An interesting trend??

You're right about Westwood, of course. The Mock without much of the ney.

We could start a list of other Mockneys, but I suspect we'd be on our own here, unless there's anybody else around who knows the difference between Marmite and Bovril?

Just me, I think.  And I can't stand either of them.

What are you saying?! Marmite and Bovril are part of Britain's fine culinary heritage. Like black pudding (a piece of pig's intestine full of congealed blood), Yorkshire pudding (the same ingredients as a pancake, but three inches thick) and bitter beer (like beer, only warm and bitter). The only reason the rest of the world doesn't get to sample these treats is that we're keeping them all for ourselves.

The only reason the rest of the world doesn't get to sample these treats is that we're keeping them all for ourselves.

Thank Gawd!!

And one of the best things about Yorkshire pud is when I use it to make a Toad-In-The-Hole!

LOL, I could throw them. I was born in Ohio, very neutral accent, moved to Holland for a few years and an old South African GF's family all said they could hear my dutch accent but none of my American family detects it, then I moved to North Carolina and I DO say y'all once in a while and use a few other idioms maybe the barest hint of an educated "New South", aka Charlotte, NC accent.  Subtle though, no redneck overtones.  Then highshool in Daytona Beach Dude! So there is a deff. trace of stoner/surfer lingo in there too.

Anywho, apparently none of that really matters since I have light blond hair, blue eyes and beautiful Baisi pifu so couple that with the fact that I speak damn decent Chinese for a white Southern boy and they all love me!!  Oh yeah and I am a fair to middlin drinker when I get my gan bei on.  Too bad Im a shoe designer and don't teach English.  Thought about it but Im not ready for the divorce yet! "Honey we're gonna take a XX% pay cut and Im moving to China full time" where she already knows the women chase me through the streets.  Honest its not my fault, I do nothing to egg them on, in fact I run from them. Fast! Ok Slow... and I trip sometimes, but still...

Anyone know anything about being an agent?  Either for Chinese companies coming this way or for Western ones going East?

Pig intestine w congealed blood?  If you just walked up and asked me I'd have bet good money, well its US money so Its getting less good by the minute but still... that that was a Chinese dish!

Marmite and Bovril? Of course! Both are poverty-stricken substitutes for Vegemite. Black pudding is OK, tho'!

From what I have noticed in Beijing, the employers cant tell the difference between the different accents. The only way they can tell where you come from is by looking at a teacher's passport.

I knew an ESL teacher in China from Ivory Coast / Cote d'Ivoire. First language Dyula, second language French, third language English. A more charming and friendly person you couldn't hope to me meet, but I could barely understand a word he said. However, his students apparently had no problem, and it didn't appear to affect their English - it sounded much the same as that of students with crystal-clear native speaker teachers.

Marmite is teh best thing ever, but it has to be treated with respect (i.e. spread very thinly for the unacquainted) and used with butter.  I'm pretty sure that a lot of colonials who try it neglect to understand this, and hence never get the chance to get used to, and adore/enjoy/love, it's beautiful, life-enriching, taste.

neglect to understand this,

We understand it! Just don't like it!!

You tried to export the bad people, but in reality, exported all of the creative, think out of the box, individualists.  You tried to export overcooked veges and we ate fresh salads, steak and prawns, you tried to export warm beer, but we used refrigerated shipping and drank COLD beer.

And you're trying to convince us marmite is good??

On a losing streak here, mate.

If the 18th/19th Century British really wanted to punish their convicts, they should have left them in the UK while everybody else moved to Australia. Better weather, more space....

For me, Marmite and Vegemite are very similar (both being yeast extract) but Marmite has a slightly a more intense flavour. As late as the 1980s Bovril was still being advertised on the basis of its original usage - mixed with hot water to make "beef tea". Mostly though it's used in much the same way as Marmite/Vegemite. A couple of years ago, they stopped making it out of boiled-up cow carcasses, and produced it with yeast extract instead (tied up with Mad Cow Disease) but sales went through the floor, so now it's back to being made of icky cow bits. Yum.

Marmite and Vegemite are very similar (both being yeast extract) but Marmite has a slightly a more intense flavour

Using Marmite and Vegemite in the same sentence as 'very similar' are fightin' words!!  Sorta like saying to a fundamentalist that chimps and humans are 'very similar' because they share 98% of the same genetic code.

Vegemite is clearly the superior, more evolved species.

You tried to export the bad people, but in reality, exported all of the creative, think out of the box, individualists.  You tried to export overcooked veges and we ate fresh salads, steak and prawns, you tried to export warm beer, but we used refrigerated shipping and drank COLD beer.

And you're trying to convince us marmite is good??
.

People in England don't eat fresh salad? 

The 'warm beer' thing is also slightly confused.  We drink what most of the world generally refers to as beer, i.e. lager, as cold as anyone else drinks it.  Warm lager, after all, is  .  However, certain english ales/bitters are drunk at (UK) room temperature.  Which is still pretty cold anyway...

If you lot didn't like marmite at all you wouldn't have come up with an inferior alternative.