THE BRITISH THREAD II

I think you're referring to Stag dos. Singular is Stag do.

In this respect, a 'do' is an occasion, a party, an event, basically a piss up.

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I'm very excited since the King Queen of Hanover, Duke Duchess of Brunswick and Lunenburg will be on visit in Germany.

Are you referring to David Cameron?

I hear that he will be wearing floral gown and tiara. Nice.

Wouldn't be the first time.

No, of course not! It's Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha etc. with her husband, the Prince of Hesse etc. .

Mind you, I'm stuck between twats and arrogant wankers.

Sounds just like one or two of the A2K philosophy threads to me.

Now don't go doing an Olly on us, Walt.

If you're not careful, he'll be in here declaring that our Royal family are a bunch of Normans.

Plenty of Charlies, Georges and Edwards knocking about, but not one Norman as far as I am aware.

I know another German who is a big fan of Her Madge.

The royal family go down big in their own country, apparently.

And some.

I was in Watford town centre earlier, and there was a bomb scare.

An unidentified package was seen in Market Street, and PC Brennan was called to the scene.
He consulted his book of packaging, looking at various photos of parcels and packets, and after ten minutes of studying, he concluded that the package remained unidentified and called for the Mayor.

She took a lot longer than planned to arrive as she couldn't find her chain of office, but when she double checked PC Brennan's book, she confirmed that the package remained unidentified and called out the National Guard.

He duly arrived, commandeered some packaging tape from the nearby Office Supplies shop, and cordoned off the immediate area.

After much protest, he shortened the restricted area at the North end of Market Street so that us spectators could gain proper access to Pat's Pantry, the local cafe. That way the public could observe from a fairly safe viewpoint whilst having a soothing cup of tea.

There was a special offer on currant buns.


The National Guard then used the public payphone to call out the Bomb Squad He then joined us in Pat's as he hadn't had any lunch.

He had two egg, one bacon, sausage, fried slice and a pyrex cup of frothy coffee. £3.50.


After three cups of tea and as many buns, the Bomb Squad arrived and put a screen up around the package.
They then consulted their book of packages as it is more up to date than PC Brennan's due to the cutbacks, and sent a little radiocontrolled doo dah in there to poke it about a bit.

There was a small pop, but he was quickly ushered away back to his worried wife, and they put the package into a large metal box.

Two minutes later they were gone, and Pat came out to tell us all to bugger off, as we had spent far too long over our tea.

Here is an official report from the esteeemed Watford Observer......not a lot of detail, I grant you, but the young journalist on the scene kept breaking his pencil.

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/13340414.Bomb_scare_in_Market_Street__Watford/

sounds similar to our Stag and Does - the pre-wedding drinking parties for couples living in rural areas

we have dos as well, but they're different from Stag and Does

Hen parties are the female equivalent over here.

We 'only' have the "Polterabend here (wiki article in English).
It's an older tradition than the Christian wedding ceremony. (besides making noise ("poltern") to get rid of evil spirits, it had been a kind of announcement for other tribes that a 'wedding' would take place soon.)

Hen parties are like our stagettes.

Yes I know. My parents had a polterabend. It's a different kind of event.

Certainly. I only posted about it, because (traditionally) we don't have something else.

Waterloo. 200 years ago today.

An interesting timeline done as a "live as it happened" in the Telegraph.

You have to start at the bottom and work your way upwards, but it makes for an interesting read if you're into that sort of thing.

Anyhoo.....

The intro....

Emperor Napoleon is back. The man who tore Europe apart has escaped from his exile on Elba and taken control of France. In response, England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, and a grab-bag of other European states declare war. "It is up to you to save the world again," Tsar Alexander of Russia tells the British commander, the Duke of Wellington, as he leaves Vienna.
Wellington’s multinational army comprises 93,000 men from England, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany. They are joined by 116,000 Prussian troops under Gebhard von Blücher. Together they outnumber the French, but their invasion is delayed.
Napoleon outwits them both. Marching with lightning speed into Belgium, he appears between their armies, first mauling the Prussians at Ligny then beating back the English at Quatre-Bras. Now the allies are falling back through a summer storm, stumbling in the mud.
It's almost midnight when Wellington finally stops at village called Waterloo, 11 miles south of Brussels. Somewhere to the east is the retreating Prussian army, pursued by a French force. But, in an era without radio or phones, nobody knows how long it will be before they can rejoin the fight.
Over the next 24 hours, almost 200,000 people will crowd into an area of around eight square miles. One in four of them will die. It is no exaggeration to say that their battle will decide the fate of Europe.
A NOTE ON TIMING: Early 19th century time-pieces were notoriously innaccurate, and most people weren't checking them in combat. Different historical sources also conflicting schedules. Please therefore forgive my imprecision: the times to follow can only ever be approximate.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/battle-of-waterloo/11676475/The-Battle-of-Waterloo-as-it-happened-on-June-18-1815-live.html