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

God damn it!! I started uni this september and the usual 'gettin to know you' questions come up - where are you from etc. When i say i'm from Cumbria, everyone apart from people who live there or have relatives there either have never heard of it or know its somewhere up north. Its not even as if i'm at a uni hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Cumbria, im only in Leeds! I know that im not great at geography but i try and i do know where most places are and if not i make an effort to find out. But seriously, Cumbria is in teh news quite a bit with having BNFL/Sellafield, (the nuclear plant) n all. When i mention that some people say oh i thought that was in Scotland, OK so we are near Scotland but we arent in it - and just for the record i have NOTHING against being Scottish, i simply dislike mistaken identity.

I know where it is. But I live in manchester and my grandparents used to live there, so know it very well. So, erm, haven't disproved your experience at uni, sorry.

WELL I THOUGHT IT WAS IN SOUTH AMERICA SO IT GOES TO SHOW YOU HOW MUCH I KNOW ABOUT GEOGRAPHY!!

hehe thats quite impressive!

Straight up the M6 and turn left Home of It Bites, Kendal Mint Cake, Natalie the Fair Editor, one daughter, one son-in-law and three grandchildren

Is it near the lake district?

Not to mention Wordsworth and Wainright.

Donald

The Lake District is IN Cumbria, SOOOOOO many people think Cumbria IS the Lake District. grrrrrr!! hehe. I dont moan about everything, just stuff about where i come from when its wrong. Apparently im nice really (but once again thats a matter off opinion)

Cumbria, ah yes that theme park *big hills to lay with*, just afore Scotland as you leave Lancashire.


Erm, anybody that goes to Kendal, the Morrisons Supermarket there, what ever you do don't turn left at the end of the road, turn right and head back into town, or else you'll be heading for a 20 mile trip before you even see a farm house never mind a village or town! *Right turn good, left turn bad.*


Barrow, people may say: "just of the M6." Nope, it's fecking miles and miles and miles away from the M6.

Askam, it's where the police (often Lanachire) *hide* all the drug dealers tured grass waiting to give evidence in court. Once a nice village, depite the slag heaps, now just full of slags (and not the "good kind")...


St. Bees. Fantastic view of Windscale/Seascale/Sellafield/*next-name-in-5-4-3-2 years*


Whitehaven, what a lot of American chemical giant companies!


Few more town's about, all dead when Queen Vitoria died, by the looks of them.


Note most of the towns are aroind the cost, there are a few dotted about, like kendal, don't want to forget Carlise, well I do want to forget it, have the memory of it removerd forever, as if Cumbria Count Council decided to move all the 'ASBO' / Chav types into one town, to keep house prices high the rest of the county, so young people from Cumbria can't afford anyware decent to live?


Fair assesment?

Hey, what's wrong with Carlisle??? some of us used to live there!


Come to think of it - I knew there was a reason I moved away

You think you've got problems though trying to explain where you come from to a bunch students in Leeds... Try explaining it to the French, whose grasp of geography only extends as far as London, Oxford and maybe, if you're lucky, Stratford on Avon...

Isn't it that bit of Italy the Romans drive through to get to Tuscany......

Naw it's the bit of Britain that the Romans got as far as and then gave up and went back to Italy... working on the principle that on arriving in Cumbria they figured out they'd reached the end of the civilised world

painfilled_angel, suffer no more, another fellow Cumbrian here who can sympathise with your plight!

Where are you from?

Natalie (Barrovian - Emlyn Hughes RIP)

Barrovia? Isn't that from a Gilbert and Sullivan operatta?

No, it's far too genteel for that.

Lancashire gave it away.

Indeed. In 1974! Most cruel. Never quite sure if I'm Lancastrian or not...

Do you play cricket and eat black puddin ?

Wasn't Cumbria formed by merging the two old counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland with a few bits and bobs from other places?

Yes, with Lancashire North-of-the-Sands thrown in for good measure!

And yes of course I play cricket and eat black pudding!