Tag Archives: Brits.

What Makes Us British? Tea, Tomato Ketchup & Moaning About The Weather Apparently

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Being perfectly happy to queue, saying thanks when you have nothing to say thanks for and our ironic sense of humour were revealed as the most common the traits that define us Brits. We don’t agree with the queuing (no one enjoys that) but we do say thanks a lot and are quite ironic.

The study of 2,000 adults found that attempting DIY on a bank holiday, applying red or brown sauce to everything and our love of Saturday night TV are unique to us British.

what makes is british. Tea, moaning about the weather, tomato ketchup

Feeling discomfort when strangers attempt conversation even though you are smiling, moaning about the cold weather, but complaining when it is hot, and our obsession with political correctness also made the list.

A cup of tea being the answer to any problem and not making eye contact on public transport were also top British traits.

Yesterday a spokesman for energy firm OVO, which commissioned the study, said: ‘’The list shows many of our unique qualities as a country and gives a rare insight into how we perceive ourselves and the way we think ‘being British’ is defined.

‘’It shows a quirky range of qualities from our famed stiff upper lip and ability to grin and bear things to our patience and the ease with which we’re able to laugh at ourselves.

‘’Lots of the traits listed centre around putting up with discomfort, not wishing to cause a fuss or being quick to apologise even if it’s not our fault. It shows we still value manners and good spirit, but of course it’s important people feel they aren’t being taken for granted in any areas of life.’’

The survey also revealed that only half of the nation feels they are getting value for money with their current energy and service providers. Moreover, 40 per cent of Brits don’t know if they are currently getting the best deal with their energy supplier.

Over a third of us are worried that changing energy suppliers would be a complex process and want to stay with their current supplier as it is ‘easier than looking for alternatives’.

The OVO spokesman added: ‘’ We are well known for our politeness and ability to accept bad situations, yet so many of us could be saving hundreds of pounds getting a better deal. Switching energy supplier for example only takes five minutes online and the supplier does the rest.”

The study also found getting painfully sunburnt, binge drinking and a love of curtain twitching were a few other traits us Brits are guilty of.

Three quarters of Brits are proud to be British and believe that we Brits are able to laugh at ourselves when things go wrong.

Our fondness of mowing the lawn, obsessing over our pets and not leaving a tip as a sign of poor customer service also made the list.

What do you think? What makes someone British?

Beware 18:00 on Saturdays in December!

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Brits lose £2bn of items a year with most losses at 6pm on Saturdays in December

Figures released highlight the need for Brits to protect their belongings as we reach the most dangerous time of year for losing things. According to the research – commissioned by www.mozy.co.uk, the world’s most trusted provider of online back up and data access solutions – more items are lost at 18:00 on Saturdays in December than at any other time of the year.

The transition from work to weekend, and Saturday-afternoon Christmas shopping to Saturday-night Christmas celebrations, appears to create the perfect conditions for loss with nearly as many items going missing on Fridays and Saturdays as the rest of the week put together.

And people travelling through Aberdeen, Birmingham and London should be extra cautious since these three cities form the Bermuda Triangle for lost property with more items reported lost or stolen there than any other cities in the UK.

A whopping 30 per cent of Brits lose two or more belongings a year and, globally, less than half of lost items are ever recovered. With the average Brit mislaying more than £80 worth of possessions in the past 12 months, this amounts to well over £2billion of lost property in the UK this year.

The most commonly-lost item is the smartphone which accounts for 35% of all item lost by men and 25% by women globally. In line with this trend, 70% of people have lost electronic gadgets, such as smartphones, laptops and MP3 players, which is all the more upsetting because losing these items not only means losing an expensive device but also the data that is held on it.

Claire Galbois-Alcaix from Mozy commented: “’Getting carried away’ and ‘carrying too much’ were two of the top reasons for losing things and dashing home from work to get to a seasonal party or bustling back after a day of Christmas shopping are great examples of these. Going straight from work to a party, laptop bag in hand, or snapping the festive fun with the camera on your smartphone puts more than just the devices themselves at risk though. As the research shows, it’s the vital work on the laptop or the irreplaceable pictures on your phone that people really hate to lose. That’s why we’re urging everyone to backup the content on their devices before they get to the most dangerous time of the year. It’s simple to do and you can even do it for free.”

