BiCon 25

[mattp]

Just thought I'd post so that others travelling from London can go for the same train times if they want.

I'll be departing on Thursday afternoon:
Dep. London Paddington: 1215, arr. Cardiff Central: 1422.
Dep. Cardiff Central: 1436, arr. Trefforest: 1501.

and leaving Monday afternoon:
Dep. Trefforest: 1742, arr. Cardiff Central: 1809.
Dep. Cardiff Central: 1825, arr. London Paddington: 2027.

These times are intentionally a couple of hours before BiCon starts and after it finishes so that it allows for train delays and gives me a chance to look around Cardiff on the Monday.

Just 2 months to go! *bounce* I'm looking forward to it immensely.

Comments

[katieastrophe]

Yay, booked on the same trains as you - and double yay for Young Person's Railcards - £15 return :-D

Bah for foreign call centre operators who not only don't understand my accent, but don't understand the NATO spelling alphabet either :-(

[mattp.livejournal.com]

but don't understand the NATO spelling alphabet either :-(
My god, that fucks me off something chronic. (to be blunt :-)

Fair enough, not many people know it, but to work in a call centre and a) be surprised at someone attempting to demonstrate a letter by use of a word, or b) not at least be superficially familar with said alphabet after a few weeks is... shocking.

[katieastrophe]

I've no idea how long they had worked there, but their response to my spelling out Paddington (the entire word) was "I'm sorry, there isn't a station by that name. I can offer you a journey from Paddington though, and you should be able to get there on the Underground."

I wouldn't have called - I have enough trouble being understood as it is - only usually Woodsmoor gets confused with Watford - but thetrainline.com wasn't working properly.

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Purely for the joy of getting stroppy for no reason; I worked in a call centre for 14 months and never learnt any of those alphabets. I was good at my job, but my job involved knowing English, not learning a code. I just use random words if I have to spell like that. And that definitely confuses people who expect a set word for each letter!

[mattp.livejournal.com]

never learnt any of those alphabets... I just use random words if I have to spell like that.
That's fair enough. The point I was making though is that these people seemed to be flummoxed by the very concept of spelling using words. I presume, if you'd heard the town of Broadstairs spelled you wouldn't start typing:
B-R-A-V-O-R-O-M-E-O-...
or
B-A-N-A-N-A-R-A-Y-M-O-N-D-...
or similar.

[purplegril.livejournal.com]

Honestly? If someone didn't warn me they were going to spell it like that, I'd be confused and we'd have to start again. Because if you're not expecting it, it's just a person saying a load of random words to you. But there you are.