13. Walk

We have changed our interest rates [on your savings accounts]
It's gone down

I have learnt from long experience that whenever they use the word 'change' it is usually a euphemism for 'made worse'.  If the change was instead going to be better for me they would use a positive word such as 'increase'.

You've been lucky.  My experience in recent years is that the security check can be fast and can be very slow.  So I have to allow a long time for it because I don't want to miss my flight.  It's just one of the airport processes I have to undergo and over which I don't have control.  All of this adds to my jaundiced view of flying nowadays.

Ditto for my late father.  I remember his little red booklet that was the licence getting thicker and thicker as each year a new green slip was pasted in for each annual renewal.

Other factors are the imminent end of the financial year, and when NR^» (Network Rail - home page) staff may be available to do the engineering work.

I speculate that getting needed engineering work done at a time when funding and NR staff are available (and maybe GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) staff less available) might be a compromise that has some merit.

Very likely.  For example, some of the Bristol-Worcesters today are 9-car IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) instead of 3-car 165s, and this looks to be the pattern for the other three days of the races.

Tip for those who need to call nature at Paddington: he can also be called for free at platform 1 nowadays, and I'm please to report that the venue was bright and clean when I visited on Friday morning.

I too have visited three trainless countries: Iceland, Cyprus and Greenland.  And I can recommend visiting Greenland on a cruise - the scenery is outstanding.

My personal answer would be 15 and 9.

I've included countries that I've visited for a day from a cruise ship, and I've excluded countries where I've changed planes but stayed airside and not passed through immigration.

This reminds me of the 1960s when I was a schoolboy travelling on London buses.  Most of my journeys were on the older buses, RT/RTL/RTW, and these had no heating at all.  Until latterly some of them had a small heater fitted underneath one seat at the front right of the lower deck.  Oh the delight of getting the seat behind the heater and warming my cold feet on that heater!  And then we got the luxury of an occasional journey on the new Routemasters, which had the built-in warm air heating outlets, on both decks.

6 (that is, the 8th of the pictures in this thread). Gloucester

I've just booked a ticket successfully (for the Friday).  The booking office site actually opened a few minutes after 09:00 - I thought to myself it was gently emulating a train that keeps closely to the timetable albeit not exactly, and matching my mental expectation of keeping within 5 minutes of schedule.

Credit to the organisers for finding a new ticket provider that works.

This was exactly the problem that occurred on the internal roads on the site at which I worked.  The architect had the idea that it would look more elegant to denote the pedestrian crossings by a shallow beige raised area across the road, rather than the usual black and white stripes.  The staff expected that only black and white stripes would mean a pedestrian crossing, because that was the marking they saw everywhere else.  Nobody died but there were many near misses.  Eventually management overruled the architect's idea and painted the stripes, and all was well - everybody then knew exactly what was meant and who had priority.

I haven't had a problem with Ryanair but that's because I've double-checked and triple-checked that I've jumped accurately through all their hoops regarding check-in, boarding passes, cabin baggage, hold baggage etc.  I have the impression that they make their profit from the expensive charges imposed on passengers who fail to pass precisely through a hoop.  And having to avoid this makes me feel more stressed when I fly with them.
All this said, once I'm in the air I've found the flying to be similar to other airlines, and I would consider flying with them again.

For me the tedious part about flying is the airports.  Having to set off early to allow for traffic delays - because if you miss your flight it's not usually the case that  you can get another one soon after.  At the airport itself feeling herded from one pen to the next, so many times; and the waiting at each pen.  So many stages of processing.  So many things to show at the various stages - and the worry of losing them.  Searching for the one airside water point to refill a water bottle after going through security.  Having to endure the weird smells of the 'perfumes' while trekking through the duty-free area.  The expensive catering.  Repeatedly checking for the screen that eventually shows which gate to go.  I'm feeling tired just from thinking about it.  Then there's the flight - and I admit there is 10 seconds of thrill as the pilot puts their metaphorical foot down at the start of the take-off.  Then there's all the faff of the airport at the far end ...

For me flying is to be endured not enjoyed.