Escape to the Country!

[Feltwell]

Ehh, what, did someone say something???

I've finally woken up at the back.

OY!

I'll have you lot know that some of us Naaarfuk types have proper families with cousins and aunts and uncles and everything, and no one fulfilling dual roles. So there. Nerr.

Well, in recent times at least. My unusual surname is the same as the name of a small area near Great Yarmouth, so it's a fair assumption the ancestors came from there. Despite my being born in King's Lynn, my parents and the family above them as far back as we can tell lived in or close to London, where they picked up cosmopolitan habits such as not marrying your cousin.

Anyway, my 16 toes came in very useful at school when we had to learn hexadecimal :wink: All the other kids with only 9, 11 or 12 toes really struggled.

 

[Penners]

My unusual surname is the same as the name of a small area near Great Yarmouth, so it's a fair assumption the ancestors came from there.

Ahem... when trumpeting your Norfolk ancestry, old chap, I think it might be advisable to gloss quickly over any association with Great Yarmouth. It's not what I would call Norfolk's jewel.

 

[Feltwell]

My unusual surname is the same as the name of a small area near Great Yarmouth, so it's a fair assumption the ancestors came from there.

Ahem... when trumpeting your Norfolk ancestry, old chap, I think it might be advisable to gloss quickly over any association with Great Yarmouth. It's not what I would call Norfolk's jewel.

:lol: I did say near Great Yarmouth - "my" bit is about 10 to 15 miles away and is still quite pleasant, rural and undeveloped, although not the best bit of Norfolk I admit.

What is it about British seaside resort towns that seems to make them so tacky? Only the West Country seems to escape, although I'm sure that has got it's grottier ones. Yarmouth is a horrible place, a real blot on an otherwise (mostly) lovely county, but compared to some other seaside resort towns - some of the ones in North Wales for instance - it's positively nice.

 

[Penners]

Pop into your car and take a drive to the north Norfolk coast. Start just west of Cromer and tootle gently along the coast road as far as Holme-next-the-Sea. It's utterly gorgeous - not a tack in sight.

 

[Flyfisher]

Oi! I thought I could rely on you for support! :evil:

But I'm afraid I'm merely an incomer to Nelson's fine county (as the county signs proclaim). I suppose I could claim to be bringing some genetic diversity into the mix but Mrs FF is a Lincolnshire lass, so it probably doesn't count.

Anyway, but for the vagaries of the county line dividing the north and south East Anglian folk, our positions would be reversed, given that we are geographically to the south of Penners' towers.

But your comments about the north Norfolk coast are absolutely spot-on.

 

[Penners]

we are geographically to the south of Penners' towers.

Yes, boundaries can give rise to puzzling anomalies. Here's a quiz question for you:

From which major US city can you travel due south to Canada? (And no - circumnavigating the earth is not permitted!).

 

[Flyfisher]

Depending on the definition of 'major US city' . . . . Anchorage?

 

[Flyfisher]

Ah, having now checked Google maps, it looks like there are lots of answers including NYC as the southernmost point of Quebec province is further south than quite a few entire US states.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The DUE South bit suggests that the leading contender would be Detroit, a formerly major US city and now a heritage and regeneration nightmare, by most accounts...

 

[FamilyWiggs]

The DUE South bit suggests that the leading contender would be Detroit, a formerly major US city and now a heritage and regeneration nightmare, by most accounts...

Yep - Mr Hughes is right. Again. :wink:

 

[Flyfisher]

Ah, a bearing of 180 degrees.

 

[Penners]

The DUE South bit suggests that the leading contender would be Detroit

GH wins the coconut! There's a bit of Canada that just curls underneath Detroit.

No major city in Alaska is due north of Canada - not even the capital Juneau, which is in the panhandle.

 

[Moo]

I remember Auberon Waugh writing about the middle-class exodus from Liverpool in (I think) the Depression. He described the people who didn't leave as "the intellectual residue".

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I remember Auberon Waugh writing about the middle-class exodus from Liverpool in (I think) the Depression. He described the people who didn't leave as "the intellectual residue".

Which must make me the "intellectual scum", as I floated off elsewhere.

Or possibly the intellectual cream, but modesty forbids...

 

[Moo]

Well, if your modesty forbids, someone must say it for you.
Gareth, you are undoubtedly The Cream.
xxx