"A happy and Quiet Valentines Day with no drains blocked!"
July 25, 2017 3:15 AM   Subscribe

The Guardian's Underwhelming UK Holiday Photos (previously) has grown into a rich archive. Enjoy underwhelming photos of office Christmas decorations, heatwaves, snowmen, Valentine's day (and again), pancakes, and many more.

The holiday photos themselves are still going strong: 2015, 2016, 2016 again, international, "Went to the suspension bridge for the view, struggled to see my own hands". Send in your 2017 submissions today!

Occasionally Guardian readers rebel and send in nice pictures instead: fog, sunshine. And depending on how you like your New Year's Eves, some of these could go either way.
posted by Catseye (10 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
I have this weird affectionate nostalgia for my holiday disasters. It was terrible at the time, but after a while it just becomes a good story. I guess that half the reason that people keep sending in their photos year after year.

I like the snowmen ones though. The snowfall may have been underwhelming, but the creativity was anything but. This one is adorable!
posted by Eleven at 6:11 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Shrove Tuesday was a day of inept flipping and flabby batters

Britain enjoyed a smattering of snow over the weekend, and her people gathered it to create underwhelming effigies with which to delight the nation’s children

I love British humor in general, I love the Guardian, and I love whoever writes the Guardian's headlines (sub-editor shout-out?). Thanks for this--I needed a larf.
posted by scratch at 7:32 AM on July 25, 2017


Yes! I love the Guardian's Underwhelming series. I did my own underwhelming Christmas in New York series on instagram last year (friends only) but I don't think many people understood what I was doing.
posted by maggiemaggie at 7:35 AM on July 25, 2017


Oh those poor pancakes. For pancakes less concerned with mutilation and dismemberment, try this recipe:
Sexyrobot's Indifferent-Faced Pancakes:
-pancake batter (from a bottle or a box or from scratch, I don't give a shit, do whatever)
-chocolate chips
while pancakes are cooking add a face with the chocolate chips. Make the mouth a straight line (trust me, it's much funnier than unhappy-faced pancakes...they're all like "I guess you could eat me. I guess I'm delicious. Is breakfast over yet?")

Well they cheer me up, anyway. YMMV, I don't care.
posted by sexyrobot at 7:39 AM on July 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


I love the underwhelming Christmas decorations one. Something about all of those sad little trees and oddly placed garlands...
posted by PearlRose at 7:41 AM on July 25, 2017


I love the UK holiday ones because they are so like my own childhood, and quite a few of our adult family holidays as well. I gave up on footwear for a week a couple of years ago. The tent was in 4 inches of water, so we just lined the inside with black plastic from a garden centre as an extra water barrier. It was easier just to wade around barefoot. BUT IT WAS FUN.

A sunny month in California last year was bewildering. I'd pack waterproofs in the rucksack every day just in case. If I'd left them it would have felt like walking around naked.

If you can survive a soaking wet week in a family tent on a UK campsite, you can survive anything, I reckon.
posted by dowcrag at 8:07 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


The Valentine's Day potato window display just made my day.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 10:13 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


Oh wow this is excellent. How did the existence of this escape my radar - thank you sincerely kind poster. The underwhelming UK holiday photos are just wonderful. As someone who spent a fair few weekends in Anglesey growing up, with never ending memories of grey skies and rain and wind and primary colour cagoules galore, soggy cheese and pickle sandwiches in wet tin foil under force 5 winds - well lets just say the resonance is huge.

I think the authenticness lends itself to a sort of innate beauty bubbling away quietly and understatedly. And if anyone from overseas wants a real insight into this Island nation (rather than the HDR heavy standard tourist tropes) this is not a bad place to start.
posted by numberstation at 1:00 PM on July 25, 2017


Heh, I like these. When I studied abroad in London my first long weekend away was to Wales and it was SO COLD AND WET I had to find a department store and buy a heavy coat because I was FUCKING FREEZING, and I'm from Chicago and happily wear shorts when there's snow on the ground so that's saying something.

I have been smarter on return trips to the British Isles, where I know to bring a heavy waterproof coat AND a rain hat even though it's going to be 50F the whole time I'm there, I am not spending another 80 pounds on a coat for weather that is not even freezing.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:58 PM on July 25, 2017


That pancake link makes me feel smugly superior and much happier about my lot in life.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:18 AM on July 26, 2017


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