Kevinmc

Yo, Create a fresh post, or the Bristol Flyers might miss it Ryanair ain't TGV

There are lots of people using the race card. I was living in Bristol last year and there was a Polish guy there whose english was perfect, so he ran a service for other Poles, filling in official forms, dealing with landlords etc. He had a client who couldn't get his deposit back from a landlord. Solution - a racial harressment report to the police, pressure came to bear and problem solved. Interestingly, he's gone back to Poland now. In 2 years he'd seen the exchange rate go from 7 zlotys to 4 zlotys to the pound and england no longer held the same financial appeal.   

Thery're maintaining an up to the minute status report at  http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/  

Check out this promo http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/promo/tgvsept08/?autp=TGV-AP-WWen-TGVSept08   Hopefully there's a few tickets left

So if they don't rely on GPS, how do they know where they are when you switch on ?

Sadly I was infected with something similar a few months ago and I found the simplest (but quiet time consuming) solution was a rebuild of my laptop, using the recovery disk.   

Talking of Moscow, I was reading a freebie english language version of a Russian newspaper on Aeroflot, and the authorities there are refusing to let people leave Russia until they've settled their debts. There was a guy who'd served his time, but the courts had also made a compensation payment to his victim. Until he'd settled it, he couldn't leave

Probably because when they learnt to drive, there were no roundabouts. Americans have the same problem when they drive in Europe - no concept of roundabouts - but they're great at giving way in turn at crossroads and obeying stop signs 

Well, they're still showing bookings through the early winter. Though that won't stop them cancelling the route. Strange that MOL says in the report that Stansted is their most expensive airport, when the fees for the flights from there are £26.85 and the fees from Liverpool are £30.59. I'd be intrigued to see an investigation of the credit/debit charges too. I can't believe the banks are charging them so much when someone like Purple Parking only levies on £0.99 charge, even on amex.

They get extremely hot and will shut down if you use them on your lap, thereby blocking the ventilation - as I had to explain to my daughter when hers did precisely that

Well it did in cumbria - all day long. Had the lights on most of the day, it was that dark. But then I did choose to live there

Is Geneva too far to go ? I think Easyjet do both Malaga and alicante from there

There is an area that you take odd sized shaped baggage to. Unfortunately, the only time I used it, they were filling the luggage tag in by hand. I was going to Groningen in the Netherlands, which is code GRQ, but my roof bars went to Girona, which is code GRO. There were 3 of us on that flight who were seperated from our luggage and apparently it had been going on for a month. Maybe that's why Ryanair don't fly to Groningen any more. I never did get my roof bars back.  

Ah, but chef isn't a terrorist threat - unlike little old me with my killer nail clippers. I'm finding T5 to be pretty good at the moment, but that will all change when the kiddies go back to school  

It's hard to do any damage with the metal cutlery thay supply these days. I guage meat restauraunts by their rib eye, so for the novelty, and because I had time, I tried the Gordon Ramsay at Heathrow terminal 5. I was given metal cutlery, but the blade was tiny and wouldn't cut butter. When I asked for a steak knife I got the usual security excuse. Thankfully the steak didn't need it, though it was nothing special.    I've been through 2 UK airports this week with a tube of toothpaste and 2 sets of the offensive nail clippers in my cabin luggage and there's been no reaction. Could common sense be returning !!

[quote user="freddy"] As an example if you are a office first aider in the UK and you have a diabetic collegue it is fine for you to administer insulin in an emergency as long as it has been prescribed by a doctor and you have discussed it, and got permisssion, with the person first. [/quote] Are you sure about that ? As a non insulin dependent diabetic, husband/partner of an insulin dependent diabetic for 33 years and father of an insulin dependent diabetic for 22 years, I can think of absolutely no circumstances in which the response to a diabetic emergency is the administration of insulin. Invariably the opposite is true when control is lost and the administration of glucose is the solution. I know it looks good on the telly or in a film, but please don't attempt to help a diabetic by adminestering insulin      

One way hire doesn't work very well as most hire companies are franchisees who own their own pool of vehicles and you end up paying a premium for someone to drive it back for them. I invested in a small people carrier, a Zafira in my case, which fits a duel purpose. It's amazing what you can get in them and if you add a roof box.......

On a couple of occassions I've seen people at the gate explaining to the ryanair crew that they checked in online, so why did they need to print anything !! Seems that security at the scanner were only checking that the individuals were not a security threat, not that they had a ticket for the flight. Rather undermines the whole point of online check-in. Another oddity of Limoge security - I was travelling with someone who had a small pair of nail clippers in their baggage. Security snapped the little metal nail file portion off and gave them the rest of the clippers back.    

Years ago, there used to always be a big line of hitchers at the start of the M1 near Staple Corner and I would invariably stop to pick up the first one/s in the queue. Didn't need to bother one Friday evening, as a coach stopped and picked up everyone !!! Must have been over 30 hitchers  

I went to a really nice ceremony in Milton Keynes the other week that was a family and friends affair prior to the legal ceremomy which was being held with the bare minimum legal requirement the following Monday. It was a humanist ceremomy with most of the "script" agreed between the humanist celebrant and the couple involved. . It worked very well. Is there a humanist movement in France ?

Report in my local paper from Cumbria Tourism says bookings are up 37% on 2007 figures and with 20% shift in value against the euro compared with last year, I can't see many making the trip to France. A report in the papers also showed car hire in France to be one of the most expensive in Europe.     

I've got a sky box providing all the free to air channels and fancied HD for the Euro football. Spoke to the guy in a supermarket and explained that i don't have a landline, I've been mobile only for years. He said it was no longer from Sky. Costed up the subscription charges to get sky HD and it just didn't add up. So I bought a Grundig HD Freesat box. Absolute joy to use I and I don't need to page through all the unavailable sky channels any more. Guy in comet said freesat sales are superb. Lots of ex Sky customers realising that freesat meets their viewing needs at a fraction of the cost. I suspect Sky will feel the impact over the next year or so and adjust their prices accordingly.   strangely, when buying the freesat box, I wasn't asked for address details so that the TV licencing people could send me yet another draconian demand to buy a licence - I've already got one        

Thanks Clair, I'll keep monitoring the service providers until they come up with a PAYG. They'll see the demand from their European soon enough and make the service available Kevin

In the UK I use a dongle to access the internet. It's basically another SIM card that provides me with 3mb of G3 (where available) data for £15 a month. They're now starting to become available as Pay As You Go too. Are any of the french mobile networks offering a similar Pay As You Go service. It would be much more convenient for me than travelling to the nearest Mc Ds for free access.

Not really, I've seen 0.3 and 0.4 difference between two Ecomarche's not 15km apart.