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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wish that a Stranger would give me unsolicited advice

254 replies

Jemima232 · 08/06/2019 12:02

Having read a lot of threads this morning about HVs, retired dentists and Random Strangers giving unwanted advice about fizzy drinks, I am devastated that this has never happened to me.

Why have I been Left Out?

OP posts:
Original poster
Jemima232 · 12/06/2019 18:11

@Spongeface

Aha. So you, too, live within the catchment area of West Coast Motors?

My suitcase was (naturally) in the luggage hold, and as I did not wish to travel in the luggage hold, I was forced to the conclusion that I would have to travel with the rest of the lager-swilling Scots.

It was unfortunate but entirely necessary.

OP posts:
Original poster
Jemima232 · 12/06/2019 18:13

Yes, SingingLily, West Coast Motors' vehicles do indeed have an onboard toilet.

Maybe this will encourage more readers of MN to move to Argyll & Bute?

OP posts:
Spongeface · 12/06/2019 18:20

@Jemima232 I can only dream of living where west coast motors go! But holiday in the area whenever I can... And had a horrible journey on mull once where the connecting bus had to be called back to get me and other passengers because it got bored waiting for us on the way to Calgary.
Lager swilling is actually how I travel when I can get away with it ;) helps pass time!
Trip to Oban next month but I'm going to take the fear out the journey and drive..

Original poster
Jemima232 · 12/06/2019 18:40

@Spongeface

DH and I have never made it to Mull as the ferry is so expensive.

OP posts:
SingingLily · 12/06/2019 18:55

Lager swilling is actually how I travel when I can get away with it ;) helps pass time!

@CreakingKnees, I think Spongeface might have inadvertently identified a business opportunity for you. Get in there before someone else spots it.

Meanwhile, I am seriously impressed that there is a bus service from Mull to Calgary. That's nearly 4000 miles. Now I understand why onboard toilets are a design feature on Scottish buses. Stopping for a comfort break mid-Atlantic just wouldn't work.

Original poster
Jemima232 · 12/06/2019 19:01

Lager-swilling louts do give a lot of unsolicited advice, to be fair.

("Gauna no' get aff the bus" being one which springs to mind instantly.)

OP posts:
Original poster
Jemima232 · 12/06/2019 21:45

@SingingLIly

You have given me a good deal of advice on this thread.

For your next holiday destination can I suggest Argyll & Bute.

We have a large cupboard spare bedroom and only charge £35 pppn B & B.

Breakfast is cooked by DH our highly qualified on-site chef and there is entertainment laid on - me, playing the kazoo our splendid grand piano.

Inbox me for full details and my real charges which are ludicrously high

OP posts:
Original poster
Jemima232 · 12/06/2019 21:47

And of course, we provide as many soft, luxurious towels as you wish a couple of skanky old things fit only for the charity shop

OP posts:
Original poster
Jemima232 · 12/06/2019 21:49

All MumsNetters receive a discount, too!

Roll up, roll up!

We have excellent transport links there is one bus a week and for an additional ten pounds you can see the actual suitcase for yourselves

OP posts:
Spongeface · 12/06/2019 22:19

@singinglily a lovely bus journey that would be...at least a 10 canner!

(Calgary in mull;)

Spongeface · 12/06/2019 22:21

@jemima232 I would be tempted for my next trip - with the addition of a suitcase to view!

SingingLily · 12/06/2019 23:11

Calgary in mull;)

😲I didn't even know they'd moved it! Hasn't this left a bit of a chasm-y hole in Alberta? And what are they using instead to prop up the foothills of the Rockies? If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: those Mullonians will pinch anything that's not nailed down.

Why, oh why, can't people just leave things alone?

Walkamileinmyshoesbeforeujudge · 12/06/2019 23:18

Mull is amazing. Calgary is beautiful. Am packing to stay in your beautiful place. Cupboard or not.

Original poster
Jemima232 · 13/06/2019 00:23

@Spongeface

The suitcase will be on show at the Argyll & Bute County Fayre 2019 (Very Large Luggage Section) You would be most welcome but not if you were ratfaced after drinking ten cans

OP posts:
Original poster
Jemima232 · 13/06/2019 00:26

@Walkamileinmyshoesbeforejudge

Will you be claiming the MN discount? your breakfast will be similarly discounted

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TheGrapefulDread · 13/06/2019 00:44

I think you need to burr a can size hole in that capacious suitcase’s top and insert a divider, push all your vacation necessities to one side and live the high life off the proceeds of the aluminium acquired on the trip.

Treeshadow · 13/06/2019 01:06

When my DDog was a DPuppy she used to get admired by strangers all the time, who would often tell me that they/their mum/their nana used to have one the same breed, aren't they lovely? Then they would say "It died." Then they would tell me how it died. Then they would tell me all the ways mine might die.

This would happen at least once or twice every walk. Ddog is still not dead.

Spongeface · 13/06/2019 17:39

I have just seen that you haven't been to mull! Don't remember the journey costing a lot as a foot passenger... Could be to do with the wetherspoons at the harbour. Maybe I stowed away. You could do so in the suitcase?

Original poster
Jemima232 · 13/06/2019 22:30

Spongeface, Spongeface

DH would have to lug me aboard the MV Catriona (or whatever) within the suitcase, wouldn't he.

And we'd have to get to Oban from our wee village in the first place.

So we'd need the car. And there would be little point going all the way to Mull in a boat and then not have the car with us so that we could drive round it.

Savvy?

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Spongeface · 15/06/2019 23:52

@Jemima232 very very true- but then you would miss the magic of the west coast motors bus on mull. But you can live with that :) one day... Tbh tho Barra is much better so if you are making a sacrifice make it worth it :)
West coast best coast

Original poster
Jemima232 · 16/06/2019 15:31

Aye Spongeface - who cares if all we have to recommend us is midges and rain?

We have West Coast Motors FFS.

OP posts:
SingingLily · 07/11/2019 08:24



chemenger · 07/11/2019 08:34

Way back in this thread there was something about Glasgow bus queues. The last time I was in a Glasgow bus queue my (welsh) friend, who was drinking a can of coke, was asked for “a skoosh o’ yer ginger, hen” which she was very alarmed about. She did not give the lad a sip of her cola. On the same trip she believed she was being car jacked when someone tapped on the window of her car to say they were about to vacate a parking space that she could have. The Glasgow accent is a tricky one for the Welsh apparently.

StoatofDisarray · 07/11/2019 08:50

A few years ago I was advised to take more exercise rather than take antidepressants by a work colleague. For context she is six feet tall, 30 ish and as slim as a whippet. I am a sturdy 5 feet 4, in my late 40s and was lifting so much I was the strongest woman in my gym. Plus I was taking the antidepressants because I was undergoing therapy for having been raped by my father and a group of his friends from the age of 7 to about 14. But all she saw was a thickset old woman who was sometimes a bit sad. Fuck off, Ludmilla!

snowball28 · 07/11/2019 08:59

On holiday last week for the entire bus ride home from Disney there sweet looking old lady behind us bitched and complained in Cantonese about how my son didn’t have socks on, and apparently it’s far too cold and I am a rubbish mum etc then gets up and starts trying to pull my rucksack off my back! I presume to hunt for socks . .

Weirdo.

It was 31 degrees ffs and we are English through to the bone we were all, baby included melting 😂 I took his socks off cause they loose heat through their feet and he was far far too hot

Fuck old old lady