h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well I'm from Gateshead, (the Heed) and I can tell you when you've been patronised by Buckinghamshire Tories for years, "oh what a larvely aaaccent" when you're trying to sort some poor so and so's life out, when they don't care a toss, well Petty Hates doesn't quite cover it, you wouldn't be querying the North South divide believe me.

That's not being patronised, that's sarcasm

I don't understand KD, do you think people are putting on posh accents to take the mickey or what? No the easy self assurance of the shire middle classes feeling that it's OK paying someone with a Northern accent a complement as they see it for being able to express themselves and do a professional job, that's pretty patronising I think, I wouldn't dream of telling them they were lovely talkers.

^^^
"complement" ----> compliment

My petty hate of yesterday: assumptions on the part of packet mix manufacturers.

I'm no home baker, I haven't a clue. Yesterday I had a hankering for scones with jam & clotted cream so I went to get some from the supermarket. They had no plain scones, just a selection of 3 or 4 different brands of fruit scones (and that's a whole other petty hate). So I bought a packet mix which said "Just add milk". I checked the ingredients on the back, oh, look, also an egg, but that was just to glaze so the milk would do. When I got home and read the instructions I realised the ingredients list was incomplete: "roll out dough on a lightly floured surface". I have no flour. I don't bake. If I was the sort of person who baked, I wouldn't have bought a packet mix.

Luckily I remembered the tip about rolling it out in clingfilm, that worked well enough.

Deb

Oh I agree with that. Along with "add salt to taste". Umm?

Going back a bit to the bread knife bit, yes I also use a very sharp knife rather than the serrated one. There must be a reason or type of bread these knives suit, but I'm yet to fathom why the mess they make of a loaf of bread is considered preferable to a nice clean cut

Those northerners from Buckinghamshire etc give us patronising comments like 'do you have electricity on the Isle of Wight yet?' and lots of comments like 'the Isle of Wight is stuck in the 1950s' appear on television, especially programmes like 'Have I Got News For You'.

Today's Petty Hate – roadworks where they forget to make allowances for bicycles. And places that sell you tickets for 2 attractions, and neglect to tell you that the second attraction will close at 3pm, so when you walk there arriving at 3:02pm, it is closed.

<BB<

>>lots of comments like 'the Isle of Wight is stuck in the 1950s'

Would you say there's no truth to such comments? We often visit, and part of the appeal for me is that it reminds me of simpler past times.

There's a difference between:
A.) Saying that you can still enjoy a traditional British seaside holiday, with beautiful beaches, cliff top walks and visit historic castles, Queen Victoria's palace of Osborne House and the steam railway etc, all unspoilt by motorways, cities and other trappings of 21st Century life.
and

B.) Derogatively implying that you're all backwards yokels trapped in the past.

If the intention is the former, then that's fine, but if it is the latter, that grates.

<BB<

One thing that used to annoy me a few years ago, when my job involved inviting students for interviews at Southampton Solent University, was the rather bizarre attitude of the surprisingly large number of London applicants who would not leave London. Many of the courses here require an interview, and people from all over the country, Cornwall, the north of England, Scotland and Wales, all would be perfectly happy to come and attend. They would book flights from the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland etc without blinking.

But the applicants from London – they would be the ones most likely to make a fuss. The number of times I'd have a conversation with someone who would say 'I can't come to an interview – I live in London' when it is only an hour away on the train. Loads of our lecturers live in London. Going outside London isn't the end of the world, and if you didn't want to leave London, why did you apply for a place at a Uni outside the capital anyway?

<BB<

Following "add salt to taste"... People who are smug about having a sophisticated palate. And I speak as someone who has a sophisticated palate.

I know exactly what you mean Bluebottle! A lot of folks in London just don't seem comfortable with the idea that they may have to go outside the M25.

B B, I love the IOW me. The cleverest thing about going there is the way the ferry acts as a time capsule and takes you back 60 years in time, even the squirrels haven't turned grey there yet, and those glass tubes filled with pretty sand, what's not to like? Ventnor is calling me back......... Tennyson lived in Ventnor for a while didn't he? I reckon that's where he got the inspiration for In Memoriam, his cheerful little ode.

Almost – Tennyson lived in Freshwater (the West Wight rather than south Wight) at Farringford - see A2773299 - although Ventnor, Bonchurch and the Undercliff and Landslip was a very popular area with Victorian writers – Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Winston Churchill and John Betjemen all lived in Ventnor or Bonchurch for a while.

But yep – we have 21 different shades and colours of sand.

<BB<

How do you feel about the proposal of a fixed link to the mainland?

I'm against – the instant that you add a fixed link, you remove what makes the Isle of Wight unique. Instead of paying extortionate ferry fares, you'll be paying extortionate bridge tolls.

If there's a fixed link then there's no longer any an excuse to stop St Mary's Hospital from being closed/downgraded.

House prices will probably shoot up to become comparable with Mainland ones, but that won't automatically generate any more jobs so it will make it even harder to be able to afford to live.

But they've been talking about bridges and tunnels for over a century so it isn't likely to happen any time soon, especially with the opposition.

<BB<

BB, I'm joking of course, I really do love the IOW, but purely out of interest, I think I recall seeing a blue plaque saying that Tennyson honeymooned at Ventnor, on one of those vey impressive three storey terraces on the sea front, Presumably the great man's mind was in something a bit more cheerful than In Memoriam, and certainly not the Charge of the Light Brigade! I'm probably wrong, but cheers anyway.

Ordering (low value) stuff from bricks and mortar shops.

All the annoyance, frustration and inconvenience of not getting the stuff now and in exchange for your money and none of the advantages of online ordering.

That's 2 items this week that I would normally expect the stores to have keep in stock, but I got a 'sorry not in stock but we can order in for you'. So result is that I leave the city centre without my new toys, having paid for them and with no eta on arrival (which I will still have to go back into town later to collect).

Bricks and mortar shops *only* work as a concept in the modern era when you can walk away with the goods instantly.

I don't have an answer; shops can't keep everything in stock at all times and I could've said no and ordered online, but I didn't and I'm annoyed pettily-

Actually, I don't know why I put 'low value' in there; one of the items was a piece of hifi accessory equipment which I could actually have ordered online for next-day delivery from umpteen places.
In my defence I had just come off nightshift and was not thinking straight and now from past experience cancelling orders is often more hassle than its worth with cross-over periods when you have the money missing from your account from both sale sources.