Smile of the day - What is yours?

[Sir Trev]

The joke of it is that the info thingamies in the carriages all noted HW as a stop and that's all programmed by, the driver. So we all knew the tech was set up right. There are no guards on Chiltern trains as all the stations have barriers (I think).

[Littlepeahead]

Greater Anglia changed the timetable a couple of years ago, a train that had always stopped at Chelmsford suddenly didn't any more. They just quietly removed the stop. Sure it was not in the board but when you get the same train week in week out you stop checking. I was one of many who stood as we approached Chelmsford only to whizz right past. This was a week into the new timetable. Apparently the first few nights over 200 people a time were getting caught out. So why not say just before the train leaves 'Hi folks, in case you are going to Chelmsford, we don't stop there any more'. Of course not, that's common sense. They reinstated the stop 6 months later too!

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[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

The joke of it is that the info thingamies in the carriages all noted HW as a stop and that's all programmed by, the driver. So we all knew the tech was set up right. There are no guards on Chiltern trains as all the stations have barriers (I think).

Taking guards off trains is a really bad idea, especially for women passengers who can be vulnerable. My wife hated our local station (and stopped traveling by train) because after about 5pm there was absolutely no-one around and the whole place was dark and deserted with all the offices locked up - no place for a women to be on her own.

Security cameras are all very well after the event, which is too late.

[pookie]

Being part of a fantastic event as a volunteer. Well done Team GB

[maviczap]

Nearly a gripe of the day. Went shopping, got back in the car after opening it with the plipper.

Went to put the key in the ignition, no key, just the plipper

WTF! Then I remembered catching my keys on a wire crate (Lidl) went back inside, looked underneath and around, no key.

Then at the top of the crate there was the key part of my remote. Phew!

[BanannaMan]

All the talk of racism here in the US, and touched on in another thread here, reminded me of the time I took a job in manufacturing.


Sometimes it only needs to start with a few people.

I went to work at a factory that, totally unknown to me, was having serious racial tensions.

I worked in one of the less populated areas of the plant and was introduced to two black guys as the people I would be working near.
Both were as nice as anyone has ever been to me and helped me learn my job as well as helping cover for me until I did! LOL

We are still friends to this day and whenever we see each other in public we stop and talk for 30 mins.
One of them is the father of Charles Haley, the famous American football player.
So....working with these guys I had no idea there were racial problems.

Different departments and different jobs took their lunch break at different times so my first night in the company cafeteria I arrive and no one else is there.
I get my food and pick a table across the room and have a seat back to the wall.
Slowly people began to trickle in and I am kind of looking around to see who's there when I see a very attractive black girl looking right at me
and as she leaves the food line she walks right up to my table and asks if she can sit down.
So of course I say yes.
The cafeteria never fills up while I am there so I fail to notice any racial tensions going on.
Same thing the next night. We have a great time laughing and conversating. Thinking nothing of it.

Then on the third night...Just as Jackie (the black girl) sat down another very attractive girl comes up to us. She is Korean and speaks in broken English but she manages to get out....and you could tell she had practiced these words....Can I sit with you? I'm not black or white I don't know what table to sit at. It doesn't matter what colour you are at this table, I want to sit with you!
We welcome her to sit down and she is just overjoyed to be there.

I ask Jackie , "What is she talking about?" and then she tells me....
All the white people sit on the other side, all the black people sit on this side.
Again Sookie, the Korean girl says. "it doesn't matter what colour you are at this table". And it didn't!
Haha turns out I had sit in Jackie's regular seat!
The three of us became great friends! Had a really good time with these girls!

Well, a 40 year old white guy having lunch, laughing and talking with two very attractive and much younger women of different races about blew the roof off the place!!!
We were the talk of factory for while! LOL
But in a month or so other people started eating on either side of the cafeteria and soon began talking to each other again.


The three of us continued to have lunch at our regular table for the little over a year that I worked there. ( still friends with these girls too!)


Didn't go unnoticed by the top brass either. The CEO as well as many of the other top company officials thanked me for "improving employee relations".


Sometimes it only takes a handful people to remind others that we don't have to hate each other!


And remembering this is definitely my smile of the day...maybe my smile of the week!

[garynortheast]

That's a brilliant post Bill, definitely made me smile today. Thanks for that.

[shiftin_gear98]

Good Post Bill.


My smile of the day is..
Last day of work and then two weeks in the sun with my family - Zakynthos.


Dodging forest fires!

[Chris_SVS]

Found €30 at the back of a cupboard, thats the Foyle ferry paid for (Runs from Magilligan point in NI to Greencastle in Donegal ROI

[Sir Trev]

Weeding. Not much of a smile (although I do find it therapeutic) but then I was being followed around by a Robin. He was so unfazed by my presence he was almost under the trowel at times. And when a rival appeared and they had a brief skirmish they ricocheted off me a couple of times before remembering I was there and moving all of a foot away. Of course I never have my camera with me at the right moment.