indiepanda

I think it's not just relative cost that makes people fly rather than get the train. I've been to Edinburgh a few times, by train and by plane for both work and seeing friends. If you book early enough the train is cheaper. However, I've been up there for work, and to be there for a 9am start on a Monday is impossible by train unless you want to travel up on the Sunday (which frankly I resent), and that then means paying for a hotel for a night, cancelling out savings. And, having travelled by train the last time I went up to see a friend, it took me something like 9 hours to get home because of all the engineering works on a Sunday. If I'd travelled by plane, I could have had an extra half day to enjoy with my friends, instead of having to lug bags from train to coach back to train etc etc. I value my time more than the difference in price, so it's awfully tempting to fly if it cuts the time in half or better. I suspect part of the problem with flying is that we don't pay the externalities that our travel imposes on the world - if we did it would be a lot less affordable, and trains would probably seem more appealing (not sure how much pollution they cause too mind you). If trains are remotely comparible on total journey time (i.e. allowing for all the check in and waiting about nonsense) you get via plane, there is really no comparison, I'd pick trains everytime. Well, provided they aren't so crowded I have to stand that is....

giggirl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'm sorry. You're doing the right thing by > staying at home. Cure yourself and don't pass it > on. Ah, no need to apologize. I don't need to be so grumpy about it. Could just look upon it as a nice excuse to laze around reading books etc. Maybe if I tell myself enough today I am positive I will feel better tomorrow it will start to shift???

HonaloochieB Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sorry to go off topic slightly, but I've just > heard that Murder One the crime book shop in > Charing Cross Rd is closing after 21 years. Anyone > else as heartsick as me? > There's a possibility that two of the staaff will > be running an on-line store. > But still, my trips up to the heart of London's > busy West End won't be quite the same. Oh no, that's the best place to get crime fiction ever. Could always get things in there you'd never find in waterstones, borders etc. Mind you, I guess it's people like me who use Amazon a lot who are part of their downfall. I always used to come back with bulging carrier bagfuls when I lived outside of London, but these days I do the majority of my book and CD shopping on line so I've been there less since I moved here than I did when I lived outside.

giggirl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Why can't the forumites posting on this thread > just read the HOW TO START EACH DAY WITH A > POSITIVE OUTLOOK thread? Would that not do the > trick? If I thought that would cure my cold I'd be doing it straight away, but I've a feeling it wouldn't! Despite being bored as hell at home, I actually think I am doing something positive in not dragging myself into work and making myself sick for longer, which is what I usually do - playing the martyr.

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Henry iv part ii for A level!!!.....now that is a > crime. I know, he was practically rubbing his hands together with glee when he was telling us it was one of the least frequently performed Shakespeare plays. I think he really wanted to put us off literature. I remember at school they always used to tell us to pick the subject not the teacher, and he was the perfect illustration why that was complete b******s. I don't really know why the college didn't sack him - he was quite obviously an alcoholic and we could tell he was drinking during college hours - could smell the drink on him, and on our essays when he handed them back.

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Indie, I can't agree - the Miller's Tale is > vulgar, but class, easily the best tale....the > prologue and the Millers tale is class the rest is > rank.. > > "Whereuopon quids let flee a farte" I never got into reading the others so I'll take you word for it. I just know our teacher chose it because he thought it would embarass the girls in front of the guys rather than for any literary merit. I don't really remember much about it other than him leaving us to read THAT passage (in that original old english) and being amused as we all gradually worked out what it meant.

I did that Congreve play too... awful stuff. Cuckold is a man whose wife is cheating on him and he doesn't know it.... hmm yes wikipedia agrees - was originally re a man raising another man's child - like cuckoos leaving their eggs in other birds nests.

I've been home sick with the cold / cough thing I had the whole time over Christmas, seems to have come back with a vengance. Been feeling knackered, like someone has taken my batteries out, but when I try to sleep lying down just sets off a coughing fit, having to sleep on a pile of pillows 3 high and even that barely works. Being ill makes me grumpy at the best of times, but I'm meant to be off on holiday skiing this weekend and I am quite cross I've wasted my money when at this rate I'll be too tired to enjoy it. Still, it could be worse, I am not mega busy at work this week so I don't have to stress about it piling up in my absence.

