The Cost of Motoring

[Serial_Apologist]

Talking of steep hills:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-15691941

You can't drive up this one, and you certainly need sturdy thighs to make it to the top, but it's worth it- Lincoln Castle, and of course the Cathedral await you. And on the way up there are a number of interesting shops and eateries in which to rest weary legs.

Fully deserving of the award- and all the better for being completely free of the noise and pollution from motor vehicles!!

It must be just about the only steep hill there is in Lincolnshire - and some plonker has to stick a ruddy Cathedral at the top of it!

[Serial_Apologist]

indeed I have (it was late) ooooops

A few years back I was checking a book on Essex dialects in Brentwood Library. Among a list of abandoned expressions was "arsy-varsy", for back-to-front. Some archaisms were sorely appropriate!

[MrGongGong]

Spring Hill in Lincoln is almost as steep !
and then they built some houses on "wasteland" half way down, guess what ? they started to slide down the hill
maybe there's a clue in the name of the Hill as to why ? (and it's got nothing to do with the Four Seasons !)
I have driven a van up Steep Hill in Lincoln many years ago , rather scary as it had a piano in the back and I kept thinking it was going to slide out and all the way down in a Devonian Stylee ................ though had it been a new shiny one I would have been taken much more seriously !!!

I always thought that the Pass of the Cattle to Applecross in NW Scotland was the steepest road open to traffic ? Much steeper than Wrynose Bum especially if you have a slipping clutch !

[MrGongGong]

A few years back I was checking a book on Essex dialects in Brentwood Library. Among a list of abandoned expressions was "arsy-varsy", for back-to-front. Some archaisms were sorely appropriate!

Thanks for that
It will now be part of my daily vocabulary

[Serial_Apologist]

forgive me for needling on about this
but I do think that this is indicative of something that is, in many ways, of how superficial we are in danger of becoming.
It's always important not to confuse causation with correlation (Wittgenstein might have looked a bit like a tramp , therefore if I look like one I will be as clever as him ?)
If you were running a company selling shiny car products then OK
but
If I turn up to run a rehearsal in a shiny car and completely make a hash of it I wont be taken seriously at all, and it would probably be the end of my career
If I was a professor of Mathematics and turned up in a shiny car yet failed to deliver then I would (one would hope !) loose my job
If I was running a business selling televisions etc etc etc

Being someone who frequently works with teenagers I'm interested in where some of these ideas come from.
Is it all style and no content ?
have we become a nation of "t**d polishers" ? , dress it up in fancy packaging and no-one will notice that there's no substance !

I am quite certain that it was Elgar's penchant for dressing up in 19th century military attire that made him the great composer that he was...

Er, I'll get me duffel coat...

[vinteuil]

A few years back I was checking a book on Essex dialects in Brentwood Library. Among a list of abandoned expressions was "arsy-varsy", for back-to-front. Some archaisms were sorely appropriate!

It is first found in Richard Taverner's Prouerbes or adagies with newe addicions, gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus, 1539:

"Ye set the cart before the horse - cleane contrarily and arsy versy as they say."

[Serial_Apologist]

It is first found in Richard Taverner's Prouerbes or adagies with newe addicions, gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus, 1539:

"Ye set the cart before the horse - cleane contrarily and arsy versy as they say."

Could have been the motto for the Transport & General Workers Union!

[Curalach]

I always thought that the Pass of the Cattle to Applecross in NW Scotland was the steepest road open to traffic?

Ah, Bealach na Bà. I'm not sure that it is the steepest, about 20% in places, but it is certainly the greatest ascent, as it rises for over 2000ft from sea level. You'll be glad to know MrGG that my elderly Volvo V70 copes admirably and JW will be pleased that the Volvo is kept clean and well polished!!

[vinteuil]

Ah, Bealach na Bà. I'm not sure that it is the steepest, about 20% in places...

... lovely -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bealach_na_Bà

... but I think Hardknott reaches 33%?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardknott_Pass

[MrGongGong]

Ah, Bealach na Bà. I'm not sure that it is the steepest, about 20% in places, but it is certainly the greatest ascent, as it rises for over 2000ft from sea level. You'll be glad to know MrGG that my elderly Volvo V70 copes admirably and JW will be pleased that the Volvo is kept clean and well polished!!

I stand corrected , I guess I thought that because I last drove up there in a 1970's Saab 95 with a slipping clutch .............

I don't think you can have an "elderly" V70 ? I got rid of my 940 last year for a v70 they have only been making them for 11 years so hardly "elderly"

[Curalach]

I don't think you can have an "elderly" V70 ? I got rid of my 940 last year for a v70 they have only been making them for 11 years so hardly "elderly"

Well it's elderly for a V70, coming up for 11 years! It too replaced a 940 7 years ago. I do miss the turning circle but it is a very comfortable car. I'm just beginning to think about replacing it with the latest model, a process that will take at least a year. Unlike most men, I hate changing my car.

[MrGongGong]

AAAAH geeky Volvo chat
Turning circle is a bit rubbish
but you can still get the harp, aga, labrador , bale of straw in

why do so many musicians have these ? or Saabs ?

[John Wright]

Gonggong, my car might be big and shiny but it IS 7 years old!

forgive me for needling on about this
but I do think that this is indicative of something that is, in many ways, of how superficial we are in danger of becoming!

I'm not denying that might be the case, but you were denying that businessmen take notice of shiny cars. They DO take notice... well those who want quality service and are looking for evidence of success.... and of course I do agree it's not always indicative that good service will be given.

And note serial_apologist's comment above.

I'm sure Elgar's career would have been quite different if he had always turned up at his early successful choir concerts looking like Fagin!