We`ve just come back from Tenerife, nice place to go in the winter by the way. The journey on a Thomas Cook plane wasn`t so nice. My knees were up against the seat in front for nearly five hours *. Thank God nobody that I could see reclined their seats because that would have been unbearable, a possibility of air rage in fact.....
* If you include getting on before the thing even takes off.
Variable speed limits on motorways, now they piss me off no end. Every time I pass over those little white measuring lines painted on the surface, my heart jumps into my mouth!
They are getting ridiculous now as well. The concentration to keep at 50 while driving in narrow lanes surely makes it more dangerous?
They are getting ridiculous now as well. The concentration to keep at 50 while driving in narrow lanes surely makes it more dangerous?
The M62 between Pontefract and Huddersfield is a permanent variable limit. Its absolutely awful, the speeds change and the cameras attached to the gantry react to that limit, so if you pass under it as it changes from 60 to 40, you get flashed or if you see it at the last minute, you slam on the anchors.
We`ve just come back from Tenerife, nice place to go in the winter by the way. The journey on a Thomas Cook plane wasn`t so nice. My knees were up against the seat in front for nearly five hours *. Thank God nobody that I could see reclined their seats because that would have been unbearable, a possibility of air rage in fact.....
* If you include getting on before the thing even takes off.
Leg space in coach can be really bad. I am however a big fan of getting on planes before they take off. I wouldn't have that any other way.
The last time I enjoyed flying was coming back from New York in 1982, when I was upgraded to club class. Every flight I've been on since has been one or more of the circles of hell, from the hours spent hanging around a hot, noisy, stuffy, brightly lit airport; through the cramped and uncomfortable flight, to the hours hanging around for your baggage and the scrum for a taxi when you finally get out.
If I fly once every 10 years, that's too often.
Luckily, I live near a channel port and not far from a Eurostar terminal. A couple of years ago we went through the tunnel to Bruges and it was a wonderful journey - quick, clean, quiet, efficient, and not crowded. A far cry from travelling by train on UK journeys. I travelled from Amsterdam to Munich by train too, and that was enjoyable.
Even driving is nicer in other European countries. A few years ago, a friend and I drove to Gascony and back. We got caught in a bit of traffic precisely twice in 10 days - once in Rouen on the way down and on the Toulouse ring road in the rush hour on the way back. Sometimes, we went for so long without seeing another vehicle that we wondered if we'd inadvertently strayed on to an autoroute that wasn't open yet.
This country just doesn't invest enough in public transport. It's rubbish and it's expensive and so driving is often the cheapest option, especially if you have the audacity not to have planned your journey 3 months in advance. For me and OH to travel to see his family by train is £30 each and would take nearly 2 hours. To go by car costs about £12, and takes barely 90 minutes.
Then upshot of all this is that the roads are full of people driving because they can't afford the train, which causes no end of congestion, pollution and accidents.
I think people get more observant as they age. Things that bother me now wouldn't have done so when I was a child. I for one hate buses. I find elderly folk hold the driver up and I always get the crazy talking to me. So I try to avoid.
Tell me about it.
Long Distance Coach Journeys
People not able to sit still, they fidget, they rattle plastic bags, we have to enjoy their mobile phone conversations (at least one half of them) - the forced wearing of seatbelts... just cutting into my body, making it even more uncomfortable
Trains... people waiting on a platform will flood the doors, as soon as the train pulls into the platform, i feel like yelling "get out of the way of the doors, you fools, people have to get off first" - i mean how stupid
I see the same thing happening at Bus Stops as well, people will jump right on, and not let people that are leaving, get off first
Airports, don't get me started. 9/11 has got them so worked up & paranoid, that everyone is treated as a terrorist (which is the goal of the terrorists) - the destruction of civil liberties - I have gotten close to clashes with the security people (not being treated with any respect, or manners) and they better not give that 'just doing my job' bullshit either
You open a window, someone shuts it...and this is in the summer!
They all prefer to travel in warm, moist germ ridden air.
Im always shutting windows on the trains!
People get on and open windows presumably because they are hot but then they will sit with their coat & scarves wrapped round them! And what they don't realise is the people sitting further back from the window are getting the draught and the cold hitting them all journey!
The roads are too full (and that`s in a recession, what`ll happen when it`s over ? ! ? ) and too many of those cars are driven by people with a lack of courtesy, a lack of knowledge of the Highway Code, an excess of aggression and far far too much impatience. Parking is becoming a nightmare and, of course, you have to pay in more and more places. Then there`s one way systems and other roads needing local intimate knowledge to navigate.....
We went to Tewksbury just the other week.
Nice place but the roads and parking, bleedin` hell !
I`ve never been anywhere with so many one ways no right turns, no left turns, no turns at all ! Then there was the parking ! Gordon Bennet ! ! We ended up in the large car park in the centre of town, we had to drive round for 5 mins trying to find a space, but that was nothing compared to what happened later ! Just as we were about to go, I was in my car waiting for the wife to come back, the car at the side of me drove off. There was a Golf waiting to reverse into the space but in the 5 seconds before he managed to back into the vacant spot another car drove straight into it ! I wound my window down and pointed out to him there was another car waiting but he just said he`d "been driving round for half an hour trying to find a space". I shrugged and wound my window up. Then the Golf driver and his wife get out and start arguing with the other car`s driver and his wife ! They start facing each other off, I thought there was going to fisticuffs, over a bleedin` car parking space !
