United Kingdom chat thread V4: lamb rogan josh, £3 meal deals, and brexit - General

To be honest, the only time i got strange looks in Tokyo (that i noticed anyway) was when i was saying "Kanpai" (as in Cheers) as thanks. You don't say Kanpai as thanks. I might just consider going back to Japan for a bit later this year. Sure, i could go all the way to New York by myself but i'd get bored and shit's expensive there.

I thought "domo" was thanks? And if you do go back take pictures, if you can Its really nice to hear about people's trips and the kind of stuff they experienced

It is, Kanpai is just saying Cheers but it is exclusive to doing a drinking toast. They give you funny looks when you say "Cheers" after breakfast.

In the still very brief time I've spent learning a language, I've learned that you really can't use directly translate both ways. You can't do Japanese-by-English or French-by-English or whatever and expect it to be perfectly understood, you have to learn the language as they use it. Of course, being able to use what you know in new ways outside of rote memorisation is critial, but you should double-check things with native speakers first. Translating is a skill almost in itself, even with computers we still need people to adapt between languages and you're not going to translate a novel word-for-word. One piece of advice I heard about learning a language is to "forget" your native language and use the Japanese or French or whatever language it is you know.

I think that's a major barrier most people face when learning a new language if they don't already know a second language, learning to try and think directly in the target language instead of thinking of what you want to say in your native language then translating it, and it's a difficult thing to comprehend for people who didn't learn a second language from a younger age. It can work for languages in the same or similar families like germanic/romantic especially starting out since grammar and sentence structure can be very similar but doesn't go well for languages that are structured completely differently.

Has anyone been to Deal in Kent? Was thinking of going there for a week during the school holidays. Either that or Swanage... to be honest, any quiet coastal town with a train station would be ideal for me.

Going from London to Japan is going to be expensive, but hotels there are already making me want to cry...

It's alright? I wouldn't say it's particularly quiet but certainly less busy than most metropolitan centers. You've got 3 castles nearby to check out, a large swimming center called Tides and a metric ton of parks/gardens in the outskirts if you're looking for a place to unwind. Not much to do to keep you busy for a whole week imo but depends what you might be looking to do.

@Hezzy do you remember last year I was trying to figure out "Frogmoor House, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire"? Did your local history group in Rickmansworth ever get back to you? I'm on a bit of a fresh scent for family members of the BEF veteran buried in my town - his older brother actually ended up having a daughter - although I'm not sure if she had any children. The veteran in my town actually had a son before his passing, and he ended up having 3 children in Australia. I'm not sure if either line of the family exist still, I'm waiting to hear back from the individual who has all the grave information in town and she'll be able to tell me who purchased the new stone.

Assuming you had already found this based on your post: Couchman Family History which appears to have a bunch about the family in question (Although interestingly the veteran's bday on there is 17 Nov 1896 yet the gravestone is 1895, though I imagine records weren't wholly accurate/often slightly off back then) According to that his son married Mary Jennifer Hain from Melbourne who after some searching appears on the year's mind remembrance section of this church in Melbourne for the last few years on November 21st: http://www.stmartinshawksburn.org.au/resources/Pentecost%2024%20-%2019th%20November%202017.pdf With this you can find that she passed away on November 21st 1991 which matches up with this obituary: https://i.imgur.com/jHgWWuq.png Ariel, Grace and Alan, two daughters and a son and a mention of Henry so seems like it's probably her and at least at the time Henry was alive but if he was still now that'd make him 94. Trail goes a bit colder after that, there's an Ariel Couchman in Melbourne who has made waves as a feminist/lawyer and it's a fairly unique name, and her birthday (1958) matches up nicely with their marriage (1955) - Wouldn't be able to find out more without contacting people I think. Some other random tidbits are that he became an Australian citizen on 10.04.61 living in Melbourne, but the house listed was up for auction in 1984 ---------------- Back on to the Frogmoor House thing, found Frogmoor House in Rickmansworth on an old ordnance survey map published in 1899 but it appears it has been demolished as it's a set of fairly new looking buildings now. It appears on maps as early as 1868 and as late as 1960 but appears to have been demolished since then

Yes, I actually found that site last night - one of the reasons for the invigorated investigation (not to mention, the 90th anniversary of his passing is tomorrow). I'll see if I can find any links with Ariel Couchman, thank you!

