|
jacksbrat posted:
The country is quite lovely, it's just the people are poo poo
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2022 22:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 04:05 |
|
|
Personally I'm a big fan of forests and perpetually sad that this island is no longer mostly temperate rainforest. I think it would be lovely.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2022 22:55
|
|
|
Reflood the Fens imo. Now you could do it as a phased ecological development over several decades, or you could wait 5 years until all that land is institutional landlords and agribusiness and then go full Fen Tigers on the levees and pumps, and we need to be prepared to have a grownup cost-benefit discussion of the pros and cons of either option.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2022 23:06
|
|
|
More tempting to secretly re-plumb the pumps so they just pump the same water in a circle, and then see how long it takes to figure out why the fens are underwater.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2022 23:10
|
|
|
 Like that big pump near twisto that circles all the dock water around while being disguised as an online business school.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2022 23:24
|
|
|
Mourning Due posted:Seeing this gave me a thought: No, they'll just say that the Ukrainians are legal immigrants. It's only illegal immigrants who get shipped off to Africa.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2022 23:47
|
|
|
Guavanaut posted:Reflood the Fens imo. As a Fenland resident of 10 years this year, I find the whole history and geography of the place really interesting. The idea of the pre-draining Fens just fascinated me - a strange semi-independent region of England that's nominally owned by a bunch of aristocrats and bishops but largely left alone because it's mostly impassable malarial swamp, but dotted with 'island' cathedral cities in between shallow meres and reed beds, inland ports on the bigger river courses and wandering networks of rivers, dykes, drains and creeks with some semi-abandoned Roman and medieval canals. A weird semi-rural Venice. Acres of alluvial marsh which disappears under floodwater in the cold part of the year but is fine pastoral grazing in the warmer bits, with the fringes stringed with parishes which are very narrow but very very long, fanning out from the fens like the sectors of a dartboard, so each village has summer grazing and growing lands on the lower parts and permanent pasture on the higher bits. The draining is a really interesting tale of civil engineering, as well as a tragic tale of environmental destruction and proto-genocide for the profit of private corporations. plus all the Fen Tigers and Powte's Complaint stuff. It's a strange artificial and relatively modern landscape, like some bit of the American Midwest plonked into East Anglia with straight roads, lines of wonky telegraph poles, grain elevators and hamlets with oddly un-English names derived from the size of the nearest drain, the daughter of a Georgian draining engineer, the power of the local pumping engine or some long-vanished landscape feature now buried under black soil.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 00:00
|
|
|
The right to roam is one of the things I miss most about the UK. It doesn't exist in Australia so everyone walks the dogs and jogs along the main road and it is weird.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 00:22
|
|
|
Wanted to watch "The Commons" on my roku but had to sign up to STV Player first. To do that you have to provide a Scottish postcode so I randomly googled and it satisfied them.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 00:48
|
|
|
I remember being astounded years ago when I had to get a bus from Chester into Wales to go to the dentist and the Arriva bus had wifi, really nice comfy seats and didn't smell of pee and desperation. Having lived in London for a decade I'd become convinced that it was the only place with good public transport, and that it was also terrible. I'm still entirely unconvinced I need a car due to the insane costs. Once I start spending 4k a year on Uber I'll start thinking about it, but it seems to me that a car is just going to let me go out and spend MORE money.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 03:28
|
|
|
Hey if you get a car then you stop using public transport because you're already paying for the car and the more you use the car the more worth you're getting out of the insurance and MOT!
