I'm actually not really sure about the first question but I didn't want to answer negatively to every question ;)
Ready salted Pringles are BAD because they taste good and I can't eat just one, even though they are full of chemicals and my favourite crisps are much nicer.
The other things are just BAD - I can't stand onion flavouring, am not a fan of garlic, and suffer from SAD.
I don't have a particularly educated opinion. My natural instinct is towards openness, thus the 'yes', but I admit to not having thought through the possible consequences. Is there a decent reason why we aren't currently members, or is it just because successive British Governments are obsessed with keeping out 'foreigners' and think the Daily Hate Mail readers would scream the place down if they joined?
It's because we all know that there's a wall of foreigners sitting in Calais, waiting for our guard to slip, who would pour across and steal our jobs, set fire to our women, and drink all of our beer if we didn't check their passports first. Everyone knows that you can't trust the people on the edges of Europe to actually check their borders, and the filthy foreigners wouldn't want to _stay_ there, so they make a beeline for the only place in Europe that a decent human being would want to be.
Belarus isn't joining any free movement area any time soon. Lukashenko is about as evil a leader as you'll find in Europe, and might even make a world top ten.
(OTOH Ukraine I can definitely see making it in 20 years. I don't trust Yanukovych an inch, but Tymoshenko has his number.)
Given the number of idiots already in our country I don’t think we should be worrying too much about the free movement of additional idiots from abroad.
In fact I wonder if the entrepreneurial spirits who are in a refugee camp in Calais clamouring to get in to our country to give jobs to our women and rent our beer aren’t exactly the sort of person our country needs.
Perhaps the reverse of a joke I once heard on Australian TV.
“The emigration of New Zealanders to Australia has lowered the average IQ of both countries.
I love dark evenings. I'm a winter person, and this is my season for feeling positive, as opposed to the misery of summer. (I have summer SAD. It does exist. yes, I'm mad and probably wrong and certainly out of step, but I do not like or enjoy brightness and heat. Sorry.)
Heat makes me miserable too, that's why I live in Scotland even though I suffer from the lack of daylight in winter. To be fair, it's being dark in the daytime not the evenings that really gets me.
No need to apologise for liking winter. I love the way winter looks, but have poor circulation and get cold easily. If it wasn't for central heating I'd definitely have emigrated by now!
I always joke that if I were to emigrate I'd go to Britain because the weather is even worse than it is over here. I just can't stand the heat. Anything over 20 celsius is just wasted on me. I overheat way too easy. Fortunately most of our summers are crap.
I have spent the last decade bitterly hating winter. Due to my job[s] invoking cycling in very possible weather - or just not getting paid - winter has been something to survive rather than in any way enjoy. I'm hoping that will change this year.
it bloody well better, since I intend to spend New Year in Moscow, which is a bit chilly.
Why stop at Schengen? We ought to remove all border controls, and should start with countries that have political and cultural links with Britain. Governments shouldn't control when and where we can travel and choose to live.
I would just worry that concentrating on Europe is unnecessarily parochial, when Britain has had (and should have) significant worldwide immigration and emigration.
Sour Cream and Onion Pringles is one of the few flavors of Pringles I actually enjoy. I'm more of a regular crisps (that's what you weird people on the opposite side of the channel call what the civilized world calls chips right?) kind of guy. Specially the thick ribbed with Heinz Tomato Ketchup flavor ones by Smiths. It's the Hubba Bubba chewing gum of crisps. The flavor is so artificial and wrong, it's just right.
And I'm definitely a night time kind of guy. There's mystery and excitement in the air. And a gazillion amazing stars. The daytime is just too bright and a bit boring. And I really don't like mornings and would rather skip them. Except for the part where I have get up and use them because I'm not allowed to start work any later than 9.30. Though I occasionally do manage to. Ah the trails and tribulations of, and little victories over, life.
If you joined Shengen you'd get a lot more expat American tourist dollars. As it is no US expat I know will try to go to the UK because your border agents are nightmares and everyone is afraid of getting deported.
Even my friends in the States who are not expats but just want to come to the UK several times a year to visit friends or boyfriends/girlfriends have stopped doing so because of the relentless questioning/threats/homophobia/misogyny that the UK border people are guilty of.
One of my female friends has her UK boyfriend meet her in Portugual now because she absolutely refuses to spend one more minute at Heathrow being asked if she's a prostitute and having to justify the lingerie packed in her suitcase. And in general everyone I know has their UK friends come to France when they want to hang out because going to the UK is such a ridiculous nightmare.
There are supposed to be free borders in the EU - but, honestly, I had less trouble traveling between borders of drug infested South American countries than most people I know have had trying to go from mainland Europe to the UK.
But, that's fine. If the UK would rather we spent our recreational income in Spain and Portugal that's the UK's choice.
Yeah, I've heard that. Apparently a lot of Chinese tourists go to mainland Europe and then don't come to the UK because it would involve lots of extra paperwork.
Not only the paperwork but the intrusive questioning. Like if you present as gay being questioned about if you have unprotected anal sex. Like, if you are a woman in her 20s to early 30s who dresses nicely and doesn't have a wedding ring being asked if you are an escort. (They read one of my friend's diaries that was packed in her suitcase in order to make sure she wasn't a hooker.)
Like if you are just a normal tourist who checked a guitar with your luggage because you like to play guitar being turned away and sent back at your expense because they assume you are a busker - all of which, and more, has happened to people I know trying to go to the UK and has not happened to anyone I know anywhere else in Europe.
