2021 LEJOG

Specific board for this popular undertaking.
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Paulatic
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by Paulatic »

Jamesh wrote: 19 Jun 2021, 2:29pm
Paulc wrote: 12 Jun 2021, 8:21am Tigertoo (?) where are you reading this tosh "I am reading a lot about the hostility being shown by the Scots to the English, has anyone actually had this experience?"
I think it's from one woman who thinks she speaks for all Scots!!!

Cheers James
You think?
Surely you’ve read it, and not working on hearsay, and can enlighten us all. There is a lot of printed evidence, easily found and never refuted, from one man who seems to think he speaks for England who hasn’t held back his feelings on the Scots.
Please take your evidence to the tea shop though and leave a LEJOG forum as a welcoming factual place.
Whatever I am, wherever I am, this is me. This is my life

https://stcleve.wordpress.com/category/lejog/
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Jamesh
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by Jamesh »

Sorry if I offended.

Btw I don't think that the Scots bear any anamosity towards the English. My relatives certainly don't.

Cheers James
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Mick F
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by Mick F »

Tiggertoo wrote: 2 Jun 2021, 4:59pm I am reading a lot about the hostility being shown by the Scots to the English, has anyone actually had this experience?
Absolutely! :shock:

Moved up to Scotland in 1973 and lived there until 1980. Moved back there in 1982 until 1985, and again from 1990 until 1992.
At no time were we or me felt welcome.

Mrs Mick F was made to feel persona non grata with jobs, and I was in four Scottish jobs in the RN, and too, I was felt unwelcome.
Given any thoughts of being in Scotland, and neither of us would even consider it ..... especially Mrs Mick F.

Both our daughters were born up there, and I've suggested to Mrs Mick F that we should go up there to visit the old places, and she's told me in no uncertain terms that she WILL NOT.
Mick F. Cornwall
Syd
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2021 LEJOG

Post by Syd »

Mick F wrote:
Tiggertoo wrote: 2 Jun 2021, 4:59pm I am reading a lot about the hostility being shown by the Scots to the English, has anyone actually had this experience?
Absolutely! :shock:

Moved up to Scotland in 1973 and lived there until 1980. Moved back there in 1982 until 1985, and again from 1990 until 1992.
At no time were we or me felt welcome.

Mrs Mick F was made to feel persona non grata with jobs, and I was in four Scottish jobs in the RN, and too, I was felt unwelcome.
Given any thoughts of being in Scotland, and neither of us would even consider it ..... especially Mrs Mick F.

Both our daughters were born up there, and I've suggested to Mrs Mick F that we should go up there to visit the old places, and she's told me in no uncertain terms that she WILL NOT.
My wife is English, as are my direct line manager and a close colleague. All have had no problem in being accepted into their local community in Scotland.

If I wasn’t accepted anywhere I would be carrying out an inward assessment before looking outwards. If I was then 100% sure I was not contributing to the problem then I may think it is a localised issue with the area I am in, but that would always be the second step in the process.
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Mick F
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by Mick F »

We lived there as a family.
Daughter2 was at the local primary school and she was put on the tables with the other ethnic minorities.
The Scottish children were sat together.
This is a fact.
Daughter was 4/5 years old.

Nothing to do with inwardly looking. We were "foreign" and treated as such.
Not to say we didn't make friends of course. Not everybody was like that, but it was just a feeling of prejudice.

Go back to 1974 when we first moved up there.
Shopping in Dunfermline and one thing we noticed very very quickly, is that people don't hold the door open for you when going into shops. Case in point ........ Woolworths, and we went in and I held the door open for a person behind. They just walked in and left me there holding it for the next and the next and the next person without so much as a word or a smile. Other occasions, someone is in front, opens the door and walks in, and it slams shut in your face.

We noticed PDQ that they were very different people to we gregarious and happy Lancastrians.
Mick F. Cornwall
Nessie23
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by Nessie23 »

Syd wrote: 20 Jun 2021, 10:49pm
If I wasn’t accepted anywhere I would be carrying out an inward assessment before looking outwards. If I was then 100% sure I was not contributing to the problem then I may think it is a localised issue with the area I am in, but that would always be the second step in the process.
This. Absolutely spot on.
puffin
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by puffin »

My quaint, gentle OP about the joy of LEJOG seems to have morphed into something a bit more meaty. Anyway, I finished yesterday and am on the train home. Yea!
thirdcrank
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by thirdcrank »

puffin wrote: 23 Jun 2021, 9:50am My quaint, gentle OP about the joy of LEJOG seems to have morphed into something a bit more meaty. Anyway, I finished yesterday and am on the train home. Yea!
Well done!
rareposter
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by rareposter »

puffin wrote: 23 Jun 2021, 9:50am My quaint, gentle OP about the joy of LEJOG seems to have morphed into something a bit more meaty. Anyway, I finished yesterday and am on the train home. Yea!
I hope we're going to get more of a report and write up than that!
AlanInBangor
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by AlanInBangor »

rareposter wrote: 23 Jun 2021, 10:19amI hope we're going to get more of a report and write up than that!
I hope so too! I'd be particularly interested in your experiences taking your bike on the trains and any covid related issues such as dining difficulties.
Tiggertoo
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by Tiggertoo »

Looking forward to your ride report, Puffin.
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cycleruk
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by cycleruk »

