The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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Yorky said:
If I remember correctly when I was living in the UK, the numbers were odd to the left and even to the right commencing at the end of the street closest to the centre of the town/city/village.
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They are in my road too, @Yorky, if you look at it that way. It's a tiny L-shaped road, though. If it wasn't for the tiny back gardens, the odd numbered houses would be back-to-back houses. A few of the even numbered houses have no road access either.

Another estate near us is even worse with most of the houses built around patches of greenery and no road access to them at all. To make matters worse, they have now built more houses and bungalows on the patches of greenery, as part of the Council's obligation to provide more social housing. At one point, they started clearing a patch of land to build on, when it was pointed out to them by the residents that they had actually bought that patch of land off the Council to prevent this happening, and the land was privately owned.

My ex had a garage in his [old] back garden with access through back road where the Council-built garage block was, and he had all the necessary permissions to build and get access. The Council sold the garage block to private developers who built a load of houses there. His garage was marooned with no access at all.
 
Yorky said:
If I remember correctly when I was living in the UK, the numbers were odd to the left and even to the right commencing at the end of the street closest to the centre of the town/city/village.
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There's one or two round these parts that you walk down whilst walking up them.
 
morning glory said:
I applied on-line for a Senior Railcard and received it in the post next day.
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I've got an old codger's railcard called Club 50 that is issued by ScotRail. You're supposed to be able to validate it at one of the machines they have at every station, but it doesn't work. You just get an error message. These machines have been in place for over two years and cards still don't work on them. The only way you can prove you have a valid card is to go to the ScotRail website and print out the page that shows the card details. That means that you have to take this bit of paper with you on every train journey. It's fair to say I've seen better technology in Pictish caves.
 
morning glory said:
I applied on-line for a Senior Railcard and received it in the post next day.
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I've never bothered. In London, we do not need them on most train services and just use our Freedom Pass. The only place I would be tempted to travel to regularly would be my daughter's but as this means a trip to Kings Cross, a train to Peterborough, and then a train to her town which only has four trains a day (two in each direction) in rush hour, it's hardly worth the bother. Travelling by car is still cheaper and a lot quicker. When I needed to go to the Isle of Wight, I got an old grapper's return ticket on a coach for a tenner right to Ryde Pier, where I was met by car. On the way home, I travelled on one of the ex-London Underground trains for about £2. The coach journey was very quick. The only downside was that the one on the return trip did not get into London until about midnight, but my daughter and son-in-law already knew that and came to pick me up.
 
Elawin said:
The rail services on the Isle of Wight use old London Underground trains. They do funny things like wait at stations for the local bus to arrive (if it's late). The steam services are far too limited :laugh:
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Oh thanks for explaining. My very first holiday (I was just 15) was on the Isle of Wight. I went with my best friend and her Mum and Dad to a B&B in Ryde. I had my first kiss on the beach! I can still remember his name - Phil Holland. If you are out there somewhere Phil, then thank you!

Its funny really as I was born, grew up and lived in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight was but a short ferry ride away! Yet it seemed very exotic to me!
 
morning glory said:
Oh thanks for explaining. My very first holiday (I was just 15) was on the Isle of Wight. I went with my best friend and her Mum and Dad to a B&B in Ryde. I had my first kiss on the beach! I can still remember his name - Phil Holland. If you are out there somewhere Phil, then thank you!

Its funny really as I was born, grew up and lived in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight was but a short ferry ride away! Yet it seemed very exotic to me!
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The first time I went to the Isle of Wight was in 1954. We went by car to Lymington (my uncle took Mum, Dad and me) and then by ferry to Yarmouth, and other times by steam train to Lymington! The time I recalled in my previous post was by coach from London to Portsmouth, and then by catamaran to Ryde. It was quite an interesting crossing, although a little frightening. The first thing they told us before it sailed was that it was a very rough crossing and if we wanted we could use our tickets at another time! It crashed into the pier at Ryde, and the only way off was via the top deck. Even then it was tossing up and down. The trip home was a little more peaceful.....
 
Did anyone see the embarrassing balls-up made by Asda when they opened their first store on the Isle of Wight? They produced 10,000 bags printed like this:

bag.jpg
 
Elawin said:
The first time I went to the Isle of Wight was in 1954. We went by car to Lymington (my uncle took Mum, Dad and me) and then by ferry to Yarmouth, and other times by steam train to Lymington! The time I recalled in my previous post was by coach from London to Portsmouth, and then by catamaran to Ryde. It was quite an interesting crossing, although a little frightening. The first thing they told us before it sailed was that it was a very rough crossing and if we wanted we could use our tickets at another time! It crashed into the pier at Ryde, and the only way off was via the top deck. Even then it was tossing up and down. The trip home was a little more peaceful.....
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My one and only visit to the Isle of Wight does not invoke fond memories. This was during winter, and the whole place was closed down. We parked up in a deserted car park and went for a wonder round. With all the shops being closed and not even able to get a cup of tea we returned to the car only to find that we had a parking ticket. The ferry back was a bit hairy, the boat travelling pretty much sideways due to the stormy seas, and passing uncomfortably close to another ferry heading the opposite way. Not been back since.
 
epicuric said:
My one and only visit to the Isle of Wight does not invoke fond memories. This was during winter, and the whole place was closed down. We parked up in a deserted car park and went for a wonder round. With all the shops being closed and not even able to get a cup of tea we returned to the car only to find that we had a parking ticket. The ferry back was a bit hairy, the boat travelling pretty much sideways due to the stormy seas, and passing uncomfortably close to another ferry heading the opposite way. Not been back since.
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That crossing can be a bit daunting. It's years since I went there on holiday. More recent trips were to see my sister, who died a few months ago. I have in the last few days learned that one of my nieces has now moved into the house, so a few more trips may be forthcoming. It's an entirely different thing going there to see relatives, although I do miss being able to take my car because of the expense. The last time I actually went in the car in the early 1990s, there was a car park in Lymington where ticket holders could leave their car for free, but I expect these days they charge.

One of the things that tickled me about that visit was that we got the bus from Yarmouth to the village where my sister lived. As soon as we saw the village sign, we got up ready to get off the bus. The bus driver asked us what stop we wanted. We did not know. He asked for my sister's and her husband's names, and then shouted out "Does anyone know a Pat and Alf?", whereupon two people shouted out, yes they live in the high street, and the driver told us which stop we needed. One of the people then proceeded to give us directions to my sister's cottage. The other thing that tickled me was that the village church doubled up as the village post office during the week.
 
Duck59 said:
Did anyone see the embarrassing balls-up made by Asda when they opened their first store on the Isle of Wight? They produced 10,000 bags printed like this:
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Back in Chester many years ago, the council supplied plastic bin bags free of charge to the populous.and were considering having the bags printed with "NOT FOR HOT ASHES". One councilor pointed out that anyone stupid enough to put hot ashes into a plastic bin bag probably couldn't read anyway.
 
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