The church is just down the road from the house on the naturalisation certificate - If you do want find the family you could always drop them an email at office@stmartinshawksburn.org.au mentioning Mary Jennifer Couchman who appears on their Year's Mind Remembrance for November 21st and if they could pass your email or something on to the family with as much detail as you want. Short of that could always just contact the couple of profiles with info and see if you get any hits back from them.

Yeah, I found a short autobiography that Ariel had written a couple years back, it mentions she grew up in Ferntree Gully - a suburb of Melbourne.

There are a few newspaper articles for a Melbourne paper written by what appears to be her (M J Couchman) and also signed off Ferntree Gully and they do seem to have a bit of a feminist streak in them so I'd say that specific Ariel Couchman is probably on the money.

Aw brilliant. Yeah probably Henry Theodore's grand-daughter. I hope I am able to speak to her, partially because I would like to ask the family's permission to take care of their relative's grave, and partially because I would like to know if they are aware of anything about his life, why he moved to my hometown, that sort of thing.

Yeah would be neat. To be honest I'd love it if someone suddenly showed up with a bunch of stuff detailing my family history, it's likely that there are distant cousins and stuff that could be found through that kind thing who are still alive. I know my parents have been working on our family tree on and off for years, been wanting to get involved as it's really interesting and I think with advances in technology and records online its easier than ever to find scraps of information.

Yeah, i was just shocked that there is a British veteran buried in my hometown. I've always been interested in the B.E.F. so it was a local WWI B.E.F. related mystery. One of my first thoughts was that he may have been an American who enlisted with the British Army, which some people did do (most famous was Arthur Guy Empey). But, as time and some research has shown (not all of my own either, had some great help on a WWI forum) that he was born and raised in the UK, fought in the war, resigned his comission in 1921, married his wife, had his son, and then moved here in 1927, before tragically killing himself on May 17th, 1928. Where I am, it's almost 90 years to the day since that occurred.

I believe I did post the response; Dear Adam, I apologise for the delay in replying. I have been away. I have consulted colleagues in the Rickmansworth Historical Society and we think the position is as follows. Henry Theodore Couchman was, we surmise, the son (or other close relative) of Henry B Couchman, who was the Agent of Lord Ebury of Moor Park by 1905, residing in Frogmoor House until at least January 1915. The house no longer exists, but stood on the western corner of Harefield Road and Frogmoor Lane, now occupied by an apartment block, Frogmoor Court. We don’t know when it was built – a house in that location is shown, but isn’t named, on both a 1766 and an 1822 map, but more work would have to be done in the Moor Park records to find out more. Do keep us in touch with the results of your research into 2nd Lt Couchman. Best wishes, Brian Thomson Rickmansworth Historical Society

I must have missed it, my bad! Thank you for finding that out for me!

Handed in my notice at my current job on Friday.. a bit of a nerve racking thing to do, even when it's for the best. Going to miss my nice commute in the peak district.

I'm about to soon too. Definitely gonna be hard to do and I'm gonna miss the people I've worked with for over a year.

Just caught the end of local BBC news and they were talking about the new network rail timetable being implemented tomorrow. I noticed many of the screens in the new Thameslink control room running windows xp. No wonder why southeastern trains are late or delayed half the time.

You know when you have an ant problem, you buy ant powder and put it down and then eventually the ants don't come back? Chavs keep sitting on my doorstep until like 5am, so I've put down ant powder. It appears to have worked.

They probably thought it was Coke, snorted it and went to A&E as a result.

so it's super effective?

Had Wagamamas today lads Was lush. That is all.

Never been personally, is that a crime?

I love spontaneous nights. Went to Pompeii to pick up some specialised trainers and remembered my mate lived nearby so we went out for two beers. ...Which turned into an hour long lock-in (owner eventually booted us out), a curry of some sort and drinking with some random people who I've never met before. Seeing as I brought those trainers everywhere I'm considering them a good luck charm as I got a number as well. 👌

It's among the better chain restaurants for sure, but you won't regret missing out on your deathbed.

Anyone else prepping for their uni exams? If so, what subject/uni (if you feel okay disclosing). Currently prepping for my Politics exams at Loughborough Uni.