Well done Puffin. Good bits and bad bits please :D
.
You'll never know if you don't try it.
puffin
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by puffin »

cycleruk wrote: 24 Jun 2021, 3:09pm Well done Puffin. Good bits and bad bits please :D
.
You think there were good bits???????
:D
puffin
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by puffin »

Thanks for asking about the trip. Overview: met some great people, who in turn met a ruggedly handsome person with a great set of anecdotes if you only know him for a day, I hope. Deepened my hatred for whoever designed Cornwall and Devon, sheez, its like architects should be made to live in what they design, this guy should be made to cycle the West Country; permanently. Am I alone with this feeling, or are there others.
Day before I left, my wife was stamped on by her youngest horse, went to A&E which apparently meant she "couldn't drive" me to the station with only one foot, so my brother was kicked up at 4.00 am to cover. Luckily I'd painted his house the week before so had a moral hold.
On arriving at Penzance got an email from the customer orientated people at Serco to say my Caledonian Sleeper had been canceled. I said OK, just book me onto the day trains, they said no, it ain't their job. I called Scotrail who fitted me in....but unbeknown to me a problem was lurking later on.
Got as far as Tiverton where I held my Satnav too tight and ...I jest not...reset it, wiping all my routes and causing it to talk to me in a Slavic language. I found a brilliant workaround, I just put my phone in my bib and let RidewithGPS talk to me as I went, it was awesome. One small problem which I laugh about now happened about a week later when in a small shop in the Borders whilst being served my trousers suddenly told the lady to "Turn Right". I kept the Satnav on to record my rides, but it was like a Zombie version of my erstwhile good friend and companion, devoid of all my routes and history, it was as if I had dug it back up from Pet Semetry. The guy who checked me in at Tiverton had his hand in plaster, I asked him what happened, and he looked straight at me and said "I punched a wall." I was on my best behaviour that night.
At the start of the Gorge I was taking a drink and a really nice couple wished me luck, and like a complete heel I looked worried and said "Does the Gorge go up then? I thought it went down"
By time I got to Chew Magna the sunburn was starting to make me look like Mother Teresa so I bought some moisturiser from a very doubtful lady at the Coop. At Chepstow there was a road closure up as far as Tintern, but I remembered on a forum here reading about a nearby ex railway tunnel and path which had been reopened. I went to the brilliant Tourist Information in Chepstow who said "Hell Yeah" but in a much more restrained manner and gave me a map. It was brilliant, the tunnel was very dimly lit to protect the bats who live there. What lighting there is only stands about 2 foot high. As an aside, the tunnel was beautifully cold and refreshing, if somewhat dark.
I'd left my hat at home and was feeling a bit sunstroked so bought the only white (sun reflecting hat) available in Ross on Wye, it was an England Rugby hat for £18!!!!! Seriously, £18.
The lady running the hotel in Much Wenlock took my photo and said she'd write a report including my "very expensive bike", I told her over and over again it is not, its a £400 Dawes Galaxy Ultra, so if you ever read the report, her words not mine. Nonetheless, she was a great host.
I got to the Borders in fine fettle where I stayed again at Tushielaw in the hotel run by Rab. Rab is a retired oil rig builder and roustabout, the kind of guy who'd be chucked out of ISIS for being too rough. I told him about my England baseball cap, and he loudly sucked his teeth, disappeared for a moment and came back with a less nationalistic alternative (the England Scotland game was coming up) . That was really kind and I offered him my England one in return, but he just gave me an iron stare so I stopped talking and got on with my supper. I met Steve there, a fellow LEJOG'er and we compared notes about how hard it is too sleep and how we were both getting homesick. I met up with him again at Bonner Bridge. Also staying there was a competition marksman who had previously won the Queens Cup at Bisley where you get chaired off by the other competitors.
The day of the match I was just South of the Cairngorns...I stayed in my room except to get drinks whereupon I spoke French (my surname is French). The next day I was weirdly passed twice, once in each direction, by a local cyclist who was a couple of years older than me. I looked puzzled and he told me he was doing Everest that day, cycling back and forth up the hills till he's done (I guess) about 28,000 feet. He was a brilliant man, he'd joined up with Guy Martin to do endurance competitions in years past, and knew every bump on every hill I was to ride.
First time ever, my front wheel came lose that day. Never happened before. I also found a bolt had fallen out of my rack, so used one of my cable ties as a temporary fix. The Cairngorns were as OK as they could be. Grantown on Spey was great, you feel you're getting home by then. The hotel staff were brilliant, but I don't think there were enough of them, and I genuinely feared my breakfast would be outside its sell by date by time it was served. A couple sitting opposite kept quietly doing the "Two Soups " sketch from Victoria Wood which was mean, but lip-bittingly funny.
Fast forward to JOG…always an anti climax unless you’re being met. Because Serco had cancelled my sleeper, I’d arranged to get the early morning train from Wick the following day, so cycled straight to Wick. I couldn’t get into Wick station, it was locked. Just before the train left, the guard and driver saw me and waved me round to a side entrance 100 metres away. This train had a staff to passenger ratio of two to one, them and me.
Got to Inverness for a tight connection to find there were too many bikes on the next train. I was really hassled by the staff there, they wanted to get the Edinburgh train away. They bundled me onto the train saying they’d courier the bike back at my expense. I said noway as the train doors closed. I got straight onto Scotrail who said they’d look into it. They’ve apologised today but are strangely silent on what happens next. I was getting fond of that bike too.
Jdsk
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Re: 2021 LEJOG

Post by Jdsk »

Nice style. Hope it has a happy ending.

Jonathan
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