Bad beat/Moaning/Venting thread - Wordle Gummidge

[hotspur]

Remember answering in the affirmative if I wanted salt on my chips in a chipper on the Shankill Road. You can guess the quantity that rained down on them.

[Lazare]

Wow looks great. Don't they retail for like EUR 100k?

I think so yes. It was a soft top, I think I'd prefer the hard top roof. Soft top takes a little of the look off it.

[Ed]

Interesting read for anyone familiar with All Tomorrow's Parties

https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg8dw8/all-tomorrows-parties-oral-history

[BennyHiFi]

China road trip 2003 part 3 (sorry for the delay, on holiday!)

China road trip 2003 part 1

China road trip 2003 part 2


It had always been my intention to fly into Beijing and out of Kunming (a city I’d never heard of until researching my exit). Whatever happened in between was up for grabs. Having already spent almost one-third of my trip in Beijing I needed to get a push on in order to traverse the country and pack as much as I could in to the remaining 20 or so days cos my visa was a strict "30 days or face a fine". So I abandoned my initial plan to visit Shanghai and replaced it with a trip to Shaolin, home of the famous kung fu monks.

Sure why not. But how to get there?

The rail system in China was very good and reasonably straightforward to navigate with the help of my Lonely Planet, though English signage was still threadbare and usually in charming but puzzling ‘Chinglish’ (for some reason ‘Forg Soup’ remains my favourite - I wouldn’t eat frog soup in France never mind China and the mis-spelling somehow made it seem even more alien and unappealing. I often wondered had anyone ever ordered it and how long the ‘forg’s’ would a have been sitting in the cupboard waiting to be used.)

I figured out a route which would take me through Xi’an (pop. About 8 or 12 million depending) and a stop off to see the famous Terracotta Warriors then onto Zhengzhou, an ancient capital of China (pop. About 10 million) and then onto the little village of DengFeng (pop. 600K) where I could visit nearby Shaolin and hook up again with the Swedish kung fu student I drank with in Beijing. at the address of the school he had given me.

The train trip to Xi’an – the start of the Silk Road in the East and home to one of China’s largest Muslim populations - was uneventful but the journey out to the Terracotta Army museum will live forever in the memory as one of the most hair-raising vehicular escapades I’ve ever experienced. A mini-bus journey of pure heart-in-mouth, wrong-side-of-the-road, hair-raising, white knuckle aggression and recklessness.

I was pinned to my seat for about an hour and never so glad to get out of a vehicle – only traversing Cairo by car has ever proved as tense.

The museum itself is a hugely impressive, the main building the size of several football pitches with walkways all around the edge and the warriors themselves standing proud in an excavated pit below – each with different weapons, facial features and hairstyles. Thousands of 'em!

Certainly one of the most impressive historical sites I’ve ever visited and surely the one I’ve gone furthest off the beaten track I've made a dedicated trip to (maybe Uluru was in the same category)

Strangely there was only a handful of people there that day - out of tourist season I suppose it being March. I remember being in this huge space and perhaps no more than a dozen other tourists ambling around. Quite surreal. I think the facilities had been recently rebuilt as part of the Olympics spending to a high international standard.

After a few hours in the vast halls the trip home was less eventful – bar the scrum of entrepreneurial ladies selling Terracotta tat outside which broke as soon as I got it home. Literally disintegrated so it was some feat to be able to manufacture this to a high enough standard to get it sold but then collapse in on itself a month or two later.

The only other things of note I remember in Xi’an is the Muslim quarter and what I suppose where their outside wet markets – fascinating to view but pretty unappealing as an appetite arouser. I do recall having some very fine dumplings there though and the people watching was, as always in China, great.

And there’s a huge tower in the centre and some city walls you can walk round.

I remember being shocked watching a disabled pauper crawl along the pavement begging while commuters rushed past in the shadow of a massive Sony retail outlet.

I was only there a couple of days and don’t remember meeting any other westerners. I got the train out at night and had a sleeper (the top bunk of 3). I bought a ticket to what I thought was Zhengzhou (turns out it was Changzhou or Yangzhou or another similar sounding place hundreds of miles away) and settled into a sleep.

