NWR Silly Little Things That Annoy You

Joel Hopwood said:
When did it become normal for every single travelling member of the public to eat continuously on trains. Doesn't matter the time of day, could be 6 in the morning, could be 10am, seems 8 out of every 10 people need to eat breakfast/lunch NOW.

Never mind quiet coaches, can we have non-eating coaches please. Tea/coffee allowed.

And I agree with you Tom that every single service seems full all of the time now. I suppose we have 15m more people than we did when I was a kid and same number of railway tracks.
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I really notice that when I come back to the UK and cannot understand why it is allowed at all. Not just the action but the litter, smell and so on too.

No food or drink allowed on the MRT/BTS in Bangkok and it's all the better for it.
 
Back on the annoying drivers theme -

1) Drivers who stick at 45mph when the national speed limit is in force. They then continue at 45mph when entering a 30mph zone.

2) Drivers who insist on choosing the parking space right next to you even though there are hundreds of empty spaces available. This happened to me a few years ago on the French side of the Eurotunnel car park. There must be about 1000 spaces there. It seemed like only about 100 were occupied, and, as I don't like having my car dented by careless drivers/passengers I park well away from the other vehicles. This time I came out of the terminal building to discover a Bulgarian campervan parked so close to me I could barely open my door. :mad:
 
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Eating in public really is something (as per comments above) I really dont understand. Even at my common-as-muck school in Lincolnshire when I was young I remember the headteacher saying in assembly "I never want to see you walking and eating at the same time - it is vile - it is common - it is vulgar".

I was 8. It must have been a powerful message.

In terms of the worse offender - I recall being on a train at London Bridge - it was packed - and a man got on - standing - and opened up a Katsu curry and proceeded to slurp away at it (noisy eating as well), shovelling it into his face. Myself and everyone around him just grimmaced. One guy did step in - "Mate, you're making me feel sick"

Reminds me of this:

 
Thom Blach said:
Vastly fewer services on many of those same tracks might have something to do with it too.
I agree entirely about eating on trains-bring back the dining car and forbid it elsewhere.
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Not so sure about that (on the services I use at least). There are 4 trains an hour, all day, between Manchester and London for instance. There was never anything like that 20 or 30 years ago. Most lines in the SE of England seem to be running at pretty much full capacity too. I was looking at an old timetable for Chislehurst from the early 80s - the first train was around 7am! It's 4:05am now. I'm sure I remember reading somewhere there was a proposal from BR to close Cannon St station at 7:30pm in the early 80s!

Of course the Big Bang deregulation of the City changed all that for good.

But yes - let's bring back the dining car. Surely one of the most civilised ways to travel, and to have lunch or dinner.
 
Joel Hopwood said:
But yes - let's bring back the dining car. Surely one of the most civilised ways to travel, and to have lunch or dinner.
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I used to take advantage of the dining cars when available - one additional advantage of the dining car was that (on the service I was using, at any rate) seats were the size of first class seats but you only needed a second class ticket, so for the price of the meal you had a bonus upgrade.
I can’t remember which programme it was but something I saw recently had a clip of a BR restaurant car from the 60s or 70s, which reminded me how old-fashioned it felt - stewards wearing white bumfreezer jackets doing silver service; on one occasion I was served wine in a glass branded LNER, which of course had disappeared in 1947.
Theses days I do unfortunately have to eat on trains occasionally, but the idea of having more than a sandwich or sausage roll makes me feel uncomfortable - certainly not a curry!
 
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On the subject of public transport, a luxury available to us Londoners, why do young professionals in particular think it is beneath them to hold on to a handrail? On a bus/tube run into town this morning, three separate instances of folk going arse over tip because they thought inertia, gravity etc didn't apply to them and then the driver applied the brake.
 
Departing on a trip and realising half way to the airport that I left the book I was reading (and enjoying) at home. I had been anticipating the pleasure of (mostly) uninterrupted reading of the book for long periods in the air.

But also possibly something for the alter ego “enjoyment” thread, I found an interesting-sounding book at the airport and now I am looking forward to that (I was dreading the selection at the airport) . . .
 
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Russ Sainty said:
My apple movement app tells me that yesterday I -
“Rocked my move ring”
What the f@@k does that mean?
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Yes, and I think there was someone else earlier in this post who said that a load of apps are infantile in their interaction with users. I've got an app that is useful but has fkn small animals, and stars and explosions....

And constant "That was AWESOME" , "WOW - well done"

I'm on the verge on uninstalling the app despite it being useful.
 
Charles Muttar said:
As I approached the escalator up from the Tube at King's Cross, wheeling my smallest cabin-bag sized suitcase, a disembodied voice said "Luggage? It's safer to take the lift!"
I wonder how much it cost them to install the necessary cameras, loudspeakers etc...
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I have to navigate that every trip back. It's not lift it is multiple lifts up and down usually all with queues!
 
There are however places where I find the lift can be quicker than walking to the escalator and then a long walk back at the top…
On the subject of underground annoyances - when I was approaching the single wide gate with a load of luggage, the person in front of me who stopped at the point where she was blocking access to the gate and then proceeded to spend time fishing in her pockets for a phone - which then required significant time to find the appropriate app…
 
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