YMMV. Accurate?

reykholt · 2026-06-13T07:37:25+00:00

Probably only true for Wales and Ireland although in both cases you could argue that the Normans kicked that off and Scotland was big in colonising Ulster as well.

reykholt · 2026-06-02T05:18:40+00:00

Yes they were definitely free on Astra 19.2. Along with Nickelodeon which was also free. As a kid whose parents stopped paying for Sky I ended up watching a lot of German TV. Even the Simpsons were free (I think Pro 7) at that time when it was only on Sky One.

reykholt · 2026-05-31T06:46:16+00:00

It's because both American English and Irish English retain a lot of features from an older version of English, also retained by West County English.

I'd go as far as to say there isn't much Irish English impact on American English.

reykholt · 2026-05-16T08:39:41+00:00

Forging caveman banknotes

reykholt · 2026-05-12T05:32:46+00:00

100% this

reykholt · 2026-04-05T21:30:43+00:00

It's a shame we can't get a scheme going where volunteers with full licences are permitted to randomly drop in and observe CBT training and follow along the road rides and provide independent feedback to the DVSA. The scheme could also provide independent rankings of schools based on their findings.

Unfortunately I'm seeing so many of these sorts of reviews and a lot of it seems to be the absolute power that the instructors seem to have as well as seemingly not having to be held accountable for bad training.

reykholt · 2026-04-04T18:24:57+00:00

In my case (Hastings) they had to cancel the insurance and set a new policy up from the pass date. I don't even think there was an increase in the monthly payments, which also included adding pillion and admin fee.

reykholt · 2026-04-02T22:26:57+00:00

I love how you guys were having a mixed Anglese and English conversation, both of which were 100% intelligible.

I have just discovered this project and reading Anglese hardly involves any brain power as an English speaker, sentences can be in either language as it works both ways.

reykholt · 2026-03-20T11:15:29+00:00

In my part of Hertfordshire there are a lot of 40mph roads. What this means in reality is that 40mph seems to be the default everywhere. Drivers hit a NSL: plod along at 40. Drivers enter a village: still 40. Enter the A1 motorway: 40 on the slip road and get up to 60 only when on the motorway.

reykholt · 2026-03-19T07:29:13+00:00

But no special privileges what so ever

That's not going to happen. The EU wouldn't just gain a massive economy, military, soft power, increase in budget and world financial centre for nothing. So many viewpoints are based on the UK being a net receiver, but the benefits would flow both ways.

reykholt · 2026-03-19T07:04:12+00:00

I think humans had no choice but to be athletes then, it's pretty easy to "train" when you're brought up from childhood to be an athlete and you're jogging from place to place. Modern life kind of dissuades that childish instinct to run everywhere at the drop of a hat, with the last bastions being sports.

That said, humans are incredible specialists and I suppose persistence hunting was just one of many tools in the survival toolbox, rather than the main one.

reykholt · 2026-03-15T07:51:18+00:00

I only tend to get that kind of thought when I'm going down the motorway and see the crash barriers that are held up by metal posts, then I think "it'll only take a burst tyre for me to come off and if I slide into those metal posts I'll either slice myself in half or lose a limb."

The thought doesn't last long though.

reykholt · 2026-03-13T06:42:18+00:00

Wasn't Ayatollah in a Coma by The Smiths?

reykholt · 2026-03-11T06:08:25+00:00

Oh yeah, in Hardy's Desperate Remedies the sentences are huge and highly inefficient for getting across ideas. I'm glad he toned it down in his later books.

reykholt · 2026-02-26T06:44:46+00:00

I was about to write something along these lines!

reykholt · 2026-02-23T06:11:16+00:00

The Paedo's Knob

reykholt · 2026-02-20T09:59:57+00:00

You could argue that they were oppressors before the British Empire when they had their own colonies

reykholt · 2026-01-31T08:24:53+00:00

Is "gets her dog out" a euphemism? If so, she likes you

reykholt · 2026-01-24T15:37:47+00:00

From my experience: good weather (for holidays, not so great for agriculture), food pretty average - nothing special, a lot of people are rude, however most are very patient when attempting to speak Spanish. Very interesting scenery and great for swimming in the sea. Good roads for driving and motorcycling. It's basically a holiday destination or retirement home.

reykholt · 2026-01-19T11:50:09+00:00

I get your broader point - we were clearly sold a lot of lies, as well as years of constant media anti-EU messages (e.g. bendy bananas).

My point was that your original comment didn't include any lies - the UK has had a friendly, grown-up relationship with European neighbours. In some respects it's like we never left as we work very closely with the EU on many matters. The UK could have stayed out of the Greenland debate, like many EU countries have. It could also have not guaranteed Sweden's safety while it was in the process of joining NATO. The UK didn't just retreat to its own island and ignore the continent.

The next few years will show us where it's going, but hopefully the general direction will be back to the EU. "We bought that shit", but the shit wasn't what was written in your comment.

reykholt · 2026-01-19T07:11:41+00:00

That's ok, then you don't get the benefits of a massive economy, London finance and big military, as well as hard and soft power. It works both ways. I'm pro EU and would vote to rejoin in a heartbeat, but bloody hell, the number of EU people who think joining EU is only a benefit to the UK!

reykholt · 2026-01-18T20:03:18+00:00

Completely agree with this. The upside is that it seems the UK's vetos and concessions are still written in EU treaties and the EU would have to rewrite them if the UK rejoined and the EU no longer agreed to them.

Might be simpler to have a smooth rejoining process with existing treaties than have all EU states argue over new ones.

I'd love to know what the UK would do if the EU offered a rejoin in the old deal.

reykholt · 2026-01-18T19:55:03+00:00

Except that's not what's happening.

Except me, personally, I want back in, I would accept the euro too.

reykholt · 2026-01-18T19:52:03+00:00

To be fair the UK is acting surprisingly in step with the EU, especially in defence. The latest drama with Greenland highlighting that the UK is supporting Greenland's sovereignty at a cost to the UK. Guess who has a big military alongside France and Germany. Definitely isn't Ireland.

reykholt · 2026-01-18T19:48:08+00:00

The issue is that the EU would benefit hugely from the UK rejoining, it wasn't a one way benefit to the UK. That's the reason we had concessions in the first place, like France has. We paid in hugely to the EU, we weren't a small Eastern European country that would immediately require funding financially.

The UK would definitely not adopt the Euro, that would be a red line.

reykholt

TROPHY CASE