I know what Cassius means, I have to admit A level English Lit really put me off reading "proper" books. My GCSE teacher was brilliant, but my A level teacher was a mysogenist who delighted in trying to choose things he thought the girls in the class wouldn't like (not paranoia on my part, he openly admitted that when he picked Catch 22, which I didn't exactly hate, but it wasn't the kind of thing I was expecting to study when I chose to do it) For our Shakespeare he made us do Henry IV part II, which I understand is one of the least performed of his plays, and it was pretty obvious why. And Chaucer, I think he chose one of the most vulgar ones - the Miller's Tale. Oh and then for poetry, The Wasteland by T S Eliott, which from recollection if you didn't know Dante's Inferno, The Koran and The Bible inside out you wouldn't get most of the allusions he makes. I have always loved reading, but I barely touched novels for nearly a year after A levels - got back into it when someone at university got me into reading Daphne Du Maurier. Since then I can't say I have really read any classics other than re-reading all of Jane Austen a couple of times. Probably like her because my great GCSE teacher did Pride and Prejudice with us - plus they are pretty light reading compared to most classics.

Silva Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > just a quick question in-between your ? quite > interesting ? discussion about who and what is > nice. Can you please tell me when and where the > next EDF drink-thingy is? Can everyone join? TX > Sil Usually first Friday of each month from about 8pm, all welcome. Look out for a thread appearing in the Lounge section as a sticky with details of where it is going to be in Feb.

Whether Harry Potter is plaguarism on a grand scale or not, I think JK Rowling deserves a lot of credit for her work, seems to have made reading cool again for children who might otherwise have prefered computer games. I've read and enjoyed them - to be honest they remind me Enid Blyton's boarding school books as much as anything else, though I can see the parallels with LOTR too. Mind you, it has to be said, my reading tastes are not overly sophisticated. Most classics leave me cold.. I feel like I "should" read them, rather than want to, and as a result don't generally bother!

SeanMacGabhann Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As for the ladies who have posted details of their dates .. I've met some of you and can't believe some of the things those guys did. Is that commonplace??? I wouldn't say common place - I've had some perfectly nice, if uneventful dates as well as some odder ones. Oh, there was the guy who insisted on telling me on our first date that he wouldn't be able to give me kids because he had a vasectomy after his first one. And then the guy who asked me to go on holiday with him over the starter the night of our first date... And the one who asked me about why I wasn't married ("I can't believe no one has ever asked you") and whether I wanted kids over the pre dinner drink on the first date... All a bit heavy for a first date in my mind! I think overall I've had a few more odd ones than normal ones, though most of them haven't been unpleasant like the drink driver, just a bit too keen or intense for me. Still, none of them were as unpleasant as my ex was and somehow I managed to spend 18 months with him (though to give me some credit and be fair to him, he wasn't nasty all the time)

louisiana Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > One of my funniest was the guy who turned up two > hours late (cafe meet) - I had by that stage given > up on him - and then berated me for having had a > glass of wine or two during that two hours. No > apology for actually turning up waay beyond time. > (We'd never met before.) > > Then there was the one whose very first utterance > was to attack the colour combination of bag and > shoes I had that day. (Yes, he actually used the > word 'clashing'.) Yes, it was also a first > meeting. > > I mean, if that's how they start out, what kind of > hell are they going to be in three years' time, I > ask myself. > > The great thing about internet dating is that you > can be systematically ruthless. Those ones definitely sound not worth second meetings. I'm impressed you stuck around for 2 hours, I wouldn't have given someone that long. If you are going to be that late surely you just phone and reschedule??

> Miles Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > Costume dramas never really interest me, but Atonement was very good. Yes, it was. James McAvoy is a very good actor, not good looking in the classic sense but there's something about him that's very compelling.