I said travelling (in this case driving) was no fun any more......
I do, but sometimes when trying to concentrate on other things like other road users, finding your way around etc, things can slip. What I mean about loosing your license is getting caught by speed cameras, and returning to find half a dozen, NIPS in the post.
If I need to concentrate on other things, I don't speed.
I detest airports. I could wake up in the best mood I've ever been in, but it would change the moment I stepped foot inside an airport. Travelling by train or bus isn't too bad as long it's quiet and not too warm.
Hard to believe this thread has been revived two days before I fly back to Blighty. Saturday night TPA-LGW. Flying Club so have a flat bed. If I didn't I wouldn't be flying, and there's no faux superiority there, I just couldn't with my back. Not looking forward to the drive back to Wales on Sunday morning though.
Hard to believe this thread has been revived two days before I fly back to Blighty. Saturday night TPA-LGW. Flying Club so have a flat bed. If I didn't I wouldn't be flying, and there's no faux superiority there, I just couldn't with my back. Not looking forward to the drive back to Wales on Sunday morning though.
I've just got a new car after driving 4x4 for years. Mondeo Estate and it goes like a shit off a shovel, my first long drive today. It was great:)
For as long as I can remember, I've always been frustrated at the amount of lorries and HGVs on our roads as they're the main cause of congestion. As an island our roads are not designed for them. I've always been puzzled by how continental countries such as France are less reliant on lorries even though they have much clearer roads and can get from A to B much faster.
Trains - I avoid them whenever possible. They're an absolute joke (in this country anyway).
And with regards to flying, I use Emirates for long haul flights as they're one of the only carriers to abstain from cutting back on leg room to increase the carrying capacity of their planes.
Hard to believe this thread has been revived two days before I fly back to Blighty. Saturday night TPA-LGW. Flying Club so have a flat bed. If I didn't I wouldn't be flying, and there's no faux superiority there, I just couldn't with my back. Not looking forward to the drive back to Wales on Sunday morning though.
When you say Club class do you mean British Airways ? The only reason I ask is that the last time I checked BA actually have the cheek to charge even Business class passengers extra to pre book your seat ! And from memory it`s over £50 each journey leg ! I`ll be honest I absolutely detest being charged to prebook a seat*, it`s yet another reason I hate flying these days. There really is no excuse for airlines to charge to prebook seats, after all it doesn`t cost the airline anything at all, but to be charged to prebook a Business class seat, well that`d piss me off so much I just wouldn`t use BA at all.
* Excluding extra legroom seats, I can see a legitimate argument for charging passengers extra for them. And it`s a fee I`d pay but we can`t have them because we have a child......
For as long as I can remember, I've always been frustrated at the amount of lorries and HGVs on our roads as they're the main cause of congestion. As an island our roads are not designed for them. I've always been puzzled by how continental countries such as France are less reliant on lorries even though they have much clearer roads and can get from A to B much faster.
Trains - I avoid them whenever possible. They're an absolute joke (in this country anyway).
And with regards to flying, I use Emirates for long haul flights as they're one of the only carriers to abstain from cutting back on leg room to increase the carrying capacity of their planes.
Wait... I thought the armchair driving experts found that it was cyclists purposely holding up traffic and maliciously riding into blind spots for teh lulz?
There have been two things on public transport I`ve found particularly annoying about public transport recently neither of which ever occurred in the long lost mists of time when there was more sense and less gimmickry.
I was on a bus with a huge advertising transfer right over the window. It didn`t completely obscure my view but significantly affected it. I disliked it intensely and couldn`t help wondering if the cretin who came up with that idea (after all, windows are for looking out of.....) actually ever used a bus, certainly not a bus with a huge semi see through transfer obscuring the window. Alternatively he (or she) could be one of those sad people who don`t actually look around them any more, they look at the world through the internet on their smart phones. Get a life.
I heard about a chap who got turfed out of his seat on a Cross Country train, even though at the time he sat in it it wasn`t reserved. It was reserved on a short notice seat reservation by someone after he`d sat in it ! Again, I can only think that the creation who came up with such a half baked idea (a short notice seat reservation system which can`t actually tell if the seat is already taken.....) ever travels by train, certainly on a "turn up and go" basis,
Comments
How tall are you?
They are getting ridiculous now as well. The concentration to keep at 50 while driving in narrow lanes surely makes it more dangerous?
The M62 between Pontefract and Huddersfield is a permanent variable limit. Its absolutely awful, the speeds change and the cameras attached to the gantry react to that limit, so if you pass under it as it changes from 60 to 40, you get flashed or if you see it at the last minute, you slam on the anchors.
Leg space in coach can be really bad. I am however a big fan of getting on planes before they take off. I wouldn't have that any other way.
Yawn! No sense of fun!
If I fly once every 10 years, that's too often.
