I have just checked my old biddies’ railcard to see when it expires. Phew! It is still valid until September 2020. I was persuaded to do this when I read about the problems with the new “millennial railcard”. This is a card for 26-30 year olds, which offers one-third off rail fares, an important saving with rail fares going up at the moment.
The cards went on sale today nationwide at noon and can only be purchased online or over the phone. Some people ended up in an online queue for several hours. The problem is that some people have managed to buy tickets with the discount but have not been able to acquire the card itself, which they will need to show when travelling. One young man wrote on Twitter: “What should I do about the queue if I have 26-30 tickets for a 14.33 train from Manchester Victoria to Newcastle? Surely it should be easier and quicker to buy the railcard than this or at least be possible to buy them at the station?”
A perfectly valid question! Comments about organising drinking parties in breweries spring to mind!
The same could be said, of course, about the Brexit fiasco!
Today I have been out to a family lunch with the Southport branch of the family. Well, with some of them. My daughter’s teenagers decided they were too tired to get up and travel with us. And my sister’s teenage grandson declared himself too busy to attend. The rest of us had a fine time.
The pub where we lunched appeared to have only one waitress doing all the work. At one point I saw another but it was a very brief appearance. Our waitress was terminally cheerful, despite all the running to and fro, and was amazingly nice to all the children lunching in the place today. We were impressed and told her so as we gave her a tip!
At some point I overheard our eldest granddaughter and my sister’s eldest granddaughter discussing the meaning of some number-related words. There was no question about a couple always meaning two. After a while they agreed that several meant more than three but for a while there was a suggestion that it might mean more than seven ... on the grounds that seven and several both begin with sev! Flawed logic, I think!
We managed to get through lunch without discussing Brexit once, which I think was something of an achievement.
2019 has continued fine and even sunny so far, although we are only two days in and so it is perhaps too soon to grow complacent. Driving back across the flatlands between Southport and Greater Manchester, we saw some splendid sunset views, none of which I managed to capture with my iPhone camera unfortunately.
The temperature is dropping now.
We shall see what tomorrow brings!
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Loved the piece about newspaper literals. Many years ago The Star, Johannesburg had a Tour De France report where a cyclist had suspension problems and, from then on, "felt every bum in the road" Clearly a silent p as in swimming!
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