and i bet they had trouble understanding him/her too.

I think it's really interesting that poor Dobby doesn't seem to have actually seen or done anything all the while spent in the mystery village.

And every time you ask a follow-up question, the description of the event morphs into something completely different.

I'm with annhig. Liverpool or somewhere near was my first thought when I read the comment about the accent (always assuming it's real, that is). But it appears not to be in the city, but quite an expensive taxi ride from an airport. I don't know if Liverpool has transatlantic flights, but if we're talking an expensive taxi ride from Manchester in the general direction of Liverpool, it's Warrington. Dobby may currently be an incidental character in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

Or it is indeed Royston Vaysey, in which case I hope he stays away from the "special" kebabs. Although, come to think of it, if it were, surely we would have heard by now about the transvestite taxi driver.

Dobby - Has anyone asked "Are you local?" yet?

if we're talking an expensive taxi ride from Manchester in the general direction of Liverpool, it's Warrington. Dobby may currently be an incidental character in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.>>

Two Pints or Early Doors, Patrick? That pub sounds familiar!

it's not surprising that Dobby was a bit coy about where s/he was staying. with all due respect to Warrington, it's not exactly somewhere to boast about staying is - no wonder it was cheap!

not sure who i'm more sorry for, Dobby or the locals.

It doesn't sound like Emmerdale, certainly. If this were 20 years ago, Brass might come to mind.

With the accents, i think maybe Essex, or has that area been eliminated already?

tarquin - I think you jest!

He mentions the George and Dragon, that should help narrow it down. It's the sort of name that someone sat by his pool in California might come up with.

I still go with that last thought, or it's cold with nothing to do in December in Canada.

I have never really believed in Dobby. It's unlikely that a person of that age would settle in a village and just sit there doing nothing. Internal clues suggest that he is British or Australian and doing a school project about online forums and reaction to trolls. We will all star in his thesis when he finishes it and I hope that he will send us a link to it.

I can totally picture him as a character on Little Britain. Perhaps talking with Vicky Pollard in the pub. "I know but... yeah, but no, but yeah..."

And why has Dobby been moved to the Lounge?

Confessed he is a troll?

Someone has decided he couldn't possibly by in Europe?

Here's something that a travel writer wrote on the nirvanas and the hellholes of traveling:

<i>We seem to just expect tons of positives to be present in published travel writing — travel writers get paid to show a peachy vision of the world — so when someone does write about the negative aspects of visiting a particular country it tends to act as a curve ball of sorts, <b>taking readers off guard, and causing many to rise up in arms and defend some place they fantasize about...</b>

10 positive reviews can not stand against one negative one...

In many ways, visiting a hellhole can be far more valuable than sitting on some nice beach dozing your days away. </i> [bolding mine]

http://www.vagabondjourney.com/trave...e-experiences/

I certainly will remember for the rest of my days that "shower stall" up in the Himalayas where half the boards were missing more than some of the best dinners I've ever had in fancy restaurants. One gains as much from negative travel experiences as from positive ones.

When we all come down to it, we have no more proof that Dobby is fake as we have proof that he is real.

"we have no more proof that Dobby is fake as we have proof that he is real."

True, but the negative experiences we're hearing about seem oddly unremarkable, apart from the absence of <i>any</i> other information that indicates it isn't a wind-up, let alone that might actually be useful to future travellers.

The OP post reminds me of... forgot the name... ArtsNletters' son :)

oh, no, not in the lounge!

Fairly interesting (but obvious) article, but I don't see any relevance to Dobby. He's negative enough, for sure, but he's certainly no travel writer.

Which is probably why he's been moved to the Lounge StCirq.

StCirq: <i>I don't see any relevance to Dobby. He's negative enough, for sure, but he's certainly no travel writer.</i>

Are you saying then that to be relevant with negative experiences the writer has to be a travel writer?


I'm neither pro nor anti Dobby. I just find his posts amusing - and even more amusing is the "taking readers off guard, and causing many to rise up in arms" to deny that anyone having negative travel experiences in GB can't be for real.

"Are you saying then that to be relevant with negative experiences the writer has to be a travel writer?"

No, but the article you referenced was entirely about travel writing.

I don't consider Dobby to be any kind of writer; that he's having negative experiences in England isn't a surprise at all to me, but they're not "negative travel experiences," as apparently he's not even traveling. He appears to stay home and whine about bills and accents and overcharges and people outside his door and "the elderly." The negativity isn't about travel; it's about his very limited world view and inability or unwillingness to adapt to anything unfamiliar.

That is, IF he's even real...