Early Risers.

[edcayton]

Just heard on the news that an American has been shot by her dog called.......Trigger!

 

Ed

[Robert]

Welcome back Debs - Hope you are well on the road to recovery.

[NGT6 1315]

So good to see you back aboard, Debs! Wishing you well and I hope it'll remain onwards and upwards now.

 

 

(OK chaps...........don't mention the trains)

 

But, please, may I mention trams? Pleeeeease… 

[lightengine]

Todays good news announcement http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34646434

[Ian Abel]

Not posted for a few days, busy driving/moving Jemma, and WAAAYYYYY too many pages to look back on, so commiserations and congratulations as appropriate

 

Very uneventful but LONG journey Saturday and Sunday covering around 850 miles. Not that bad other than the fact that the last 300 miles from somewhere in North Dakota to BIllings Montana, the land/road is significantly up hill and down dale - beautiful countryside, but the truck had some serious speed differentials on the uphills. Sometimes dropping to about 65mph at best.

Rather tiring especially since there is no cruise control on the truck. Arrived mid-Sunday and got everything unloaded.

Worked all day Monday and will be same today, whilst Mrs and Jemma do the unpacking  and arranging. Wednesday I get a rental car and we drive back to Minnesota.

 

Enjoy the start of the week everyone.

[The Lurker]

Loads of ways from Dorking to Rochdale

 

Metrolink from Rochdale to Manchester airport

 

Google maps gave me this

 

10:40 – 13:50

Manchester (MAN) – Philadelphia (PHL)

American 735 · Airbus A330

Average legroom (79 cm)

Often delayed by 30+ min

 

8h 10m

In-seat USB power

On-demand video

No Wi-Fi

 

 

 

Layover in Philadelphia PHL

6h 55m

 

 

 

 

20:45 – 22:32

Philadelphia (PHL) – Charlotte (CLT)

American 2005 · Airbus A319

Average legroom (79 cm)

 

 

1h 47m

Wi-Fi

Stream to your device

No in-seat power

 

 

 

 

Layover in Charlotte CLT Overnight

9h 18m

 

 

 

 

07:50+1 – 10:57+1

Charlotte (CLT) – Montego Bay (MBJ)

American 668 · Airbus A319

Average legroom (79 cm)

 

 

3h 07m

Stream to your device

No Wi-Fi

No in-seat power

 

Isn't the interweb wonderful.

 

How did we ever manage beforehand

 

but we did.

My old man's first job in the mid 50s was with Thomas Cook doing exactly this sort of thing - booking travel on the trains of Europe. Even now he can recount some of the timetables and connections.

[roundhouse]

My old man's first job in the mid 50s was with Thomas Cook doing exactly this sort of thing - booking travel on the trains of Europe. Even now he can recount some of the timetables and connections.

 

Those were they days when i used to go into travel agents and ask for a flight that wasn't direct so I could stop over. It would depend on each airlines flight restrictions as to whether it could be done free or not.

 

Flight centres were a little more used to it but it did throw them some times as most normal people want to go as direct as possible.

[lightengine]

I used to love looking through the Thomas Cook International railway timetable working out a new trip.

[Jock67B]

Morning All,

 

I hope that you all had a good weekend.  My absence over the past few days was due to a short break in the Allgäu - it is a part of Germany that I haven't been to before.

 

We had a very nice weekend down there, apart from being stopped by Bavaria's finest for being a little too fast through one of the villages.  I was more annoyed with myself that anything else to be honest.  It was around 2km from our destination, and I completely missed a 30kph sign - there was no earthly rhyme or reason for a reduction in the speed limit - but that's no excuse.  I was doing 50kph in a 30 limit - end of story.  It is the first time that I have ever been stopped for speeding - but I got away with a 35€ fine, and escaped points.

 

On Friday, we visited Schloss Neuschwanstein - which is worth seeing - but incredibly touristy.  I have never seen so many Japanese!  We didn't go into either of the castles, but had a walk around the area and saw them from the outside.  It is quite expensive to get in, and you only get half an hour to look around.  The guides keep everyone moving, and photography is forbidden.  A new group is let in every five minutes, so you can't spend any longer than five minutes in a single room.  We decided that getting on the conveyor belt wasn't really worth it.

