The General Chat Room

[PatrickMurtha]

I have not needed a car in my 13 years in four different Mexican cities, or in my year in South Korea before that. In fact, this has been a major motivation for me living in these places. Public transportation has been excellent everywhere (in part because many Mexicans can’t afford to own a car). Taxis are cheap when I need them. And most places are walkable because the city layouts are compact.

Since I also don’t fly anymore - a single one-hour flight (that I was entitled to as part of an employment package, and didn’t pay for) since I arrived in Mexico in 2011 - I’m feeling pretty green overall!

[RichardB]

I don't know if this is the best place to raise this, but I've been thinking about car ownership and would like to hear others' views.

We need an estate car for the harp, otherwise in the Netherlands you can get everywhere easily on public transport or bicycles. I do enjoy driving but these days it's a very guilty pleasure.

[Serial_Apologist]

We use the car and buses as well as both use cycling, the car is very useful for moving our five year old about. Looking forward to him growing up and joining me on country lane cycling.

Very recently I have been noting increasing numbers of parents in this district transporting their children to and from school by means of tricycles equipped with a box welded on for the purpose at either the front or back. The amount of energy needed to cycle up to two little 'uns, particularly given how many steep climbs there are around here, might seem beyond reason - certainly it would be beyond my ageing muscle powers. But possibly a good saving in terms of physical exercise. Then again many of these vehicles could well be battery-powered*. I have considered acquiring a trike for myself, my sense of balance at 78 not being quite what it once was; however one disadvantage would be that cycle racks outside shops and public buildings do not cater for them, so finding something suitable for safe locking purposes would be problematic. In addition a tricycle would take up more pavement space than a bike and thus be an obstruction.

*Batteries for E bikes and scooters bought online are, btw, currently responsibile for the largest proportion of domestic fires in London.

[oddoneout]

Whether to keep my car is a something which I'll have to address next year, before the insurance etc all come due. Now I've retired I don't need it for work but that still leaves a question mark over getting to where I do various volunteering activities. There is currently a new hourly bus service, provided as part of a county bus improvement initiative that could be of use for at least some of the visits, not least as I now have a bus pass. It is grant funded from some government pot though so is liable to change or even stop altogether at some point.
Increasing physical limitations mean I don't travel very far(an ideal candidate for an electric car, except for cost and charging issues of a mid terrace home), but it is nice not to have to always fit the bigger shopping trips around the constraints of an hourly/school use/not on Sunday service. Taxis would do for that, but as an alternative for the volunteer trips the cost might be an issue over the year, depending on how many I need to make that way. Garden related trips are the other use - taking rubbish to the tip, or getting compost etc - which taxis and buses aren't so good for...

[pastoralguy]

Whether to keep my car is a something which I'll have to address next year, before the insurance etc all come due. Now I've retired I don't need it for work but that still leaves a question mark over getting to where I do various volunteering activities. There is currently a new hourly bus service, provided as part of a county bus improvement initiative that could be of use for at least some of the visits, not least as I now have a bus pass. It is grant funded from some government pot though so is liable to change or even stop altogether at some point.
Increasing physical limitations mean I don't travel very far(an ideal candidate for an electric car, except for cost and charging issues of a mid terrace home), but it is nice not to have to always fit the bigger shopping trips around the constraints of an hourly/school use/not on Sunday service. Taxis would do for that, but as an alternative for the volunteer trips the cost might be an issue over the year, depending on how many I need to make that way. Garden related trips are the other use - taking rubbish to the tip, or getting compost etc - which taxis and buses aren't so good for...

A possible solution would be to hire a car or van for those trips that involve large amounts of stuff. If you hire a van with the hire companies logo on the side keep the paperwork with your address since local council employees can be very huffy about using vans for commercial use!

[oddoneout]

A possible solution would be to hire a car or van for those trips that involve large amounts of stuff. If you hire a van with the hire companies logo on the side keep the paperwork with your address since local council employees can be very huffy about using vans for commercial use!

