Road Rant

[otherclive]

Oban

Don’t give in so early, make them sweat, or at least use Google lens. We’ve had some nice stays in the nearby commercial site on the waterfront that has a CMHC area.

 

[Dustydog]

Oban

Easy man! You only gave us 3 minutes to answer. 🙀.

First went there in 1974 using my old Austin A35 van and a tent.

MCCaig’s Tower and Battery Hill always struck me as strange thing to have in such a location. But great views across the sea from the top.

The train journey return from Oban to Tyndrum Lower is a must is staying at Oban.

And on the Scottish thing. My family roots and name are Scottish as is my Marriage Certificate 👍

I can also recommend a guided tour at his place

 

[Buckman]

I was in Scotland 12 days ago, lovely, really lovely, but I could not stick the weather or midges, those you can keep.

Devon for me every day of the week, my wife thinks the same…………She is Scottish!

We visited Scotland in May 2015 and have no inclination to visit again. Beautiful scenery, terrible food and weather.

 

[otherclive]

We visited Scotland in May 2015 and have no inclination to visit again. Beautiful scenery, terrible food and weather.

How can you say the food is terrible, have you never eaten Scotch Pie or deep fried Mars Bar? Two culinary gems. Seriously though we have had some really great meals out when visiting Scotland. So I guess like many areas it’s all dependent on where you go.

 

[Dustydog]

We visited Scotland in May 2015 and have no inclination to visit again. Beautiful scenery, terrible food and weather.

Very unlucky. The fresh sea foods on the west highland coast are legendary . Scallops, Langoustines, salmon plus the best beef

 

[Buckman]

How can you say the food is terrible, have you never eaten Scotch Pie or deep fried Mars Bar? Two culinary gems. Seriously though we have had some really great meals out when visiting Scotland. So I guess like many areas it’s all dependent on where you go.

We ate out a couple of times and at restaurants that had above average reviews. At one restaurant, my burger was raw on one side. OH's meal was okay. On another occasion, my meal was okay, but part of OH's meal was frozen solid! We are very wary of sending stuff back to the kitchen so paid for meals and left.

Another occasion in Oban, I ordered scallops and salad which came in a big bowl filled with rocket leaves which I detest. It had two or maybe three pieces of tomato and a grand total of three scallops. This was supposed to be a main meal and I paid the price for a main meal!

 

[borderbilly]

We ate out a couple of times and at restaurants that had above average reviews. At one restaurant, my burger was raw on one side. OH's meal was okay. On another occasion, my meal was okay, but part of OH's meal was frozen solid! We are very wary of sending stuff back to the kitchen so paid for meals and left.

Another occasion in Oban, I ordered scallops and salad which came in a big bowl filled with rocket leaves which I detest. It had two or maybe three pieces of tomato and a grand total of three scallops. This was supposed to be a main meal and I paid the price for a main meal!

Ha ha, we know how to fleece the Englanders.

 

[Buckman]

Ha ha, we know how to fleece the Englanders.

Very true, but I am not an Englander. LOL!

 

[Devonisheaven]

Ha ha, we know how to fleece the Englanders.

Ha, ha……He’s not English! 😂🤣🤣😂

 

[Devonisheaven]

Seriously though, I think we would all agree, driving around these islands is certainly no fun anymore……Sadly.

It was certainly no fun traveling from Aberdeen to S Devon a couple of weeks ago, and it’s now going to get worse!

 

[borderbilly]

Seriously though, I think we would all agree, driving around these islands is certainly no fun anymore……Sadly.

It was certainly no fun traveling from Aberdeen to S Devon a couple of weeks ago, and it’s now going to get worse!

Very true, the roads are jam packed. When I was young, I'd walk down my street and at nearly every house was a car parked, now the same street has 3 or 4 cars jam packed at each house.

 

[Hutch]

Very true, the roads are jam packed. When I was young, I'd walk down my street and at nearly every house was a car parked, now the same street has 3 or 4 cars jam packed at each house.

In our Cul de Sac of 30 houses, every house has a garage, but there is only two homes that put their cars in the garage.
The local. Council tried to stop partial parking on the pavements, until it was pointed out that if it was stopped then Emergency vehicles might not get down some of the roads.

 

[Sam Vimes]

We visited Scotland in May 2015 and have no inclination to visit again. Beautiful scenery, terrible food and weather.

You could draw the same conclusion about anywhere based on a one time visit at the wrong time.

We have amazing weather - sometimes - just like anywhere else.

Within walking distance of where I live we have a Michelin Star Restaurant that serves amazing food if you have deep pockets. Also we have a pub that locals avoid because you need deep pockets and poor taste buds. We have amazing coffee shops in the next village and poor ones in the main town.

Fantastic scenery which is now over run by tick box tourists and we no longer visit.

Midgies are not a real problem most of the time in our area as they need just the right conditions of temperature and no wind before they'll swarm. Unlike the tourists who now swarm most of the year regardless of weather.

 

[Buckman]

You could draw the same conclusion about anywhere based on a one time visit at the wrong time.

We have amazing weather - sometimes - just like anywhere else.