 

On Saturday and Sunday, we did some walking - down in the valley on Saturday, and up in the mountains on Sunday.  We took the chair lift up to around 1000m and then walked up to around 1500m.

 

Yesterday we drove back (avoiding getting stopped) and this morning I am back in the office.

 

Have a good day everyone...

Afternoon Robert,

I was sorry to read about the level of commercialism that you experienced at 'Neuschwanstein'. As a lifelong lover of Wagner's music, I decided to tour the various castles built by his major patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria ( known as the mad King amongst other things!). Ludwig was passionate about supporting Wagner and his music, and many feel that he saw himself as a 'Lohengrin' or 'Siegfried'. He was even more passionate about building his 'fairy tale' castles, apparently inspired by a visit, when he was young, to 'Wartburg' in Eisenbach. As well as 'Neuscwanstein' mentioned by Robert, which is probably the best known and most photographed (It has appeared in many films, TV programmes and almost certainly inspired Disney's fairy tale castles!), he also built the 'Linderhof' in South West Bavaria. This was the smallest of his palaces and the only one he lived to see finished and is worth a visit by those that like the 'over the top' Rococo style. The gardens contained several features from Wagner's operas. In addition, he began building a replica of Versailles as a tribute to Louis XIV, the 'Sun King', who he very much admired.This was called 'Herrenchiemsee' and was situated in the dramatic setting of the 'Herrensee Island' on Lake Chiemsee' in Bavaria. Construction stopped on Ludwig's mysterious death by drowning which has sparked many conspiracy theories over the years. He was also responsible for the 'Münchner Residenz Palace', the former Royal Palace of the Kings of Bavaria, which takes up a fair acreage of the city of Munich and is largely open to the public. There were further plans for at least three other palaces which hadn't left the drawing board by the time of his demise! His desire to spend so much on all these buildings almost certainly drove his enemies to have him first deposed, and then (it is suggested) disposed of!

I am rather upset to read that I almost certainly couldn't afford to repeat that tour which was taken many years ago (not that I'm fit to in any case!) now, and from what Robert reported, I'm not certain I'd want to. For anyone who likes visiting palaces/castles however. Each in its way is breathtaking!

Sorry to have taken you on a trek along my memory way - easy to get carried away when the memory is triggered by a comment from an ER! Thank you for awakening the dormant knowledge Robert.

Kind regards,

Jock.

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

Well we went out, had a snack, and shopped and collected spectacles (and ordered another pair) and made our way home.  Easy peasy, however enroute homewards we passed a strong smell of gas, implying a leakage of said substance, so on arrival home herself duly 'phones the number to which one needs to report a gas leak; I do not advise anyone to undertake this lightly as it would seem the National Grid employ cockwombles of the highest order (or should that be the lowest order).

 

One would have thought the 'on-Thames' bit in the place name would have given the person on the other end a slight clue, after all his accent didn't suggest he was even from the Sub-Continent let alone in it.  So his first question  'whereabouts in Suffolk is that?' gave a good indication of how things would carry on.  Regrettably since I was a lad one of the street names that identifies the location has changed but the other one hasn't - but could he find it, er no?  Odd that as one would have thought the name 'Church Street' would give a clue.  He then asked for a Postcode - does he think we know the postcode of every house we pass on our way from the town; should we order a gazetteer of Postcodes so that our walks will be better informed over the better part of a mile?

 

So I had a go - stage 1 was, eventually, to get him looking at the same online map as me - that took a couple of goes - but in the end we got there although it doesn't help that Google Maps has an error and shows a road junction which isn't there on their latest large scale version.

 

Then we descended into sheer call centre farce. He asked if we were near the suspected leak 'no, half a mile away'.  You are reminded not to smoke or use naked light near the suspected leak -'we live half a mile from it'.  And don't operate any electrical equipment 'we are at home, half a mile from the place where we smelt gas'.  Talk about working off a script - dumbo man no more had a sense of humour than he did any knowledge of geography.

