Hobby

Good, that's exactly what I've had, A-Z for the first ones and just had a Pfizer booster!

You could argue the same for MPs I think!

After having seen a major accident involving an HGV pushing an Audi A3 hard into the central barrier at speed on a French motorway and seeing the guy get out alive and uninjured (and furious!) I'm quite happy with the safety features on modern cars, thanks! Had he been in any car from the 80s and earlier he wouldn't have been so lucky. (Oh and please don't give me the "he should have been driving to avoid it" excuse either, he couldn't have.)

No. It can go either way, so you can't make such a statement as fact. Past experience of viruses has been that it's the other way, they've mutated into relatively harmless variants and/or humans have developed resistance, otherwise we'd have been wiped out by now. But at the end of the day we simply don't know which way it's going to go.

With regard to this: "The first thing is should we worry about the higher level of infections over the past few days?" He does point out that it's best to look at the overall trend, not the day to day figures, and they show, to quote him: "infection rates have bobbled along, small rises being followed by similar drops." It's been going on long enough (since July) to show a good trend, and that has been that it's been pretty stable.

Should have added, all the more reason for them to be paid by results... I wonder what the leagues would look like if they were!!

Trainline are our nemesis, whenever people use it they seem to take ages to get it up on the screen, that's if they can find them, none of the other (mainly TOC apps) have the same issues. I've spoken to many people who avoid it like the plague!

They can vary, but I've never seen a two foot step, I'd say that was far too much! I'd either halve it (one step, 12") or do 8/9" ones (i.e. two steps), personally I'd go with the latter.

I've seen some real cheapos over the past few weeks when checking them, so the answer is a definite Yes, though as Woodenhead said there may not be as many issued.

I tend to agree with br2975, in these sorts of circumstances (which seem to becoming more and more common) I feel that the players usually have a lot more to answer for than the management and owners, the power they wield is enormous. Ole isn't the first to suffer from player power, nor will he be the last.

We're actually still quite low compared to many European countries for home ownership... https://www.statista.com/statistics/246355/home-ownership-rate-in-europe/ I don't know about the "backgrounds" of MPs in other countries, but I'd be surprised if they were much different to the UK.

They are good for a laugh, though!

Well he's been sacked, wonder who's next for the poisoned chalice? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54826343

I'm not sure its still the case, but I believe that Chiltern built the station and charge other users for using it, so LM don't use it and I can only ever remember stopping there once with an XC train and that was to help out Chiltern who were having issues! Don't think we were charged!!

I can't wear a mask, Andy, hence I wear the lanyard. I took a view on that train, it was fine 'til we arrived at DON and I'd have missed two connecting trains had I got off, with no guarantee that the next would be any different and I'd have ended up in the rush hour in Brum. So I took the risk for a twenty minute journey.

Most people on the train in the "North" where I was on Friday didn't wear masks either... It's not compulsory.

Now you'll just have to wait to see how you got on! Rather like my trip out on Friday to look at a car, 4 3/4 hrs by train and bus each way (and a wasted journey!), all was OK until Doncaster to Sheffield where the 158 was packed and I mistimed things on the final leg as I joined the school special where the train gets packed out at Hagley with kids... I'm now waiting to see if I've got the damned virus or not...

You make it sound as if it's just the British that behave like that, but the rest of the West is just the same. And when the "masses" see the results of the alternative, where it often starts with best intentions but then goes horribly wrong, they tend to think that perhaps the current alternative is better for them to keep the status quo, warts and all...

I guess we are heading for another "glass half full" vs "glass half empty" discussion!!

Really? That's not what I'm seeing, certainly in the UK which is what you are talking of I assume?

How many people actually travel to London and actually need to save themselves a few minutes, though? I suspect it will make very little difference to the majority. Then there's travelling time to the HS station which we discussed many moons ago, for many people in Birmingham and surrounds it'd still be quicker to catch either Avanti or Chiltern rather than spend time getting from where they live to the HS station so a saving of 20 minutes is easily eaten up by the extra time spent getting to the HS station. Perhaps with Bradford that may not be the case but then I'd refer you to my first para. I agree with many of the others who feel that improvements to the existing network in the area which would benefit far more people is more important than pandering for those few (in comparison) who need to go to London. Especially when such improvements will also benefit journey times.

The point I was making is that MPs from the other countries can influence (and have, I think) Covid decisions which affect just England, in the last parliament the SNP were very active in English only matters even though they represented no-one from that country. It's something that was supposed to have been sorted several years ago, but hasn't, and it really p's me off that it hasn't been! On a separate note I see that Austria has complete lockdown... The way things are going our railway trip to Slovakia next year could also be in jeopardy... What the heck is going on over there?! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59343650

Barrels and old tractor tyres would work well... Gismorail summed it up best for me But it seems one rule for one... And not for anyone else... No wonder Toto made some very sarcastic comments.

Erm, actually three? England doesn't have it's own government as Welsh, Scottish and NI MPs can still vote on any matters relating purely to England... The West Lothian Question!

We had a similar story with Sammy, a black and white three legged moggy we brought down to Kiddy from Edinburgh. We bought a Dawncraft 30 centre cockpit cruiser and used to take him with us. He had no issues getting on and off the boat and we used to leave a window slightly open so he could come and go as he pleased. One night we stayed over at a marina on the Staffs and Worcs and next day no sign of him. A search by everyone still couldn't find him and we had to move on, luckily we were only two days from home and on the way back and when we arrived home we got a phone call from the marina to say he's come back, they recon he'd been spooked by a dog. I went up in the car to get him and he carried on for several years after, at one point my kids believed that all cats only had three legs!! Another funny tail concerned our house move. When we lived in Edinburgh it was in an upper flat so he was used to going up and down the stairs to get to "home", when we moved down here we bought a three bed semi and when he first came into the house he ran upstairs thinking that's where the lounge and kitchen (food!) were, took a day or so for him to come to terms with all the extra room and an extra floor! He used to come down the stairs with the back foot just hopping down, so funny, but no video phones around then, unfortunately!