Lollipop Lady

Lollipop lady aka crossing guard is one of those things I've discovered in this country. It has become so familiar to see her every single day that It's strange when she isn't. For example, this morning we haven't seen her and despite the flow of traffic is limited (Although it's supposed to be rush hour), she helps us alot to cross the road. I have no idea how she is called but all I can say is that she is very friendly and helpful, I suppose that it's part of her job. In any case, thank you for your service which can become very tough when the weather is bad and ugly, something quite common in here.

The Plum Pudding in Danger (or State epicures taking un petit souper) James Gillray 1805

A caricature of British Prime Minister Pitt and the French Emperor Napoleon dividing the world between themselves.
I've just came across this image and I found it funny so I want to share it. I like this kinda satirical humour, they are cutting the planet like if it were the thanksgiving day's turkey. Blimey!

Wat Tyler

He was the leader of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Tyler's Rebellion was not only the most extreme and widespread insurrection in English history but also the best-documented popular rebellion ever to have occurred during medieval times. The names of some of its leaders, John Ball, Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, are still familiar in popular culture even though next to nothing is known about them.

Oast Houses

An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many redundant oasts have been converted into houses.
They consist of two or three storeys on which the hops were spread out to be dried by hot air from a wood or charcoal-fired kiln at the bottom. The drying floors were thin and perforated to permit the heat to pass through and it escaped through a cowl in the roof which turned with the wind. The freshly picked hops from the fields were raked in to dry and then raked out to cool before being bagged up and sent to the brewery. The Kentish dialect word Kell was sometimes used for kilns ("The oast has three kells.") and sometimes to mean the oast itself ("Take this lunchbox to your father, he's working in the kell.").

Oasts are generally associated with Kent, but are also found in Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire.The purpose of an oast is to dry hops. This is achieved by the use of a flow of heated air through the kiln, rather than a firing process.

Gerkhin Looms

30 St Mary Axe, also known as the Gherkin and the Swiss Re Building, is a skyscraper in London's main financial district, the City of London.
The gherkin name dates back to at least 1999, referring to that plan's highly unorthodox layout and appearance. Due to the current building's somewhat phallic appearance, other inventive names have also been used for the building, including the Erotic gherkin, the Towering Innuendo, and the Crystal Phallus.

East End

The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames, although it is not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries. Use of the term in a pejorative sense began in the late 19th century, as the expansion of the population of London led to extreme overcrowding throughout the area and a concentration of poor people and immigrants in the East End.

The invention about 1880 of the term 'East End' was rapidly taken up by the new halfpenny press, and in the pulpit and the music hall... A shabby man from Paddington, St Marylebone or Battersea might pass muster as one of the respectable poor. But the same man coming from Bethnal Green, Shadwell or Wapping was an 'East Ender', the box of Keating's bug powder must be reached for, and the spoons locked up. In the long run this cruel stigma came to do good. It was a final incentive to the poorest to get out of the 'East End' at all costs, and it became a concentrated reminder to the public conscience that nothing to be found in the 'East End' should be tolerated in a Christian country. —The Nineteenth Century XXIV (1888)

Throughout history, the area has absorbed waves of immigrants who have each added a new dimension to the culture and history of the area, most notably the French Protestant Huguenots in the 17th century, the Irish in the 18th century, Ashkenazi Jews fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe towards the end of the 19th century, and the Bangladeshi community settling in the East End from the 1960s.

Nemo * me * impune * lacessit

Mainly, this is the Latin motto of the Order of the Thisle. It also the moto of several regiments of the British Army. There's a French equivalent phrase that goes: Non inultus premor ("I cannot be touched with impunity"), also a reference to the thistle, which is the symbol of the region of Lorraine.

According to legend, the "guardian thistle" ( Scotch thistle) has played its part in the defence of the ancient realm of Scotland against a night attack by the Danes, one of whom let out a yell of pain when he stepped on a prickly thistle, thus alerting the Scottish defenders. In the motto "No-one attacks me with impunity" (Latin: "Nemo me impune lacessit"), "me" was therefore originally the thistle itself, but by extension now refers to the Scottish regiments which have adopted it.

Cockney Rhyming Slang

Rhyming Slang phrases are derived from taking an expression which rhymes with a word and then using that expression instead of the word. For example the word "look" rhymes with "butcher's hook". In many cases the rhyming word is omitted - so you won't find too many Londoners having a "bucher's hook" at this site, but you might find a few having a "butcher's".
The rhyming word is not always omitted so Cockney expressions can vary in their construction, and it is simply a matter of convention which version is used.

Cockney Rhyming Slang originated in the East End of London. Some slang expressions have escaped from London and are in popular use throughout the rest of Britain. For example "use your loaf" is an everyday phrase for the British, but not too many people realise it is Cockney Rhyming Slang ("loaf of bread: head").

Apples and pears = stairs
Biscuits and cheese = knees
Army and navy = gravy
Loaf of bread = head
Mince pies = eyes
Raspberry tart = fart
Pony and trap = crap
Daisy roots = boots
Dog and bone = phone
Donkey's ears = years
Elephant's trunk = drunk
Rosie lee = tea
Weasel and stoat = coat

Cockney Rhyming slang is a coded language invented in the nineteenth century by Cockneys so they could speak in front of the police without being understood. It uses a phrase that rhymes with a word, instead of the word itself – thus ‘stairs’ becomes ‘apples and pears’, ‘phone’ becomes ‘dog and bone' and ‘word’ becomes ‘dicky bird’. It can become confusing when sometimes the rhyming part of the word is dropped: thus ‘daisies’ are ‘boots’ (from ‘daisy roots’).

Little Ben

My hands you may retard or may advance
my heart beats true for England as for France.

This miniature clock-tower is situated in Westminster (to be more especific in Victoria Street). It's made of iron and, it's a monument unknown for majority of visitors. However, the real name is St. Stephen's Tower.