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Discussion in 'Plymouth' started by Plymborn, Jun 19, 2016.

  1. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    Red Arrows buzzing around...leaving red, blue and white trails behind them....to remind me that it's the Biggin Hill Festival of Flight this weekend, 18/19th of August.
     
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  2. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    I had wondered why Tom Daly didn't compete in the European Championship....it seems he was on maternity leave...:huh:.
     
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  3. AWAY IN BC

    AWAY IN BC Well-Known Member

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    Our Air Show featured the Blue Angles from the States We have the Canadian Snowbirds
     
    #1623
  4. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    I see that James Brent's surfing company Saltrock went into administration last week..... and was immediately bought by the Crew Clothing Co Group....the Plymouth and Exeter branches were closed straight away and the staff made redundant....quite a few others had closed in the past months as well....when down Bournemouth recently I noticed the branch in Poole had discounts on some goods of up to 70% off.
     
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  5. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    As you know I've just been away for the weekend. Did I have a good time? Well I'm glad you asked because the answer is definitely a big fat NO. It was a tail of cock ups all over the place. Part of the deal for this trip is a visit to France and Belgium. Nice day out across the channel being transported about....................what's to not like. Well we were due to go on Saturday morning and to make a full day of it over there we have to get up in the middle of the night so 5 am it was. Breakfast in the Hotel was at 6am and then off in the coach at 7am. Seems simple enough as Dover and the Ferry are only 20 minutes away. We got to Dover and went through the exit routine with Border Force and onto the check in for the ferry. The Coach having gone through the check in pulled over in a car park just beyond the barrier. Strange we thought as it has never done that before. The Driver come on to the tanoy with the news that the Hotel had given us the same reference number as the coach in front of us and they had used it. Therefore the number had been used so our booking was null and void. The driver said he was going to "sort it out" and duly disappeared from the coach. An hour later he returned with the news that we were not going but we could go to Canterbury instead. Never fear though we could do it all again the next day and this time we would get to the other side. Darn it people said as there wasn't exactly much else they could say. Most declined the Canterbury option so we were returned to the Hotel with the instruction to be up again the next morning at 5am and repeat the previous days itinerary.

    Now fortunately for us we bumped into somebody else who had been out with the Coach that day and were told the trip would take place but we wouldn't have to get on it until 10 30am. Had we not seen these people we would have gotten up at 5am and gone for breakfast to a restuarant room that would have been closed. All that aside we finally got on the coach and made it to France. A Benny Hill type dash saw us do all the things on the itinerary that we were supposed to and we were back at the Ferry Port in Calaise in good time to catch the ferry back we were meant to be booked on. Oh no we weren't. Instead of catching a ferry at 6. 30 we ended up on a boat at 9.30. Don't worry said the driver the Hotel would have a meal for us when we finally got back. So at 11. 30 pm we arrived back at the Hotel and were presented with........................a fecking Carvery meal. A bleddy roast diner at that time of night. It was either eat that or starve. The Ferry had no buffet area open so that was out so we could not have eaten in advance if we had wanted to. I ate what I could. Got to my room at around 12.30 am and couldn't sleep a wink when I got to bed. We came home today having got up at 6am to sort ourselves out before leaving. My restful weekend away gave me less sleep for the 3 night/4 days than I get in one day when I stay home. Basically I'm bleddy knackered.

    The Driver blamed the Hotel for cocking up the paperwork. The Hotel said it was not their fault it was P&O who cocked up the booking. P&O said it was one of the other but definitely not them. Clearly they were all innocent and it was us the customers fault for being stupid enough to book the trip in the first place. To add insult to injury we got stuck in traffic three times on the way home so were hours late arriving back in Plymouth.
     
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  6. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    What a pity sensible that you didn't take up the nice time offered in Canterbury....isn't that where PILGRIMS go.....<sorry>.
     
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  7. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    And well you might leave the building Mr Plym. I have been to Canterbury a load of times so this Pilgrim has done his stuff. A day out in France and Belgium is hardly worth something to give up for Canterbury.
     
    #1627
  8. notDistantGreen

    notDistantGreen Well-Known Member

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    I hope you maintained a cheery demeanour throughout Sensible.

    That will be nothing once the French border facistes have regained the sovereign right to be bloody awkward post Brexit. As I think I've said before, the one and only time I've had a sub-machine gun pointed at me was when I made the terrible error of trying to drive my car onto Le Shuttle without being unnecessarily delayed for long enough.
     
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  9. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    I'll have you know notdistant I was the life and soul of the coach party with my relentless wit and cheery disposition. I did nothing but smile and cheer up the weary. No more than you would expect from an Argyle fan. I will however be writing a huffy letter to those that should be aware.

    Have to say that this trip there was nothing much to moan about with either the French or Border Force. Strangely by coming through the Borders, I say in plural because of course you have to do it twice, at the eleventh hour literally nobody seemed to give a stuff what you had with you. The secret therefore is smuggle after 8pm and the chances of getting caught are less than zero.
     
    #1629
  10. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    We wonder why the roads get so crowded especially on Bank Holiday Weekends...is this why ?

    We're thinking of having a day down Broadstairs this coming Saturday (Mrs Plym's Birthday).....and we would use the train....not the dreadful two lane M2 that only takes you halfway anyway.....sorry I digress.....only one train an hour on the Bank Holiday Saturday.....fast forward to Saturday Sept 1st and there is three trains an hour...how ridiculous is that.
    We would go on a weekday but the 9.30 off-peak cheap fare would mean starting rather later and it would be getting on for mid-day time we arrived.
     
    #1630

  11. notDistantGreen

    notDistantGreen Well-Known Member

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    I don't know if you noticed, but during the competition, the rail companies were blaming the World Cup for travel disruption. That puzzled me. Surely more people than average would be staying home to watch the games, so fewer passengers. What else was there to link the two things?

