English people are great

I know. Once again. Long time, no blog. I'm 'lazy', as they say.

But anyway, if you are reading this, I will tell you why English people are great.

To be frank though, first off, I generally don't believe this to be true. English people drink hideously. The kids kill each other frequently. Their feta is 25% fat. They litter. They don't know how to make coffee. They always eat chips. And they pronounce Pantene 'Pan-ten'.

So, being so prejudiced, it takes a lot for me to like English people. But two Saturdays ago I fell in love with them.

I had been to a picnic in South London on the Thames with a few people; Laurie, my uni friend Kana and assorted friends of a friend of Laurie's. On a green, green stretch of ground along the banks in the sunshine we drank rose, ate mushroom pate and I - as is my custom-bitched about the numerous short-comings of the English as a race. It was a nice day, a sunny day, a rare day. Everyone packed up to go home but Laurie, Kana and I decided to stick around. Just to try a cider at the pub on the riverbank while the sun was still out. The pub was full, as they all are, and everyone was standing on the footpath outside squinting through the sun.

Essentially, long story short: we got flooded. This wasn't your old fashioned rain flooding. This was just a very quiet, sunny, perculiarity of a flood. By the time I returned from the bar to get 3 ciders the very civilised bank, which 3 minutes before people had been dangling their feet over, was broken. Within half an hour the water was knee high.

But the thing is, the English didn't flinch. They didn't care. They hardly even moved. They rolled up their pants and stood there in the water chatting and refilling their glasses. They cycled through it. They walked their dogs in it. We giggled, sat on our bench, tucked our feet on the edge of our seats and decided that, essentially marooned at the pub, we should remain there until the flood waters receeded. Though, given the very unnatural nature of it all I wasn't altogether sure that the waters would go back at all. If, somehow, the apocalypse was upon us and it was quirky.

Somehow the event seemed so civilised. So much the band playing as the Titanic sank. And so ridiculous. And I think this is what it is about the English sometimes, they are so civilised it is ridiculous. They will let the waters rise around them, wade through it and not even giggle. Barely even speak to eachother. I liked it.