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 03:29
|
|
|
Yeah see that's the kind of poo poo where I'm entirely unconvinced. Not to mention everyone having half their lives consumed by parking! I do feel loving guilty that all our friends are constantly offering us lifts everywhere, we try to pay for petrol and they're always like "nooooo" so we just sneakily make them food all the time.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 03:38
|
|
|
If you can get by without one it definitely is the better choice, I need it for work but if I didn't then I wouldn't have one, it's handy sometimes to be able to get places that are awkward on the bus, and to move stuff around occasionally, but using the bus is much more relaxing and also you don't have to worry about the car when you are where you are going, no parking as you say, no ticket timers, nothing, helps a lot to focus on where you are.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 03:47
|
|
|
Cars are the natural enemy of the Londoner and can be a powerful ally to the simple country folk outside zone 6... but that power comes at great cost.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 08:35
|
|
|
Tomberforce posted:The right to roam is one of the things I miss most about the UK. It doesn't exist in Australia so everyone walks the dogs and jogs along the main road and it is weird. That's only Scotland sadly, England and Wales have no right to roam. It does have lots of historic trails and footpaths although they are slowly being lost, stealthily reclaimed by private owners. We have until 2026 to mark them officially or they're gone for good. https://dontloseyourway.ramblers.org.uk/guides/submission-guide https://youtu.be/3dYc0Ouxhx0 Mebh posted:Yeah see that's the kind of poo poo where I'm entirely unconvinced. Not to mention everyone having half their lives consumed by parking! Maybe if you live in a major city, but anywhere else a car is much faster. It takes me 30 minutes to get to my parents by car, by public transport that's 2 buses and a train, so about 3/4 times that. I'm currently thinking about getting rid of mine, I now work from home and having two cars is a bit of a waste but unlike other goons I just find public transport slow and annoying, so even though I probably get in my car once a week at this point I'm struggling to get rid of it. Mega Comrade fucked around with this message at 09:47 on Apr 17, 2022 |
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 09:33
|
|
|
The pandemic highlighted the value of a private car over public transport - not having to mix with all the other plague havers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 09:54
|
|
|
I drive a car to work because there's no bus line and I live rurally and my work place is even more so. But it's basically 25km of straight mostly empty road and where I live & work I don't have to worry about parking or parking fees or stuff like that, hell I don't even lock the car... So I don't really have an antagonistic view towards cars, their main issue for me is they cost a lot of money. It sure is more stressful driving in a city though.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 09:56
|
|
|
Jaeluni Asjil posted:Wanted to watch "The Commons" on my roku but had to sign up to STV Player first. Reminds me of times past when US websites needed a zip code to access, so I would use the most commonly known zip code, 90210.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 09:57
|
|
|
Mega Comrade posted:That's only Scotland sadly, England and Wales have no right to roam. Yes we do. Nowhere near enough, obviously. https://www.gov.uk/right-of-way-open-access-land/use-your-right-to-roam
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 10:00
|
|
|
Is so little it might as well not exist though If we adopted Scotlands model it would open up thousands of acres to public access. Mega Comrade fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Apr 17, 2022 |
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 10:06
|
|
|
Cars are bad but I have to drive one, as I have to work in the lead mine for tour guiding stuff. Didn't help that yesterday after a lovely day out I had to go onto a dual carriage way and had a bloke on a bike cut very close to me. I had checked and rechecked the road but it's left me pretty shaken up and angry at myself for not seeing him.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 10:19
|
|
|
I cycle everywhere and enjoy the moral high horse that doing so grants me
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 10:48
|
|
|
kecske posted:I cycle everywhere and enjoy the moral high horse that doing so grants me Valid tbf. I just wish there was a separate system like the c2c in the North so folks can get everywhere by bike without ever needing to be near cars. I am very aware I drive a thing that can kill people and I hate it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 10:49
|
|
|
I don't trust myself driving a car ever. It's not a fear, I just know my attention span will let me down and I don't want that to be when a cat/dog/person is going underneath.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 10:51
|
|
|
you could kill someone with a bag of nuts.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 10:51
|
|
|
I can cycle into and out of Manchester pretty safely and my workplace has secure cycle facilities, but after 8pm or on weekends I'd have to lock up in town somewhere and lol, you might as well just accept you're losing a wheel as some kind of bike tax. I might have to look into one of those folding bikes I can carry with me.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 10:54
