Being British: Garden Gate, Number Eight

[eaglette with wheels]

I'm not really sure what you mean, Schmergo. We have West-end productions/musicals, or you can refer to the name of the company doing the production.

On snow, it really does depend on where you live. Scotland can have quite a lot of snow, but I live in the South East of England, which means that if there's about five centimeters of snow everyone panics, roads are shut, schools are shut and everyone mutters about global freezing. On the very coast it is unlikely to snow for two main reasons:

1) The ground is more damp from sea spray and usually more rain, it also has a lot more salt and is more acidic. This means snow does not settle.

2) The sea is actually its warmest during the winter months. It takes all summer to warm up, then all winter to cool down, which means the sea is really cold all year around, which means the coast is usually cold all year around.

Where is Remus during your story? What part of Britain?

~Evie

Well, right now he's on the coast of Scotland. BTW.. is hypothermia a possibility?

[apollo13]

Hypothermia is certainly possible if it's snowing and he has no heating, but as a wizard I think he'd manage to make himself warm.

It snows a lot up there, particularly in the north, as the next land north to them is the North Pole! So, yes, it would snow, but it wouldn't settle all that well near the coast. By near, I mean roughly half a mile to the sea. It might settle if it was falling heavily, but not as well as it would other areas.

~Evie

[Sirius Girl 08]

On the subject of snow in Scotland Evie is pretty much right.

I live about 25 miles away from Aberdeen which is a coastal town in North East Scotland. For it to snow the temperature has to be about 1-2C, any colder and it won't snow - you will just get frost. In Aberdeen city you have the affect of the warm, salty sea air so the snow has to be really bad for any significant amount to settle. This does happen but as I say it has to be really heavy snow that is not to wet and if it is to last more than a day the temperature will normally have to drop slightly after it has snowed in order to freeze it. A couple of years ago we had really bad snow and my friends managed to go sledging (sp?) down the steep hills at the beach - literally just across the road from the sea. I, however, couldn't go because I was snowed in my house and couldn't leave! So it can happen but is rare.

However, move about 10 miles out from the coast and the snow will be thicker and generally last longer even if the snow fall has been the same in the city compared with the outskirts. This is more generally the case - our snow will linger much longer than the snow in the city.

If you move really far north (Shetland Isles for example) then the snow will not linger because despite the fact that they are so far north because the Island are small the sea air will clear any snow that does settle pretty quickly.

Typically in Scotland the west coast tends to be wetter and slightly warmer while the east coast is dryer but slightly colder. And the mountains will always be the first place to receive snow (but you can probably work that one out).

Hope that helps

Ruth

[A.H.]

So who remembers me askin' 'bout the creepiecrawlies? I do, and I've come for more answers!

So, after reading a fantastic book, I think I've settled on the boogie that I want to use. He's not incredably uncommon, but he was made famous by a comic series and one book by an author by the name of Hamilton. Caught on yet? If you haven't, I deeply suggest you start with Guilty Pleasures and go from there. I treasure the find as much as I tresasure Harry Potter.

Heh, well not that much.

So, enough babling. Any of you Britts heard of Rawhead and Bloody Bones? Hamilton says that the fey creature came from Scottland; a fairy tale says he was an actual Hog that was an old witch's friend in Missori. I'm more willing to go with Hamilton's account of his past (credit given where due, of course).

On the off-chance that Bloody Bones is a common tale told in Brittan, please, please, do elaborate on his past. I'll send yeh a thousand chocolate frogs.

Thanks kiddos,
-Arianna

[Sirius Girl 08]

Hello Arianna,

I live in Scotland and I've never heard of either of those I'm sorry to say. However, I could have just missed them? I don't know. I don't know what the comic series and book are though - could you tell me and that may jog my memory...

Ruth

[Lord Great Chamberlain]

So, enough babling. Any of you Britts heard of Rawhead and Bloody Bones? Hamilton says that the fey creature came from Scottland; a fairy tale says he was an actual Hog that was an old witch's friend in Missori. I'm more willing to go with Hamilton's account of his past (credit given where due, of course).

On the off-chance that Bloody Bones is a common tale told in Brittan, please, please, do elaborate on his past. I'll send yeh a thousand chocolate frogs.

Thanks kiddos,
-Arianna

From what I remember, the story came from Ireland and filtered through parts of the UK and US - not everyone knows of it though - he's definitely a Celtic legendary creature though. Older versions of the tales say he lived near places of water, and had a thing for drowning naughty children or turning them into unwanted objects that parents would throw away.

The story has been updated for the 21st century though, which I haven't heard so can't really say how the tale goes for youngsters now.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

This is a dumb question, but do Brits say 'suck?' Like, "This werewolf situation really sucks!" I know it's really rude, but I have to know. Also, do you ever use the word 'chick' to refer to a girl? If not, what words do you use?

My story is a future-gen, and in fact all of the future-gen characters are in their twenties, so it's set quite a bit in the future.

[apollo13]

If it's a future gen fic, then you're reasonably safe with suck, but don't overload it. We rarely say it, an adults get really annoyed when we use American words like that. You'd be more likely to use it if you lived in an inner-cy area.

Chick, no, absolutely not. No way. You would only use that if you were taking the mick out of Americans. An adult male (usually quite a sleezy male) might call a girl a bird, but it is not at all encouraged by the female population. "Lass" could be used up north and in Scotland.

~Evie

[rainbeau]

Yo, Schmerg.

This is a dumb question, but do Brits say 'suck?' Like, "This werewolf situation really sucks!" I know it's really rude, but I have to know.

Yeah, I say suck all the time. It's not really a very rude term over here though. But to be honest, it depends on where abouts in Britain you're from. People from the London area and surrounding counties like Essex and Suffolk (Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys) might say "sucks", but people hailing from the West Country, Midlands, Liverpool (scouse), Manchester and Lancashire, Yorkshire and Newcastle (Geordie) are probably more likely to use areal slang. Welsh people may use it, if they are from a city that is not prominently following Welsh language traditions (Cardiff, Swansea etc). Same goes for Scots, people from Edinburgh, Glasgow or Dundee may use it, but it's less likely. However don't mistake this to mean that we also use the term "blows". I for one have never used that term, and I'm from some of the most "common" parts of Essex.

It really depends on where your character is from as to what term they might use when saying something is annoying or upsetting. It's more likely that you would use a simile or a short metaphor, such as "This werewolf situation is rubbish!" blahblah. You might want to research into the dialect of your character, however.

Also, do you ever use the word 'chick' to refer to a girl? If not, what words do you use?

In Britain, "chick" is quite a derogatory term. Just like "sucks", you'll have to research your character's dialect. I for one, being from Essex, am more likely to just say "girl" or "woman". The term "chick" is certainly not an unheard-of term, but as I say, it would probably be used in a more derogatory way.

My story is a future-gen, and in fact all of the future-gen characters are in their twenties, so it's set quite a bit in the future.

Sounds cool. Let me know when you've done your first chapter and that, yeah?

[apollo13]

No, I live in Suffolk, and we don't say sucks. Essex is more likely to say it, yes, because Essex is a lot more Americanised than the rest of the country, because it's made up much more of working class families (I'm not being rude there - statistically, it is!). London, again, is likely to say more Americanised words.

~Evie