What is happening to our Country .

Oh number; put us together in a social occasion..you with your itches and me with my burping . Oh dear...

nans ban&aej. I agree with you both. There is so much to like and be proud of living in the UK for which I am very grateful.

ban is it possible to be petite if dumpy? I ask so that I can change my description and drop the dumpy.

anno - Green ink - the universal sign of an unhinged letter writer! Particularly when written on lined letter paper...

I like it, Moved! I too could then just be petite, which would be very comforting.

I like living in the UK, but I'm not 'proud of being English' - I had no part in it, after all. It just happened to be where my parents were at the time.

Feetlebaum, you have me sussed! I once found some of my old university notes and was shocked to find I'd been writing in turquoise ink. What was I thinking of?

Moved, if I shrink a little more, I am going to be officially petite. Unfortunately that shrinkage has been longitudinal rather than latitudinal.

Petite is 5`2" and under, isn`t it? Well, I`m under at 5`1", but must be about 5`around, can I still be petite?

I think the main thing that makes me proud of my country is the fact that Bill Bryson likes us and [I think] still chooses to live here. I saw the British in a new light after I read Notes From a Small Island and I liked what I saw.

I am not proud of 'being' English either Feetle

I just things there are more things about GB that are good than not!

*think not things!

Official petite is under 5'2" - however wide is completely immaterial - thank god!

And of course all the best and most famous are vertically challenged.

I am completely proud of being English through and through - apart from some historical foreign bits and bobs. English/England isn't a place/language so much as a symbol.

Why have I rushed to answer the phone 4 times today, just to hear (after a long pause) a stranger asking to speak to me or DH about goodness knows what?

Why can't said stranger even get our surname right? It's not as if it's an unusual name.

Why do I know that there will be several more similar calls today, some asking to speak to one of our DSs, who don't live here?

Why, when my husband answers the phone, am I afraid that he will lose his temper and swear at the caller, then discover that it is in fact a client/potential client calling? (Yes, that has happened a couple of times.)

MamaCaz I have a Scottish name, it's not unusual and one of our old entertainers shares it with me. However, so many people get it wrong. When I get a cold caller who rings and asks incorrectly for Mrs..... I say if you can say my name correctly then I'll listen if not.............[put own comments in here you can imagine mine]

That reminds me of the time when my OH asked the caller to look again at the name, then asked him to spell it out. Once he had done that, OH asked, "So what does that say?" When the caller managed to say it correctly. OH thanked him - and hung up.

It`s so annoying, isn`t it? Our name is Smalley, but the number of calls we get asking for Mr or Mrs Smelly!! I`ve tried asking them to say it correctly, but to no avail, so now I just say that no-one of that name lives here, and hang up.

You tell 'em, number...

IMO W.S Gilbert yet again says it all.

"The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone, All centuries but this, and every country but his own."

The Mikado.

Nellie [ grin] Spot on!