Happy new year...

Well I've done my bit for greenhouse warming , with the fireworks an'
all... and I've done the screaming at the top of my voice, whoo-hoo...
etc. ... An' I've popped the bubbles and shared a glass or 3 with the
nieghbours... So i guess all I've got left to do, before I get
rattleassed, is to wish everybody on ukrm, a very happy and fruitful
new year...

Blah...

 

Thanks, and to you and everyone else in UKRM a happy new year from the
mudflats of the new world.

 

<raises a glass of Mumm from the wilds of South Wales>

 

**** me I feel rough. Am I the last one up?

 

Nope, but then I was working till 0730 so didn't get to bed till 0830.

And I was totally sober all night

 

Driving the all night service? Was it busy? I see from another group
that there appeared to be some problems on the Picc Line.

I didn't see midnight at all - jet lag got the better of me at 20.30 so
I went to bed to try to get some sleep. Out like a light.

I now know why I always try to get a seat upstairs on a 747-400 - peace
and quiet. The trip out was fine. It was a 777 coming back from
Singapore and the bloody din and yowling kids in the more open cabin was
dreadful.

 

I was. Started at 2250 and due to finish at 0717. I was actually late
finishing due to the various incidents, so ended up on overtime.

There had been a points failure during the day at Hanger Lane junction,
but they had cobbled it together to keep things working for NYE and set
a possession for 0430 - 0600 to do a proper repair. Unfortunately the
wet string broke again about 0130 so we and the District were all sat
around for another 40 minutes or so whilst they fixed it. They still
shut down the Rayners branch at 0430, although they had it mended and
open again by just after 5 it seems.

Apart from that and the usual boisterous behaviour (a few fights etc.)
nothing much else. A serious altercation at Caledonian Road suspended
the service totally from Kings X - Arnos for another 40 mins or so about
0330. My train appeared to be in the middle of it all, so I was just
given a different one!

Finally headed back to Heathrow about 10 mins late, but the train in
front of me was missing, so a 40 minute gap. I was rather busy on that
trip!

All in all, it seemed to me that the service was justified by the usage
it was getting.

Have to confess I always travel pikey class as I begrudge paying out for
something that I only benefit from for a few hours. I suspect when we
go to Honkers next year, I'll be *told* that we're using the better
seats though!

 

Have you been reading Thomas the Tank Engine again?

 

I secretly wrote it.... but don't tell anyone!

 

elyob wrote

Nope, I got up about an hour ago.

 

When are you going to HK?

If you can afford to go Business Class it is worth the money on a long
flight like LHR - HK and if you have a 747-400 allocated for the flight
then blagging seats upstairs is also worth the extra peace and quiet.
And anyway if it's a holiday there's no harm in pampering yourself a
bit. As many here are wont to say - you only live once and you can't
take the money with you.

 

Not definitely decided yet. He's off in 4 weeks for a month as he
needs to renew his resident's ID card and they won't let him do it from
here.

We're going to do the holiday sometime in 2008 and I'm going to get the
full guided tour, so I've been told!

I'll concede that's a fair point.

Has he been speaking to you??

 

Probably about £1600 if you can get a decent discounted business class
fare of around £2,000 compared to Economy of about £400. There are
cheaper economy fares available but I rounded up to £400.

I know you'll say you'd never pay the money for business class (given
that difference in price) but hey we're all different and as has been
pointed out I can afford it given how little I spend on a whole load of
other things.

 

Sounds like normal practice for that sort of thing.

Goodness - with a Cantonese speaker with you I'm sure you will unlock
all of the delights on offer.

If you're very lucky you might even get an upgrade to First - much more
likely with Cathay Pacific IME than with stingebags BA.

He wouldn't know where to find me so the answer's no ;-)

 

Looked at in one context (ie: you don't get there any quicker, and you
pay an extra £1600), it's absurd.

Looked on as an evening in a good hotel, it's also ludicrously
expensive.

In terms of the sheer relief of hassle, the decent service, and the
whole experience, it's pretty good value.

(Got to go to China again this year, and will be availing myself of the
Lufthansa cheapie biz class deals).

 

It's just a pity that he believes all things Transport are dull as
dishwater, so I won't get to explore as much of the MTR/trams as I would
like.

I'll bear that in mind when we book. As his brother is a CP pilot, he
might wish to influence any decision anyway!

He might as he has access to my addressbook and knows who you are

 

I think you need to do a bit of negotiation up front. The MTR is not
that massive and a fair chunk of it is underground so you're limited as
to what can be photographed. The Tsuen Wan and Kowloon Bay lines have
open air sections as does the original Island Line near Chai Wan.

The KCR lines and LRT network are a bit of the beaten track but you'll
get another flavour of HK if you travel on them into the New
Territories. For a very different view of new Territories life then the
76K bus from Sheung Shui to Yuen Long (West) takes you past the former
border area and where Cab used to live many moons ago! You can call up
a photo of each stop by using the KMB website.

The trams on HK Island are more of a task if you want to get lots of
piccies of the various bits but if you just want to capture them at work
then there are amble opportunities in Central and Causeway Bay.

It is worth noting that you can spy on HK's buses and trams at any time
via http://traffic.td.gov.hk/SwitchCenter.do

In addition a trip to Stanley should only be done on a number 6 running
via the mountain road rather than Aberdeen Tunnel (6X and 260 IIRC).
It's an experience not to be missed and the Peak on a number 15 is also
fairly hair raising a nice alternative to the Peak Tram which is another
plus. You can't go everywhere by taxi!

You need to hope he's not flying the plane you're on! You could be in
for a whirl or three.

I didn't think I merited such attention.

 

<G> Glad you remembered.

Nice to see you back. I trust you enjoyed yourself?

 

Is this the same discussion we were having before I went away, or has
the last two weeks in a tropical paradise[1] been a dream?

Now I've just spent 12 hours on a flight back and am truly amazingly
pleased that we did fork out the extra for business class. Sure, it
wasn't as much of a price difference as your example but I'd
definitely not have been prepared to sit in discomfort for that time,
even if it was worth a grand.


[1] Oh and the holiday was everything it might have been, and more
besides.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing)
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

Hmm, the 'parents in-law' live in the NT. I'm not so sure we would be
awfully welcome there :s

I will enjoy whatever we end up doing there. The fact that we might end
up doing some transport based stuff will be a bonus.

Well just that he remembers you from our day out (which we must repeat
sometime!) and that you are one of my work colleagues