semiramis, I have read this statement about a dozen times:

"Unfortunately none of those websites clearly answered my specific questions."

If you can explain how that says you really mean you don't want to bother to look at them because you don't have the time then I'm willing to listen. But try as I might I can't see any way to interpret that sentence except to say that you looked at them and the answers weren't there. How in the world would anyone infer from that statement that you didn't look at those websites because you didn't have the time to do so? I repeat: in the future please say what you mean.


As to looking in a mirror, I don't need to. If I'm rushed and don't have the time and need information in a hurry I would postn saying "I'm rushed and don't have the time and need information in a hurry. . ." not pretend something else. There's really nothing wrong with saying you don't have the time to do the work --- it was your pretending you did look at them and the information wasn't there that bothers me. Honesty is a wonderful thing to try sometime.

Thanks for saying I'm an interesting person. Yes, it is rare these days to find someone who says what they mean -- I always try to do that -- sorry if that goes against your style.

Neopolitan:
Politeness,helpfulness kindness are good qualities too - too bad you are unfamiliar with them

I'm always kind, polite, and helpful to those who are honest, kind, and polite with their questions.

I will readily admit those qualities often disappear with me once I find out that people are "toying" with us.

If you re-read my first post (which was kind and polite) you will even see that I mentioned I would have looked up the specific questions for you (just being helpful)-- except that you never gave us the specific dates or days of the week, so I couldn't. Did you read that (or were you too busy?) And my comment about a new computer was meant as humor because at the time I really couldn't understand why you couldn't find those answers in the three very complete links given to you. I had already gone to the trouble of surfing them myself in an effort to help you out and had found all the information -- but it was much too much to post without knowing the specific dates or days.

Your "sense of humour" and mine do not agree. I thought my questions were politely phrased. Other people were kind enough to try to help and even though I was not able to get my questions answered immediately - their HELP was appreciated. Your SARCASM was simply uncalled for and unkind. I am so sorry that my friends have not communicated the exact details like specific dates when they intend to to to go to IOW but they do not intend to make that decision until they get to the U.K.
I deeply regret that am trying to research Edinburgh and IOW and Vancouver at the same time. I have been to Edinburgh and was able to get lots of info from websites I was familiar with without coming to the board. Unfortunately I am TOTALLY unfamilar with the area around Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight - as anyone with imagination can see this makes looking at train schedules challenging. At first I was not even sure if Portsmouth was the correct port to look at (probably why I keep getting it confused with Southhampton). And I had no idea there was both a hovercraft AND a catamaran. Also I am unfamiliar with Croydon. As someone pointed out I could not even spell it right. Crawley and Horley I have some small knowledge of.
Re: "toying" The only one doing any
"toying" here is YOU. You have provided NO help and gone out of your way to be insulting. I have to research my Vancouver stuff now - so I am going to ignore you - feel free to find someone else to be rude to.
However if any of the people who actually tried to help have any more info, I will be checking here occasionally.

I am truly sorry you cannot understand that the ONLY reason I was rude is that you were not being honest with us by saying that those sites did not have the answer when the truth was you didn't want or have the time to read them. Again, there was nothing rude from me until after that.

That's OK, I realize you either won't understand or else you just don't want to admit the truth -- I'm not sure which it is.

Incidentally I know you are busy, but if you have the time you might want to look at a thread on the US forum about "why all the deception in recent posts". You will find that others agree that it makes a lot more sense to just be honest if they really want help.

Neopolitan:
One last comment: it is only in your very negative interpretation that I was dishonest. I NEVER said those sites did NOT have the answers to my questions. I said and I quote:
"Unfortunately none of these websites CLEARLY answered my SPECIFIC questions". And they did NOT answer my SPECIFIC questions - yes after a some digging and following some useful suggestions and some additional research the answers to questions 1 and 2 could be found with the help of these websites. However question 3 requires an OPINION - which someone was kind enough to provide. I am encouraging my friends to try to get to Portsmouth from East Croydon rather than going all the way into London.
And question 4 is also essentially an OPINION question - since it relates to question 3.
Your self-rightous "contribution" was rudeness and discouragement. Others were encouraging and helped me to de-frazzle enough to think my way through a few things.