grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 PC: 1 Breakfast: as pictured Mode of transport 1: @Cluffy's BMW coop Shite Ron, privatewire, AnnoyingPentium and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundwave Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 Chodspeed! grogee and Low Horatio gearbox 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 Parting wishes from Mrs Grogee: "Have fun on your stupid journey to get your stupid old car" Love you too honeybunch Tenmil Socket, sporty-shite, Cluffy and 10 others 2 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saabnut Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 400 mile round trip? Just a local collection then! Good luck and enjoy! grogee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 Mode 1 successfully completed. Mode 2: on foot to Leamington Spa station. This part of Leam (first pic) is a cluster fuck of traffic lights and yellow box junctions, I let @Cluffy off doing that shiz and walked instead. 50 minutes to kill before train to Motor City, where I'll "de-train" and find a wheeled contrivance to Newcastle. PC: unchanged Drinks: one espresso before I left, might grab another Conditions: warm, cloudy, muggy CreepingJesus, Shite Ron, Low Horatio gearbox and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 I keep reading in the news about people being pissed off about diesel at £2/litre. Yet they can't get enough of caffeinated warm milk at £15.50/litre. (Estimated 200ml @ £3.10) Fabergé Greggs, Dan_ZTT, RoverFolkUs and 4 others 2 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundwave Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 Ah, good old Leamington Spa. Very London-like architecture in places despite being 100 miles away from it. Seems to switch from ridiculously upscale to absolute shithole from one street to the next - it's like Tower Hamlets and Kensington had a baby. grogee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 Mode 3: Sports train to Birmingham New Street. It's a big train but for some reason we were all shepherded to sit in the front coaches. Maybe it's one of those trains that splits into two; that would be exciting. Dyslexic Viking and Shite Ron 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 31 minutes ago, Soundwave said: Ah, good old Leamington Spa. Very London-like architecture in places despite being 100 miles away from it. Seems to switch from ridiculously upscale to absolute shithole from one street to the next - it's like Tower Hamlets and Kensington had a baby. The nice bits have the Bath-like limestone architecture and as towns go it can be quite picturesque. The rotten bits (Lillington, Sydenham) are rough but residents of Toxteth and Cheetham Hill would laugh in the face of its roughness. The most confusing bit for me is where Leamington ends and Warwick begins - they've both spilled over into each other so it's difficult to be aware of any boundary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 I used Split Ticket for this train journey, which ended up being £50 or so. It's confusing as fuck and relies on all the trains behaving themselves and 'dovetailing' reliably; the chances of this diminish exponentially with every connection. It's also bananas that to get the best value out of our privatised rail system, an AI algorithm 'games' the system to find the cheapest journey. Utterly bonkers, but to be fair the petrol to get back from Sunderland is going to cost significantly more than £50. mk2_craig, Low Horatio gearbox, Dan_ZTT and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 Mode 4, Train #2 - indistinguishable from the previous train. I'm probably sitting in someone's reserved seat, but then someone's probably sitting in mine. I've got an hour and a half on this one so might have a nap. Despite the heatwave I brought an emergency jumper in case of over-zealous air con. Glad I did as this one feels chilly and it's not even departed New Street yet. Dyslexic Viking, Low Horatio gearbox and CaptainBoom 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairnet Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 2 hours ago, grogee said: PC: 1 Breakfast: as pictured Mode of transport 1: @Cluffy's BMW coop dunno about pc are you not well ? eek grogee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 2 minutes ago, hairnet said: are you not well? Clearly not; I'm travelling halfway across the kingdom to collect a 34-year old rustbucket. Twiggy, Dyslexic Viking, Saabnut and 1 other 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 My train is vibrating its way North and I have FOUR separate tickets to cover my stay. I am looking forward to the guard telling me this "isn't allowed" or some such BS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairnet Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 thats not ill thats insane spesh if its british or french 400 miles tho will you be falling off the end? rustbucket - @beko1987 is walking distance for those - why travel grogee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gadgetgricey Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 23 minutes ago, grogee said: I am looking forward to the guard telling me this "isn't allowed" or some such BS. It'll be fine. Did exactly the same when travelling from Birmingham to Plymouth. Same train, same