Within walking distance of where I live we have a Michelin Star Restaurant that serves amazing food if you have deep pockets. Also we have a pub that locals avoid because you need deep pockets and poor taste buds. We have amazing coffee shops in the next village and poor ones in the main town.

Fantastic scenery which is now over run by tick box tourists and we no longer visit.

Midgies are not a real problem most of the time in our area as they need just the right conditions of temperature and no wind before they'll swarm. Unlike the tourists who now swarm most of the year regardless of weather.

Being very negative, we visited a Michelin star restaurant in France for our wedding anniversary also in 2015 and were quite disappointed.

Nothing wrong with the quality of the food when you could find it, but the portions were very small taking into consideration the price you paid. I have had bigger starters than the main meal dished up to us. By the time we got back to the caravan we were starving. LOL!

The view from the restaurant was across the harbour so quite pleasant so made up for the lack of a meal.

 

[Devonisheaven]

I luckily worked in the Shetlands and Unst for several months, rugged but beautiful. If you like fiddle music, Blazing fiddles, who come from Lerwick tour the UK. Fantastic.,

SORRY….Fred Rift is back!

The Douglas Inn (Marlex) Lerwick, back end of last month. Great fun.

 

[woodsieboy]

Going back to the original post, we send a van on deliveries every Friday, the roads are so bad we have started counting the number of temporary traffic lights and road closures, the record is 48!in one day.
The knock on is the time lost waiting in traffic, the time lost detouring becasue a road closure just appears without any prior warning, plus the frustration caused when no work appears to be being done.
Some of the roads remain closed for several months, a main A road through Westbury in Wiltshire is due to be closed for 3 months for gas work shortly, Trowbridge is due to get road improvements lasting 18 months, already it is almost impossible to get around the town due to existing road works and closures,
The main road from Cheltenham to Evesham is currently closed while a cycle route is being built past the race course.
I cannot for the life of me understand why the works take so long, and often once completed they are dug up a couple of weeks later,I wonder whether there are penalty clauses for over running the works so they get closed down, and then restarted to avoid the costs incurred.
It seems that nobody considers the needs of the drivers when the contractor starts work, often the roads will be cluttered with various vans, tail backs wil lead to gridlock and the inevitable use of side roads to avoid the hold ups

 

[Dustydog]

That’s a lot of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire 😥

By me the A419 is closed most weekends nights 8.00pm to 7.00am. The detour adds nearly 10 miles. I can see my house is only 500 yards away!
It’s hard to see what they have been doing!

 

[otherclive]

Back to road rant while waiting in Kurdish barbers. Local town main car park has 50% spots closed off for resurfacing. It was quite reasonable without potholes and given speeds are low not an issue. Whereas local roads nuff said….. Who decides the priorities?

 

[otherclive]

Very true, the roads are jam packed. When I was young, I'd walk down my street and at nearly every house was a car parked, now the same street has 3 or 4 cars jam packed at each house.

If they are parked it’s not a problem, it’s when they are out. Near us with four houses there are 11 cars and our nearest neighbours no longer have cars. We once had three cars for two of us too. Mea culpa.

 

[Buckman]

Back to road rant while waiting in Kurdish barbers. Local town main car park has 50% spots closed off for resurfacing. It was quite reasonable without potholes and given speeds are low not an issue. Whereas local roads nuff said….. Who decides the priorities?

A lot depends on where a councillor shops or lives!

 

[Dustydog]

In our Cul de Sac of 30 houses, every house has a garage, but there is only two homes that put their cars in the garage.
The local. Council tried to stop partial parking on the pavements, until it was pointed out that if it was stopped then Emergency vehicles might not get down some of the roads.

We all have garages in our cul de sac. Sadly none are wide enough for a normal car. The Building regs people forgot about the doors!

 

[JTQ]

In our Cul de Sac of 30 houses, every house has a garage, but there is only two homes that put their cars in the garage.
The local. Council tried to stop partial parking on the pavements, until it was pointed out that if it was stopped then Emergency vehicles might not get down some of the roads.

So easily cured by painting those double yellow lines alongside every kerb!

"Easy cure" but could turn against the councillors come the next local election.

 

[Buckman]

We all have garages in our cul de sac. Sadly none are wide enough for a normal car. The Building regs people forgot about the doors!

We can get the Yaris into the garage, but then have great difficulty in exiting the vehicle due to the garage being so narrow. Probably built for Mini cars way back in the sixties?

 

[otherclive]

We all have garages in our cul de sac. Sadly none are wide enough for a normal car. The Building regs people forgot about the doors!

It’s like public car parks, supermarkets too etc. All are still sized for 1960s cars, and some authorities are now starting to ban cars over 5.0m.

 

[otherclive]

So easily cured by painting those double yellow lines alongside every kerb!

"Easy cure" but could turn against the councillors come the next local election.

We don’t have kerbs in our close, no pavement either. The edge interfaces directly with a properties frontage. No house has a lift onto its drive, the frontage with the road is tapered blocks. When built each house had a garden and drive. But over the years some have had drives extended or even the whole frontage blocked over. So in effect no one other than their visitors can park in front. So in effect the availability of kerbside parking for others has been much reduced.