World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

The British are living proof of the fact that amazing things[1] can be achieved when the place you live in is extremely boring.

[1] For varied definitions of "amazing", such as "conquer countries 10x your size", "invent 20 sports the entire world plays", etc.

So the bit about UK food being attrocious is unfortunately true from my limited experience but the country itself has a lot of beauty, I think, as long as you look in the roght places.