London Banter - View Single Post

tim... · August 28th 17, 03:19 PM posted to uk.transport.london

wrote in message
...
In article , (tim...)
wrote:

wrote in message
news
On Tue, 8 Aug 2017 19:57:36 +0100
"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:
Fully automatic self service petrol stations appeared in earnest in the
2000s, driven by supermarkets keen to cut costs to provide automatic
unattended fuelling at night and reduce staff needed to run the filling
station kiosk during the day. 'Pay at Pump' is now a common feature at
Tesco, Morrisons and Asda stores, with the latter having a number of
completely unattended filling stations, with just a phone to contact
the
main store if assistance is required.

Its been a common feature in France for a long time plus even the
manned
stations usually have a pump that takes cards so you don't have to go
and endure the regulation scowl from Jean-Claude when you try to pay.

Just come back from 2 weeks in France

and pay at kiosk is definitely a minority sport there now. And
evenings and Sundays, often an impossibility

(fortunately, the machines offer instructions in 4 languages -though
you can just about bluff your way through without translation -
unlike the bloody Scandinavian offerings)

I'm very disappointed that you can't understand enough French to deal with
such everyday things. Another shameful British habit.

I seem to have an inherent inability to remember more than 1 foreign
language

having (in chronological order) spent 2 years learning Italian, 6 years
learning German and 1 year in Sweden since I left school, 40 years ago

I have lost all ability that I had to communicate in French

tim