Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

Somebody is now the owner of 5 raspberry jam doughnuts. Shortly they'll only be the owner of 4..... and therein begins the slide to 0.

Reduced to 35p, it'd have been rude not to....

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

Won't his uni mates offer lifts for a share of the petrol?

I had a fear of students driving each other on the motorways. So much so that I would offer to pay for their train tickets rather than them go by car.

My friend lost her sister in a car crash when she drove back to university and never got there, hence my fear. I realise the odds are small, but it explains my fear.

When I think about what a dreadful driver I was at that age.... :eek::eek::eek::eek:

So, I think you're entitled to your worries.

SingleSue

Pyxis wrote: »

Would you be able to do at least one dry run with him on the train? I know that will incur the not inconsiderable cost of the train tickets, though.

When I was a teenager, I found any travel to a strange place by train or bus was a source of anxiety if I were on my own. Trains were a bit better, as you knew what order the stations would come in, so you knew when to get off.

Buses were worse, because you didn't really know where the stops were, or whether they were request stops or stop stops.

The glory that is Google Earth today does allow any journey to actually be viewed for real before you do it! I can work out what the road lanes and junctions look like, whether they are one-way, where the carpark entrances are, etc.
If I were travelling by bus, I could even look to see where the bus stops are, and look for landmarks.

We've already been once to Lincoln and will be going again in February, we'll probably be going again for a meeting with their disability department. However, both routes are nice and easy on the train with no awkward or confusing connections and at stations he is familiar with from our normal travels.

He is much better on trains, he can get to the next big town on his own now by train, a bus is a different matter.

I use Google maps for pretty much the same reason, before Josh started at Northampton, I 'drove' the entire route a few times via Google maps so I knew what to expect on the real thing.

SingleSue

GDB2222 wrote: »

It's two or three hours to Lincoln, I guess. Can you manage that? Presumably, you have to return the same day?

And 90 mins more to York.

In a word? No.

It's over 3 hours to Lincoln; over 4 and a half for York and I wouldn't be able to drive either of them. I will be smiling nicely at a family friend and the one who helps out with James' drop off and pick ups.

GDB2222

SingleSue wrote: »

In a word? No.

It's over 3 hours to Lincoln; over 4 and a half for York and I wouldn't be able to drive either of them. I will be smiling nicely at a family friend and the one who helps out with James' drop off and pick ups.

If it's any consolation, I couldn't do it either. Certainly not both ways in one day.

LydiaJ

Pyxis wrote: »

Buses were worse, because you didn't really know where the stops were, or whether they were request stops or stop stops.
The glory that is Google Earth today does allow any journey to actually be viewed for real before you do it! I can work out what the road lanes and junctions look like, whether they are one-way, where the carpark entrances are, etc.
If I were travelling by bus, I could even look to see where the bus stops are, and look for landmarks.

Not quite the same situation, but this has made me realise what I could have done (if only I'd thought of it) on a bus earlier this term.

I usually drive to work and rarely catch buses anywhere. However, on this particular day my car was in for repair, and I was coming home from work on the bus. I knew where it left the centre of town, and I knew where the stop nearest my house is, and I was vaguely aware that it would wiggle about all over the place taking a rather indirect route to get there. I was doing something on my phone when I suddenly realised I hadn't the faintest idea where we were. The interior bus lights were all on, of course, and it was very dark and wet outside, and any attempt to look out of the window resulted in seeing not much beyond a reflection of myself and the other passengers. Fortunately I recognised a steep downhill and back up again bit as quite near my home, and was able to keep track of where we'd got to for the next couple of streets and get off at the right place. However, I now realise I could have asked the navigation app on my phone to show me where we were on the map, and known where we were even without looking out of the window at all. I'll have to remember that for next time.

LydiaJ

GDB2222 wrote: »

If it's any consolation, I couldn't do it either. Certainly not both ways in one day.

I used to think I couldn't drive for much more than an hour at a time. After that long, I'd get tired and tell LNE that it was his go. Then he left, and I found myself driving my kids from where we live (south of Birmingham but north of Bristol) to visit my friends in Midlothian. I found that when I had to, I could drive for very much longer than I'd thought I could when I had an alternative. I don't have Sue's joint condition, though, so I'm glad she's not planning to attempt it.

Pyxis

LydiaJ wrote: »

Not quite the same situation, but this has made me realise what I could have done (if only I'd thought of it) on a bus earlier this term.

I usually drive to work and rarely catch buses anywhere. However, on this particular day my car was in for repair, and I was coming home from work on the bus. I knew where it left the centre of town, and I knew where the stop nearest my house is, and I was vaguely aware that it would wiggle about all over the place taking a rather indirect route to get there. I was doing something on my phone when I suddenly realised I hadn't the faintest idea where we were. The interior bus lights were all on, of course, and it was very dark and wet outside, and any attempt to look out of the window resulted in seeing not much beyond a reflection of myself and the other passengers. Fortunately I recognised a steep downhill and back up again bit as quite near my home, and was able to keep track of where we'd got to for the next couple of streets and get off at the right place. However, I now realise I could have asked the navigation app on my phone to show me where we were on the map, and known where we were even without looking out of the window at all. I'll have to remember that for next time.

The other useful thing about modern buses is that a lot of them have that scrolling display of what the next stop is, etc.

However, to fully take advantage of that, you need to know roughly what the various stops are called.

PasturesNew

Silently, unnoticed .... quiche has died.

In the past you could always rely on a really good selection of super sounding quiches in supermarkets. When I buy them, I usually buy the basics range at £1.... but I used to look at the nicer sounding ones before I picked up the cheapest.

So I've got "quiche" on my pig-fest list .... and, at the "big shop" earlier, I even looked at some and couldn't see any "nice" ones, just regular flavours. Lots of them, in different sizes, but, essentially combinations of cheese, ham, onion, bacon in the main.

So I'm now looking on mysupermarket to see who has what - and, while there is a fairly large range of sizes/combinations, they do seem to mainly be "all the same".

So, I figure, maybe I should just drop it from the list. I won't starve without it, it's not a core essential to the week....

But I am disappointed at the lack of range that used to be available 5-10 years ago.

I could knock something up myself if I'm that bothered... but I'm not.

LydiaJ

Pyxis wrote: »

The other useful thing about modern buses is that a lot of them have that scrolling display of what the next stop is, etc.

However, to fully take advantage of that, you need to know roughly what the various stops are called.

In bigger cities, yes. Not out here in the sticks!

We do at least have bus stops with names on them, so that you can look at the stop you get on at, and be sure you know where to ask for a ticket to when you're coming home again. I remember years ago (1988 I think) spending my university summer holiday working in Grenoble, and coming across bus stops with names for the first time. It was so useful. I got a free bus map of the city, which was a properly proportioned street map, even though it only included streets with bus routes along them, and all the bus stop names were on the map. I caught the bus to work - it was quite a long way from the out of season uni hall of residence where I was staying - but the rest of the time I saved money by walking. I'd set off in vaguely the right direction, walk for a while, exploring back streets and little cut-throughs, and then get back onto a main street, find a bus stop and find its name on the map to work out where I was. All bus maps (at least the paper kind rather than the online sort) that I've ever seen in this country have been woefully inadequate by comparison.