On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 11:12:38 GMT,
(Nick Cooper) wrote:

On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 01:02:56 +0100, James Farrar
wrote:

On Sat, 8 Oct 2005 21:39:31 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 18:27:58 on Sat, 8 Oct
2005, "tim (moved to sweden)" remarked:
And as I have posted before,
IME it is common for non first language English speakers not to
be able to tell the difference between the various English language
countries' accents (strange as it may seem to you and I).

It's worse than that. Many Americans can't tell the difference (in
accent) between English and Australian.

And many English people can't tell the difference between American and
Canadian.

There are more similarities between them than between English and
Australian.

Perhaps. But *some* English accents are very close to *some*
Australian accents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austral...ralian_English
refers.

--
James Farrar
. @gmail.com

On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 12:15:53 +0200, "tim \(moved to sweden\)"
wrote:


"Nick Cooper" wrote in
message ...

Purely subjective. My subjective view is that the vast majority of
people I know take one or two separate weeks off,

Isn't this what I have been saying?

Your original contention was:

(a) a two-week block at Christmas; and
(b) a two-week block at some other point in the year; and
(c) nothing else.

--
James Farrar
. @gmail.com

On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 12:15:53 +0200, "tim \(moved to sweden\)"
wrote:


"Nick Cooper" wrote in
message ...
On Sat, 8 Oct 2005 18:40:26 +0200, "tim \(moved to sweden\)"
wrote:


This is exactly right. I did not say they had to use 10 days
leave, but that they had a period of 2 weeks when the did
not go to work.

Even the maximum of 10 is not "2 weeks." Most years it's only 8 days -
i.e. one week and one day - as it is this year.

I accept that you live in a world where people have to work
over the Xmas period. But I work in a world where the company
shuts down for the whole period, sometimes for a full two weeks.
This has happend at every company that I have worked at
in the last 25 years (I freelance and average about one
company per year).

I'm not doubting that. I'm doubting you using that as the basis to
claim that's what happens to "most people," i.e. the majority of the
population.

However, hardly anyone I know gets that.
FWIW It's bloody annoying and I hate having to waste
my holiday days in this way, so I don't see it as getting
a benefit.

It is my contention that more people work in my world than
in yours.

Clearly your world doesn't include the public, retail or service
sectors. Add to that a sizable chunk of other industries, and you'd
be hard-pressed to claim a majority.

No-one is sensibly going to buy a monthly season on the 4th
of December as they will not be using it from 25th to the 1st

You mean "... _if_ they will not be using it from 25th to the 1st."

Well obviously. If you're nitpicking about this what else
have you nitpicked about?

It's not nitpicking to point out a huge and fundamental flaw in your
"argument."

(and in many cases longer).

You keep claiming this; I - and a number of other posters, it seems -
dispute it.

And most people take 2 (or more) weeks holiday in the
summer/easter when the kids are off school.

It may have escaped your notice, but there are more households in the
country _without_ children than those with.

They still take holidays in 'chunks'.

Think again. "Most people" do not have school-age children, so why
would they be taking their holidays "when the kids are off school."

I said in chunks, i.e a week or two at a time.
I accept that I made a mistake saying that everyone goes in the school
holiday (I forgot that the demographgic of newsgroups is younger
than the population!), but most peopel are still going to take a period
holiday to go somewhere or other.

You're claiming a majority where no such majority actually exists in
the population.

I still think it is.

12 million package holidays per year are sold so almost 25% of the
population go away on an *organised* holiday each yer

None of which backs up your orginal proposition, i.e. that "most
people take 2 weeks holiday in the summer/easter when the kids are off
school." In fact, it does the opposite. More 40% of the UK adult
population does not take a holiday of four days or more at all. In
that context you'd be hard-pressed to claim that the remaining 60%
all take two-week holidays. The majority you claim does not exist.
Fact.

Most do IME.

Well, in mine, most _don't_.

Purely subjective. My subjective view is that the vast majority of
people I know take one or two separate weeks off,

Isn't this what I have been saying?

No, you claimed the majority of people are taking two-week holidays.
Not my use of the word "separate."
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War, and in Films & TV:
http://www.nickcooper.org.uk/

On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 09:05:06 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 21:38:52 GMT,
(Nick Cooper) wrote:

So Oyster is crap because you can't keep track of something as simple
as how much pre-pay you have on it?

It is a fault, yes. It is one that TfL would be able to solve quite
easily by obtaining a quantity of pocket validators and selling them
at ticket offices (or by mail order) to those who want them. I
believe they cost under a tenner a shot.

Will people please stop getting so defensive and assuming that
pointing out a limitation of Oyster is a statement that it is "crap",
as this is not the case.

