Mundane Thread II

[MsD]

Hmm, CLIVe.

[treibeis]

Hmm, CLIVe.

What does that mean?

[ad hoc]

I knew an American Clive. Half his letters used to come addressed to "Olive" as presumably that sounded a more likely forename

[Gerontophile]

What does that mean?

Roman numerals.

[WOM]

What does that mean?

They're all Roman numerals. Geddit?

[WOM]

Dagnabbit, Gero...

[MsD]

Yes, I'm seeing now a whole new pool of possible suitors.

[ursus arctos]

I have a good friend and ex-colleague who is a Carsten (and lives in Chicago), but he is unusual.

[Toby Gymshorts]

I'm terrible for getting attached to places during holidays, but I've really got the Toronto bug over the last week. Which is why I'm sulking in a Downtown bar, wondering whether I can claim some form of asylum, given what's going on in the UK at present.

[Toby Gymshorts]

I knew I should have printed off a few copies of my CV.

[Benjm]

I'm sulking in a Downtown bar, wondering whether I can claim some form of asylum, given what's going on in the UK at present.

Once you've got it sorted, raise the subject of bringing your beloved adoptive son over. They're civilised people, they'll understand. Dad.

[WOM]

I'm terrible for getting attached to places during holidays, but I've really got the Toronto bug over the last week. Which is why I'm sulking in a Downtown bar, wondering whether I can claim some form of asylum, given what's going on in the UK at present.

We'll sponsor you. The bed in the basement is free (and repaired). And you'll get used to the kid in the next room yelling "SHOOT HIM SHOOT HIM......GUYS WHERE ARE YOU???" until all hours.

[delicatemoth]

They Might Be Giants!

Hope everything's ok, dm?

For me, yes. This might make some here smile slightly, but in general I'm lucky enough not to lose the run of myself easily. I can also talk to health/social care professionals in their language (and bollock them in it if I feel it's warranted) and I'm very good at projecting 'not an easy target'. So I get treated fine.

Some other people I know aren't so lucky, so they get labelled as awkward, staff are impatient with them which makes things worse, and generally their mental health issues are not respected and sometimes (depending on how inept/malicious certain staff can be and how much power they can wield) can be exacerbated by indifferent and unfair/inconsistent treatment. And I occasionally find myself acting as a source of ad hoc support/advice (and once or twice even advocacy) for someone who has insufficient/no support and is not in a condition to organise any themselves.

Trying to express that without getting too specific, whew.

[MsD]

You did fine x

[MsD]

I’m trying to work out whether I can do a trip to Toronto (Dundas), Maine and NYC in one hit. I also have a good friend in Boston. I know NYC but all the other places have their attractions apart from my mates.

[ursus arctos]

Maine is the most challenging part of that from a logistical point of view.

It also is a big state, though there is now a train from Brunswick to Boston.

[delicatemoth]

I know they have trains in America, but they seem to keep quite quiet about their workings. Would that be like going from London to west Wales, then Inverness? Silly big place.

[ursus arctos]

One problem with doing the whole thing by train is the current absence of a reliable connection between Toronto and Maine, though you could do Toronto-New York-Boston-Maine without retracing your steps.

Toronto-New York is 800 km, but takes 12 1/2 hours because our trains are poor and the border crossing is a disaster.

One can do New York-Boston in 3h45, because it is one of the best lines in the system. Boston-Portland (Maine) is around 2h45.

All of this was much easier in the 30s and 40s (though Boston-New York was slower).

[MsD]

True, I really wanted to go from SF to LA by train but it was difficult to get the info and then difficult to do. So I flew.

My friend in Maine drove down to meet me in NYC last time, which I guess she would do again - or pick me up from somewhere reasonable that I could get to from Grand Central. I’d love to see her new house, it’s one of those gorgeous American board houses and represents a whole new chapter of her life (post divorce).

[MsD]

Cross-posted with UA, all useful info and food for thought, thanks.

[Patrick Thistle]

I drove from Boston to Toronto to Niagara Falls and back. It's doable but you need to find places to stop along the way.

I understand Toby's desire to seek asylum. I liked Tronno a lot!

[ursus arctos]

I've done all of those, so let me know if I can be of assistance in any way.

[MsD]

I drove from Boston to Toronto to Niagara Falls and back. It's doable but you need to find places to stop along the way.

I don’t drive, although I can factor in a
few long cab drives e.g I got a cab 90 miles from LA to Ojai once.

Cheers again, UA.

[MsD]

When you’re so stoned you can’t follow an episode of Vera ... :-/

(My actress mate went out with the cast of that show the other week, as she’d done some extra and voice work on it. She was wrecked for two days. Geordies.)

[San Bernardhinault]

Trains in the US are ridiculous. Distances are already long, but somehow they've made sure that the infrastructure is designed to make the trains go stupidly slowly. Even the "really fast" trains like the Acela on the East Coast are, in fact, ridiculously slow. Add in some (I imagine ursus can explain better than me) weird safety laws that means the trains weigh twice as much as European trains, which means they can't accelerate quickly and means that the track infrastructure is worse. Add in that when there are trains, and new routes built, every municipality basically gets to get every train to stop there, which means that there are somewhere between none and ridiculously few through trains between major cities.

There is no sensible reason - for instance - that the train from San Diego to LA, a distance of 100 miles, should take 3 hours.

Add in that, by making trains slow and difficult they are not heavily used, so outside the east coast DC-Boston corridor they're ridiculously infrequent - lots of the Amtrak routes only run once per day.