Stacy

“The fact is that the British have a totally private sense of distance. This is most visibly seen in the shared pretense that Britain is a lonely island in the middle of an empty green sea. Of course, the British are all aware, in an abstract sort of way, that there is a substantial landmass called Europe nearby and that from time to time it is necessary to go over there to give old Jerry a drubbing or have a holiday in the sun, but it’s not nearby in any meaningful sense in the way that, say, Disney World is.”
― Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island: A hilarious farewell tour of Great Britain—from foggy Dover to Loch Ness—by an American expat who called it home for 20 years