God Save The Queen

England is a country. Great Britain is the island comprised of England, Wales, and Scotland. The United Kingdom refers to Great Britain and Northern Ireland as one entity.

But I can't name all the monarchs of England. There is some kind of rhyme to help you remember, but I never mastered it.

Posted by: Waymee | February 11, 2005 7:02 PM

Differences: England has comically bad cricket empires who can't see South Asian teams winning, UK has good cricket counties, And United Kingdom has the nastiest crowd EVER. Police has to guard foreign teams there.

Common: Their superiority complex is annoying!

Posted by: Imran Aziz | February 11, 2005 11:11 PM

I really do have to throw in my tuppence worth here, what with me being British.

Waymee you are pretty much bang-on with your definition.

Interesting comments about the cricket, Imran. But the England team's not doing too badly at the moment! Granted, we lost the one-dayers against South Africa, but me being a purist, I condsider the test-matches to be more important and we managed to beat the Saffers in the test series. Marvellous.

We also whitewashed New Zealand and the West Indies last summer as well as completing a 3-0 (three wins and a draw) series win over the West Indies last winter. Mind you, the test-match series prior to that one was against Sri Lanka, who managed to sneak a 1-0 series win against us. So yes, we certainly do find it difficult to win in South Asia!

I have to say I'm not feeling too superior at the moment, having just witnessed England's rugby team lose to the French. Rugby is a game similar to American football, where you don't wear pads or crash-helmets.

Anyway, here's another question. Do any of you Americans / Canadians know the difference between test match cricket and one day cricket?

I think that's my longest post ever on this blog and not even to do with Amway / Quixtar.

Posted by: The Buzzard | February 13, 2005 5:42 PM

Here's a Quixtar related comment:

I don't have any complaints to make about Amway (as it was in 1999 when I was prospected). I think that the main reason is that I did not sign up to the thing (thank goodness!). Although I must admit I was pretty enthusiastic about it for a while.

Luckily that inner gut-feeling of mine, which tells you that if something is too good to be true, it probably is made me do more research (on the web of course). I got a friend of mine to look up stuff on his computer and he came across a UK site, which revealed where the high pins' income came from i.e. the tools.

I must admit that there was one other reason. I was starting to put people into two categories: those who are interested and those who aren't. And I must admit that some of the tapes freaked me out a bit - maybe I'll go into that one another time.

The only post-script I will add to this is that after I told the guy who prospected me that I was not going to sign up, we never spoke again. I felt a bit guilty about letting the guy down I suppose. Both him and his girlfriend were former work colleagues of mine.

I often wonder how they both managed in the end. I really would love to see them again to see how they fared and if nothing else to thank them for giving me something that never ceases to fascinate me - especially on these uneventful Sunday afternoons!

Posted by: The Buzzard | February 13, 2005 6:01 PM

I have no idea about cricket. Sorry Buzzard.

Posted by: Waymee | February 13, 2005 11:48 PM

Well Buzzard, screw the empiring comments (My father watching cricket since 30 years knows it all) but u r not the empire, neither do I follow cricket any more.

Interesting question about one day and test match, I know they can't figure it out :P

Here is my preference:

Cricket vs Baseball: Cricket is FAR more interesting.

Football vs Rugby: Football is FAR more interesting.

Also, what you think about actual hockey? (Field Hockey?) England has a good team there as well? I love that game much better than Ice Hockey.

Posted by: Imran Aziz | February 14, 2005 1:11 AM

Never said I was the Empire!

Yes Britain has an OK field hockey team. I remember we got the gold at the Olympics back in 1988. We haven't done much since then, though.

I guess it all depends what sport you're brought up with. I do enjoy watching the American version of football, but prefer soccer of rugby any day of the week, simply because it's played by my own countrymen!

Posted by: The Buzzard | February 15, 2005 12:18 AM