I awoke with a start in the middle of the night as the train pulled into a station and looked sleepily out the window to see the platform said Zhengzhou and panicked and was jumping off my bunk roaring at whoever would listen that this was my stop and I had to get off.

The conductor seemed to be trying to explain that that’s not what my ticket said but confused and all as I was, and despite it being the middle of the night of an uncertain city in the middle of China I jumped off and hoped I’d made the right call.

There was lots of confusion on the platform surrounding my plan to get off here but they let me exit and go though the barrier and I got outside to a small taxi ranked in a car park across the road.

It was freezing cold.

After some of the usual pointing at Lonely Planet and mis-pronunciated communications to the cab driver he popped me with certainty into the warm cab and promptly drove around the block and deposited me right back in the same car park – the bloody hostel I was booked into was 50 meters away.

I couldn’t argue with his enterprise and paid the guy - who looked like this was con was the most natural contract imaginable - and went into my rooming house.

All the hostels spoke English so they tried to upgrade me to some class of room for migrant workers with heat, TV etc… but I only needed a few hours sleep before morning and was happy to sleep in a long, mostly empty dorm.

It was so cold I slept in my clothes and coat and may even have taken a few items of clothing out of my bag to lay them atop my bed sheets and began to drift off, my reveire punctuated only by one of the female occupants of the room farting loudly.

I don’t remember much about my short stay in Zhengzhou – I have fleeting scraps of imagery of a family wanting to take a picture with me, finding a welcome McDonalds from some western scran and, most memorable of all, the largest train station I’d ever seen.

It was like an airport with multiple departure gates - turns out the city was, unsurprisingly for its central location, a major transport hub. It was pretty easy to navigate but while I was in a line an English speaking Chinese lad came up to me and told me a bunch of shadowy thief types were eyeing up my bag so he’d stay with me if I liked until they were gone. Good man! The only cost was a bit of English chit chat, for which I was grateful. I boarded the train and was on my way again.


Next stop Dengfeng and the nearby Shaolin Temple and multitude of kung fu schools.

<part 4 to follow...>

[Strewelpeter]

Cavindish again, absolutely crushed the sprint today.

[Raoul Duke III]

Cavindish again, absolutely crushed the sprint today.

Can't really dig the sprint action at all, all about the big mountains for me.

[Lao Lao]

I highly appreciate the "this seems dangerous, but I'm not leaving without my chips" mindset.

Nothing worse than all your mates having post pints grub and you've nothing

[pokerhand]

^^^^

Benny, sound amazing. I so want to do that trip.

Was in Beijing once for a couple of weeks. Navigating my way around scared the shit out of me. I am reasonably tall so stood out like a freak and didn't really like the way the locals stared at me like I was an alien from another planet, it really is very disconcerting. I loved my time there but never felt quite comfortable there enough to relax fully.

[Solksjaer!]

Saw Salmon jumping in the river today. Something simple and yet thrilling for myself and the kids

Aasleagh falls

[ComradeCollie]

Saw Salmon jumping in the river today. Something simple and yet thrilling for myself and the kids

Aasleagh falls

I'd seen a piece of shit (not sure if dog or human) on the pavement last Tuesday. Reminded me of the 1970's and Pans People.

[ComradeCollie]

I'd seen a piece of shit (not sure if dog or human) on the pavement last Tuesday. Reminded me of the 1970's and Pans People.

After a bit of searching it must have been Legs and Co https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legs_%26_Co.

[ComradeCollie]

Still, Bill Cosby a free man, and Britney more a slave than Prince or George Michael ever were. Free Britney!

[BennyHiFi]

^^^^

Benny, sound amazing. I so want to do that trip.

Was in Beijing once for a couple of weeks. Navigating my way around scared the shit out of me. I am reasonably tall so stood out like a freak and didn't really like the way the locals stared at me like I was an alien from another planet, it really is very disconcerting. I loved my time there but never felt quite comfortable there enough to relax fully.

I hear you PH. I'm the average height of a Chinese male so wasn't that much of a stand out in a crowd - and there is nearly always a crowd in Chinese cities of course.

But people did tend to stare a lot when I was noticeable. TBH I didn't find it too disconcerting - most gave a smile back when I smiled at them but some definitely were quite intense and what we'd probably consider rude, if not quite threatening.

