Matt Le Tissier

Ah right, i suppose anything short of making all of Guernsey work in optics manufacturing would mean a need to outsource to be honest

I know it's a cliche, but they do actually ruin everything! I say this year, people just go ahead and make it a proper battle. If enough people do, there's nothing they can do

I've only seen it once abroad, in Waitrose in England and it was horrendously overpriced (same as everything else in Waitrose!). I wouldn't want to eat a Jersey or Guernsey cow to be honest! They're too good to kill

 

If Finance ever goes to the wall that might not be a bad idea!

Yeah i'm game. Don't understand oppressive health and safety. They still have the running of the bulls in Pamplona, that village in the Cotswolds has the chasing the cheeses down the hill game and there is that other game where two villages play a massive rugby like game which last two days. Loads of injuries and even deaths but they go ahead because it is part of the tradition and cultural integrity of the place. Why our governments have to bow to the do gooders I really don't know!

I've found Guernsey/Jersey milk in the USA, New Hampshire to be exact. Quite popular out there. Got chatting to a guy over there who said there are alot of herds of those breeds in New England. I think I read somewhere that Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream might use it because it is so creamy (head office/factory is in New Hampshire). Can't say if that is true or not.

 

I've heard the cheese running has people breaking their necks and backs nearly every year! I don't see why the most petty things are banned (such as throwing flowers around) when in other places activities with massive injury and death tolls are still allowed! I imagine if the festival where they throw tomatoes around (the name escapes me) was held in the Channel Islands, they'd probably make sure people wear goggles and bubble wrap incase they get blinded or fall over!

It's great that stuff as simple as milk can create links between two places hundreds of miles from each other! Maybe that's what's needed in the middle east
It wouldn't surprise me at all if they do use it in Ben and Jerrys. Channel Island ice cream is second only to Italian gelato, to my mind!

 

Exactly people die in those events but I never heard of anybody getting seriously hurt in the Battle of Flowers. And yes you are right we'd probably have to were body armour and visored crash helmets in case we took a particularly viscious blow from a soft fruit!

Good idea for a peace plan. Can't think what they would use though ... dates? oranges?

Problem you have is the really negative reaction to Jersey in the US because of New Jersey. It is like Essex and Middlesborough roled into one. Americans think anything associated with the word is cheap, trashy or rubbish. Jersey Cream Liquer had to be rebranded in the USA because nobody would buy it under that name. I think that is why the guy said Guernsey milk does better over there because Jersey milk isn't something you can give a positive spin to, no matter how good it is.

 

i can imagine the death certificates, "Died of serious head trauma caused by a viciously thrown peach"

Maybe goat's milk. It seems to be a stereotype that they all have goats

I never realised people hated New Jersey so much! I always thought it was just another part of New England, but i imagine things like Jersey Shore can't help the image! Maybe instead of rebranding the milk they should just rebrand the area, kick out all the 'guidos' etc and then the milk will sell itself (as i'm sure Guernsey milk does, purely on quality)

 

Reminds me of Blackadder ... the battle of Umboto Gorge ... British Army against the peace loving natives armed with soft fruit!

Goat's milk ... good call, that would do!

Yeah it is a recurring theme in American tv and film. Jersey people (as people from New Jersey seem to be known) are all thought to be chavs or worse. Keep an eye out for it when you are watching US stuff you'll see what I mean. In fact there was a turkey of a Ben Affleck film called Jersey Girl very much based around the negative regard for New Jersey.

 

[video=youtube;7FCNyrYC7E8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FCNyrYC7E8[/video]

 

and that Monty Python sketch with the self defence against fresh fruit!

How annoying! The thing is, all the American people that i've met in Jersey absolutely love it! At least Jersey is nothing like New Jersey (or how it's supposedly portrayed). I'd definitely have to emigrate!

I would watch that film to find out more but i honestly couldn't put myself through potentially 2 hours of Ben Affleck's self satisfied mug...Pearl Harbour has to be the most irritating film i've ever seen just for him!

 

Loved that! Particularly the way they learnt to defend against each fruit separately. Have we done bananas yet ... anyone?

Nah don't bother. I haven't watched it either, it is supposed to be awful. I just understand that as the basis of the story. Can't make myself watch Ben Affleck either.

Like most stereotypes I'm sure the New Jersey thing is far from accurate, just like not all Essex girls are ... well like Essex girls. But unfortunately for them the stereotype is firmly entrenched in the US. Jersey Shores certainly isn't helping them either.

Can't believe the yanks you've met like Jersey, the obviously haven't been to Guernsey yet. Or they were probably being polite

 

now we eat the banana, thus leaving the assailant armless

i hate those shows like Jersey Shore and Geordie Shore, neither represent the actual communities, they just represent the awful minority. It's like Big Brother takes the worst people from society and puts them in one place.

