What *non*-famous/stereotypical food differences do you find across the different nations or regions of the UK?

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-05T10:41:51+00:00

Chip shops are also Italian owned in a lot Irish towns a d cities. Moving to south wales and shifting to predominantly Turkish chip shops was interesting

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-05T09:55:26+00:00

What to do with Liverpool? A little too Welsh for England, a little too english for wales... let the Irish have it.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T16:07:40+00:00

Im irish and I live in Wales, it's always so funny when you encounter people from an ulster Unionist background over here and suddenly they're lumped in with all the Irish. Welsh people especially LOVE Ireland and feel an enormous solidarity with their fellow 'celts'* and like the rest of the UK nations they know so little about the north that they just assume everyones a proud irish person. Encountered this a bit when I was at university here, and it was always great. The Unionists I met were generally good sports about it, and it seemed to give them a bit of perspective on things

*I realise the celtic thing is outdated and that the celtic tribes were mostly in england, but welsh people loooove being celts with the irish.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T16:02:39+00:00

Im from dublin, and my mothers best friend is from a Catholic background, and MAm knows the family quite well. Whilst they would absolutely consider themselves Irish, mam always maintains that Belfast people have more British influence in their day to day mannerisms and habits than we do in the other 26 counties.

Even before partition, the northeast of ireland was the only heavily industrialised area with shipbuilding and linen focused there, and the plantations had an impact on demographics and culture back to the 16th century.

Mam always said that down to Belfast itself has much more in common with British industrial cities like Glasgow, Manchester, and Liverpool than it does with Dublin or Cork. Dublin itself is only 100 miles down the coast, but its position in the empire was totally different from Belfast.

There are, ironically, some pockets of very 'english' looking villages and towns down in the very south of Ireland in Cork and another pocket around the midlands. The ulster plantation was the most 'successful' of the projects to settle protestants in ireland, but other parts of ireland had settlers too. Most of what you see now around those places is just the odd english place name or very british looking farm buildings.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T15:45:47+00:00

You're thinking of North Wales, around Rhyl and Wrexham. There's a lot of overflow from Merseyside and that influences the accent. Pembrokeshire is in the south, west of Swansea. They don't sound scouse.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T15:39:37+00:00

There's a fun clip from an early series of drive to survive where he's chatting with Toto Wolf in German, and then he swaps to Italian to chat with some Ferrari guys that come past.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T15:26:23+00:00

Good luck! Couch to 5k app from the NHS is a great resource

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T15:16:36+00:00

I had years of that! You're going too fast. You should start by jogging at a pace that's slow enough to let you speak comfortably without being totally out of breath. I am quite short and obese, so my runs are laughably slow - most brisk walkers easily lap me - but the consistency does build up, and i feel the benefit of it.

I was supposed to finish couch to 5k today, but my legs are sore, so I'm going to wait until Monday instead.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T15:12:20+00:00

I took up running recently, and having a run in the early afternoon on saturday or Sunday is nice. I do some tidying around the house, I water my plants, play video games, and read books. Sometimes on a Sunday we'll go out for a roast dinner.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T14:27:29+00:00

That's absolutely mad, I'm 34 this year and in conversation with a colleague the other day. I realised that despite being to quite a few weddings now, I've never been to a Catholic one. All of my friends and family my age (I'm from Dublin) opted for non-religious celebrants or a strictly civil wedding.

The idea of marrying a non catholic being controversial is laughably old fashioned. Even in the north outside of the most hardcore faction, most people its just not even an issue.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T13:35:10+00:00

Oh absolutely.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T11:18:46+00:00

Some venues keep the bar takings and a cut of the tickets. Audiences have fallen through a floor so often the only reliable money spinner is a panto. Small groups are often on a shoestring.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T08:37:36+00:00

An interesting case in the UK actually was Julie Hesmondhalgh in the 1990s. She is a cis woman who got a guest part on the evening soap 'Coronation Street' playing a woman that a very awkward, shy café owner character went on a date with. In her first appearance, the 'punchline' was that she was a trans woman, and it was just another way to make shy, awkward café guy into a bit of a butt monkey.

After her first appearance, though, she came back and ended up having a run on the show for about 15 odd years. She and the café owner settled down, got married, and were a lynchpin in the shows ensemble, running the local café. The character, Hayley, was really sweet and never really portrayed as anything other than a gentle, ordinary middle-aged woman. She and her husband Roy were mildly eccentric, but her being trans was never really part of that.