Navigation and language was by far the biggest daily challenge. So little English signage (though I'm sure that's got to have improved) and so few English speakers then (again, gotta have come on in leaps and bounds).

I've always hated speaking foreign languages due to being extremely self-conscious about being bad at it - so it really was a leap into the unknown but proof that no communication barrier is insurmountable with a will, a smile and a ridiculously emphatic gesture!

[ionapaul]

So little English signage (though I'm sure that's got to have improved) and so few English speakers then (again, gotta have come on in leaps and bounds).

Nah. Was there for the first time in 2007 for three weeks with two pals on the way home from Australia, we were all over the place seeing many of the sights you've mentioned so far and no-one spoke English and feck all signs in English. Back with my wife for another trip off the beaten track in 2016 and there was no improvement! No-one speaks English, apart from a tiny handful of college students. Even the con artists couldn't be bothered. Why would they, enough internal tourists to target, right?

Love going to Hong Kong too, or at least I did, the perfect meeting house of China and the West, where English only is fine. Have to go to Australia every few years as two of my wife's sisters live there, always stop off for a few days in HK on the way, so much better than going via the Middle East.

[Raoul Duke III]

I still treasure the memory of a backpacker dude summoning a waiter in a remote Malay town (the language barrier being of Trumpian proportions), then flapping his arms, squawking like a chicken, pretending to lay an egg and then performing vigorous whisking motions. He got his scrambled eggs.

HiFi system works.

[Pat Mustard]

Prime time special on nursing homes. Shocking stories on it. But hardly surprising if you've worked in one in Ireland, people who own/run and 75% of people who work in nursing home are scum.

[ComradeCollie]

But hardly surprising if you've worked in one in Ireland, people who own/run and 75% of people who work in nursing home are scum.

I used to pick up blood samples from many of them ( in most of south Dublin). Pretty disturbing, but I wouldn't blame the generally low paid staff.

[Strewelpeter]

I'd seen a piece of shit (not sure if dog or human) on the pavement last Tuesday. Reminded me of the 1970's and Pans People.

If it was white it was probably a dog from the 70's

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

That terracotta museum sounds amazing!

Am I right in remembering when I was quite young there was a massive visiting terracotta army exhibition in Dublin. Anyone remember that? I think it was a big deal at the time.

[pokerhand]

I still treasure the memory of a backpacker dude summoning a waiter in a remote Malay town (the language barrier being of Trumpian proportions), then flapping his arms, squawking like a chicken, pretending to lay an egg and then performing vigorous whisking motions. He got his scrambled eggs.

HiFi system works.

My system was when I was ready to order, I would simply get up from my seat and wander around the restaurant looking at other people dishes until I saw something I fancied and summoned the waiter over and point at it. Simple and easy and rarely went wrong. Kind of funny really.... No wonder why they thought I was a freak

[ArmaniJeans]

That terracotta museum sounds amazing!

Am I right in remembering when I was quite young there was a massive visiting terracotta army exhibition in Dublin. Anyone remember that? I think it was a big deal at the time.

It was on at the Ambassador Theatre at the top of O'Connell Street around 6 years ago.
I'm not sure if that's the one you meant as you said 'quite young' and seemed somewhat hazy about whether it was real/imagined.
Or maybe your time works differently.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

It was on at the Ambassador Theatre at the top of O'Connell Street around 6 years ago.
I'm not sure if that's the one you meant as you said 'quite young' and seemed somewhat hazy about whether it was real/imagined.
Or maybe your time works differently.

I'm thinking more like 35 years ago. And every schoolkid being brought on school trips to see it type of thing, as it was such a big deal. It *could* be imagined though.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

1985-1987 by the looks of it.

And apparently the Ambassador ones were only replicas, which seems a bit deceptive.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

I used to pick up blood samples from many of them ( in most of south Dublin). Pretty disturbing, but I wouldn't blame the generally low paid staff.

I hate that reason. Your pay isn't an excuse to be a shithead. For example, the person in my local centra on probably a tenner an hour is very nice. There's some really dodgy hospital and home care out there that is down to workers simply not doing their job, or simply not caring about their jobs.

