Still stuck with my donkey-powered mud and straw local village telephone exchange, which British Telecom "have no plans to upgrade" to one made of twigs.
Having spent an hour and a half trying to read my last comments page (being disconnected twice and having to reload and reload 'cos it only loads the top three or four comments), I am yet again replying to my comments with a new post.
I'll be back in London tomorrow so things should return to "normal"
Oh, shit. That's three times it's disconnected me.
Right … Let's try again …
Robyn:
Blackpool (I'm still stunned that anyone in their right mind would go near the place).
I think your AAA guide must have been driving a Porsche flat out at around three in the morning to arrive at those journey times.
And as for your decision to take the TRAIN back again!!!
A seven hour a day commuter writes (with some authority and a nervous twitch):
Our British railways don't operate as a "transport service"; that concept would leave them baffled (both the words "transport" and "service").
Most of the time they are either on strike (like this Christmas) or closed due to "planned" or "overrunning" engineering works (like this Christmas and every single weekend).
These engineering works are basically panicky repairs; when the "service" was privatised, the first thing the private owners did was get rid of 60,000 (yes, you heard me right) maintenance jobs around the entire country, pay themselves fat bonuses and sell what was left. Several disastrous crashes and hundreds of deaths later we are now paying for their bonuses with our daily delays and cancellations.
For the past two years there have been NO trains from here to London at weekends, and one summer I had to spend eight weeks working from home because of them.
Anyway; enough of my gripes. (Shit! Disconnected again) … Just never even think about taking a train in Britain these days … or living in a Norfolk village if you want to use the internet …
Ame:
The journey from London to Blackpool does not come under the heading of driving and rambling along the British countryside. It's more like one of those bizarre ordeals you see on Japanese TV. Grinding stop-start traffic on endless miles of dull, grey motorway (with lots of roadworks), through the shittiest parts of dull, grey Britain (about half an hour of it up past Manchester is slightly less unpleasant, but that's all).
And I LOVE the new hair-do! It really suits you. Kinda reminds me of London in the swinging sixties. Cool …
As for giving me a year to do something about getting a date …
Okay, I'm up for that. I can't see it succeeding but I'll give it a go.
Kate:
Shouty bitches on trains make me glad handguns are illegal over here. Otherwise I'd be writing this from jail.
Old K.
You're welcome to 'em, mate. Just like in real life, they only want to be "friends" with me, so as far as I'm concerned, they're all yours. Go to it and good luck!
3 comments:
You're kidding!
It's JANUARY up here! You've got the beautiful Aussie summer!
(and you whupped our dismal cricket team yet again) …
Be of good cheer, Kate. Everyone in this shitty country wants to live in Australia. We are SOOO jealous.
The little trip to Blackpool was an interesting experience. We were only there for two days--we went into a bank, and the cashier said, "why would anyone come to Blackpool this time of year, especially all the way from Ohio?" The main purpose of the trip was to spend a week wandering around London and having dinner and seeing plays anyway. And that part is always nice. As far as the train goes, it was better than driving, even though I had gotten the hang of reversing everything.
I'm glad that even someone from Blackppol would question your journey.
And yes, London with time on your hands can be a wonderful place.
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