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Useless Thread

Nik the Trik said:
WhatIfGodWasALeaf said:
Since the Brexit result Nicola Sturgeon the Scottish First Minister has spent a lot of time in Brussels meeting with Merkel and all the major EU players to reassure them that Scotland is 100% behind the EU and would like a "soft brexit" which would allow the Scottish people to continue to benefit from free travel and working rights within the EU.

The Scottish people voted to remain in the EU by a large margin at the polling booths in the Brexit referendum, so Sturgeon has presented two realities to Theresa May and the leaders of the EU. Either there is a soft brexit or the Scottish government will have a clear mandate from the Scottish people to call for another independence referendum. 
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Yeah, but I think May's speech today highlighted that the idea of a soft brexit was never overly realistic. I understand why someone who voted remain would want it, or even insist on it, but so long as one of the key tenets of the Brexit movement was a disentanglement from European laws and strict control of immigration then Europe was never going to negotiate on the basis that the UK could sort of have an a la carte membership of the EU, taking what they like and leaving what they don't.

So long as the UK is negotiating between the mandate for leaving Europe on one side and an EU that wants to make things as tough as possible on the other it seems unlikely that any kind of favourable deal can be struck.
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You're right that it was never overly realistic, the problem being that those who ran the brexit campaign all abandoned ship as soon as they won, so really there was no plan set in stone. Farage, Johnson and Cameron all ran for the hills, so there was a lot of uncertainty.

Sturgeon has been shrewd by positioning Scotland and its people as the voice of reason in a lot of this, in fact many even in the English media called her the only politician in the U.K. that had been properly planning/preparing for all potential outcomes post brexit.

You're right about May's speech though, it looks like another independence referendum will be on the cards in short order.
 
Bullfrog said:
WhatIfGodWasALeaf said:
...
Scotland is a lot more like Canada than England or America, I hope she's brave enough to do what's right next time around.
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I did a four month UK/western Europe trip about 10 years ago. Scotland is the only place that I yearn to return to. I felt such an affinity with the people and the place. Things haven't been good financially lately, but once I save up enough, I'm heading back for an extended visit; I only got to spend about 10 days there.

Friggin' love Glasgow.
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That's nice to hear froggy, I'll always have a soft spot for Glasgow, it's home.

Edinburgh is pretty and good for tourists, but Glasgow is definitely more of a younger persons city, weekends are fun, especially in the summer if you get a little sunshine.

I hope things turn for you financially and you can get back sooner rather than later.
 
More info on the Irish border here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38664817

I honestly can't see them leaving it completely open. How do they stop those non-Irish citizens coming into the UK if they don't check passports etc at a check point on a border?
 
WhatIfGodWasALeaf said:
That's nice to hear froggy, I'll always have a soft spot for Glasgow, it's home.

Edinburgh is pretty and good for tourists, but Glasgow is definitely more of a younger persons city, weekends are fun, especially in the summer if you get a little sunshine.

I hope things turn for you financially and you can get back sooner rather than later.
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We started our tour in Glasgow and were very novice travelers. We stayed a couple of nights in a hostel before spending time with a family in Paisley through Couchsurfing. I went to an urban grocery store in the evening on Sauchiehall and asked the security guard if there's any particular part of the city we should avoid. He said, "ya, Glasgow."  :D The slight differences in language are interesting. I don't drink alcohol, but I went to a pub with my wife. I ordered a lemonade. I got something more akin to a sprite. Was not expecting that. Then my hosts in Paisley forced me to drink Irn Bru.  :-X

I'm an architectural designer, so I'm fortunate I got to see Mackintosh's School of Art library before it burned down. I won't lie, I wept a little when I heard about the fire. In the architectural world, that library was a precious jewel.

We visited Kelvingrove? Museum and there was a big display at the time on Canadian animals. They had a moose, beaver, caribou, porcupine, wolf, etc. on display. It was great....all animals I can see in my backyard.

If we don't get back for a few years, it's ok. My boy's 7 now, so he might appreciate it more when he's 10 or more.

