot of the villages round here have lost, or are losing their post offices, pubs and village shops, property prices have risen and an increasing proportion of 'villagers' aren't local, but keep a nice cottage in the countryside for week ends and holidays. As a result, local residents typically hold events, usually hung on a charity, just to maintain a sense of community. For the council to call this anti-social is, IMHO a scandal. Just the kind of petty bureaucracy that gets them local councillors a bad name. The people who put them up live in the area and usually take them dowwn again after the event, or some other local resident will. We're not talking fly-posters here, we're talking about resposible people trying to do something for their neighbours. :damn:
@August. Yep, we do weird pretty well in England, though we like to think of it as eccentricity :D
Royt moy luvver? (Somersetish for 'Hello')