[ComradeCollie]

I hate that reason. Your pay isn't an excuse to be a shithead. For example, the person in my local centra on probably a tenner an hour is very nice. There's some really dodgy hospital and home care out there that is down to workers simply not doing their job, or simply not caring about their jobs.

I wasn't suggesting that it's a reason. It was merely a descriptor. I'd say I've been in about 40 care homes in south Dublin, many several times a week, and there is clearly something systemic in the huge differences between them. Really don't think the individuals working in each one had much say in the conditions or level of care given.

[Raoul Duke III]

Heard of a friend, nurse, who got 1st and 2nd Pfizer jabs in Jan/Feb. Contracted covid in May and in rehab.

Shit luck

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

I wasn't suggesting that it's a reason. It was merely a descriptor. I'd say I've been in about 40 care homes in south Dublin, many several times a week, and there is clearly something systemic in the huge differences between them. Really don't think the individuals working in each one had much say in the conditions or level of care given.

It's a good point.

[SatNav]

4 Months off the drink today, I'm quite proud of that achievement!

[Lazare]

I wasn't suggesting that it's a reason. It was merely a descriptor. I'd say I've been in about 40 care homes in south Dublin, many several times a week, and there is clearly something systemic in the huge differences between them. Really don't think the individuals working in each one had much say in the conditions or level of care given.

That reminds me of the difference in customer service between Dunnes and Super Valu.

The latter is superb, the former absolutely shit.

Likely on similar pay, but the main difference is likely job satisfaction. Super Valu management understand the importance of treating staff well.

[ComradeCollie]

It's a good point.

Any recommendations on a chopping board?

[ComradeCollie]

4 Months off the drink today, I'm quite proud of that achievement!

Hope you haven't gone all father Matthew like Lazare

[pokerhand]

Drinkwise, normally go to the off licence once every two weeks get four bottles of pale ale and a decent bottle of white wine (that I would half drink one night and the rest the other) and that would be my limit for home drinking.

Never had a problem I am thankful to say, I like it but don't ever really feel the need for it except when it been a shit week in work and that usually only happens once a year.

[SatNav]

Drinkwise, normally go to the off licence once every two weeks get four bottles of pale ale and a decent bottle of white wine (that I would half drink one night and the rest the other) and that would be my limit for home drinking.

Never had a problem I am thankful to say, I like it but don't ever really feel the need for it except when it been a shit week in work and that usually only happens once a year.

Is that not a contradiction

[pokerhand]

Is that not a contradiction

How so?

[SatNav]

How so?

don't ever really feel the need for it except when it been a shit week in work and that usually only happens once a year.

Have a cola

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Any recommendations on a chopping board?

No! I'd be interested though!

[pokerhand]

don't ever really feel the need for it except when it been a shit week in work and that usually only happens once a year.

Have a cola

Ha,

No contradiction, as it's the exception that proves the rule!

I often go weeks without having a drink, never bothers me if I have one or not.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

yeah sit down and enjoy the cool refreshing buzz of a cola pokerhand.


Edit: or what could be better than sipping on LIFE

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

EDIT: OR what could be better than just SIPPING ON LIFE

[pokerhand]

EDIT: OR what could be better than just SIPPING ON LIFE

Newsflash, as the recent lockdowns have proved... Life is boring, man gotta have his vices or what's the point.

I sooner hang out with a druggie than a priest!

[SatNav]

Newsflash, as the recent lockdowns have proved... Life is boring, man gotta have his vices or what's the point.

I sooner hang out with a druggie than a priest!

Thankfully I'm still as mad as ever with no vices on board Hitchhiker's Guide To... Gulping on life

[pokerhand]

Thankfully I'm still as mad as ever with no vices on board Hitchhiker's Guide To... Gulping on life

Really... No vices... No sex or smoking/vaping?

[ionapaul]

Got my text for my 2nd vaccine appointment, next Monday. No more talk about people who are fully jabbed getting this thing, I'm gonna be bullet-proof!!!

[SatNav]

Really... No vices... No sex or smoking/vaping?

2/3

[Dice75]

Satnav, next time you are up in the Big Smoke we must go for a cup of tea.

