Definitely a southern softie as there was no trace of 'northern' harshness or indeed rounded 'southern' ie Cornish etc You didn't sound Taffy or East Anglian so you would probably be from somewhere in the Home Counties.
or is it just that those are the accents that surprise/strike you more than a southern one...? What did mine say to you, Peter (not that we spoke much English)? ;-)
I often have a think about all the brits i've met over the years in France either on holiday or house owners etc and come to the conclusion that the majority come from areas north of Birmingham especially Yorkshire & Lancashire. A fair few Scots too . Or is this just me ?
me too, it's very scary up north...! ;-)
Thatās rather rude isnāt Damian?
I couldnāt Jane. Once north of the Watford gap I loose the will to live 
Vive la Revolution, the awkward squad fights on.
It is often due to those of us like Roger Boaden, Brian Cave and perhaps myself that we Expat retirees are fighting back against those not so civil servants and governments who want to take away our rights and entitlements.
Long live the awkward squad.
Norman, i was adopted and had my birth certificate apostilled to avoid potential problems.
My adoptive parents would qualify as my legal parents, but again like you, I have none of their documents.
Yep. I have also noticed the occasional kipper comments in papers saying that either they do not want the UK to join the EU (dohhhhhh!!!!!) and others who want to leave the EEC or EEA rather than EU, so blissful ignorance would appear to be all round rife.
I would rather live in the North than London any day!
Brian, they have to be found out first!
There are still people in France who think that the UK is not in the EU because we do not use the euro.
Stubborness, refusal to accept the status quo and downright ignorance
are alive and kicking in both France and the UK.
Oh thanks Peter, didn't realise :-(
He was put out to pasture Rachel...
What happened to Vic? I quite like the idea of TGPITA Mob, may be I could be a member ? ;-)
Thanks Brian - I rather like the idea of being a Great Public Institution- say 'The Great Pain in the **** Mob' or something similar?
Mind you I already thought I was Presdient of that or maybe Vice-President along with our much-missed Vic!
BRING BACK VIC! I NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET!
Tee-hee, I have already been sent a form to fill again because I wrote European as nationality. The accompanying letter (looked like a standard letter, so other people are clearly at it) told me that the UK does not acknowledge European as a nationality. I wrote Scot on the replacement form and have not had it back to fill in again, but then the document I was applying for has not shown up either.
I believe Tariq Ali responded to Tebbit asking whether by Asian he really meant Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Nepal, Bhutan or Afghanistan, all of which are Indian subcontinent and have cricket teams.
Think you mean naturalised Norman, although a nationalised you would be a great public institution no doubt :-D
I have some similar problems because my mother's birth certificate was lost and we have no idea where she was actually born, given that Scots didn't properly centralise until after WW2. My sister and I have tried to no avail. The old man, well we can track his line back to 1600 and something. Getting a copy certificate issued costs good money... If push came to shove I would do it. It seems like a lot of that generation lost documents because of the war, just lost or whatever else, but all very inconvenient for our like if we need them.
It is, I believe, a French regulation, I had no such crap with registering either of my sons' births. Just a glance at my birth certificate and passport in Germany and done, they did not even note the fact that we parents were not married, just took our names. End of, certificate and ID card issued. Pre-EU admittedly but nonetheless it was straightforward. I hope that with the new EU laws on documentation, equivalence and so forth that should go through late this year or early next, that a good part of this is going to go away. Mind you, I will not bank on it.
I'm currently applying for a renewal of my french passport Norman and I am having to provide the same info regarding Birth Certificates etc If only I could remember dad's inside leg measurement I could complete the dossier ! I can only imagine the details are to confirm the 'Britishness' of the candidate with no hidden jihadist links to the Otterman Empire or whatever !
Surely 'nationality' is merely a state of mind ? Aren't things like xenophobia and greed the real causes of past and present conflicts ? Squiggly lines are important for one's security or lack of it maybe but determining if a third generation Indian living in Aberdeen is 'British' or 'Indian' is neither here nor there maybe ? Wasn't it the Conservative Unionist Norman Tebbitt who asked the question "Should British-Asians support the England cricket team" ? Isn't it all about how you 'feel' inside ?
Like others here I have been looking carefully at the Nationalisation papers, and unlike others here I have no love of 'nationality' being convinced it has been responsible for the vast majority of humn conflicts across the ages - and for why? A squiggly line drawn on most maps? How ludicrous.
However and be that as it may the French (surprisingly?) also have a problem about bastardy. A hiccup for me seems to be that age 75 (now) I have to provide my Father's birth certificate to prove he was British - an EU regulation or more likely a French idea? I have a name on my Birth Certificate of a father, but that's it - both he and my Mother have been dead many years, and I haven't the slightest idea where he was born nor anything else about him, and as my birth certificate is clearly British - what on earth has MY parentage anything to do with anything - apart of course from gratifying Civil Servants (another misnomer as they are, and do not see themselves as anything of the kind!)
I also understand that nowadays it costs substantial sums of money to get papers from the ex-Somerset House, as with Passports, so even that is a hassle on all counts. Of course if one were an illegal it would be far simpler as they arrive and exist 'sans-papiers' don't they? PLus major benefits?
We live in strange times.