10. Greggs Pasties For those poor souls on this planet that have never visited a Greggs bakery shop, I feel your pain. As a child I remember the endless shopping with my mother was only comforted by the range of savouries from this bakery, never tiring of the smells or the taste of Greggs. And when the current Government tried to introduce the "pasty tax", it was the public outcry about a rise in prices at Greggs that forced the Government to quickly change their plans. 9. Irn Bru The national drink of Scotland is sadly missing from the soft drink cabinets in the Philippines and much to their loss. When McDonalds first started trading in Scotland they forgot to add Irn Bru to their drinks menu, this resulted in a short protest by customers who refused to eat at McDonalds until they provided the thirst quenching refreshment that can only come from Irn Bru. Strangely, Irn Bru is now so popular that the manufacturers have had to move production near to Manchester, England. But don't tell any Scottish people about this, it could be the start of the breakup of the UK! 8. Ann Summers The Ann Summers party is the holy grail of any man's life, he knows he can never be invited but wants to browse the catalogue and get his wife to tell him all about it anyway.. Ann Summers has also grown rapidly on the high street, opening more and more sex shops tailored for women but with something for everyone. Not bad for a country with a stiff upper lip, or was that stiff upper... 7. We can get snow for Christmas Now this is not often and when there is snow at Christmas, some people moan about it and there are countless reasons why a cold snowy Christmas is a bad thing. However, for anyone who has ever been a child on Christmas morning and it is thick with snow outside, that feeling just cannot be matched. Snowball fights are great fun, random people declare war on each other in the street and shortly after getting a good pasting, declare peace and go on their way with a smile on their face. This cannot be done with mud in a humid climate! 6. Cheese Now I know you can buy cheese in the Philippines, if you consider cheez whiz to actually be cheese! But a stroll along the chilled cabinets of any UK supermarket will reveal a plethora of cheeses from all around the country. The worlds most popular cheese is Cheddar, which was first created in the English village of Cheddar in Somerset. In fact, we love our cheese so much that we've even took to nicking other countries cheeses as well, namely the French and the Italians whose niche cheeses have found a place in our cheese loving hearts. 5. Our Taxi drivers are better cons Unlike in Manila where a taxi driver might just make up some inflated price. Here in the UK, you can sit back and cringe whilst the meter in the black cab starts clocking those pennies quicker than you can count them. Also, the driver might notice you are from out of town and be kind enough to show you the sights and sounds of the entire city when all you wanted to do was travel 3 miles. This will take your fee from a potential £10 to something like £30, and to ensure you pay his fees, the driver keeps you locked into his cab until you hand him over his money. And they don't even wear a mask! 4. The Royal Family Love them or loathe them, the Royal family make good TV! Especially when they parade themselves as intelligent people but somehow manage to let the rest of us know that they - like us, are idiots! Prince Charles talks to plants, Prince Harry gets buck naked in Las Vegas and Prince Philip is a national treasure for the amount of stupidity his mouth gives us whenever he opens it. He's like an older, dumber Mitt Romney. The Philippines doesn't have an inbred bunch of idiots to idolise and laugh at in equal measure, such a shame. 3. British Music Now, I cannot say a bad word about Sarah G or most Philippine musicians, but lets face it -The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Elton John, David Bowie, George Michael, Oasis, Blur, Fat Boy Slim and any other of the thousands of music legends from Blighty who have gone on to conquer the globe, each tell the tale that British music ROCKS! 2. British Sport We invented most of the sports worth giving a fig about and we might be lousy at some, but for those sports where we want to keep ourselves on top of the world, we just make sure that only a handful of other countries get involved. Take Cricket for example, currently England are top of the world when it comes to cricket and so long as no fewer than 10 international teams compete, we might always keep it that way! Rugby, another fine example and we shall ignore the Americans nicking the game and calling it football... 1. The British sense of humour Where would this world be without Monty Python? Exactly, hardly worth thinking about. Also our Christmas number one chart single is big business here and we know how to mess it up in a humorous way.. So after 5 years of the Christmas number 1 single being dominated by the X Factor finalist, it was with a sense of humour that a Facebook campaign to get "Killing in the Name", a song by American rap metal band Rage Against the Machine to the number 1 spot. So there we all were, eating our mince pies and swapping gifts when on the radio a song which ends with repeated expletives and started with the line "Some of those that run forces, are the same that burn crosses".. Very Christmassy indeed!
I was lucky - I came from a family of bakers! My father was a master baker and my grandparents, aunt and uncle ran a bakery shop for around 50 years. My uncle was still working at the bakery at age 90!
