meic wrote:[
As the couple involved were "proper" cycle tourists then we have good reason to assume that they were not locals. They were probably not even Welsh.
If they had have been locals, I would have set off one one of my hobby horses about English people who come here to live because they love how it is compared to England (friendly, over familiar interactions with total strangers for example ) and then complain about how things are done here and do their best to convert it into a replica of what they left.
Amen to that!
T'ladywife and me are about to move permanently to West Wales, where we've semi-lived (on & off) over the past few years. When asked, I tell those of NW England who we'll be leaving behind that I'm not being pushed away (much) but rather pulled by the West Welsh zeitgeist.
My experience is that people there, for the most part, are still themselves - formed by their everyday experiences of their place and neighbours rather than by the stupidities of the mass media, particularly the stupidities of the nastier elements such as The Daily Frightener, Facebook and (non) reality TV. The West Welsh are friendly in the true sense - not mere sycophants, yes-people or other types who will never disagree & discuss because they think that everyone has a right to his own unquestioned opinions, no matter how silly or even dangerous to everyone else.
I will do my utmost to fit in with my new socio-cultural environment. I am trying to learn the language (although its actually quite difficult to find anyone willing to speak Welsh with you, especially young people). I will join a choir and otherwise participate, with glee & gratitude, in some of the many other old-fashioned social pastimes.
So - I suppose have been pushed away a bit from mainstream Blighty. I am sick & tired of mass-media constructed people and those who have centred their being in Facebook, Twitter or some other faux "social" space, where they regurgitate the crass bald opinions they absorb from The Daily Hate Mail or the Torygraph (or, for that matter, The Grauniad).
Cugel, hypocritically running to the hills, away from the madding crowd.