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[email protected] · August 28th 17, 04:36 PM posted to uk.transport.london

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

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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

French, Portuguese and German in my case. My problem is recalling the
vocabulary. Any overseas trip includes a crash course to catch up - French
and German most recently. A cousin of my wife's got married. He's British
and lives with his now wife and mother of their children, who is German, in
Zurich, Switzerland. So naturally they celebrated their wedding in France!

--
Colin Rosenstiel