Of your "Top Ten" I think I will miss just "No. 10" when I move to PI. 4 & 3 & 2 & 1 are downloadable. The Bakers dozen I always miss. PI flour is for pastry IMO. My BIG miss will be the fare from my favourite Farm Butcher.! Tom
Real ale. Wide choice of decent food. Newspapers and Magazines. British supermarkets. British people.
"The Philippines doesn't have an inbred bunch of idiots to idolise and laugh at in equal measure, such a shame." Oh yes they do; they are called "the political dynasties". See, eg, Senator Tito Sotto, former President Estrada, former President Arroyo...and of course the Marcos clan...
I agree with a lot of what you say, but I quite gladly sacrifice all of these things for something you can't do in the UK that you can do in RP all year round, and that is sit in your favourite open air bar / resto with family and friends,sipping on an ice cold beer, dressed in a pair of shorts and a T shirt whilst taking in the glorious view as you look out over the sea..... heaven!!!
But in Britain you can sit in front of a blazing log fire, sipping a nicely served pint of Timothy Taylors "Ram Tam" real ale, whilst looking out of the bar window at the snow covered moors. You can even wear shorts or a kilt with your T shirt if you so wish!
10. But how many pasties should one eat, before becoming at risk of resembling one 9. Will happily settle for San Miguel. 8. Filipinas do not need Ann Summers 7. Prefer to spend Christmas at the beach 6. Ah, yes, the cheese issue. Have to agree.But on the other hand, one can get decent mangoes in the Philippines, so it is honours even. 5. Taxi drivers. Well, yes, but the Philippines has had the good sense to put the enture criminal class in uniform, with labels reading "Police", so you may easily identify them. 4. The Marcoses, the Estradas, the Arroyos, Tito Sotto, Mayor Fred Lim... I rest my case! 3. Cannot argue with this one. 2. But only in the Philippines would a nation of, please excuse the lack of delicadeza, somewhat vertically challenged people choose basketball as their national sport! 1. The Philippine Sense of Humour?
9: Irn Bru is sensible compared to San Mig but I am very fond of San Mig, even as an old Scot. 4: Mayor Lim is my compadre, we were co-sponsors at my pals son's wedding a few years back I kind of agree with you though 2: Quite true, however my partner's Tatay was 6 ft 5", his brother Tito Boni is about the same height, Ana is 5 ft 6" and my son who is seven now is a good bit over half my height (I'm 5' 11"), most of the small stature is due to a restricted calorie diet, same as it was here 60,70,100 years ago. That matters to me because my parents were born in 1918-19, very big family's and slightly calorie restricted. 1: That is the real challenge, to understand another culture's very different sense of humor, hard one that, but I do get a good part of their idea of fun and humor, but then again I am not a typical Brit or typical Scot for that matter.
8 and 7 I have to agree. 6 Cheese is not one of my favorite foods 5 I've been lucky, 90% of my drivers have been good guys, had a couple of bad taxi drivers but it never got serious.
Absolutely agree about the calorie restriction. I have seen some figures published earlier this year here: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/232299/more-filipino-children-stunted-due-to-malnutrition which suggest that the position, on a national average basis, is getting worse. This fed right into the RH Bill controversy, of course. Genetically and linguistically, Filipinos are pretty close to Polynesians... but they are, usually, about half the size!
10. I make my own pasties and pies... Far better than anything found in the UK...(thats what my daughter says!!) 9. What?? Is that supposed to be funny? Leave paradise for Irn Bru?? Yeah right! 8.I dare say that it may not be a difficult thing to be able to demonstrate Ann Summers products in a far more practical way here to the Female species than in the UK.. Your advatage lost. Lol. 7. As a painter and decorator .I was often asked to paint things like soffits and faccias in Nov,December.. Fortunately,the closest thing I come to Ice and slush these days is the rink at the mall of Asia!! 6. Lots of different cheeses available here now from about any country you could mention... Not looking good number 7!! 5. Agreed. 4. Sounds about the same on CNN as it does on BBC... Quite enjoyed watching the wedding on TV though! 3. ??? How am I gonna miss that??? A torrent is a torrent after all!! No matter where its downloaded!! In that case,Id rather download in the Philippines!! 2.. I watch more British sport(and Brit sport in the US such as Boxing) for free than I could afford to do in the UK in the last 15 years!! 1. As a Brit..You should never lose your humour wherever you go..You have far more chance of losing that by watching the dross on UK TV these days... Sorry!! Not looking good in the UK now is it? ha ha... Shall we start a top 50 instead??