|
|
|
NotJustANumber99 posted:you could kill someone with a bag of nuts. Yes, but not that many people die every year to nuts. Whereas far too many die to cars.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 10:57
|
|
|
Josef bugman posted:Yes, but not that many people die every year to nuts. Whereas far too many die to cars. But cars are much more useful than nuts. So death versus utility I reckon theyre about level.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 11:00
|
|
|
NotJustANumber99 posted:you could kill someone with a bag of nuts. True. Brother is highly alergic to nuts, so we have to watch everything we eat. And Dry Roasted > Salted.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 11:07
|
|
|
NotJustANumber99 posted:But cars are much more useful than nuts. So death versus utility I reckon theyre about level. You’ve clearly never seen me drive Or how I use nuts 
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 11:10
|
|
|
No nuts here, just birds chirping. I was sitting at the firepit behind my shed and started recording, it has a kinda ASMR vibe. Finally the snow is starting to yield and spring is here for real. My shed survived the winter too, now I need to work on getting it some panelling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiQkWWLRC2U
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 11:11
|
|
|
NotJustANumber99 posted:But cars are much more useful than nuts. So death versus utility I reckon theyre about level. Disagree, cars suck, nuts are a good source of protein.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 11:12
|
|
|
forkboy84 posted:Disagree, cars suck, nuts are a good source of protein. But cars are a great source of iron and magnesium
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 11:17
|
|
|
What about truck nuts
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 11:19
|
|
|
deadly
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 11:19
|
|
|
NotJustANumber99 posted:But cars are much more useful than nuts. So death versus utility I reckon theyre about level.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 11:52
|
|
|
i like the right to roam people with their colourful anoraks and very narrowly-focused yet fearsome anti-establishment views
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 12:15
|
|
|
I live in zone 2 and during the pandemic without a car I felt pretty trapped. However during normal times it takes longer to drive out to places in outer boroughs than it does to get a tube there. Unless you live in south london in which case rip.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 12:30
|
|
|
Ravel posted:I live in zone 2 and during the pandemic without a car I felt pretty trapped. I live 15 miles from a town that the bus takes nearly an hour to travel. Still don't need a car baybay
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 13:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 04:05 |
|
|
Sorry for the stupid huge post, this kinda got out of hand... Cars are super useful i get that. Especially if you commute. What I'm taking about is all the other uses. Right now our best friends are in Barnsley, and we're east of Sheffield. So it's 1.5 hours on public transport or a 30 min drive to go hang out. We have a Costco about 10m drive away that obviously you need a car for, to bring back all the random oversized blocks of cheese you end up buying there. There's various nice stores about 15 to 20 mins drive around Sheff like a huge Asian supermarket to the south or various cheap places to get house stuff. I'd love to start doing driving trips with the wife to show her random parts of the UK I went to as a kid as well. She worked on Dark Age of Camelot so all the landmarks from Tintagel to Stonehenge to Hadrian's wall. All of this needs a car... But I'm still unconvinced a car is necessary until i have to commute. It's stupidly hard to work this out from calculators so if anyone could help... Small car fuel cost would be like £2k a year (est 10k miles) £500 / year for insurance £150 per month (£1800/y), to pay off the price of a small 2nd hand automatic Road tax, £200? Maintenance and servicing? Around £1300 per year on average. So total "budget" for public transport and taxis etc per year is £5800 not counting random parking costs everywhere. Not to mention learning to drive one off cost of about £1400 or insuring my partner. Trip to our friends is £60 return in a taxi at peak. Say we do that monthly is £720. Say every other week we go somewhere in Sheff to get food that is near, and taxi every other week for docs/hospital etc. That's £26 return at peak every week for £1352 a year. Say add 50% more for random trips etc. £2028 That still leaves us £3052 per year for random train trips to go see poo poo. Not as handy as just driving to a nice landmark but still. Not even considering most couples i know have a car each so double all those costs. Am I absolutely crazy? Or is a car only needed if you can't live without it. Eg kids or daily commute? There's no way it's more economical if you live near a city and can call a cab. Even if i got a taxi at peak to and from work every single day with 255 working days a year that's £18 x255 = £4590. Which is mad. There's car pool options everywhere to reduce that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2022 13:26
|
|