General Chat

Visiting rellies in the wilds not so very far from Edmonton ( using "not far" in the Canadian sense of the word ) I dd not notice pay phones dotted around the prairie at convenient intervals. I did notice that outside of urban areas mobile phone coverage is next to non existent.

Canada is why they invented aeroplanes. Along with Australia neither country could exist without them. Before aeroplanes Canadians used to shout very loudly. Monty Python's lumberjack song reminds us of that.

Maybe Google's idea of balloon communications had Canada in mind.

Or they could all move to Vancouver or Bainbridge Island but that would involved learning Mandarin Chinese.

Im a scouser through and through and "Paddys Wigwam" has never bothered me or anyone I associate with in Liverpool......... :-D :-D Geeeeeeeeeeeeezzz

HID is a scouser and he calls it Paddys wigwam....he also has a brother in law who is a real vicar in Liverpool and he has been known to call it that.

As for phone boxes cant remember although I probably used one in Gatwick airport to call for a taxi 10 years ago when I dropped my phone down the loo whilst away

Yawn
Well, I have been on here now for 378 hours - or is it 379.618 hours?
I will have to ask my diligent PA although I must admit I do find their incessant fascination - even if totally incorrect - somewhat worrying and obsessive.

Incidentally, I rang one of my friends this morning (a lifelong Liverpudlian) to ask what locals call the Catholic cathedral.

The answer?

"Paddy's Wigwam of course. Everyone knows that!"

I don't remember the last time I saw a red telephone box (except in a friend's garden, he bought it & converted into a shower, next to the pool).

There a place near Tweed Heads that sells them, name of Red Ned's...... if you're in the UK the shipping will be horrendous lolol

The last public 'phones I have seen were grey boxes, or the ones in shopping centres with a "hood" like thing over them. Most big shopping centres (malls) have direct phone lines to taxi companies, a free call.

OH has a mobile 'phone for work, but when we go out it stays at home (unless we go far from home).

btw ~ I've got "Paddy" blood....... and I don't find the word offensive.

Calls used to cost 4d but by judicial use of tapping out the number on the receiver rest you would get connected for nothing ;-)

You should have inserted money, dialled number and pressed button A when call answered or pressed button B to get your 4d back if no answer.

I do try my best to talk tidy Dermot!!! :-D :-D

I can't remember the last time I used a public phone in a phone box. They are few and far between here in Oz. We do have public phones in shopping centres and I have often seen them in use.

Carrying pocketful of sixpences (6d) caused havoc. That's why many people walked lopsided. Anyone remember ‘Press Button A’?

AnnCardiff - you are probably right - begorrah! Talk tidy Wenglish!

:-D :-D @ Ann. The red phone box in Trebanog is hidden in undergrowth and in a very poor state. Just think - with a bit of loving care it would be worth £3,500.

John must be getting us confused Sylvs, I have been to India and Japan..

Never looked for a phone box whilst there.

We have less phone boxes than we used to over here... they probably only take credit cards now. They went from cash to phone card but I don't think we can still use phone cards.

I remember that enterprising NZers had rigged a phone box in Shepherds Bush so as they could phone home (NZ) for free it would have been in the late sixties early seventies. People would be queuing up to use it.

Persie

Tom Jones has a red telephone kiosk at his home in USA - it's the kiosk from which he used to phone his girl-friend, now wife - there's one in the garden opposite me

Can't recall when I last used a public telephone, have an idiot proof basic mobile just in case of emergencies when in my car - a fiver will last me a year or more on that

As for Paddy's Wigwam, I wouldn't know it by any other name and I certainly don't consider it to be offensive - neither do I consider Paddy to be offensive to Irish men - if someone calls me Taffy I think it's nice I can be identified by my accent which by the way is not too Welsh

And if phone booths are removed, what will vandals have to smash up - they'll have to concentrate on bus shelters alone

John ...........

India is one of the countries I have never been to .................... nor to Japan, China, or any other Asian country.

I've let OH and my daughter travel to those countries :-D

What a contrast to India, Sylvia. Think that is one of countries where you have travelled, so you will know what it is like.

Huge poverty, yet every young person seems to have a motorbike and a mobile phone. And using them all day long. And probably in most of Canada (one of richest countries in world), you still cannot get any signal.

Wales seem very good. Wonder how good Scotland is?

I think we could do away completely with the red phone boxes now, despite tradition. Vandalism gets worse it seems. Any public facility needs to be moved inside buildings like shops or garages where they can be properly secure.

John .................

we drive about 700 km to a cottage that we own ............

.......... of that distance, we can get cell reception for most of the first 200 km, then it is spotty around the 4 or 5 larger villages that we pass through. There is none at all anywhere close to the cottage

I estimate that we would get reception for about 200-250 km TOTAL during the distance

We go through or past 3 or 4 mountain ranges, and the population is sparse to say the least!

Much of Canada is like that.

I would love to have a cell phone for safety on that drive .................... but where we need the contact is precisely where there is no reception

The only way would be to buy a Satellite phone, which cost thousands of dollars, plus mucho money for each call.

Sylvia. You make a good point about phone boxes in isolated places with no mobile reception.

Think reception is pretty good in Wales, but 20 years ago I worked for a College that did a lot of work in North and Mid Wales. And my good signal from the Shropshire Plain suddenly disappeared altogether as I disappeared into the lovely scenery of N Wales. And I would be out of communication for whole day and wondering how I used to cope. Cos I never used any public phone boxes as far as I can remember.

I would phone into my office from each place I visited to pick up messages. And, in event of very occasional emergency, would walk to nearest house and ask to use their phone. It has always been my experience that, the more remote the terrain, the more helpful and friendly and trusting are the local people. Mind, the Rockies must be a very different situation to rugged N Wales hills and mountains. :-)

neither OH nor I have a cell phone

not much use here 'cos we would want it for safety when on a driving trip, and there is little cell coverage over large areas of where we drive.


So, public telephones can be a necessity for us.

we used to know it as the Rocket Launching site when I was a student in Liverpool :-D


'course that was the 1960s :-D

Just looked at those prices. £3,500 for a pillar box,same for a red phone box etc.

Ummmm. I think a nice fountain from Haddonstone might look nicer in my garden :-)

Not only prodded, Kay. It would have been forced up my delicate parts so many times that I would be singing contralto. All gone quiet on Western front. Mind, the one who was attacking the good Romish denizens of one of our major cities has been constantly posting for over 40 hours now.

And no, I have not been checking. Just can't help noticing ;-)

If you had a biggish garden, wouldn't it be fun to put these defunct pieces of street architecture in your garden. How about a bandstand in the middle, a red phone box, a pillar box and a couple of those old street lights we used to shimmy up to the "cross bar"? Now to check prices on Gwyn's site. And get a bigger garden :-) :-)