Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 04:35 29 Mar 2024
- Bus plunges off South Africa bridge, killing 45
* Easter getaway begins with flood alerts in place
- Easter travel warning as millions set to hit roads
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
29th Mar (1913)
Foundation of National Union or Railwaymen (*)

Train RunningCancelled
07:00 Bedwyn to Newbury
07:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
08:13 Newbury to Bedwyn
08:46 Bedwyn to Newbury
09:54 Bedwyn to Newbury
10:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
11:29 Newbury to Bedwyn
11:57 Bedwyn to Newbury
12:52 Bedwyn to Newbury
Short Run
04:54 Plymouth to London Paddington
05:12 Reading to Bedwyn
05:33 Plymouth to London Paddington
05:55 Plymouth to London Paddington
06:00 Bedwyn to London Paddington
06:37 Plymouth to London Paddington
07:03 London Paddington to Paignton
08:35 Plymouth to London Paddington
10:35 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids
Delayed
21:45 Penzance to London Paddington
23:45 London Paddington to Penzance
05:03 Penzance to London Paddington
06:05 Penzance to London Paddington
07:10 Penzance to London Paddington
08:03 London Paddington to Penzance
08:15 Penzance to London Paddington
09:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
09:37 London Paddington to Paignton
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
11:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 29, 2024, 04:53:14 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[98] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[97] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[86] Return of the BRUTE?
[74] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[53] If not HS2 to Manchester, how will traffic be carried?
[23] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1]
  Print  
Author Topic: Travelogue observations - 29th September 2019 - people  (Read 2598 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« on: September 29, 2019, 12:58:40 »

Peter is a hard working wage earner who speaks 5 languages and is actively learning a sixth.  Luis is a bright gentleman who lost his job when his industry shrank, and he took the difficult decision to work away from home for months on end to support his wife and family, to whom he sends money he's earned; he speaks with them as and when he can, and looks forward to visits home.  My goodness me – I feel so luck in the job and roles I've in that I've been able to be home and family based, and to enjoy what I have done; it certainty is possible to get an element of enjoyment out of performing / completing any task to a high standard, but I question whether it's really fulfilling in the medium or long term.

Peter comes from Kerala in southern India, and Louis from Goa. Peter works clearing and wiping down tables in the buffet seating on board this boat – the "Aurora" - which has been home to Lisa and me for the past four weeks.  Luis is our cabin steward - "room service" and more - of the very things we would do for ourselves at home. The theory goes that we ask him or Peter to jump and they do, or if unclear on what we're looking for, they ask "how high".  But Peter and Luis are in that position / role accident of birth and not for any other reason - first and foremost they're people just like you and I.

Comment was made in following up an earlier writing in this series on the contrast between the metrics of the staff and the passengers. Yes - looking around in the "Crow's Nest" from which I am writing, the passengers are pretty well exclusively retired British couples and (further) of Great Britain ethnic origin. On a 30 day cruise, the difference in age profile is only to be expected; getting a month off is pretty darned difficult anywhere in the world during your working life, and if you can at a time you still have plenty of energy, would you choose to spend a succession of days that long being "busy doing nothing?".  The ethnic mix is, frankly, a bit of an embarrassment.   I have nothing against people going away for a holiday and others waiting on them to do what they would normally do for themselves when at home - heck, we ran a hotel, with staff, changing and making beds and preparing and providing breakfast which the guests would normally have done for themselves at home.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
MVR S&T
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 438


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2019, 22:15:19 »

Hope your hotel was run better than a certain one in Torquay, even then they had a spanish waiter. so the idea of using cheap imported labour was not new.
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40690



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2019, 22:35:33 »

Hope your hotel was run better than a certain one in Torquay, even then they had a spanish waiter. so the idea of using cheap imported labour was not new.

I would clearly be biased in our own favour as to how we ran it!
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page