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- ugly bus
The 'ugly bus' is hired by pub landlords to constantly go around pubs during the mid to late evening. Its purpose is to take away all the ugly people. You never see the bus but you will notice that it has been because when you come back from the toilet the pub will suddenly be full of really attractive people.
See also: 'beer goggles' and 'beer scooter'.
- Ulster Fry
The Northern Ireland equivalent of the 'English breakfast' and equally heart stopping. The main ingredients are similar to an English breakfast but local modifications make it northern Irish, namely the addition of soda bread and potato cake.
- umble pie
A pie, with medieval origins, made from offal, mainly liver and kidneys of deer but mixed with other things, but not made with the best meat as this was a dish of poor people. It may be the origin of the phrase 'to eat humble pie' (Though the people of Wigan have a different explanation and claim that it comes from a failed miners strike when the miners were forced to return to work.)
- urban bees
Urban bees aren't any different to country bees, and feral bee colonies have always existed in towns choosing to live in old walls, buildings (derelict and occupied), abandoned chimneys, etc. Some even take up residence in old trees in parks. But the setting up of hives in dense urban areas is a modern phenomenon, and part of the publics amazing response to the decline of the bee population.
Ironically the urban bee seems to enjoy a wider diversity and more consistent availability of nectar than it rural cousin, thanks to gardens, both private and public, and to urban landscaping, and because the countryside has become a patchwork of huge monocultures which is continually dowsed in herbicides.
With a demand for local food products, and a shortage of native honey, the urban bees have inevitably led to business opportunities and the largest co-ordinated honey production company in the UK, currently (2012) in Sheffield, manages 250 urban hives.
With a shortage of open ground urban hives often find their way onto roofs where they are invisible to passers by.
See also: 'bee hive'.