seat, just four tickets for the same journey. Was also worried re conductor but just checked and clipped them all. grogee and mk2_craig 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 23 minutes ago, hairnet said: thats not ill thats insane spesh if its british or french 400 miles tho will you be falling off the end? rustbucket - @beko1987 is walking distance for those - why travel I've reached Derby where people have started to talk proper Northern. On the platform here is a skinny teen wearing black jeans, Converse and long hair. I think he is me from 1993. The collection 'victim' is neither British nor French, but other guesses are welcomed. I can tell you it has five forward speeds in Spanish waiter configuration. Low Horatio gearbox, CaptainBoom, Shite Ron and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gm Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 which app / site did you use for ticket splitting ? i’m potentially looking for a similar bunch of tickets for this weekend safe travels grogee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gadgetgricey Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 4 minutes ago, gm said: which app / site did you use for ticket splitting ? i’m potentially looking for a similar bunch of tickets for this weekend safe travels I always used https://www.splitticketing.com/ but just to get the actual costs and train times. Then https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ to buy the suggested tickets as above. Its a little bit cheaper per ticket and you can get a few more options re seat. (Has been a while though, so this may have changed) gm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabergé Greggs Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 15 minutes ago, gm said: which app / site did you use for ticket splitting ? i’m potentially looking for a similar bunch of tickets for this weekend safe travels If you book through trainline it automatically splits your tickets these days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 19 minutes ago, gm said: which app / site did you use for ticket splitting ? i’m potentially looking for a similar bunch of tickets for this weekend safe travels As GG says, the split ticket one. It worked out considerably cheaper than Trainline, so I'm not sure that's true Fabergé Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 Train rant: it's quiet, comfortable (too cold in fact, but I'd prefer that to no A/C) and so far on time. But the WiFi is total garbage. I know this isn't the train's fault. There are lots of people on board. But we are supposed to be a developed nation and our cross-country data service is shocking. Trains are supposed to be places that people can work while they travel. Not at 300kbps they can't. The problem is our privatised networks. Rail will point at phone companies and say it's their fault. Phone companies point at government and say they don't have enough incentive to provide coverage. Government points at business and says 'be competitive'. Business sacks workers to stay profitable in a recession, and takes short-term decisions to protect shareholders. I could, of course, use my own data service. But between Birmingham and now Sheffield I've had zero signal (Vodafone). Dan_ZTT, CreepingJesus and Low Horatio gearbox 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundwave Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 50 minutes ago, grogee said: The collection 'victim' is neither British nor French, but other guesses are welcomed. Ooh, I know! I know! But I won't spoil it for everyone else. grogee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 The air is thin; the accents impenetrable. It must surely be the case that there are dragons this far North. I've had a cup of tea and a KitKat to settle my nerves. PC: Still one, but I had a wee on the train. Twiggy, 320touring, AnnoyingPentium and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 Piece of shit train got cancelled. Luckily this is the last hop so I'm nearly there. Am going to brave the Metro instead. I hope it's as good* as its Austin Rover namesake. I am using the time for a tactical refuel Low Horatio gearbox and AnnoyingPentium 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazoli Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 Is it a floppytop Saab? Nope just realised you are too far north for that one grogee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.E Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 1 hour ago, grogee said: Whoever made that sign couldn't be arsed to center a four letter word? grogee and CreepingJesus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocket88 Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 Or centre it…. grogee 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieman Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 It will have had a now-defunct rail company logo on the end which has been painted over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundwave Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 It's actually an extremely low-budget advert for Yorkie bars. So low budget, the last two letters were only held on with spit instead of glue. Rocket88 and CreepingJesus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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