Thanks for your reply CL

I think the 'Monday morning moan' applies everywhere to some extent

I lived in Perth (Australia) for 15 years and many bars were full of drunken people at 5pm - by 8pm bars are pretty much empty because everyone has work the next day

I definitely remember the Monday morning moan a LOT more when I lived in the UK though

As for the Brits having the ability to laugh at themselves - I work with a couple of American FT's who really cannot seem to understand why we do, yet at the same time concede that Brits have the best humour/comedy in the world

I put it down to our ability to understand and use sarcasm. No other English-speaking culture appears to use it like the Brits. The yanks struggle with it (although Leslie Nielson - the actor in the 'Naked' spoofs certainly knows his sarcasm), Aussies struggle with it and it's totally wasted on ESL students, even those with a high-level of English ability

Classis comedy shows such as 'Fawlty Towers' and 'Only Fools and Horses' use sarcastic humour to the max - and it works because there's nothing funnier than sarcasm (IMO)

Recently, I was in our office when a particularly obnoxious student came in to complain to another teacher about something trivial (as usual). Her English is excellent (better than some of our Chinese-English teachers) and I totally respect her for her English ability, but the problem is just that she's not-a-nice-person

Anyway, she was griping and moaning and just getting on people's nerves when I said 'Hey, can I ask you a question?' The reply was a flat 'What?'

I looked her in the eye and said 'Does your mother bark as loud as you?'

Wasted...........totally wasted......even the American FT's didn't understand the sarcasm..........I rest my case m'lud