So I spent yesterday evening and a portion of today travelling from near to Brighton to Holyhead in a HDJ81 manual I bought.
It was my first trip to England since the 90's excluding a couple of stags that were fly in/fly out and can't really remember anything jobs
I did notice a few things though, some that have changed, some haven't!!
(1) British Rail or whatever it goes by nowadays has got shinier but its DAMN expensive.
(2) Is there a road, main/motorway/green lane even that isn't undergoing some form of road works ANYWHERE, if there is I couldn't find it.
(3) English people are still very friendly and helpful, more so than the Irish in my opinion, especially in shops/restaurants etc
(4) The roads are very busy, even at night. And why do so many people drive those ridiculous little match box cars that would fit in the boot of a Volvo.
(5) I thought health and safety had reached a new level of pathetic in Ireland, England is in a different league. I nearly went deaf listening to safety announcements in about 5 languages and I nearly fell over all the bloody signs/warnings/coloured tape/cones/safety officers. I was even stuck on the train platform with a gaggle of 'safety specialists', well that's what their matching coats had on them.
(6) This one might be a little contentious so make what you want of it......... I've thought that over the past 15 years or so that the abundance of 'other ethnic groups' in English tv/media was some kind of awful political correctness thing. I also thought a lot of foreigners had moved to Ireland.
I was wrong on both counts, I even stayed in a kind of pub/hotel thing in the middle of nowhere in a tiny village in Buckinghamshire that was run entirely by foreigners.
Please don't read anything unpleasant into this comment, its purely an observation much as other people have observed in trip reports that a certain town may be unpleasant for example. Remember its nearly 16 years since I last was really in the UK mainland so this is a 'trip report' for me.
(7) Little Chef is still stuck in the 1950's. But didn't I sit through some awful tv show where Hester what's his face 'revolutionised' their menu?? Or was that something else??
Its still a massive improvement on McDonalds though!
There you go, most peoples 'own country' on here summarised as a short trip report. Wonder what you think?
It was my first trip to England since the 90's excluding a couple of stags that were fly in/fly out and can't really remember anything jobs
I did notice a few things though, some that have changed, some haven't!!
(1) British Rail or whatever it goes by nowadays has got shinier but its DAMN expensive.
(2) Is there a road, main/motorway/green lane even that isn't undergoing some form of road works ANYWHERE
, if there is I couldn't find it. (3) English people are still very friendly and helpful, more so than the Irish in my opinion, especially in shops/restaurants etc
(4) The roads are very busy, even at night. And why do so many people drive those ridiculous little match box cars that would fit in the boot of a Volvo.
(5) I thought health and safety had reached a new level of pathetic in Ireland, England is in a different league. I nearly went deaf listening to safety announcements in about 5 languages and I nearly fell over all the bloody signs/warnings/coloured tape/cones/safety officers. I was even stuck on the train platform with a gaggle of 'safety specialists', well that's what their matching coats had on them.
(6) This one might be a little contentious so make what you want of it......... I've thought that over the past 15 years or so that the abundance of 'other ethnic groups' in English tv/media was some kind of awful political correctness thing. I also thought a lot of foreigners had moved to Ireland.
I was wrong on both counts, I even stayed in a kind of pub/hotel thing in the middle of nowhere in a tiny village in Buckinghamshire that was run entirely by foreigners.
Please don't read anything unpleasant into this comment, its purely an observation much as other people have observed in trip reports that a certain town may be unpleasant for example. Remember its nearly 16 years since I last was really in the UK mainland so this is a 'trip report' for me.
(7) Little Chef is still stuck in the 1950's. But didn't I sit through some awful tv show where Hester what's his face 'revolutionised' their menu?? Or was that something else??
Its still a massive improvement on McDonalds though!
There you go, most peoples 'own country' on here summarised as a short trip report. Wonder what you think?
We need some decent pics now from you and regular updates.
