AquaCycle, I am afraid you have described the majority of my UK relatives better than we can....I know you haven't met them, but some really ARE more or less tea-drinking slugs. Many of them could be described fairly as whingers. Several of them hold honourary knighthoods and various OBE levels...are they pompous? Yeah, baby!
That said, nearly all UK visitors I meet here (other than my own relatives...) are kind and polite. Occasionally I'll get some bizarre questions (in particular, from Disney aficionados who think the locals are all Disneyland history experts---I've actually been asked whether I think "Space Mountain" is better in California or in Florida...) but then again US tourists must ask some idiotic questions too. I never ask anything more intrusive than street directions.
I simply seem to have been stuck with more than my fair share of bizarre UK relatives. If you met them, you'd understand. I visit Europe roughly once a year, but my last time in UK was long ago. When people ask why so long no time in UK (given that I have relatives there), I am tempted to say "If you knew them, you wouldn't ask that question" but I just give a rather nebulous answer like "well, they visit here in the winter, so I see them here."
Five minutes with my cousin R----- and you'd be climbing the walls, too---he fairly oozes pomposity.
PS: I have a set of Margaret Thatcher tea mugs, a gift from one set of the UK relatives. THIS WAS NOT A JOKE, they gave them to me in all seriousness. He was chair of the Tories in Kent at the time. (yes, I have had high tea inside the Conservative Club of Margate....what an experience. It was BYOGM: Bring Your Own Gas Mask, as protection against the cummulonimbus clouds of cigarette smoke).