Luckily, I live near a channel port and not far from a Eurostar terminal. A couple of years ago we went through the tunnel to Bruges and it was a wonderful journey - quick, clean, quiet, efficient, and not crowded. A far cry from travelling by train on UK journeys. I travelled from Amsterdam to Munich by train too, and that was enjoyable.
Even driving is nicer in other European countries. A few years ago, a friend and I drove to Gascony and back. We got caught in a bit of traffic precisely twice in 10 days - once in Rouen on the way down and on the Toulouse ring road in the rush hour on the way back. Sometimes, we went for so long without seeing another vehicle that we wondered if we'd inadvertently strayed on to an autoroute that wasn't open yet.
This country just doesn't invest enough in public transport. It's rubbish and it's expensive and so driving is often the cheapest option, especially if you have the audacity not to have planned your journey 3 months in advance. For me and OH to travel to see his family by train is £30 each and would take nearly 2 hours. To go by car costs about £12, and takes barely 90 minutes.
Then upshot of all this is that the roads are full of people driving because they can't afford the train, which causes no end of congestion, pollution and accidents.
Long Distance Coach Journeys
People not able to sit still, they fidget, they rattle plastic bags, we have to enjoy their mobile phone conversations (at least one half of them) - the forced wearing of seatbelts... just cutting into my body, making it even more uncomfortable
Trains... people waiting on a platform will flood the doors, as soon as the train pulls into the platform, i feel like yelling "get out of the way of the doors, you fools, people have to get off first" - i mean how stupid
I see the same thing happening at Bus Stops as well, people will jump right on, and not let people that are leaving, get off first
Airports, don't get me started. 9/11 has got them so worked up & paranoid, that everyone is treated as a terrorist (which is the goal of the terrorists) - the destruction of civil liberties - I have gotten close to clashes with the security people (not being treated with any respect, or manners) and they better not give that 'just doing my job' bullshit either
Im always shutting windows on the trains!
People get on and open windows presumably because they are hot but then they will sit with their coat & scarves wrapped round them! And what they don't realise is the people sitting further back from the window are getting the draught and the cold hitting them all journey!
We went to Tewksbury just the other week.
Nice place but the roads and parking, bleedin` hell !
I`ve never been anywhere with so many one ways no right turns, no left turns, no turns at all ! Then there was the parking ! Gordon Bennet ! ! We ended up in the large car park in the centre of town, we had to drive round for 5 mins trying to find a space, but that was nothing compared to what happened later ! Just as we were about to go, I was in my car waiting for the wife to come back, the car at the side of me drove off. There was a Golf waiting to reverse into the space but in the 5 seconds before he managed to back into the vacant spot another car drove straight into it ! I wound my window down and pointed out to him there was another car waiting but he just said he`d "been driving round for half an hour trying to find a space". I shrugged and wound my window up. Then the Golf driver and his wife get out and start arguing with the other car`s driver and his wife ! They start facing each other off, I thought there was going to fisticuffs, over a bleedin` car parking space !
I said travelling (in this case driving) was no fun any more......
If I need to concentrate on other things, I don't speed.
I've just got a new car after driving 4x4 for years. Mondeo Estate and it goes like a shit off a shovel, my first long drive today. It was great:)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_center
now all previous state owned assets have been flogged off, the privateers can only make their "magic profits" by ripping us all off ........
Trains - I avoid them whenever possible. They're an absolute joke (in this country anyway).
And with regards to flying, I use Emirates for long haul flights as they're one of the only carriers to abstain from cutting back on leg room to increase the carrying capacity of their planes.
When you say Club class do you mean British Airways ? The only reason I ask is that the last time I checked BA actually have the cheek to charge even Business class passengers extra to pre book your seat ! And from memory it`s over £50 each journey leg ! I`ll be honest I absolutely detest being charged to prebook a seat*, it`s yet another reason I hate flying these days. There really is no excuse for airlines to charge to prebook seats, after all it doesn`t cost the airline anything at all, but to be charged to prebook a Business class seat, well that`d piss me off so much I just wouldn`t use BA at all.
* Excluding extra legroom seats, I can see a legitimate argument for charging passengers extra for them. And it`s a fee I`d pay but we can`t have them because we have a child......
Wait... I thought the armchair driving experts found that it was cyclists purposely holding up traffic and maliciously riding into blind spots for teh lulz?
I was on a bus with a huge advertising transfer right over the window. It didn`t completely obscure my view but significantly affected it. I disliked it intensely and couldn`t help wondering if the cretin who came up with that idea (after all, windows are for looking out of.....) actually ever used a bus, certainly not a bus with a huge semi see through transfer obscuring the window. Alternatively he (or she) could be one of those sad people who don`t actually look around them any more, they look at the world through the internet on their smart phones. Get a life.
I heard about a chap who got turfed out of his seat on a Cross Country train, even though at the time he sat in it it wasn`t reserved. It was reserved on a short notice seat reservation by someone after he`d sat in it ! Again, I can only think that the creation who came up with such a half baked idea (a short notice seat reservation system which can`t actually tell if the seat is already taken.....) ever travels by train, certainly on a "turn up and go" basis,