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Topic: Woe is me......  (Read 1139 times)

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Woe is me......
« on: November 30, 2017, 05:53:09 PM »
Tomorrow.......gasp.....I am having to resort to......gasp(again).....to taking a..... I can hardly say it.......a bus. I might not survive, so I will post my last time just in case. I hear there are cannibals in Leeds.....possibly even Tories. All this, just to get my biometric enrolment crap. I expect to be hassled by horrible people....I have been told that some of these people even "work". I can hardly believe it coming from Harrogate (land of the rich).....I'm sure it's only a myth. But....being a reader of fantasy......I will be ready for almost any harpy/troll/Sheffield supporter that I come across. My wife tells me I can't take my shotgun with me......even after 4 years in the US(and daily gunfire in the background)....hmmm......I'm just hoping I will survive with just Polo's in my pocket......I doubt it.
Fred


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2017, 12:46:44 PM »
I should have taken the bus in the first place. Easy......almost as fast as driving myself and didn't have to worry about parking. £12 return for both of us. They even have free wi-fi and power points on the bus. Now I just have to sit back and hope the biometrics actually gets to where it supposedly goes.
Fred


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2017, 01:08:35 PM »
I should have taken the bus in the first place. Easy......almost as fast as driving myself and didn't have to worry about parking. £12 return for both of us. They even have free wi-fi and power points on the bus. Now I just have to sit back and hope the biometrics actually gets to where it supposedly goes.

Yup, buses are underrated.  Usually quite a nice way to travel.


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2017, 04:30:59 PM »
I love the bus...DH (the Brit) doesn't.

But then again, when we drive, muggins here does the driving because my hair would be totally white if DH drove. Just the 8 miles from the hospital in Macclesfield to our house had me scared for a week, and I was still a bit groggy.....
Married December 1992 (my 'old flame' whom I first met in the mid-70s)
1st move to UK - 1993 (Letter of Consent granted at British Embassy in Washington DC)
ILR - 1994 (1 year later - no fee way back then!)
Back to US in 2000
Returned to UK July 2011 (Spousal Visa/KOL endorsement)
ILR - September 2011
Application for naturalization submitted July 2014
Approval received 15-10-14; ceremony scheduled for 10 November!
Passport arrived 25 November 2014. Finally done!


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #4 on: December 02, 2017, 04:45:23 PM »
I won't hesitate to take the #36 to Leeds.....if.....for some reason.....I become even more senile and want to run away from reality. Now that I've done it.....easy peasy. But.....WHY would I want to go to downtown Leeds?? Hell.....Harrogate drives me crazy enough. I can get a perfectly good Cadbury's Whole Nut from the Co-op nearby.
Fred


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2017, 06:57:29 PM »
We love buses. In 2011 we spent 7 months here without a car and got pretty expert at using the buses. We hiked a lot that year and the beauty of using buses was that we would buy a day ticket for £5 for a very large area and then jump on a bus to a place we wanted to start our hike, then catch buses back home from wherever we ended up.

A week ago we stayed with my wife’s sister for a few days in Balerno. Buses into the centre of Edinburgh take 30 minutes and run every 10 minutes during the week, every 12 minutes on Saturdays and 15 minutes on Sundays.  All for £1.60 each way or £4 for a day ticket.

Dual USC/UKC living in the UK since May 2016


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2017, 07:37:39 PM »
It was a matter of uncomfortableness for me. I hadn't taken a bus since 1981. Now that I've done it.....I'd do it again......if I had a reason to go to Leeds. Although......the ladies in the Post Office there were GREAT!! Friendly as hell....unlike Harrogate. When I told them I'd lived in the UK for 16+ years.....they started asking what the heck was going on(VERY friendly).....I told them I worked for the US Govt before retiring. A couple of them then started accusing me of working for Homeland Security.....or was I a spy etc. Hilarious. Boring ol' school teacher I said......that didn't slow them down.....they were going to have a good time no matter what.

The bus to Leeds runs every 10 minutes. Amazing.
« Last Edit: December 02, 2017, 07:38:43 PM by F4mandolin »
Fred


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2017, 09:19:16 PM »
I love the buses. When I was very young I lived in the NYC area and always rode the buses with my mom. (She, like many housewives of the era, did not drive or have a car to drive.) I started driving, myself, at age 16 and donated my last car to charity just before we arrived here. I do not miss driving at all. When I want to get a pizza for supper, I phone it in, go out to the corner and catch the bus, get off across from the pizza place, pick/pay, and then catch another bus down the block that lets me off on the same corner I left from.  I had been planning to do more exploring by bus, long distance, but I'm not doing as well with the cold as I'd hoped so I'm sticking close to home until the Spring. Then I'm off exploring (if I'm not working). Buses are great! ;D


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2017, 09:27:15 PM »
I suppose I was always comfortable with buses so had no novelty value to overcome. Growing up the family never had a car and for 4 years at uni no car either.

Our son arrived here end of September, has quickly learned the value of buses, and would much rather take a bus into the centre of Middlesbrough than drive the 10 miles in traffic and find a car park which will end up costing as much as his bus fare.

His accent is still a novelty and at work his colleagues can’t believe that he has swapped Houston for Guisborough, and now works in Thornaby. (South Stockton) He replies that his grandad’s grandad was born in South Stockton and his grandad’s grandad was born in Guisborough.
Dual USC/UKC living in the UK since May 2016


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2017, 09:58:10 PM »
Small town Washington state......no such thing as a bus when I was growing up. The Greyhound took people to "far away places" like Seattle and Portland. If you wanted to get anywhere.....you needed a car.
Fred


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #10 on: December 02, 2017, 11:46:14 PM »
That is how it was in Texas, too.  8)


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #11 on: December 03, 2017, 11:48:45 AM »
for almost any harpy/troll/Sheffield supporter

Blades, Owls or The Club?


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #12 on: December 03, 2017, 12:17:02 PM »
I'm not doing as well with the cold as I'd hoped so I'm sticking close to home until the Spring.

Oh no!   :-\\\\  I'm afraid to tell you this, but...it hasn't actually got properly cold yet...at least not as cold as it is likely to get. January & February can be pure bitter, and the last few years we've had snow in March.

So bundle up, be prepared, and count yourself lucky... I wish I had the option of staying home all cosy and comfy on a frigid day!  :)



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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #13 on: December 03, 2017, 02:48:23 PM »
Below zero (in the high 20Fs) isn't as cold as it gets? Ohhhh, walking to the bus stop at 10pm after work is going to be more challenging (but safer!) than I thought.   ::) ;D


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Re: Woe is me......
« Reply #14 on: December 03, 2017, 03:46:34 PM »
Below zero (in the high 20Fs) isn't as cold as it gets? Ohhhh, walking to the bus stop at 10pm after work is going to be more challenging (but safer!) than I thought.   ::) ;D

No, it can get colder than that occasionally.  When I lived in Partick, my old car had a thermometer and it was reading -2 or -3 at times.  I'm in Helensburgh now (about 25 miles away), and it's a bit colder here...sometimes -5 when I leave for work in the mornings.

You might want to get some of those Yak Trax things for your shoes.  I'm sure they saved my neck a few times having to walk down the hill to Dumbarton Road!


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