If my uncle taught me anything (of significant importance) that stuck with me then it would be the lesson to be brutally honest. Usually put in the context that when someone is being ridiculous you call them out on it, but could be used for many other examples. I got together with my North American friend Sam the other day and I was telling her that I had started to write a blog and we started talking about what she found unusual and interesting and we both agreed that people from the UK are generally pretty blunt and brutally honest.
If you do something wrong, they will tell you; if they need to give you bad news they will not sugar coat it. It's not them being mean, it's them being honest.
Sam and I were exchanging stories of this when she came up with a very surprising one. As far as I am aware Sam has been on two big trips involving train transportation and both times her trains have been delayed. The first time it was because the train before hers was stopped because someone was on the tracks. The second time they actually announced over the sound system that they had to stop because there was "a suicidal man on the tracks". It amazed us both because if this situation were to happen in North America it would be announced as "technical difficulties" and then we would wait wondering what possibly broke down and then "the technical difficulty is solved" and you are on your way wondering if this technical difficulty is really solved or if your bus/train/plane is near the end of its life ready to be sent to Nigeria (that's where my vehicles go to die).
When talking to my Welsh and English friends they have all confirmed that this is not abnormal to hear, and most likely all think our "technical difficulties" doesn't make sense (which it doesn't). This way I feel like I am involved in everyones train gossip, maybe next time they will announce who's having a child or who got fired from their job and why. Who needs TV when you have a train.
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