    Turns out, drivers and staff are allowed to book days off in advance, which is fair enough for weddings etc etc. However, given this is a public service running to a strict schedule, you'd imagine there'd be rules about what kind of events would be considered and that it would then be on a first come, first served basis, with allowances for compassionate leave, subject to keeping the service running.

    But this is an ex-nationalised industry, in which little has been changed by privatisation, with public sector unions. There isn't a limit on how many can book days off so large contingents of drivers and others had booked days off to watch the football, hence no trains.

    So this is a Bank Holiday weekend, guess where all the drivers are.......
     
    #1631
  12. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    Train driver = in excess of £50k per year wages without overtime etc coming into play. I worked in the public sector for 30 years. Leave was subject to a list with the proviso that only 2 people could be off at one time. You started on the bottom of the list and rose a place each year so that eventually if you stayed long enough you would have first choice. You could not take all of your leave in one hit i.e. in the summer months. You did not get paid overtime you got TOIL or time off in lieu. You could only accumulate up to 8 hours in a month and only take one day off in lieu subject to staffing levels. I wrote off months and months of time over the years which I had no chance of taking. I was however still expected to work on over and over. I'm an ex serviceman. You always worked and did what you had to do so I was used to it anyway. My next door neighbour is a train driver. He has a minimum of 3 foreign holidays a year and receives a minimum of 4 parcels or deliveries every week. He throws out better stuff than a lot have to live with and changes furnishings and stuff regularly. Some weeks he hardly even goes to work.
     
    #1632
  13. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    Bet he's not working Bank Holiday Saturday.
     
    #1633
  14. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    Only for double time.
     
    #1634
  15. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    Cancelled this trip....weather forecast said it would be cloudy with maybe the odd shower and a lack of sun....but the main reason we didn't go was the poor level of trains on what could have been a crowded bank holiday Saturday....plus the temperature being down to 60F.
    When I went out at just before 7AM the temperature read 46F in the car.....my little knees didn't enjoy me wearing shorts....now a month ago...phew.
     
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  16. hp_bedoboy

    hp_bedoboy Active Member

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    Weather going crazy....decided to have 3 days in Gozo this week and pissed down for those 3 days!
     
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  17. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    It's been peeing down all day here. God is crying which shows he really is a green at heart.
     
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  18. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    Same here.
     
    #1638
  19. Plymborn

    Plymborn Well-Known Member
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    Did anyone watch 'Our Everest Challenge with Ben Fogle and Victoria Pendleton' last night (Thurs 30th)....I've liked Fogle ever since 20 years ago he did that year on that Scottish Island community experiment.
    Enjoyed watching it....but certain things grabbed my attention....for instance...they were all struggling with the altitude and the struggle to put one foot in front of the other....EXCEPT...the cameraman...who would film them from behind...and then beside them and then a 100 yards in front of them.....and as they struggled in their tents at the end of a days climbing....who the hell was he...Superman....or a well trained Yeti....the man was everywhere...didn't he ever feel under the pressures of the altitude climbing...didn't seem so.
    So Victoria Pendleton had to give up when severe altitude sickness threatened her health...emotional scenes of her giving up....Cameraman working away as if he was some god like being seemingly uneffected...eventually she got lifted off the mountain by helicopter....how many others over the years have had to struggle down on foot.
    But the thing that really left me gob-smacked was after Ben Fogle had completed his altitude training and was about to set off with his mentor Kenton Cool....who had down a dozen successful ascents (the most by any European).....they start to climb and they get held up by the QUEUE of climbers already started before them for well over an hour....Super Cameraman pans out a shot ahead of them of a stream of climbers queuing in front of them at least a 100 climbers disappearing into the distant....wow what happened there ?.....did they oversleep and were they late to the toilet block and then at the back of the queue for breakfast ?
    What also grabbed me was everything was like a conveyor belt....rope hand rails everywhere to help them....aluminium ladders in place for getting over crevices and drops....who the hell climbed up the mountain to this altitude carrying a twenty foot damn ladder to start with ?

    Final pictures of a drained,exhausted and highly emotional Fogle shuffling the last few steps to the summit and phoning his wife telling her it was the most amazing thing he had ever done....MEANWHILE in the background you could see a trail of climbers coming up behind him....and none of them looked like death warmed up...and they were stepping out seemingly easily up towards the summit....then you wondered what happened when each climber arrived at the top.....did it look more like Oxford Street on the Saturday before Christmas, crowds of people everywhere trying to pick their way through the throngs of people.....what did they all do when they reached the top....throw themselves off the otherside to make room for the next summit arrivers....no pictures of people squeezing past each other on the way up or down and saying...'no no please after you.....waiting on each ladder section for the ladder to be free so you could use it next.

    AND DON'T FORGET SUPER CAMERAMAN HAD LEAPT AHEAD OF YOU TO FILM EACH MOMENT OF YOUR HARD CLIMB TO THE SUMMIT.....and what was super cameraman standing on whilst Fogle stood on the highest point on earth....was he hovering maybe.

    OK I might be taking the mick a little....but when ever we see someone lost in the desert...fighting their way through the jungle....or on the verge of drowning in the ocean....THERE IS ALWAY A CAMERAMAN TO TAKE PICTURES.....ARE THEY SOME KIND OF SUPER RACE OF BEINGS.
     
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  20. sensiblegreeny

    sensiblegreeny Well-Known Member
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    No just spiteful gits who are like Jonah and always around when a disaster beckons. My theory is they throw people into the sea and film them either drowning or being rescued. The answer is never venture into danger if there is somebody with a camera anywhere around.
     
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