 

So boys & girls if you smell gas anywhere while you're out for a walk don't forget to knock on the door of the nearest house and ask what their Postcode is.    I wonder what would have happened if we'd given him an OS grid reference?

[Tony_S]

Evening all.

We got to Southend Airport. All very pleasant. The plane seems to spend longer taxiing about at the airports than it does in the air on this trip!

Then a train from the airport and a short stroll to the hotel. We could have got a tram but it wasn't raining. In fact it was rather warm. We were hours early for the hotel check in but they had a room ready which was nice. The hotel building is only six months old as a hotel but it was the printing works and office for a newspaper previously.

We had a walk round for a couple of hours, ate lunch in a "typical" cafe and wandered back to the hotel and had an early dinner.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Van Gogh museum. We will be seeing Matthew in Utrecht on Thursday.

Tony

[roundhouse]

Evening all.

We got to Southend Airport. All very pleasant. The plane seems to spend longer taxiing about at the airports than it does in the air on this trip!

Then a train from the airport and a short stroll to the hotel. We could have got a tram but it wasn't raining. In fact it was rather warm. We were hours early for the hotel check in but they had a room ready which was nice. The hotel building is only six months old as a hotel but it was the printing works and office for a newspaper previously.

We had a walk round for a couple of hours, ate lunch in a "typical" cafe and wandered back to the hotel and had an early dinner.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Van Gogh museum. We will be seeing Matthew in Utrecht on Thursday.

Tony

Amsterdam airport is odd in that the runways are a long way from the terminals. Our flight last Fridqy had a 1 hour 20 gate to gate time but only 40 minutes in the air!

[Killybegs]

I used to love looking through the Thomas Cook International railway timetable working out a new trip.

 

I did that back in 1985. Istanbul to Cheltenham  via Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Vienna, Venice, Milan, Paris and London. Took three weeks, stopping off along the way. Travelling through the Eastern European countries was 'interesting' as they were still behind the 'iron curtain' and boarder guards were not used to two tourists arriving without an Intourist guide/minder. It did get a bit hairy at times!

 

Back to today. Just walked the dogs down to the pier, another glorious sunset and another high tide. Flat calm sea just lapping over the top of the pier.

 

[bluebottle]

Jock - I've never been inside any of King Ludwig's castles, but I've been outside quite a few glasses of his beer.

 

              Mmmm...

[bluebottle]

I used to love looking through the Thomas Cook International railway timetable working out a new trip.

 

I've just received a booklet: "Changes to your bus services in North Sheffield from 1 November 2015." That'll keep me occupied for a while.

[Tony_S]

... Travelling through the Eastern European countries was 'interesting' as they were still behind the 'iron curtain' and boarder guards were not used to two tourists arriving without an Intourist guide/minder. It did get a bit hairy at times!

 

 

Not quite Eastern Europe but long before Schengen we were on the train to Milan and just after Stresa the compartment door is flung open and a uniformed chap comes in and snaps out an order, while his dog handler and a chap with some sort of machine pistol give us "glares". The Chinese family opposite us looked scared. I responded slightly differently. The border guard seemed very amused and enquired if I were English. I said yes and asked what gave me away. He replied " we come in like this", pointing at his colleagues" and you show me your tickets, just so English". Edited October 27, 2015 by Tony_S

[roundhouse]

Jock - I've never been inside any of King Ludwig's castles, but I've been outside quite a few glasses of his beer.

 

Koenig_Ludwig_Dunkel 2.jpg Mmmm...

Drinking that on draft last Saturday evening in Aachen. Rather nice beer. Edited October 27, 2015 by roundhouse

[NGT6 1315]

Then we descended into sheer call centre farce. He asked if we were near the suspected leak 'no, half a mile away'.  You are reminded not to smoke or use naked light near the suspected leak -'we live half a mile from it'.  And don't operate any electrical equipment 'we are at home, half a mile from the place where we smelt gas'.  Talk about working off a script - dumbo man no more had a sense of humour than he did any knowledge of geography.