Reinforcing how important backup is, 57 per cent of respondents said they would be more upset about losing the data on a device than the device itself. So valuable, in fact, is the information on smartphones that, rather than just getting a replacement device, 97 per cent of people who had dropped their phone down a toilet said that they had tried to retrieve it.

Some of the most common things that people reported finding were money (in some cases as much as £3000), bags, pets and jewellery – though more than 15 sets of false teeth were reported found by the research respondents. More unusually, mummified dogs, a C17th cannon ball and a winning scratch card were all uncovered.

The best hope for recovering lost items is for someone else to return them, the research found. 52 per cent of items that found their way home came at the hands of a conscientious stranger, compared to just 11.5 per cent of items that were rediscovered by their owners. Beware though, whilst 61 per cent of people have found an item that wasn’t theirs and 52 per cent successfully returned them, 16 per cent kept the item for themselves and six per cent sold it.

When it comes to looking for lost items, almost 90% of Brits give up looking for an item after a week – only the USA look for less time (92%). The Germans are the most persistent with over a quarter of respondents continuing their search for a month or more. Interestingly, the Germans are also the country least likely to lose belongings with 64% of respondents claiming not to have lost anything (compared to a global average of 51%) in the last 12 months, and the highest proportion of people who had lost items saying they had only lost one item (14%). Going against the lucky stereotype, the Irish are the most likely to lose items (36%).

Regional differences also appeared in the type of items that are lost and how they are lost too. Fashion-conscious French are twice as likely to lose a favourite item of clothing than the Brits and four times as likely as Germans. Americans are twice as likely to lose laptops as Germans and four times as likely to lose their keys. Germans however are two-and-a-half times as likely to lose their purse or wallet as Brits or the French. Americans are four times as likely as Germans to lose an item because they ‘got carried away’.

Top ten things that go missing (global):

1) Smartphone

2) Jewellery

3) Sunglasses

4) Keys

5) Bank/credit card

6) Clothing

7) Umbrella

8) Purse/wallet

9) ID

10) Paperwork

The five things people are most upset to lose:

1) Bank card

2) Laptop

3) Smartphone

4) ID

5) Wallet/purse

Looney Losses – some of the most unusual things people reported finding:

– 1947 Florin

– £3000 in £10 notes

– A chicken

– A handcuff key

– A hogs pudding

– A black pearl in a shell

– A small antique clock

– £100,000 in vouchers

– A bag of worms

– A bowler hat

– C17th cannonball

– False teeth

– Mummified dog

– Rolex

– Unexploded bomb

– A safe

– A full bank deposit bag

– A samurai sword

– A .45 calibre handgun

– A draft screen play

– A parakeet

– A little black book

– An antler

– A cucumber in an umbrella stand

– One Prada shoe

– Two guinea pigs

– A rowing machine

– A cash register

– A winning scratch card

– A gold tooth

 

Can’t Give You Up – Photos We Can Never Throw Out

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NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP – THOSE PHOTOS WE CAN’T BRING OURSELVES TO GET RID OF

  • ·         43 per cent of Brits keep photographs of former partners

 

Breaking up is hard to do, and while millionairess Tamara Ecclestone has tasked bodyguards with ridding her home of every trace of her love rat ex-boyfriend Omar Khyami, research from Friends Reunited shows many of us can’t bring ourselves to be so cut-throat. The latest findings reveal 21.6 million Brits have held onto photographs of former partners following a break up.

 

Women are more sentimental than men, with 61 per cent claiming they keep the photos as they highlight a part of their life they don’t want to forget, versus 56 per cent of men.  But men may be hiding more from their partners than their other halves realise. One in five men (20%) in a current relationship who have photos of their ex partners say they have hidden photos of an ex fearing disapproval from their new partner, compared to only nine per cent of women.

