Thats quite a hard question to answer. Really, all I can say is that the way of life and the standards amongst people are so much higher. Like children are teached things at about 5 (ie, Smoking, Littering) whereas here you taught it at about my age, 15 (almost), or just not at all.
I suppose what you've seen here is the effect of some parents not bothering to teach their kids how to behave properly.
I'm surprised at the blasé attitude of some people towards the subject of litter and chewing gum. In Singapore, you would get fined for dropping litter on the street. Chewing gum sales are banned and have only been reinstated for people that have a medical need for it (e.g. nicorette gum).
Here, most schoolkids think it's OK to just toss their rubbish on the side of the street, even if they walked right past a bin! It can't it be that difficult to put the rubbish in a bin or to shove it in your pocket and then bin it when you get home?! I've always been told to put my rubbish in the nearest bin or to take it home with me and bin it then. You should see some of the pavements around London, esp. Kingston High Street - they are disgusting! They're literally covered in spots of chewing gum from people who can't be arsed to wrap it up and bin it!
And the adults are so much more mature. In Donington everybody cares about everybody else's life and they want to know who's shagging who and what not. Of course my parents do have friends, but really the rest of the people they've come across are shite.
Perhaps you should move to the salubrious suburbs in South West London?
People don't really care who's shagging who or anything like that. Yes people sometimes say hello or good morning (particularly the old folks) but other than that people just get on with their daily lives.
But we also found that my parents don't like the way the country's run, and, I don't either.
Some of the councillors around this area are complete pompous twazzocks - they can't seem to just accept progress and get on with it. Walton, in the heart of commuterland where I live has a temporary bridge for the past 40 years or so (hmm...maybe not so temporary then) and they've recently submitted plans for a new one. But yet again, the stupid councillors from the Walton Society have blocked plans for it because it looks radical and new (think of that bridge in the opening titles of Merseybeat - looks a bit like that).
The town centre is another thing - ever since I've lived here when I was 2 or 3 I've remembered it as a decrepid piece of 60's designed crap. 16 years down the line since they since announced intentions to redevelop in 1988 and there is still nothing. 2 developers have pulled out since the plans for a new centre were announced in 1996/1998 (shows progress, doesn't it?) because they've taken far too long over it. Yet again, the plans have been rejected by the oh-so-wonderful Walton Society on the grounds that the housing looks nothing the its predecessor and is a bit too radical.
It'll be the next millennium until we get something actually built and operational - the currently town centre has stood empty for a good 4 years and the graffiti artists and bunches of skateboarders and gimps in hooded sweatshirts with foul mouths and manners coupled and a poor grasp of English moved in. Only recently has the whole lot been knocked down and the area currently stands empty with lots of rubble - a wasteland if you like (cue TS Eliot poem...). And now this wrangle threatens to topple the whole lot.
How stupid can this get?
I'm sorry for rambling on but today's local rag front page has completely infuriated me about how this place is run and how stupid they are. Why can't we just learn to accept progress and get on with it? Walton hasn't really had much of a town centre since the 'decline' of 2000 when most of the shops closed down only to stand empty for 4 years.
Well, over there there's no real cliques amongst people my age. ie. Townies. Also, they're so much more mature of there. I mean me mature, not cdd mature. They dont care about who's going out with who. Also, my chin hits the floor when people ask me "How big is your dick?" or "When you wank, where do you put the leftovers?". To be asked those questions in such an up front manner, I find it very demeaning and quite shocking that they do that.
What I don't get here is WHY they have all these segregations such as townies, grungers, rudeboys etc. Everyone is an individual - what I don't get is why people seem to feel the need to belong to one of these groups and act (and sometimes dress) like complete twats.
I've never been asked questions about such things - I guess it's a Northern thing?
Do girls ask these or do guys or indeed .. both?
Mind you talk of 'willies' and 'godknowswhatelse has existed since secondary school. I suppose it's a phase we all go through, but to ask how big your dick is ... ?!?!
The press doesn't help matters much either - in Jordan's latest book she talks about the size of her previous boyfriend's assets in rather blunt detail.