Our Scotland trip was from Glasgow, Fort William, Spean Bridge, Fort Augustus, couple of hours in Inverness, Stirling, and Edinburgh (including the border abbeys, Jedburgh, Melrose, etc.) Had a great time, but there's obviously so much more to see. I'll be renting a car next time for sure. Hopefully I don't kill anyone by driving on the wrong side of the road.

When we stayed in Spean Bridge, we took a train to Roy bridge and then had the hostel owners pick us up. The driver only had one arm and switched gears with a hook, his wife was just a lovely basket-case that walked around frantically (we took to calling her the chicken lady because she ran around like a chicken with its head cut off), and their boy wouldn't go anywhere without an American football helmet on his head.) It was one of the most terrifying and hilarious rides I've ever had.
 
Bullfrog said:
WhatIfGodWasALeaf said:
That's nice to hear froggy, I'll always have a soft spot for Glasgow, it's home.

Edinburgh is pretty and good for tourists, but Glasgow is definitely more of a younger persons city, weekends are fun, especially in the summer if you get a little sunshine.

I hope things turn for you financially and you can get back sooner rather than later.
Click to expand...

We started our tour in Glasgow and were very novice travelers. We stayed a couple of nights in a hostel before spending time with a family in Paisley through Couchsurfing. I went to an urban grocery store in the evening on Sauchiehall and asked the security guard if there's any particular part of the city we should avoid. He said, "ya, Glasgow."  :D The slight differences in language are interesting. I don't drink alcohol, but I went to a pub with my wife. I ordered a lemonade. I got something more akin to a sprite. Was not expecting that. Then my hosts in Paisley forced me to drink Irn Bru.  :-X

I'm an architectural designer, so I'm fortunate I got to see Mackintosh's School of Art library before it burned down. I won't lie, I wept a little when I heard about the fire. In the architectural world, that library was a precious jewel.

We visited Kelvingrove? Museum and there was a big display at the time on Canadian animals. They had a moose, beaver, caribou, porcupine, wolf, etc. on display. It was great....all animals I can see in my backyard.

If we don't get back for a few years, it's ok. My boy's 7 now, so he might appreciate it more when he's 10 or more.

Our Scotland trip was from Glasgow, Fort William, Spean Bridge, Fort Augustus, couple of hours in Inverness, Stirling, and Edinburgh (including the border abbeys, Jedburgh, Melrose, etc.) Had a great time, but there's obviously so much more to see. I'll be renting a car next time for sure. Hopefully I don't kill anyone by driving on the wrong side of the road.

When we stayed in Spean Bridge, we took a train to Roy bridge and then had the hostel owners pick us up. The driver only had one arm and switched gears with a hook, his wife was just a lovely basket-case that walked around frantically (we took to calling her the chicken lady because she ran around like a chicken with its head cut off), and their boy wouldn't go anywhere without an American football helmet on his head.) It was one of the most terrifying and hilarious rides I've ever had.
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That all sounds wonderfully eccentric.

My dad worked for Glasgow University so we had unlimited access to all the Rennie Mackintosh work, it was fascinating.

I know suckyhall ;) street well, it was my old stomping ground many moons ago, some fantastic food and live music to be consumed.

There are a few operators doing east coast to the U.K. for approx $300 return if you pick your spots, best of luck.
 
Arn said:
Captain Canuck said:
I visited Ireland and Northern Ireland this fall and found the whole experience to be quite interesting. Pounds and miles in one and Euros and kilometres in the other. Overheard some crazy Americans who were terrified driving the M6, thought the speed limit was 100 miles an hour!
Took the train up to Belfast and honestly if it weren't for the Union Jack painted on the rock it would be hard to tell where one country ended and the other began.

I went on one of the Black Taxi tours and found that whole experience to be a bit intense! Sorry, but glass shards on tops of walls, razor wire, those cages on the backs of the homes to deflect explosives, locking down streets at night with neighbourhood gates, etc. is no way to live IMHO.