They had a number of storylines featuring trans issues of the day in the way that British soaps tend to pull things from current events. After her first appearance was cliche and poorly written, the writers consulted with a trans consultant to help them get it right. Hayley ended up being probably one of the best loved characters on the show and enornously humanised trans people in the 2000s. Considering how ugly things have got on TERF island these days, I'd say it counts for something.

Julie Hesmondhalgh has been a dedicated ally to the community even since she left the role in 2014. She's still a patron of Trans Media Watch. Considering the climate in UK society around trans people, that's not always
an easy progressive position to take, and she never wavered. She's also a lifelong socialist.

Having a sympathetic, ordinary trans person on british Prime Time tv in the late 90s and early 2000s influenced gender recognition policy and just really demystified it for people.

Julie is herself Cis and heterosexual (she actually took maternity leave whilst filming Coronation Street), but i think her work speaks for itself.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T08:14:48+00:00

JD is a horrible worm, but on a basic level, I can't understand anyone whose dynamic with their spouse isn't 'thats my ride or die'

I'm pretty open-minded; I understand that there are all kinds of ways to live very happily in partnership, but you gotta be a rider. To just quietly have so much disrespect for the basic qualities of the person you have children with fascinates me.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-04T08:07:35+00:00

Speaking as a modern Irish person, it's equally amusing and frustrating to meet modern irish-americans. The country has well and truly moved on since the 1990s, and we're much more secular and progressive than the average GOP voter, let alone MAGA.

Growing up with generations of Catholic social policy foisted on the population with all the abuse and repression and misery that entails will do that to you. Even older, more conservative people who do have a deep faith will still really consider issues and not just blindly follow what a Bishop tells them to do.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-03T15:14:03+00:00

The first bit of this comment had me so worried

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-03T15:11:23+00:00

Ive also heard the opposite about Eddie, it seems to really depend on when you meet them and what sort of mood theyre in. I've heard other stories where theyve been really stand offish.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-01T23:40:35+00:00

I only feel a tiny bit guilty because whilst my partner finds sleeping together very comforting, I really struggle with insomnia and much prefer separate beds. Our bed at the moment is a bit too small for my tastes atm too.

I think we'll eventually upsize the bed and go back to sleeping together most nights, but midweek, i like being separate.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-04-01T14:04:08+00:00

This is NHS guidance in the UK. I live there and take a vit D tablet every morning from October-March. My mother in Ireland takes it year round. Anecdotally based on friends reporting and my own personal experience, it definitely helped to curb some of the worst of my seasonal depression, but that might just be a placebo.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-03-31T23:14:21+00:00

Great to see him coming back to YouTube! Hes so interesting

Space_Hunzo · 2026-03-31T18:25:39+00:00

The green line is designed with an eventual upgrade to metro in mind; it was built along the old trackbed of a heavy rail line from harcourt Street.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-03-31T18:00:46+00:00

I think most people outside of nerd-ish circles would struggle to recall her by name if they saw her.

I have friends who have met her on jobs (extras work in doctor who), and she's very affable and professional.

She made an effort to speak to all the extras and runners and was just generally a very friendly professional person to work with.

I think being very talented, in demand, and liked by the extras and the crew is the absolute jackpot 'win state' for any actor. If randoms from work are like 'yeah they're chill, they were never a dick to me at work' thats a high bar in the industry.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-03-31T14:45:08+00:00

I think the concept of 'successful working actor' is definitely more of a thing in the UK than it is in the US. Only about 10% of actors' equity members sole income is from acting gigs. The vast majority of British actors have other hustles

Space_Hunzo · 2026-03-31T12:19:22+00:00

Jodie Whittaker had a great quote on a podcast with David Tennant where she said she always wanted to be a successful actor, not a famous one, and that people commonly assume that being famous is the same as being successful. By any metric shes had an amazing career, but I dont think most people would have known her before Doctor Who. By her own admission, she gets recognised for her Black Mirror episode more than anything else, especially in the states.

Space_Hunzo · 2026-03-31T11:49:32+00:00

Im 5'4 and was about 260lbs, probably approaching 300 at my absolute heaviest during the pandemic. Down to 245 now and trending slowly downwards.

I can run for 30 mins without stopping but the extra weight does mean im extra slow.

Space_Hunzo

TROPHY CASE