Well admittedly it was only 3, all of whom had just left Grassroots music festival fairly inebriated!

I'm sure they'd been to Guernsey and that made Jersey look all the better

 

Seriously if I ever resort to watching Big Brother (or any other reality tv show for the matter) I hope somebody takes pity on me and kills me. Total waste of life watching **** like that. Can't imagine the sales pitch to get that show off the ground. Right so lets sum up ... we put ten ordinary people in a room, give them **** all to do and film it all live, unedited and second by second ... sounds like great entertainment to me lets do it! If people are that bored, read a book, go for a walk, have sex with the other half, have a conversation with somebody ... do anything but watch a bunch of nobody's doing **** all on your tv!

As for your last comment touche! To be fair Jersey is great. If I wasn't a Guernseyman it is where I would want to live. Next best thing if you know what I mean.

Are you a local Jerseyman or an ex-pat?

 

It is the most tragic idea for tv ever conceived! Even the tasks they do to 'spice it up' are horrendous. I've only ever watched Big Brother once and they had George Galloway pretending to be a cat. I dread to think how poor the normal ones would be if that's the standard for 'Celebrity' Big Brother

I guess it's just bred out of people being voyeurists and hoping that some of the inmates will get together and it'll be an excuse to watch something bordering on porn!

I couldn't imagine living anywhere but the Channel Islands (even though i'll have to for Uni!). I completely understand what you're getting at. Guernsey and Jersey are just as good as each other (if you take away personal bias) and i wouldn't have any problems living in Guernsey or even Alderney, Herm, Sark etc!

I'm local, my whole family is going back quite a few generations (on one side anyway). What about yourself? (in relation to Guernsey obviously!)

 

First time I saw it was in Holland, watched about five minutes and thought what is this crap and turned over. Following year it was exported to the UK. Can honestly say I haven't watched a second of the uk version and I never will.

I know what you mean I wouldn't want to live anywhere else either, we have it too good here. Love to travel but i'm always glad to get back.

Yeah local born and bred. Long standing local stock on my mum's side and English father. Pretty sure that if I follow my local family tree back I'll soon find a pirate or a smuggler As no doubt you will too!

 

I imagine you're a better person for not seeing any of it!

Whenever i get back from holiday i forget how much i've missed stuff as simple as seeing the same bloke down the shops that i have every day for 17 years i live a tragic existence

My uncle (on the long standing Jersey side) actually traced our family history back about 6 generations. Turns out we were all a bunch of peasants and farmers! I'm sure there'll be a pirate somewhere in there, although if the family lived anywhere but at the port then i don't imagine they even realised the sea existed!

 

Yeah I breathe a sigh of relief when I get back, not sure why ... just feels like home I guess ... and safe. But I get stir crazy if I don't get off the rock at least twice a year.

Like you say the old timers barely travelled at all. When I was really little I was taken to visit an elderly relative who lived in one of the small parishes in the south of the island. She barely spoke English, had spoken the Guernsey Patois all her life. She hadn't left the parish in ten years, meaning she hadn't travelled more than half a mile from home and hadn't been to town (as we call St Peter Port) for thirty seven years. Can't imagine being that insular!

 

Oh yeah, when i'm here i can't wait to leave (most of the time) but when i'm away i can't wait to get back! It's mostly just an excuse for lots of holidays to be honest.

37 years?!?! How could she do that?! I can understand the lack of travel they had in the old days (well, up until 1950) but that's just ridiculous given the amount of public transport that would've been available even then! Surely she'd get bored? Although i imagine that leaving their parish was something people were scared to do!

We've got a guy 'called' Hedley Le Maistre (you've probably heard of him) and he's done videos and songs showing that exact thing of not wanting to leave the parish. He did one of GST where he takes his tractor to town and it's like some sort of mission to get there!

 

Guess they just felt that everything they needed was close to hand and that they didn't need anything that places further afield offered. I can just about understand it but couldn't live like that personally.

I've heard of Hedley but not seen any of his work. Good that there are people around keeping our old culture alive. We are having a bit of a revival over here too, with more people trying to learn the patois before it dies out and efforts to preserve some of the history before it gets lost. Might be too late for the language though.

Anyway chap, really enjoyed the chat about all things CI but I am going to have to hit the sack now, got an early start tomorrow Will have to take this up again some other time? G'night fella!

 

Matt Le Tisser lost any respect he had from me when he didn't include Martins' screamer against Spurs in his top 10 goals of that season.

 

It seems like madness to me!

There're a few Jersey French classes over here, i imagine quite a lot are going but i don't imagine it'll do too much. Unfortunately, the local languages are dying out, especially over here where there is more need for English classes as we have so many Portuguese and Polish people.

Same here, i look forward to more musings on island life G'night!

 

Stupid noncey biased twat