 

Men also seem to have more weighing on their conscience, as 17 per cent said they ‘sometimes feel guilty about keeping photos of their ex partners’, compared to just 11 per cent of their female counterparts. They may have good reason for this, however, as more than one in ten men who keep photos of their ex partners (12%) admit they still have feelings for their ex, compared to only five percent of women.

 

Corinne Sweet, behavioral psychologist said: “It’s not surprising that nearly half of us keep some kind of visual memento of past partners; a photo generates strong emotions as it unleashes memories of past attachment and times. The main reason people hide their photos (especially men) is probably due to a fear of their current partner’s jealousy, or of evoking comparisons in terms of attractiveness and sexiness, etc.  Emotionally mature partners will be able to accept you have a past love-life.

 

“The point at which people are able to put an ex-partner’s photo away (after a split, divorce or death) is usually the time they are emotionally ready to move on. Yet, it is totally understandable for people to keep photos to remind them of previous loves, as, indeed, these images do form part of our life stories – whether for better or for worse.”

 

Top reasons for keeping photos of ex partners:

  All Men Women
It was part of my life/growing up that I don’t want to forget 59% 56% 61%
They bring back good memories 40% 45% 35%
I don’t like throwing any photos away 37% 38% 36%
They remind me of a special event 24% 22% 25%
I look good in the photos 10% 10% 9%
They make me laugh 10% 8% 11%
I still have feelings for my ex 9% 12% 5%
I think we may get back together one day 2% 3% 1%
So I can use them against him/her one day 1% 2% 1%

 

 

The majority of us (48%) keep these snaps in old photo albums, but others (31%) stash them in cupboards and drawers, or in the attic (12%). Nine per cent of men say they purposely keep the photos in hidden files on their computer.

 

Matt Bushby, Head of Friends Reunited, said: “We all have photos from our past we want to keep; whether we want to share with others, or remain private. Old photos are often the best – they bring back memories and blasts from the pasts, even if we think we’d sometimes prefer to forget! The new Friends Reunited site is the one place you can search, collect and save treasured personal memories, especially old photos that have a special place in our hearts and you make them totally private if you want too!”


Kate Moss Wants People To Keep Their Clothes On.

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Supermodel Kate Moss may have spent most of her career naked but has some advice for her fellow Brits during summer; ‘Put it away!’

The gorgeous 38-year-old has, who lives in north London with hubby Jamie Hince and Kate daughter Lila, 9, doesn’t think women know how to dress when summer comes, as we see such little of it.

She told Grazia in an interview: “When you’re driving down the road in the summer, the English people… it’s not our natural thing, no. So it’s, ‘Put it away!'”

Brits ‘terribles’ at foreign languages.

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Parlay voo onglaze?

Brits ‘terribles’ at foreign languages, with 19% unable to even translate “bonjour”

While everyone loves going on holiday, research by Hotels.com today reveals that this does not ‘translate’ for Brits into an ability to understand and speak the local language. Shockingly 64% of us are completely unable to say anything in a foreign tongue, and only a third (34%) of us are willing to give the lingo a go when abroad. Even simple words such as “bonjour” and “goedemorgen” failed to register, with 19% and 63% of us respectively unable to translate “good morning” in French and Dutch.

Despite French, German and Spanish being on the National Curriculum, only 13%, 8% and 6% of Brits respectively consider themselves able to speak the language. Of those in this category, 25% can ask a limited range of everyday questions, 21% can just say “hello” and “goodbye” and a strange 2% claim that they can understand everything that is said to them, but are unable to say anything back.

The majority of Brits (61%) rarely or never try to speak a foreign language, with reasons for their lack of effort being put down to simply not being bothered (16%), being too embarrassed they will make a mistake (35%) or simply assuming that everyone can speak English (23%).

Surprisingly 47% of 18-24 year olds reported that they haven’t spoken the foreign language they learnt at school, since they left. Conversely, those aged over 55 were most likely to try and speak the country’s local language when on holiday, with 45% of respondents claiming to very often or always try.