Given that people can check how much Pre-Pay they have at the same
"places" that they actually add the Pre-Pay in the first place, it's
hardly a convincing argument. Would you say that a ATM card is
"limited" because you can't tell how much money you have in your
account unless you go to an ATM to check?
--
Nick Cooper

[Carefully remove the detonators from my e-mail address to reply!]

The London Underground at War, and in Films & TV:
http://www.nickcooper.org.uk/

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 12:25:36 +0200, "tim \(moved to sweden\)"
wrote:

They tried to prosecute some people for riding without
a ticket from a stop with no machine They lost on the
basis that as the pax hadn't been given the opportunity
to buy a ticket so it was unreasonable to expect then to
have done so.

Last time I travelled in Hannover (circa 2000) it was possible to buy
a ticket from the driver, even on a tram.

Not anymore, tram drivers no longer sell tickets.
Apart from passes the choices a
Pre-purchased open ticket stamped in the machine on the
tram or immediate use timed tickets bought from the machine
at the stop, paid by smart card or coins, small discount for the
smart card.

tim

"Phil Richards" wrote in message
.. .
tim (moved to sweden) wrote:

And this is in a town where it is possible to buy advanced
undated single tickets for all rides which isn't currently an
option in London.

In London you do have the option of buying undated single tickets for the
buses (Saver 6).

I thought they'd stopped these.

It took me quite some searching to find then info though.

tim

"TKD" wrote in message
...


Will people please stop getting so defensive and assuming that
pointing out a limitation of Oyster is a statement that it is "crap",
as this is not the case.

This is not a limitation. The balance comes up on the screen of the
bus and on the tube gates - there is no way that you can't have a
rough idea of what you have.

Strangely enough I have a stored value card for my
local travel here. I don't use it to get to work, only for
days out at the weekend. I usually haven't the slightest
idea how much is on the card, even though I do get told
the remaining balance each time I use it, it really is
unrealistic to expect me to remember this from one
month to the next.

tim

"James Farrar" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 12:15:53 +0200, "tim \(moved to sweden\)"
wrote:


"Nick Cooper" wrote in
message ...

Purely subjective. My subjective view is that the vast majority of
people I know take one or two separate weeks off,

Isn't this what I have been saying?

Your original contention was:

(a) a two-week block at Christmas; and
(b) a two-week block at some other point in the year; and

of time off not holiday allocation.

(c) nothing else.

I certainly did not say this.

tim

In article ,
(Nick Cooper) wrote:

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 17:09:09 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:

On Sat, 8 Oct 2005 16:57:59 +0000 (UTC), "Richard Rundle"
wrote:

Yes, stamps inscribed 1st and 2nd were introduced in 1990. So, it dep
ends on your definition of "recent" I guess.

They weren't universal, I think. I have had stamps (1st/2nd) marked
with the price much more recently than that, as I recall.

The ones marked 1st or 2nd are the ones sold in books (6 or 12) and in
vending machines.

The come in larger packs than that. 100s, for example.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

"Nick Cooper" wrote in
message ...
On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 12:15:53 +0200, "tim \(moved to sweden\)"
wrote:


However, hardly anyone I know gets that.
FWIW It's bloody annoying and I hate having to waste
my holiday days in this way, so I don't see it as getting
a benefit.

It is my contention that more people work in my world than
in yours.

Clearly your world doesn't include the public, retail or service
sectors. Add to that a sizable chunk of other industries, and you'd
be hard-pressed to claim a majority.

I have worked in reatil, and ever there people booked their
two week summer holiday as the norm.

No-one is sensibly going to buy a monthly season on the 4th
of December as they will not be using it from 25th to the 1st

You mean "... _if_ they will not be using it from 25th to the 1st."

Well obviously. If you're nitpicking about this what else
have you nitpicked about?

It's not nitpicking to point out a huge and fundamental flaw in your
"argument."

It was not a flaw in my arguement, just something so blindingly
obviously a part of the arguement that I didn't bother to type it
in at the end.



12 million package holidays per year are sold so almost 25% of the
population go away on an *organised* holiday each yer

None of which backs up your orginal proposition, i.e. that "most
people take 2 weeks holiday in the summer/easter when the kids are off
school."

I have conceded the point about off school holidays,

a two week summer holiday is anywhere betweem May and
September

In fact, it does the opposite. More 40% of the UK adult
population does not take a holiday of four days or more at all.

Where did you find this fact? I have never worked at a place
where anybody never took full weeks off.

In
that context you'd be hard-pressed to claim that the remaining 60%
all take two-week holidays.

Obviously,


Purely subjective. My subjective view is that the vast majority of
people I know take one or two separate weeks off,

Isn't this what I have been saying?

No, you claimed the majority of people are taking two-week holidays.
Not my use of the word "separate."

No, I said the they were taking 2 weeks of holiday when they
did not need to buy a pass.

tim