Shit we are people who want to spend money in your country, which, would, you know, help the economy.
really? wow. I travel with guitar back and fwd to Denmark a fair bit and the Danes give me no hassle. I', a UK-ian so obviously don't get the sh!t on the way back. Had some herrings confiscated at Copenhagen airport tho' - reckon the guy just wanted them for his lunch :-)
i like the idea of open borders, but the bureaucracy and database insanity that accompanies Schengen is a little scary, although I think in some cases we're already part of those even without being in Schengen. ugh.
One of the UK's arguments for not joining Schengen was that an island nation can manage immigration with checks at border posts instead of "identity cards, residence permits, and registration with the police" which are necessary in a free movement area that has a large land frontier. That sounds like a good trade-off to me.
Dark, cold evenings and SAD seem (personal anecdotal observation) to have a stronger effect on people raised in more sub-tropical latitudes - e.g. South Africa, Australia - where there is much less seasonal variation in day length.
The first few winters were really bad. After that it's not quite so bad.
Schengen sounds broadly good, though I'm sure there are a lot of complications worth investigating and debating. This is part of the reason I'm glad there are people whose job it is to investigate and debate such.
Sour cream & onion Pringles = nommy. Onion & garlic dip = nommy. Both at once might be a bit much, but probably overall nommy.
Dark... I don't really mind much; each season has its own appeal. Summer is broadly my favourite though so I guess I'll vote vaguely against the dark.
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Someone doesn't want to get kissed ;)
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Or kiss her before she notices, so that she can make awful faces at me.
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Ready salted Pringles are BAD because they taste good and I can't eat just one, even though they are full of chemicals and my favourite crisps are much nicer.
The other things are just BAD - I can't stand onion flavouring, am not a fan of garlic, and suffer from SAD.
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And do you just not have an opinion on European border controls?
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I don't have a particularly educated opinion. My natural instinct is towards openness, thus the 'yes', but I admit to not having thought through the possible consequences. Is there a decent reason why we aren't currently members, or is it just because successive British Governments are obsessed with keeping out 'foreigners' and think the Daily Hate Mail readers would scream the place down if they joined?
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Or something.
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Going all the way to places like Budapest and Copenhagen with Shengen is just super.
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I suspect that within 20 years you'll be able to go as far as the borders of Russia. Just need to get Belarus and Ukraine on board!
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Belarus isn't joining any free movement area any time soon. Lukashenko is about as evil a leader as you'll find in Europe, and might even make a world top ten.
(OTOH Ukraine I can definitely see making it in 20 years. I don't trust Yanukovych an inch, but Tymoshenko has his number.)
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(And less than 20 years since there was a USSR!)
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Dang! You beat me to it! :D
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In fact I wonder if the entrepreneurial spirits who are in a refugee camp in Calais clamouring to get in to our country to give jobs to our women and rent our beer aren’t exactly the sort of person our country needs.
Perhaps the reverse of a joke I once heard on Australian TV.
“The emigration of New Zealanders to Australia has lowered the average IQ of both countries.
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Rather, I don't like being too hot and having to do something other than read a book, have a wee snooze and drink some cold beer.
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Due to my job[s] invoking cycling in very possible weather - or just not getting paid - winter has been something to survive rather than in any way enjoy. I'm hoping that will change this year.
it bloody well better, since I intend to spend New Year in Moscow, which is a bit chilly.
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And I'm definitely a night time kind of guy. There's mystery and excitement in the air. And a gazillion amazing stars. The daytime is just too bright and a bit boring. And I really don't like mornings and would rather skip them. Except for the part where I have get up and use them because I'm not allowed to start work any later than 9.30. Though I occasionally do manage to. Ah the trails and tribulations of, and little victories over, life.
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Even my friends in the States who are not expats but just want to come to the UK several times a year to visit friends or boyfriends/girlfriends have stopped doing so because of the relentless questioning/threats/homophobia/misogyny that the UK border people are guilty of.
One of my female friends has her UK boyfriend meet her in Portugual now because she absolutely refuses to spend one more minute at Heathrow being asked if she's a prostitute and having to justify the lingerie packed in her suitcase. And in general everyone I know has their UK friends come to France when they want to hang out because going to the UK is such a ridiculous nightmare.
There are supposed to be free borders in the EU - but, honestly, I had less trouble traveling between borders of drug infested South American countries than most people I know have had trying to go from mainland Europe to the UK.
But, that's fine. If the UK would rather we spent our recreational income in Spain and Portugal that's the UK's choice.
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Like if you are just a normal tourist who checked a guitar with your luggage because you like to play guitar being turned away and sent back at your expense because they assume you are a busker - all of which, and more, has happened to people I know trying to go to the UK and has not happened to anyone I know anywhere else in Europe.
Shit we are people who want to spend money in your country, which, would, you know, help the economy.
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*draws a great circle that passes through 25 Dalgety Road and the corner shop to illustrate* :)
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Tricky - Sour Cream & Onion Pringles: GOOD
Onion and Garlic dip: BAD
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The first few winters were really bad. After that it's not quite so bad.
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Sour cream & onion Pringles = nommy. Onion & garlic dip = nommy. Both at once might be a bit much, but probably overall nommy.
Dark... I don't really mind much; each season has its own appeal. Summer is broadly my favourite though so I guess I'll vote vaguely against the dark.