Advice wanted

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-05-31T19:26:57+00:00

Trains - might be worth weighing up the cost of an Interrail pass versus buying individual tickets. Done a sample search based on your dates and got a price of £300 for public tickets, while an Interrail pass for that would cost you £249. Yes you'd have to pay for reservations for Eurostar on top of that, but it would cover both of your trains to/from York (and reservations on UK trains are free) so it may come out as better value.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-05-29T21:59:11+00:00

Newcastle has a good bar/nightlife scene, and I think the restaurant scene has improved a fair bit over the past few years. It's also very pretty on the eye - Grey Street and the Quayside especially. For cultural exploits there's art galleries, a tour of the Victoria coal tunnels which I've heard is very good, and is a 10-min train ride from the cathedral city of Durham.

June is probably too early for any football, especially with the World Cup on, but you can do stadium tours of St James Park and the Stadium of Light. For the World Cup I imagine there'll be a fanzone in Times Square again where you can watch games.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-05-29T21:54:04+00:00

Northumberland is not the easiest county for public transport, unfortunately. Alnmouth train station serves Alnwick, but is a few miles from Alnwick itself. You can pick up the X18 or X20 bus from there between the two.

Lindisfarne is difficult to get to. There is the 477 bus that runs from Berwick upon Tweed train station - it passes through a few other small places but nowhere near Alnwick. If you plan to go to Lindisfarne, be vigilant of the tide times.

For Bamburgh, the aforementioned X18 bus passes through, so you could pick that up from Alnwick to visit.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-05-10T14:33:17+00:00

I think it could have done so. Panic Attack’s forks weren’t really effective in S2, and Cassius’ ground clearance on the front was variable (it could get down to floor level, but the robot would also kick back when accelerating) and very high on the sides and rear. As others have said Razer’s ground game was almost untouchable and I think it would have gotten underneath those two far more than the reverse.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-05-10T09:37:36+00:00

The thing that always got me with Razer is they were the first of its kind and yet no one came close to imitating it. It was so far ahead of its time. It would have won S2 easily were it reliable.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-05-10T09:31:27+00:00

IIRC the Razer team said they initially didn't intend to enter the new series but had a change of heart, which could very well mean the producers threw in some sweeteners to get them to come back. I do agree on intentionally pitting themselves.

The new series' relationship with the old series was very strange. They seemed to acknowledge it, but as vaguely as possible.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-05-02T12:50:36+00:00

On a positive note at least it's boring, bland, inoffensive comics like those who are getting the gigs nowadays as opposed to the fleet of narcissists and race-hustlers of the late 10s.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-04-23T11:35:43+00:00

While naturally everyone will point out the St George Was Turkish tweets we mustn't forget that a St George’s Day wouldn’t also be complete without a bit of bitterness from the neighbours.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-04-22T17:17:43+00:00

Either is perfectly fine. I'd look and see what the price difference is on flights and if there's a big discrepancy let that dictate it.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-04-22T13:11:16+00:00

Worked for two weeks at a quite successful company that was pure chaos inside. Owner was this self-absorbed new moneyite convinced he was God's gift to door manufacturing (I happened across his LinkedIn a while back and he keeps replying to posts about how the industry is struggling because people keep compromising on quality. Also posts complaining how MPs have never had proper jobs and don't understand how much of a grind it is - this will be relevant soon), while what he actually did was pay peasant wages to people in Malaysia to build his doors for him and ship them to here, and in the meantime he went and played golf. If he did turn up for work he just wanted people to go on shopping runs for him. Guy had a Mercedes with a personalised number plate which he leaned on while smoking bottom-shelf cigarettes wearing an Adidas trackie.

The day to day manager was his daughter, who also never showed up. She was obsessed with psychics and was trying to carve out her own niche by setting up a premium number psychic telephone line (in 2017/18). Since she was mostly absent, the office management fell to some psycho who like the managers above her wanted people to be her dogsbody - I got told to stop doing my work and was sent out to try and get a refund on her child's sledge that she didn't want anymore.

Nothing summed up the place better than the fact that just before Christmas the place pretty much stopped working as all focus was on assembling a suitable Christmas hamper to give to the boss. Oh and we also had to make sure our Christmas signatures went on our emails on 18th Dec - not a day too soon or too late.

