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1788725564 If your financiers find out that this guy's involved, the venture is pretty much doomed from the start...

I could supply the enigmatic landlord with a mysterious past (Foreign Legion) from within the ranks of my own family. Though come to think of it, there was not really anything enigmatic about how he ended up, more inevitability...

Pubs, caffs and similar establishments refusing to accept cash. An increasing number in Central London, plus the horrible Gail's chain throughout the country.

I spent a week posting a food diary on ChatGPT. Its verdict was that my diet was pretty healthy, but it expressed surprise that I ate so much offal for someone in the 21st Century. Pigs' liver in Tesco is pretty cheap, though lambs' is quite expensive. I actually prefer pigs' liver - it fries...

Must have been multi-hour delays during the Blitz in World War 2.

There really needs to be a ban on this sort of plant being allowed to operate adjacent to busy rail routes. Not the first time it's happened.

I travelled the route yesterday morning (down direction) and back in the afternoon (up direction). Didn't notice anything untoward.

A guy called Christopher Portway travelled that and other routes in the early 1970s, when it was presumably more doable from a physical and geopolitical point of view - Corner Seat and Double Circuit. Long out of print but might still be available if you search online.

Also in Turkey there is or was the line eastwards from Lake Van to the Iranian border. It made connection with the Iranian railway network but was isolated from the rest of the Turkish network, except by train ferry across the lake.

Across the water, what about Belfast Grand Central to Botanic? Goggle maps gives walking distance between the two as 0.6 miles while the train takes a longer route via City Hospital and takes 6 minutes. 0.6 miles in six minutes ought to be do-able (not by me, though...)

For around a year in the early 1970s, the railways on the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon) were isolated from the rest of the network following the Britannia Bridge fire. Most of the rolling stock trapped on the island was shipped over to the mainland (I think via Barrow in Furness) but they retained...

They could in theory take trucks up to a certain size, though not 40-tonners. I believe they were used a bit by fast parcels carriers, but not to any great extent.

That Izal toilet paper was pretty bracing too, wasn't it?

I purposely bought a very compact laptop primarily so that I could work on seat-back tables if I really have to; the problem is that the keys are very small for my pudgy fingers. Yes, I agree that a mix of tables and airline style seating is an idea. In my experience, the Azumas have a fair...

I'm self-employed so the only person I can threaten with Health & Safety is myself...

Yes, smoking's an interesting one. Back in the day when it was still allowed, I'd happily sit getting gently kippered in the smoker if it meant getting a window seat, and I remember long coach and frequent bus journeys inhaling clouds of secondhand smoke. But nowadays, I get twitchy even if...

Not long distance trains, surely? I would have thought being able to work or at least do some activity on the train is a primary motivator; pretty much everybody on the services I was on was typing away on a laptop or tablet. (One was even writing something on a sheet of paper.) Being able to...

Back in the 1970s, on long distance routes we had Mark 2 carriages with generally comfy seats, often windows you could open, a decent size guards van for bikes and large luggage. Sure, services weren't generally as fast and frequent as they are now (at least in theory) but generally only by an...

Maybe it's just old age and grumpiness, but I'm finding it harder and harder to get useful work done on long distance trains these days. Firstly, the lack of tables in standard class on many trains. It is really hit and miss whether you get a proper table these days - I can remember a time when...