Miles Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Costume dramas never really interest me, but Atonement was very good. hmmm, maybe I'll get round to watching that this afternoon (am home sick and decidedly bored. honestly, I'd rather be at work!!!)

louisiana Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > And don't let me start on the online dating sites populated by men looking for women 30 years younger. Who all themselves look like the proverbial cat-hedge-wise, and twenty years older that their stated age in real life, and suffering from severe personality problems invariably. Lol, I did dabble with internet dating and did get the odd man who completely ignored the age range I had put on my profile, but I didn't get any that were 30 years older, 20 maybe and that was creepy enough. To be fair, the guys I went out with were all quite normal, just not for me. All nice looking enough, but no feeling of mutual chemistry, conversation a bit hard to get going. Maybe I was expecting too much for a first meeting... Oh actually, there was one awful one. He lived in London and said he never used public transport which I thought was odd, so I asked what he did when he went out. He said he "knew his limits" when going out and would only have 4 pints or one bottle of wine before driving home. Now that was definitely a deal breaker!

party

Miles Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Being a real man, I have no idea what a male > version of Bridget Jones, or more Sex and the City > might involve never having watched them :)) Fair comment... I'm not sure I've ever met a straight man who liked Sex and the City, or seen Bridget Jones without being dragged to the cinema by their girlfriend. Bridget Jones is basically an updated version of Pride and Prejudice.... but then maybe it's only us girls that watched that too ...*drifts off into dreams of Colin Firth*... (I should add I loved the book long before the BBC adaptation)

Miles Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I was joking with another forumite that I might > start a blog about my love life, it's usually a > good read. So would we be talking a male version of Bridget Jones, or more Sex and the City?? All these promises of single men at the next drinks, I'm disappointed I can't make them!

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think that one of the good things about getting > old is realising that there isn't a sudden > 'Euraka' moment when you've sussed 'it', know your > destiny etc.....as the older ones have said I > don't think you ever get the answer.....generally > sometimes thing happen 'cos you've thought them > out and planned them but generally things/life > unfolds as you go along...and that's quite fun. So > chill..... > > PS I loved my 30s I couldn't agree more. I wouldn't have guessed you had left your thirties behind mind you (assuming that is the implication of "loved"!)

Miles Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Having told my mates of my experience, there are 4 > or more than want to come along to the next drinks > and maybe the curry club, a couple use the forum > and a couple dont. More new meat for you all :) Ah, but are they nice looking? ;-) ....(sorry, only joking... couldn't resist) Glad you enjoyed yourself anyway. Other drinks haven't always been at places as noisy as that, though last time I came (to Hoopers) we moved onto the EDT afterwards which made the Phoenix seem almost civilised in its volume. Ouch, and now I sound like an old woman...

Keef Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I know you are the resident Mr Reasonable of the > forum really. > > Og God, that may as well read "You are Mr boring" > :-$ Sorry, that definately wasn't the way I meant it, you just come across as a chilled out and thoughtful sort of guy.

I think it's pretty normal juding by conversations among me and my thirty something friends. It's certainly something I have experienced. I've got a pretty decent job, but I still sometimes look in the mirror and feel like the women in the suit I see gazing back is a kid dressing up in the clothes of a smart professional and wonder if I am going to get caught out! And I suspect you'll find some of those twenty somethings will experience doubt the older they get. I'm sure its easier to be enthuisiatic about chosen career in first few years - after 15 it may not seem such a great choice, especially if things haven't gone as well as they might have hoped. I suspect deep down most of us have doubts about some aspects of our lives, but perhaps it's the confidence that comes with getting older that allows us to admit it? I think I seemed more confident about what I was doing / where I was going when I was in my early 20s than I am now in my mid 30s. Yet at the same time, I am more confident in myself as a person now. I certainly wouldn't have had the balls to turn up on my own to forum drinks then. And with that confidence comes the ability to admit I am not sure exactly what I want to do with the rest of my life and that I think some of my past choices weren't the wisest, without feeling the need to beat myself up for it. In many ways I quite like the lack of certainty, more open to different experiences, more fun in seeing how it unfolds.

SteveT Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Perhaps they should both have some space and a > rethink, > > although the potential 'divorce move' seeems to > have arrived a tad early, > > compared to most relationships I've known. Sad but I guess it's much better to not go through with the wedding than make a terrible mistake. Though I would have thought a proper heart to heart conversation was more useful than just "space". Without each other explaining how they really feel and what their intentions were, it so easy to end up completely misinterpreting each others actions, and then getting upset by the meaning each have placed on them. If having had a proper talk about it, there's uncertainty about whether to carry on, then take the space then to think about it.

So sorry to hear about your mum, what a horrible experience for her not to mention scary for you too. Glad to hear she survived the experience and that you are feeling better now.