Egypt4u

Just for Grandad

Good one!

And to be clear (for me) - where is the line re: who constitutes being a Londoner? Grandad is in Coventry but does that still lump him into being a Londoner?

How is a Londoner defined? By house/home location? By accent? By choice in that can anybody just lay claim to be a Londoner?

LLL, Grandad lives in Canterbury which is in the South, but Coventry is in the Midlands

Sorry 'yes' Canterbury in the south .... (dunno why I typed Coventry)

I like it H But it does raise a point. Normally when we walk around the street we do not casually greet others with 'Good Morning' or 'Good Afternoon' BUT when I ride my scooter, many people DO say Hello, Good Morning, an Good Afternoon. Aren't folks strange?

Northerners have a reputation for being friendly towards others which is often born out in reality, probably because we tend to come from closer communities. London in particular has a poor reputation for people just going their own way and ignoring anyone around them, probably because they are a less homogeneous community composed largely of ethnic groups and immigrants plus people gravitating there for work. This may explain it away on a cultural background where less socialising takes place and most people seem to exist in their own little bubble or it may be a case of them protecting their own personal space, what is sure is that they are less friendly towards strangers. Of course if you have a dog up North you are never without a friendly smile and a chat, I even have stops along my walks where I chat with complete strangers on a regular basis and fuss their dogs, we greet each other as old friends, the other day one lady called out to me “wait I have some home made chutney for you” as I passed her garden which backs onto the canal where I was walking.

Horus I think you paint an over bleak picture of friendliness in London and the south.
If I walked around your city I doubt if anyone would greet me in any way? But if I was on my scooter or was walking with a dog on a lead, many people would say hello and probably pet the dog. The same is the case here.
I think few people actually walk around greeting passers by BUT if we are in a situation say, sitting on a bench, or on a bus, or in a cafe, it is very easy to strike up a friendly conversation. It doesn't matter to me who the other person or persons are, old or young, fit of disabled, black or white; there will always be something of common interest.
Some of the best conversations I have are with foreign students. We are close enough to Europe that we have groups on day trips from France, Germany, Holland and Belgium. They usually have a project list of things they have to find in the city and I am often asked to help with that. But in return I learn about where they have come from, what time they had to set out that morning, is it their first visit to Canterbury. By this exchange they improve their English just a little.

Not necessarily the South, but certainly London is an unfriendly city IMO.
It is quite common here to greet a passer by with a “good morning” or “nice day”

Here we tend to 'nod' at everybody we pass. We tend to make enough eye contact to acknowledge the other person and nod with a 'hey' which seems to be the newer version of 'hi' here.

If we're driving it is common to raise a few fingers off the steering wheel in greeting when passing on one of the smaller lesser roads or residential streets.