Putting pints before their Ps & Qs, more people (43%) were able to translate “a beer please” in Spanish (“una cerveza por favor”) than were able to correctly translate “thank you” in Portuguese (“prego”) 29%.

Kate Hopcraft, from Hotels.com, said: “The results of our study seem to put British holiday makers to shame, with even languages typically learnt at school such as German, French and Spanish having incredibly low levels of comprehension. Brits often have a negative image abroad when it comes to languages and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be anything we’ll be saying auf wiedersehen to anytime soon.”

Percentage of Brits who could correctly translate these common foreign phrases:

Bonjour

81%

Una cerveza por favor

43%

Prego

29%

Ja

57%

Danke schoen

57%

Goedemorgen

37%

Buenas Noches

56%

Has Hollywood Gone Potty for Limeys? How the Brits Conquered Hollywood.

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A few weeks ago I attended a fantastic industry networking event in Manchester. Among the exhibitors was Industry Hollywood, a company whose sole aim is to help British actors to grow their exposure across the pond. They told me that UK talent is in real demand over in the “Land of the Free”.

So this got me thinking; is this actually true and, if so, why?

Take a gander at the casts of some of the most popular shows on American network TV and you’re sure to come across a fair few Brits. Archie Panjabi in The Good Wife, Linus Richie in Law and Order, Louise Lombard in CSI – this is just a small selection of Brits to “crack” the US drama scene.

The same can be said of many Hollywood movies, with the re-jigged Batman franchise, the upcoming Man of Steel, The Amazing Spider-Man and recent Oscar contenders such as The Social Network all featuring British performers taking roles that could easily be played by Americans.

So, on the surface at least, Hollywood has indeed gone potty for the “Limeys”. But why?

Could it be a cultural thing? In the UK, we have a long and noble theatre tradition, with actors cutting their teeth on stages across the nation before making the move to TV and onto film. In the US this tradition is often reversed. Might this create a different “style” of performance that is now “in vogue”?

In a 2007 interview for the Radio Times, Stephen Fry talked about the difference between American and British actors; “[Take] the supreme relaxed authenticity of a James Stewart or a George Clooney compared with the brittle contrivances of a Laurence Olivier or a Kenneth Branagh, marvellous as they are”

I would certainly agree that you can, at times, see a distinct difference in style when a British actor is dropped into an American TV drama. Take Christopher Eccleston’s short stint in Heroes – he sticks out like a sore thumb. There’s nothing wrong with his performance but it’s certainly different to those around him; he’s performing a role (brilliantly) while those around him are “inhabiting” their characters in a far more comfortable fashion. I’d say the same about the wonderful Hugh Laurie in House.

Now I’m a firm believer that good acting is good acting and I’m wary of the notion that we Brits are in any way “better” than our American cousins. But does our different tradition and altered style make us more attractive to US casting executives? Is there a fashion for “Brit style” acting at the moment?

Maybe not.

In an interview for the Caledonian Mercury, Scottish TV producer Andrea Calderwood, who now works in the US TV Industry, gives another theory; Cost.

“,… Producers are always on the look out for new talent which won’t break the budget. Enter stage right all those eager and ambitious British actors hungry for that Hollywood breakthrough.”

Are we really just “White Mexicans”, a phrase that is apparently doing the rounds in LA?

Toby Hemmingway, a British actor making huge strides in his career over in America, might have a few words to say about that. In a recent interview for the Guardian, he claimed that British actors benefitted from being more resilient.

“It’s the natural pessimism. Being a good loser. Americans think 15 minutes of fame and it’s all over or it’ll make you. Brits are more dogged and realistic”

It’s an interesting idea; that Brits are more tenacious in their attempts to find work. But is it true?

And, indeed, should we be complaining if we’re simply “cheaper” as long as it get us the work?

Let me know what you think in the comments below0.

This article was originally published at www.tim-austin.co.uk