I have trouble driving my current small car, so driving a hire vehicle isn't an option. I am already working on reducing the garden rubbish issue, but in the meantime shelling out for one of the council green waste bins may be an option, but the cost has gone up a lot recently(currently £58 pa, was about £40 pre Covid - and no deals on bags of composted green waste as some other authorities apparently do) and will continue to do so I expect. As and when I get my second shed then having a shredder again may be an option as it's woody waste that needs to be disposed of. My neighbour sometimes takes the waste generated when I cut my side of his two lengths of hedge, but it's hit and miss. I don't generate "bulky waste", but if something big did need to go(and I didn't fancy paying £38 for the council to collect - and they wonder why fly-tippers flourish...) there is a chap down the road who has a waste licence and a small tipper truck and spends his days going round the local area collecting all sorts of things. He's getting on though so how much longer he can carry on I don't know.

[Serial_Apologist]

A possible solution would be to hire a car or van for those trips that involve large amounts of stuff. If you hire a van with the hire companies logo on the side keep the paperwork with your address since local council employees can be very huffy about using vans for commercial use!

That's right! Some time ago (during the pandemic when things bureaucratic tightened up) we were turned away at the nearby recycling dump when our gardener and myself attempted to dispense of a number of disposables using his van - which btw carried no logos indicating commercial use. We then parked around the corner and carried the stuff in several loads to the facility, and were waved through!

[eighthobstruction]

That's right! Some time ago (during the pandemic when things bureaucratic tightened up) we were turned away at the nearby recycling dump when our gardener and myself attempted to dispense of a number of disposables using his van - which btw carried no logos indicating commercial use. We then parked around the corner and carried the stuff in several loads to the facility, and were waved through!

....I'm Generally chatting....yes Vans turned away at every tip across the nation...you can get a permit for £10 if you can prove it's not commercial...

[Pulcinella]

There's probably a more appropriate thread but I'm not sure that I can think of it, so here goes.

‘Hallucinate’ chosen as Cambridge dictionary’s word of the year

Apparently, it has gained a new meaning in the current flurry of interest in AI.

The original definition of the chosen word is to “seem to see, hear, feel, or smell” something that does not exist, usually because of “a health condition or because you have taken a drug”. It now has an additional meaning, relating to when artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT, which generates text that mimics human writing, “hallucinates” and produces false information.

You have been warned!
How long before it appears on the 'Phrases/Words that set your teeth on edge' thread?

[french frank]

I'm a bit put out. I've just seen a review of this new film about Cary Grant. It describes how he 'grew up in a squalid Bristol terrace', just round the corner from my squalid terraced house. Only those houses are a cut above mine .

[Old Grumpy]

I'm a bit put out. I've just seen a review of this new film about Cary Grant. It describes how he 'grew up in a squalid Bristol terrace', just round the corner from my squalid terraced house. Only those houses are a cut above mine .

[oddoneout]

I'm a bit put out. I've just seen a review of this new film about Cary Grant. It describes how he 'grew up in a squalid Bristol terrace', just round the corner from my squalid terraced house. Only those houses are a cut above mine .

There's film star squalid, and then there's the rest...

[oddoneout]

Absolutely no idea where this should go - the headline reference to contemporary music is perhaps misleading - but it might be of interest to someone, and could be moved if there is a more appropriate thread. As with the BBC trying to find TV programmes it didn't keep(eg early Dr Who), material which at the time wasn't deemed worth keeping later turns out to be of interest/value, but is not in any "official" archive, so tracking it down is hard, and its future is vulnerable to storage and funding issues.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/16/archive-of-contemporary-music-new-york

[Old Grumpy]

Kennedy (Nige) on the state of Radio 3:

“They do sound a bit desperate. They need to stop telling people how to feel. As a performer, we do our best to communicate something but it’s really up to the listener to decide whether Bach makes them think of church spires or trees.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/nigel-kennedy-interview-gender-the-bbc-climate-change/

[Andrew353w]

This week, has been one of those weeks but we plod on. MrsBBM has Covid, and I’ve been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Everything in hand though.

I was diagnosed last August (2023) after attending my surgery in July with "slow peeing" problems and a PSA number of 7.15. I've been scanned, biopsied, tested and examined, followed by surgery at the end of October to remove my prostate. I heard over the Christmas break that my P.S.A. number is now zero (actually less than 0.001, which is zero!) so at the moment I'm "in remission". If it helps you please message me if you think it'd help to talk about it. It's a BASTARD of a journey, but there IS hope at the end!