I said trivia and I meant it!!
www.msatrivia.co.uk/
I was interested in the history of the old Aust Services by the Severn Bridge, used to have a great view of the bridge, now a much smaller service station without a direct view of the bridge and is strangely called "Severn View" !! The original building still exists though is privately owned.
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I once reported my car stolen at a service area. Think it was Leicester or somewhere near there anyway. We had stopped for a coffee break on the way from Switzerland to Edinburgh in the middle of the night. My wife and I were very tired and should probably have stopped altogether but we were young, foolish and skint and had decided to make the journey in one hit. We had our coffee with what remained of our funds and went back to where we had left the car to find that it had gone. Spotted a police car in the car park and asked for help. The officer asked us where we were headed and when we told him he suggested we look for our car in the northbound car park............
Ah.....right......thank you.....good night.....um .....sorry....
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The cafe was on the bridge y'see. Anyone could......Ok not anyone but.......
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Had a similar experience at Gatport Airwick once.
Also once in France I filled up and (fortunately!) drove over to the cafe for a cafe when a Gendarme came over and asked me why I had not paid for the fuel, I had totally forgotten, absent mind, reckon I would have been banged up had I headed onto the autoroute and proceeded onwards oblivious at 130kph.
Edited by cheddar on 20/10/2008 at 11:13
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In the gents' the other day at the service station near Winchester (M3 southbound) I found a row of men at the urinals while a woman cleaner was busy with the floor. I found this absolutely disgusting and exploitative for her.
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But needs must when the devil drives bintang... In France and Germany and eastern Europe there are quite often old ladies sitting in the corner of the bogs with a plate of change sitting suggestively beside them.
Doesn't seem a bad idea actually. Must discourage people from making a mess and presumably these concierges are there to keep the place clean and tidy.
I see what you mean of course but I doubt if the lady in question was very bothered.
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Toilets in Betws y Coed were due to be closed due to persistent Anti Social Behaviour. They've employed a female attendant who takes 20p from you when you go for one (p that is) - she told me that the problems have gone away.
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>>I found this absolutely disgusting and exploitative for her.>>
Nowadays if you go into the "Gents" at any nightclub you can find the Girls using the wall mounted urinals!! (here anyway!) they dont bat an eyelid, niether do the the young lads! - nowadays it's just us oldies that seem to be offended, ;-(
Billy
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I wrote a love letter to an ex in some services near Carlisle in the early hours of a very wet day in November 1981....there is a story.
Hadn't thought of it in years until I read this post........
Edited by Pugugly on 20/10/2008 at 19:41
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"Well darling...I've nearly made it to Gretna but I guess you must have fallen off the back of the bike somewhere over Shap ? I do hope you recover and that this letter finds you.........."
;-)
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Many moons ago late one night at a regular service area stop, large old bill and his mate had come in for dinner, the manageress asked the large plod if he could have a word with one of a few inebriated students who had nicked a sandwich.
We watched in awe as this giant moseyed down to the chap and asked him very nicely to pay for the butty and clear orf 'ome, now this chap being a bear of very small brain decided to call the officer all sorts and got himself nicked in the process (it doesn't do to keep a large policeman from his dinner) ....you just can't help some people.
Common sense by pass?
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Try visiting France - no one gives a stuff about gender, who uses which when pressed, and often gents' public loos don't even have a door. You get used to it. I'm certainly not embarrassed any more, which can be handy.
Some years ago SWMBO went into a ladies' loo in Paris and paid her 20 centimes to the old lady inside the entrance. (Someone told me once these old ladies were war widows officially supplementing their income, but I don't know if that's true).
Anyway, as SWMBO was on the way out, the old lady stuck out her hand again. SWMBO protested (in immaculate French) 'but I have already paid'.
The old lady said 'yes, but you flushed twice'...
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I use a cafe in France where the services are externally "unisex"but when you get inside the first door,there are a ladies stall and a gents stall-however there is also an urinal-outside the door of the ladies!!
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Many years ago at the seedy end of Hollywood I briefly frequented, because the (fringe theatre, not movie) acting people I was staying with used it as a hangout, a lesbian night club called Boccacio 70. First time I went to the gents the door opened and two burly leather-clad women shouldered past me, sneering visibly.
Best-smelling gents I've ever been in though.
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Friend of mine once managed to inadvertantly forget his then new wife at a motorway services. He got back in the car and headed up the motorway leaving her stranded. He has never done it since and he walks quite well considering......
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As for Africa... oh well, never mind...
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I have pictures taken in Lagos of large, immaculately stenciled signs on the walls along main roads:
DO NOT URINATE OR DEFECATE HERE.
Lovely.
However, after getting stuck in the traffic jam between Vic Island and lagos airport for close on 2 hours (straight after a boozy going-away lunch) I recall leaping into some roadside bushes and letting fly.
Needs must, y'know...
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Many years ago at the seedy end of Hollywood I briefly frequented >>
Hollywood, been to Funnygirls in Blackpool Lud?
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I did go there once, to Blackpool I mean, but to a Labour Party conference I think (might've been another party, bit of a blur...). Didn't make it to Funnygirls though.
I'm sure it's lots of fun in its way but I don't generally seek these places out. They sort of find me sometimes. Not often these days.
Edited by Lud on 20/10/2008 at 21:05
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A friend of mine, who owns a hotel on the Meuse tells me that the lady toilet attendants in France are fondly nicknamed 'Madame PeePee'.
Ted
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. I found this absolutely disgusting and exploitative for her.
Sorry, do you get out much? Urination is a natural function after all. Furthermore most of these places do have a sign at the entrance informing users of the gender of the attendant.
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>>Urination is a natural function after all.
What other natural functions would be justified in the circumstances?
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I remember as an impoverished teenager + early 20 something, taking the then current girlfriend for a night out, by combining a spin in the Spitfire ( top down of course ), and a decent, cheap meal, going to any of the accessible motorway service stations. Imagine doing that nowadays !
Also, in the early '80s, answering the call in the Reiksmuseum in Amsterdam, standing there minding my own business, brain miles away marvelling at "The Nightwatch", i was brought back to the present by the sound of a female voice, "excuse me", and just managed to move my feet in time to not have them assaulted by a damp mop, a perfunctory "thank you", and the lady in question carried on down the line ! Well, once you have started .... Obviously meant no more to her than throwing away her empty chewing gum packet, but took me months to get over it. My wife couldn't stop laughing when i told her !!
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>>. I found this absolutely disgusting and exploitative for her.
Have you seen the urinals that rise out of the ground, at night, in central London? There's three on a central pillar. No privacy there!
Edited by bathtub tom on 23/10/2008 at 13:06
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