Dilwyn Jones wrote, On 3/09/09 22:32:
Easyjet from Luton or Gatwick is currently around £50 plus, including
taxes etc.
...which is less than a train fare Bangor to London/Luton (unless I
can get my ahead around advance booking discounts)
So taking a Virgin to London is not cheap these days ;-)
(I'm talking about trains, what else did you think I was talking
about???)
Virgins of course (but with a capital letter (8-)# )
I think Urs said a return train fare between Zurich airport and
Lucerne is about £32 in our money.
Yes indeed. With two of you it might be worth hiring a car. In France I
paid only £90 or so for 6 days.
It is half that time I guess.
Beware though. They don't make it clear they charge I think £10 per hold
bag. Prices on the front page are for cabin baggage only.
Mmm. "Headline" prices are usually only the start of it with budget
airlines. Plus of course the check-in prices and all the other extras.
Baggage is the only unseen extra (if you ignore food and coffee). At
least Easyjet are not *considering* charging for the loo, unlike
Ryanair. I think they did that just for the publicity, as they withdrew
it quickly.
Mind you Argos sell a pretty good (and big) cabin bag for about £6.50. I
was surprised how large the max actually is. I immediately took off the
wheels and handle which increased capacity enormously, and reduced the
weight. I really do not want to look like an Apprentice candidate!
Thanks for that suggestion. The bag I meant, not "look like an
Apprentice candidate..."
I packed it full with tools for an job in Aberdeen, only to find at
check-in that they didn't allow most tools in the cabin, even on
internal flights (8-(#
Did they call you Tony The Terrorist by any chance???
Nothing like being stopped coming *into* the UK in a Quanta minibus. I
was with quite a dishy customs lady who was quite jovially inspecting my
bomb making equipment - wires, soldering iron, solder, detonators
(smoothing caps for Compswitch), batteries, touch switches and the like
- in my toolbox. Freddie arrived menacingly and said quite aggressively
to her in the way only Freddie can when he jokes "Why are you giving us
innocent people such grief". Suddenly she became quite a different
person. Oh dear, Freddie!!!
Mind you that was nothing to my return from one US QL show - urmm it
might have been after a working trip building Bill Cable's workshop
extension. I was in JFK some 9 months after 911 I went through
check-in as normal, and walked to security. As I approached a
remembered I had forgotten to consign my trusty Opinel (penknife) to the
hold. I saw a sign saying laptops must be put in a tray. I took a tray
and went back to a table. I removed the laptop from the case, and
idiotically (with hindsight) took my penknfe out of my pocket (inside my
palm) and put it under the maze of wires and power supply in the now
emptier laptop case. That got through fine, but they were inspecting the
contents of my hand baggage. "Ahah here it is" - my scissors inside
the "band aid". I acted sad to the dishy young female customs lady (are
they all dishy or is it just my age?) saying "It is my favourite
scissors. What will you do with it. Can I give you my address so you
can send it". "No sorry it will be trashed". "What can you give me to
compensate?". She took me firmly by the shoulders and gave me a wet
kiss on both cheeks (on my face that is). Brilliant, especially so soon
after 911. The very fierce and burly looking customs man nearby, who
was frisking people, broke into a broad grin, and took my hand warmly.
"Have a good trip buddie. That is the best thing I have seen all
year". I thought it best not to tell them about the Opinel!
> Switzerland isn't EU of course, so we need to find out if a laptop or
USB pens (QL On A Stick) can be taken, for example. As I've only just
decided to go (must admit the QL show date helped influence my > choice
of dates), I haven't got very far with arrangements yet.
Definitely OK.
Back in the days when I worked for a well known broadcaster ("other
broadcasting organisations are available..."), I was recording at a
political party conference, duly wearing my ID badge and generally
trying to look harmless (...don't say a word...). A nice security guy
stopped me at the door when I came back in with a box containing a
replacement microphone. I duly went to show him it really was a
microphone inside, except a second guy on the door checking someone
else panicked a bit as I took this pointed tubular metal object out of
the box to show. All resolved amicably in the end of course, but shows
how careful security people have to be under the best of
circumstances, and how innocent situations can get unexpectedly
difficult.
Everyone has to be treated as a terrorist.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindawi_affair
What they don't say in the wiki was that she was a teenager, and had
never been out of Ireland before. She very very clearly was not a
terrorist. Everyone could see that.
Nuns, dogs, babies, one legged acrobats - they can all be innocent
terrorists. When there are terrorists like Hindawi, then you cannot
*ever* be cross at being inspected.
Make sure you remember your passport this time too (or was that
Laurence?)
It was me. Phil Borman, to save us time in the Quanta minibus, took all
our passports. He later told me he had put mine on a table by me, but
forgot to tell me.
All was OK until we got back to the UK. The police confirmed they had
been given it, but had posted it back!
Right through all customs checks, and there were those at the French
side, and going into Belgium (near Dunkirk) they didn't even count us.
Ah yes - Lau had a similar problem another time, but he had left his at
home. He sat very low and they simply counted heads in a different
Quanta minibus (those were the days), and missed his!
Bill Richardson was too tall, and we were only 4 in a car as well, so he
got turned out at Dover once on the way out.
And I seem to remember you and Stuart got asked to declare you weren't
terrorists on entry to the USA for a QL show some years ago too ;-)
Everyone does.
It is the silly green form, that is almost gone now I believe.
Are you a terrorist: [ ] No [ ] Yes
Did you commit insurrection between the years 1939 and 1945: [ ] No
[ ] Yes
.... and many more in similar vein.
"If you have ticked yes to any of these questions, please declare
yourself to an immigration official. You may not be allowed entry".
I kid not - absolutely idiotic. You can imagine this terrorist - "Oh
dear I had better tick YES otherwise I will be breaking US law!"
I actually once (once only!) created a third box for the insurrection
one [ ] N/A, as I wasn't even born, well bar a month.
You should have seen the look on the immigration man's face. "I think
you had better fill in another form, buddie". He actually tried very
hard not to grin!
Happy days.
Tony
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