• FarceOfWill
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    2 days ago

    If you remove 1/4 of the populations jobs the uk is poor. No shit.

    Places like australia and the us really cant understand what having almost all a nation within daily travel distance of a single city means.

    • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Places like australia and the us really cant understand what having almost all a nation within daily travel distance of a single city means.

      Moving to the UK from Canada was a trip. People at work losing their mind when I say my wife and I are driving to Edinburgh from London in a oner, meanwhile the time/distance from my perspective is a reasonable expectation for a weekend camping trip.

      • MurrayL@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        London to Edinburgh is a 7-8 hour drive, right? If you’re going over the weekend then surely you’d be spending most of your time driving there or back again?

        Genuinely not trying to be combative, I just struggle to understand how you justify that as reasonable.

        • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          Economy of scale is way different. The entirety of the UK fits into British Columbia almost 4 times… https://www.comparea.org/GBR+CA_BC
          I’d happily leave work at noon on Friday, get to my camp site at 8 or 9pm. Do camping stuff Saturday, wake up hung over Sunday and be home for 8 or 9pm and be fine for Monday morning. Works better if you’ve got someone to switch out driving every few hours.

          • Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk
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            20 hours ago

            Did something similar regularly when my dad was in a 2-year death decline. Leave work on the Friday, drive up to Scotland, spend Saturday making sure he had food, etc, drive home again on Sunday. But I wouldn’t do that for funsies.

            • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
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              8 hours ago

              We moved from London to Edinburgh mid 2022. We uhhhh…have a lot of shit… Turned out cheaper to rent a small Luton van and just do multiple trips ourselves. Rental and fuel came to just under £900, hiring movers was going to be £2200 for the cheapest quote we got. I did 6 roundtrips in 5 days. It was brutal.
              Sorry about your dad mate. My wife’s dad is in a slow decline, dementia, and both my parents are in quite poor health. It’s tough, especially when they’re not close by.

              • Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk
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                7 hours ago

                Cheers, mate. My mum died a couple of years before him and he followed the same pattern as my uncle and both my grandfathers. Outlived their wives but died within two years after. Basically they all died of grief.

                My wife’s younger than me so I keep telling her I’ll outlive her!

                Anyway, I’m a plucky orphan now. I keep expecting Dickensian high jinks and a pick-pocketing mentor with a heart of gold.

                And sorry to hear about your old people. It’s tough when you get to a certain age and can see the decline. My father-in-law is suddenly massively doddery compared to how he was just this time last year.

                • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
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                  7 hours ago

                  I keep expecting Dickensian high jinks and a pick-pocketing mentor with a heart of gold.

                  Uhhhhh…mind putting in a good word for me when they turn up?

                  Yeah, it’s rough. My dad’s been on extended medical leave, in and out of hospital, but is having to consider going back to work before he’s actually appreciably better because he’s not able to afford just living on the benefits he’s receiving. If I could send money his way I would but we’re struggling ourselves, so it’s not an option on a regular basis.

          • khannie@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Wild. My best friend lives on the west coast of Ireland. It’s a 3.5 hour drive and I consider that a massive trek.

            • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
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              2 days ago

              I mean, in a way it is. But sometimes 3.5hrs doesn’t even get you from London’s ring road in the east straight through to the west side of the ring road. Bit different if you’re able to do 70mph(or the Canadian limit of 110kmph, so like…68ish?) the whole time.

              • khannie@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Yeah it’s mostly motorway for me so I’d be averaging somewhere over 80 kph for the journey as a whole. Upper limit here is 120kph but I’m rarely arsed going that fast tbh. The last bit is country roads so slow enough.

                • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
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                  1 day ago

                  Yeah, the slowest part of my last camping trip back home was getting out of Vancouver, and then the bit at the end up an old logging road.

      • FarceOfWill
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        2 days ago

        Yes people who travel that far for work use the train or fly.

        But i understand why a canadian would drive ;)

        • Sturgist@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          Yeah, if I was living in one and working in the other then I’d fly or take the train obviously. No way I’m doing that drive daily, that’s insane. But for a few days trip, no sweat.