Sounds all wrong

[hotspur]

it's the exception that proves the rule!

That's one phrase I never seem to get. "Begging the question" is another.

[pokerhand]

That's one phrase I never seem to get. "Begging the question" is another.

Because when someone makes a point disproving a statement, it is usually a singular example which is rememberable for being a unique occurrence that is out of character... Hence the exception that proves the rule i.e. not normally in their character.

[hotspur]

I didn't know that rememberable was a word either. Every day's a school day with Pokerhand.

[pokerhand]

I didn't know that rememberable was a word either. Every day's a school day with Pokerhand.

Sorry memorable....

[hotspur]

Sorry memorable....

I wasn't taking the mick, rememberable is a word, I looked it up.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

I wasn't taking the mick, rememberable is a word, I looked it up.

[pokerhand]

I wasn't taking the mick, rememberable is a word, I looked it up.

Ha, must have buried itself in my subconscious somehow

[pokerhand]

I didn't know that rememberable was a word either. Every day's a school day with Pokerhand.

Here's another one for you.

Being deaf is a constant challenge. All my life I could never hear/understand all the words that is said to me in a conversation. If I was to guess at the % I actually hear, it would typically be maybe low 30s. That would be an enormous gap to bridge in order to participate in a conversation, and one I constantly need to battle otherwise I become a bystander pretending to be part of a group (forget jokes, I never hear enough to get it).

So what to do? The only way to bridge it is to be a constant active listener. Being an active listener doesn't mean paying attention, it means paying attention to try understand the key words in the conversation, usually there is only two or three words in every 10 that is key to understanding the topics. And once you have those two or three words, you can train your brain to fill in the gaps.

You know when you are passively listening to someone while watching TV and following both conversations, results are kind of mixed? That is me on my very best day while giving my full attention to just one person.

It's exhausting to be honest...

[6starpool]

4 Months off the drink today, I'm quite proud of that achievement!

Well done Michelle, As you say, you're mad enough without it!

I missed when you presumably talked about this first time, but is this something you are planning to be a permanent thing, or are you doing it for a set period?

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Newsflash, as the recent lockdowns have proved... Life is boring, man gotta have his vices or what's the point.

I sooner hang out with a druggie than a priest!

Do you think you might get back on the road at some point? You had a great lot of travel at one point, and it seemed (at a distance at least) that you got a lot from it.

[SatNav]

Well done Michelle, As you say, you're mad enough without it!

I missed when you presumably talked about this first time, but is this something you are planning to be a permanent thing, or are you doing it for a set period?

No it will hopefully be permanent. I had chronic anxiety, to the point where I was just afraid of waking up. It was like a death sentence every day, I couldn't even drive the car much as my anxiety would get worse.

I knew alcohol and valium were just making things worse, stupid vicious cycle that had to stop.

3 weeks in maybe less, anxiety was getting less and less to practically zero today.

So I don't think I could go back to that fear again as it was just affecting every aspect of my life. I'm doing so much more with my life now I'm not drinking..

[Micknail]

I wasn't taking the mick, rememberable is a word, I looked it up.

Where are you taking me?

[6starpool]

No it will hopefully be permanent. I had chronic anxiety, to the point where I was just afraid of waking up. It was like a death sentence every day, I couldn't even drive the car much as my anxiety would get worse.

I knew alcohol and valium were just making things worse, stupid vicious cycle that had to stop.

3 weeks in maybe less, anxiety was getting less and less to practically zero today.

So I don't think I could go back to that fear again as it was just affecting every aspect of my life. I'm doing so much more with my life now I'm not drinking..

Fair play. Solid action is always harder than intentions, so well done. Keep it up, but I'm sure you have loads of support if you need it in future, and don't be afraid to lean on people if you need to. Again, easier said than done, but the hard part was accepting the problem.

[6starpool]

Where are you taking me?

He said he wasn't taking you. Spurs fan wouldn't want to bring a Chelsea fan anywhere I'm sure, even someone as zen as hotspur.

[Tar.Aldarion]

That's one phrase I never seem to get. "Begging the question" is another.

This one makes sense that it doesn't make sense since it is a mistranslation of a mistranslation.