I have a feeling this may be due to line managers in this business being allowed to (legally or not) listen in to recorded customer conversations to ensure "quality of service," with the implication of dressing down any footman who dares deviate from the script by as much as one iota. A sure way of ensuring employee motivation, obviously...

[BoD]

She is mad keen on giraffes............

Just need to find somewhere that does such a thing involving those particular creatures.

I'm sure Ann Summers would have something suitable.

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.

 

is there anything Jock doesn't know about?  

 

Busy day at work again, dealing with security compliance issues for card payment handling - some of these organisations don't deserve to exist....farcical.  Dealing with someone from the Indian sub-continent trying to speak in an Irish accent was just about the final straw!  Still, compliance guaranteed for another year......despite their best efforts to make me walk away.    I'd love to name them, but had better not.

[emt_911]

There are times when I shouldn't write what I think. Asking for an early finish resulted in getting home much later than usual.

 

Jock - What is posted by yourself is not moaning. It's purely informing us of the current situation. Please keep updating us.

 

Debs - Great to see you back

[Simon G]

Afternoon all,

 

Well we went out, had a snack, and shopped and collected spectacles (and ordered another pair) and made our way home.  Easy peasy, however enroute homewards we passed a strong smell of gas, implying a leakage of said substance, so on arrival home herself duly 'phones the number to which one needs to report a gas leak; I do not advise anyone to undertake this lightly as it would seem the National Grid employ cockwombles of the highest order (or should that be the lowest order).

 

One would have thought the 'on-Thames' bit in the place name would have given the person on the other end a slight clue, after all his accent didn't suggest he was even from the Sub-Continent let alone in it.  So his first question  'whereabouts in Suffolk is that?' gave a good indication of how things would carry on.  Regrettably since I was a lad one of the street names that identifies the location has changed but the other one hasn't - but could he find it, er no?  Odd that as one would have thought the name 'Church Street' would give a clue.  He then asked for a Postcode - does he think we know the postcode of every house we pass on our way from the town; should we order a gazetteer of Postcodes so that our walks will be better informed over the better part of a mile?

 

So I had a go - stage 1 was, eventually, to get him looking at the same online map as me - that took a couple of goes - but in the end we got there although it doesn't help that Google Maps has an error and shows a road junction which isn't there on their latest large scale version.

 

Then we descended into sheer call centre farce. He asked if we were near the suspected leak 'no, half a mile away'.  You are reminded not to smoke or use naked light near the suspected leak -'we live half a mile from it'.  And don't operate any electrical equipment 'we are at home, half a mile from the place where we smelt gas'.  Talk about working off a script - dumbo man no more had a sense of humour than he did any knowledge of geography.

 

So boys & girls if you smell gas anywhere while you're out for a walk don't forget to knock on the door of the nearest house and ask what their Postcode is.    I wonder what would have happened if we'd given him an OS grid reference?

This reminds me when I reported a water leak in our road a few years back. The water was actually gushing out to a height of about a foot, then running down and threatening to wash a neighbour's garden away. I called United Utilities to be informed that they could not act on my report until it was corroborated by another person. I told them that there was absolutely no doubt about the leak, but they were adamant. I then went next door and got a different neighbour to also report it. I then went and built a small dam to route the water away from the neighbour's garden until UU came and fixed the leak.

 

Nice warm day here so I gave the lawn its last cut of the year, and having finished, I was absolutely roasting. No 2 son has just come home for the funeral of his good friend who passed away a couple of weeks ago. Because the friend was very sporting, we will be wearing rugby tops for the funeral service, which will be a first for us.

[lightengine]

I'm sure Ann Summers would have something suitable.

I thought Ann Summers forte was rabbits!

[AndyID]

I thought Ann Summers forte was rabbits!

 

Wasn't that Glenn Close?

[lightengine]

Wasn't that Glenn Close?

It was pretty close. I think Glenn Close is unadopted.