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

Good to see some positive Scotland entries. Especially for interst to tourists. Never been to St Andrews -plan to this year. 176727

Excellent, glad you thought it was positive, I was worried people might think it was negative.

Have fun there.

Go to The Cellar and have an 80' on me

Excellent entry, as a native Fifer I can say this is definitely the St Andrews I know. Just one thing - was the jibe about deep frying really needed? Not I nor anyone I know has ever eaten a deep fried mars bar - I suspect the vile sounding things are only eaten by fearless tourists. I have the same sort of suspicions about frog legs in France.

To be fair to me I am a full blooded Scot but have lived most of my life in England. I have to say that they don't broadcast adverts in England trying to persuade people not to eat fried food. It is something that strikes you when you go to Scotland. In my experience Glasgow is far more guilty in this department
I was only gently jibing but it does strike me as a valid thing to say. You simply don't find these things in England - it's definitely a Scotish trait. If you want something heated up in England its Microwaved, my experience generally in Scotland is that its simply dipped in hot fat.
As a matter of fact I actually quite like deep fried Mars bar but I draw the line at the deep fried pizza.

Anyway, it was kind of meant a bit sarcastically but I hope my fondness (which is genuine) for St Andrews shows through.

Thanks for reading

Orcus

Fair enough, I bow to your greater cultural experience. I suppose the whole concept of deep-fried pizzas is indeed unnatural and bizzarre, maybe I just never realised because I'm so used to them (although I've never actually eaten a whole one) . It's the deep-fried Mars bar thing in general that annoys me, the way it's become a national joke, part of the scottish stereotype - oh, the scots, they're all Rab C. Nesbitt-a-likes who drink Buckfast and deep fry anything that doesn't move - that's why I was briefly worried your article had fallen back on lazy cultural stereotyping. I was wrong. And if you actually like deep-fried mars bars then I will take your word that they are not the foul crimes against chocolate that I have always assumed they are.

Sorry if I seem negative - I'm not!
I did really like this entry.

Thankyou
I wouldn't go and culturally stereotype the Scots seeing as virtually all of my family still live in Scotland (my paretnts did the dirty and left for improved job prosects - how sad and common that is )

I take pride in being able to understand Trainspotting and Rab C. Nesbitt when most people in England just do a blanket "oh, I can't understand a word of it" -they very rarely try in my experience.

So where are you from in Fife then - I've been to most of the towns around and about there?

I'm from Windygates (how silly a name is that?) a tiny little village near Leven in East Fife. We have a hotel, a hairdressers and a big clock. I'm so proud of my home town! (Although if we actually want to do anything remotely interesting we normally end up going to glenrothes or kirkaldy.)

Your parents story is indeed a sad and all too common one - once I get my degree I'm probably gonna have to head down south if I want a decent job. Although the one place where I would really love to live and work is Edinburgh.

I get annoyed at some people's attitudes to scottish accents as well. I've even heard people accuse Lorraine Kelly of being unintelligible!

I take it you don't want to know about the deep fried sock on Raisin Sunday then?

I know Windygates well. The Haig's distillery at Cameron Bridge (Cameron Brig is one of Scotland's only single grain whiskys) was within easy smelling distance. My Dentist was also there (I'm from Elie in the East Neuk) but I thankfully don't associate the two.