The Titanic Museum is top notch, really enjoyed it. Would have liked to take in a Giants game, but timeframe didn't quite line up.

Have ancestors from Belfast, but prior to the creation of Northern Ireland, so also in favour of a united Ireland once more. Admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about Brexit and all the implications, but hope things turn out for the best.
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That's a really interesting view from someone from the outside - interesting to read, so thanks for sharing it. You're right about the fact it's only little things that denote that you've crossed a border - your mobile phone switching networks, or the lines along the edge of the road switching from dashed to solid and the road signs changing from MPH to KPH.

Re the neighbourhoods visited on the black taxi tours. I guess you got a sense of the geography of these areas during the tour. You literally have pockets (or ghettos for want of a better word) where one side of the community is surrounded by the other, and vice versa. These areas are also massively socially deprived, high levels of unemployment, low levels of education. Massive levels of mistrust of "themmuns" as in the other side of the community that still exists from the conflict. It IS no way to live, but sadly it's the only way to stop certain things happening. Indeed since the troubles/war ended there have been more walls built around these communities than were built during the war.

But outside of these areas the country has come a massively long way. NI has actually in my opinion developed an identity as it's own country. A lot of people from the less socially deprived areas, the better educated areas etc from both protestant and catholic background now identify as "Northern Irish" over British or Irish, and having the ability to freely move around between Britain and Ireland certainly helps with that inclusivity. Taking that away and putting a border back up across the middle of the island threatens to reopen a lot of old wounds.
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Yeah we took a tour with a guide named Martin. He was a very interesting fellow, full of lots of good information and tried to stay unbiased in his view of things. We went into the Falls Road and Shankill Road areas, saw all the murals and security features in place. The one mural I found really interesting was how both sides had painted other factions around the world that were also in conflict. For example, one side was supporting Israel while the other side was supporting Palestine. After that we stopped at the "Peace Wall" and left our mark.

Also found it weird how G4S was the company responsible for locking down the neighbourhood gates at night. Here in Canada we use them at our company to do mundane things like kick people off the property afterhours, nothing as serious as what they do in Belfast that's for certain.

Martin also told us of how he was deprived of job opportunities for being Catholic and how he had been imprisoned in the Crumlin Road Jail at one point on some bogus charge essentially because of his religion. He cracked a few Proddy jokes so it was great craic!
 
herman said:
I'm pulling for Faraj Fartass as I'm partial to alliteration and toilet anywhere humour.
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I always like the ones where it's a crazy name and then finding out they're a III or IV.
 
Nik the Trik said:
I always like the ones where it's a crazy name and then finding out they're a III or IV.
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That alone should push Windy Swetman through. Andy Brandy Casagrande IV is only a rhymer, which is the lowest form of name shame, and he's up against Brickman House.
 
Some underdogs I'm pulling for:

Boats Botes
Bumper Pool
Dick Posthumus

Honestly, if Boats Botes don't open up their own boat sales business, I don't want to live in this world anymore.
 
My phone is pretty much blorked. I generally buy unlocked phones, as I don't like being held hostage by the carriers.

Any recommendations for a solid android device? say $$500-600?
 
McGarnagle said:
My phone is pretty much blorked. I generally buy unlocked phones, as I don't like being held hostage by the carriers.

Any recommendations for a solid android device? say $$500-600?
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I'd get the Pixel, or if you're too cheap, Nexus 6P.
 
Frank E said:
McGarnagle said:
My phone is pretty much blorked. I generally buy unlocked phones, as I don't like being held hostage by the carriers.

Any recommendations for a solid android device? say $$500-600?
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I'd get the Pixel, or if you're too cheap, Nexus 6P.
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Yeah, the pixel was like 1k+, and the 6p a bit chunky. I bought a oneplus 3T. Seems zippy so far.
 
I dropped out of a songwriting class after posting 13 straight A's, then when asked why I dropped out, I said it would look better in my rockstar CV :D
 
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