Comments on: An ordinary job made extraordinary

By: yucca

yucca — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 22:27:55 +0000

it’s funny that you mentioned train staff and lollipop men in the same post. they have been to of my great fascinations. the first time i came to britain as a teenager, i decided that i wanted to be a lollipop man.

By: Phil A

Phil A — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:08:16 +0000

The first times I ever heard the term ‘Can’t be asked’, it was in that form and only in that form. Over the last few years it seems to have mutated into ‘Can’t be arsed’ for some reason.

Now the term ‘Can’t be asked’ suggests what it means ‘Don’t ask me to do that it is far too much bother’. Whereas ‘Can’t be arsed’ does not really make sense at all.

I presume it was miss heard and repeated until this alternative version is widespread.

By: doctorvee

doctorvee — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 20:34:23 +0000

I think it’s inner circle trains that stop at Haymarket, so luckily for me Kirkcaldy–Edinburgh is on the outer circle (think of it as though you are looking at the Fife Circle from the air — one of the lines is on the outside, and the other is on the inside. I think that’s how it works). But it’s only for the duration of this Waverley upgrade doo-dah.

The faster trains are the ones that go straight along the East Coast Main Line either coming from or going to Dundee, Perth, Aberdeen or Inverness. That’s another advantage of living in Kirkcaldy, since those trains don’t stop anywhere on the inland part of the loop.

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:55:27 +0000

It seems that its a matter of luck as to who the inspector on the train is and what sort of mood they’re in.. this morning was relatively hassle free for me, even though I got on at Queen Margaret and didn’t have a ticket. Sometimes though, you know before you’ve even got on that the guy is going to be a nightmare.
For a while I was wondering how the daytrippers couldn’t just get off at the next stop and turn back, then it dawned on me that if you get the Fife Circle via Kirkcaldy, some trains go to Edinburgh with relatively few stops, unlike the Dunfermline loop which always stops at every shed on the way to Edinburgh, regardless of whether anyone gets on or off..
On top of that, trains running through Dunfermline (not sure if thats the ‘outer’ circle?) always stop at Haymarket, and the same the other way, yet trains from/to Kirkcaldy go straight to Waverley, for some reason I haven’t yet found! Its enough to make you drive to Edinburgh. Or maybe not.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:09:43 +0000

Everyone was coming to Edinburgh so that they could clog up the streets and piss me off. August in Edinburgh and I’m ready to move back to Kirkcaldy for a month!

Also, not lollipop men now: SCPOs! Everyone’s an officer now! Part of my Dad’s job now involves bossing them around, and from the stories I’ve heard I’m not sure any of them should get honours!

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:30:29 +0000

Excellent post – your MBE should be in the bag after that!

By: Rhys

Rhys — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:53:59 +0000

Always makes me laugh getting the virgin train from Holyhead to London. It seems to me that when they hit Rhyl, they are instructed to say “Sunny Rhyl next stop!”