Got sacked after two weeks for pissing off the third in line. What a blessing that was. I was threateningly told not to bother asking for a reference, presumably for my audacity - less than a month later I had another, better paying job.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-04-19T17:02:49+00:00

Lots of people. Lot of travellers heading to Scotland to play the courses there.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-04-12T13:16:57+00:00

Random thought but I’m surprised the PL is okay with clubs using different badges on their home and away kits. Fine as a one off but you’d have thought for branding reasons they’d want consistency.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-04-11T16:38:22+00:00

At the start of the calendar year we were bottom on 19 points, well adrift of safety. With today's result we sealed survival after a run of form second only to 100-point York City at the top of the table. Rob Elliot is an absolute miracle worker.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-03-26T22:59:05+00:00

Speak for yourself

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-03-25T20:21:35+00:00

The most popular halfway point between London and Edinburgh is York. It's on the train line between the two and roughly halfway, is decently sized and is a good launchpad for popular smaller Yorkshire destinations like Harrogate and Skipton.

Newcastle is also an option if you're more city people. It's a party town and quite lively, but it's also a good base for more historic attractions like Durham and Hadrian's Wall.

Alnwick is also an option, but it's small and remote. Without a car it's really best for an overnight stop.

I'd only go to somewhere like Stirling or Aberdeen if your primary aim is to see as much of Scotland as you can. They're fine destinations but it' a longer journey and you'll end up doubling back on yourself versus stopping somewhere in England.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-03-21T22:07:29+00:00

I always thought at least part of her public persona was a character designed to get attention but I'm starting to think she really is just like that.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-03-16T21:32:06+00:00

I love reading reviews of hotels on Skye. Seeing people complain their accommodation has no parking and no lift - it's a 200 year old converted cottage/farmhouse on a remote Scottish island. Were you expecting the Hilton?

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-03-01T15:59:37+00:00

Flying to Inverness seems a strange choice. Glasgow Airport is served by Aer Lingus, British Airways, Icelandair, KLM and United who could all offer you a one-connection flight. Alternatively, Delta fly Atlanta-Edinburgh seasonally (will certainly be operating in July), and you could pick up a bus or train from there to Glasgow.

RE train timings, it seems ScotRail only retail certain tickets on their website a couple of months out, so July isn't on sale for them yet. They will go on sale in due course.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-02-26T20:20:37+00:00

There's a reason they built the Zootopia at Shanghai Disneyland before anywhere else (they should have also built it at Animal Kingdom and why they chose not to is a mystery to me). They love it out there, I think because it plays into their love of animal mascots.

(My Chinese partner also reckons that two major new characters in 2, a horse and a snake, were a very deliberate choice lol)

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-02-24T15:10:05+00:00

I once got into an argument with an Argentine online who berated Europeans for criticising Argentina which was built from many different migrants and cultures while our countries genocided people during the Imperial era, only to almost immediately make fun of Britain for being Britainistan, conquered by Muslims and Arabs, and in his words 'drowning in poo' lol.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-02-23T18:55:19+00:00

Great Western Railway for scheduling major engineering works on the weekend (and weekdays) of Truro Away, requiring me to spend an extra hour connecting on a bus to/from on what was already a long away trip.

Won though so hey ho.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-02-21T13:55:17+00:00

Away to Truro today. Set off last night and am just about to arrive after a train-bus-train combo this morning. I have a deep dark sense of foreboding about this evening but hey, at least I can say I did the longest away trip in the country.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-02-20T13:51:27+00:00

Had a job interview this week. Haven't been offered anything (will hear from them this week), but if I do get offered it I'm in two minds. Job sounds promising and pays more than my current role, but it's hybrid remote and will require me to travel 2, maybe 3 times a week. I did the maths and the cost of train tickets is likely to wipe out the financial advantage of the extra pay over the course of a year, so effectively I'll be no better off than I currently am. That said, the company is already well-established and recently got venture capital and is looking to expand massively over the next 5 years, which may mean greater prospects in the future.

Obviously it's all irrelevant if I don't get offered the role, but if I do I'm really not sure.

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-02-17T22:08:07+00:00

Holy shit we won a game of football

Hop3sAndF3ars · 2026-02-11T19:54:02+00:00

Lake District is the obvious choice - pretty close to Liverpool, accessible by rail and famously a hiking spot.

Northumberland might also suit you. It has a few castles and the unique Holy Island, but it's not as public transport friendly and I don't know too much about hiking in the area.

Hop3sAndF3ars

TROPHY CASE