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‘An extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.’ I don’t know about a phobia, but I really don’t like snakes. If one comes on a nature documentary I have to force myself to watch. The college where I work has a small animal unit: when it opened I thought I would overcome it by...

My friend is planning a visit to London from Leeds over the Xmas/New Year period, and he asked me if there would be any engineering works. Since these things have to be planned months in advance, I assumed it would be an easy thing to find out. A lot of burrowing on LNER’s website suggests there...

This follows an extraneous discussion on the supermarket thread. https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/supermarkets-discussion.241821/page-44 What unusual things have you eaten abroad, or indeed in the UK? What were they like? What things were commonly eaten when you were younger but aren’t...

I have never liked snakes. In fact I have to avoid them if I see them. I have no idea why. I recently posted on the international thread: I remember going to Andorra during an Interrail month in 1980. That involved some remarkable timetable convolutions on the Little Yellow Train and a coach...

A notice at Sheffield states that the MML is flooded at Draycott between Derby and Long Eaton. Passengers for London are advised to travel via Doncaster, and passengers for Leicester via Nottingham.

At Sheffield EMR are advising London passengers to go via Doncaster. As the line between Sheffield and Doncaster is also blocked, passengers must take the X78 service bus…so well done to First for putting a duplicate on for the nearly full bus I’m on.

I am sure we have all come across examples of things that annoy us through bad design that make them irritating or impractical. And we think, well, didn’t they test them? Or what did they think would happen? Some examples: - those stainless steel teapots that always dribble - beef burgers that...

Trains had planned diversions today, and were being directed through Lincoln. However, it seems a train has broken down on this line, and there has been a separate incident at Northallerton. I arrived a Doncaster at 1730 to a packed platform 3B. Announcements were made that passengers for...

I have tried the search function to see if there is a thread on this, and I am very surprised I can’t find one. Probably within five minutes, somebody will, in which case, mods, feel free to delete or merge. I have no doubt we have all seen pictures of individual cases of bad design, like a...

I held an off-peak Sheffield (SHF) to Stalybridge (SYB) day return on Wednesday. I took the 1014 to Manchester and arrived in good time for the 1158 TPE to Huddersfield. When we were sat on it waiting to depart, it was announced that it was cancelled, and that a replacement bus would be...

Hi. I have a Senior Railcard, and also a South Yorkshire Travelmaster Plus weekly ticket. I wonder what the cheapest way of doing this journey is. Things that are confusing me are many, and I honestly think the best thing is to ask you experts for advice about the cheapest journey, rather than...

I’ve been looking at the Elon Musk thread and been informed there are a lot of ‘bots’ probably doing votes for what he wants. I heard Russian ‘bots’ probably determined Brexit, Trump’s victory, and lord knows what else. Kids at college tell me that they can recognise ’bots’ on either the...

Older members may remember this comedy programme about a bus driver played by Reg Varney, and this quote just brought it to mind: All I can really remember was that the buses were green and the imaginary place it was set was called ‘Luxton’. Of course there was an evil inspector called ‘Blakey’...

One for us older members (I’m 62). Are there any things that you tell your grandchildren; or students if you are a teacher; or things you can imagine, that they really can’t believe. My students can’t believe that firstly, I only had one bath a week, and the cleansing agent was Fairy Liquid...

With the introduction of Schengen, and possibly before that, many border stations now haven't any function. Yesterday I went to Erquelinnes, the Belgian town on the border with France (Jeumont on the other side). It looked like it was once a really busy place, but now it is a mess of disused...

Now is the winter of our discontent…Shakespeare Apparently, in the winter of 78-79, it was awful. Strikes all over the place, rubbish in the streets, bodies waiting to be buried and so on. The Prime Minister Jim Callaghan went to some (probably justifiable) conference in tropical climes, and on...

mods note - split from this thread. Slightly OT, but do you know if YouTube ads are targeted to your viewing preferences, or the advertisers’ perceived perceptions of who is watching? So, for example, if I usually watch restoration channels and get many ads for tools and buildings, if I just...

I know that we have a lot of members on here who are over 60, and many even older, though they don’t explicitly say so. I’ll say now that I’m 61 and still working. I was just looking at King Charles. He’s in his seventies. This must be the most stressful week of his life, and he seems to be...

I have just put a load of damp clothes, fresh from the washing machine, on a clothes horse in my well-insulated room and shut the door and window, at 2200. Should I expect to feel warmer, colder or just the same during the night? I know we have some forum members with excellent scientific...

I’m in Barcelona and just fancied a beer in my room at 2335. Despite many all-night supermarkets, I found out that they are not allowed to sell alcohol after 2300. Of course, I could go to a bar and drink all night if it were open. I do realise that this was the situation in the UK till about...