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Reply | Reykjavik
at 17:41 16 Jan 2023
It's a few years since I was there but I really enjoyed it. Back then, the bars did a staggered happy hour so as one bar’s happy hour ended the next one down the street started theirs so you could drink (relatively) cheaply for a while in the early evening. It’s also an almost completely cashless society. I didn’t handle any currency at all during my stay and can’t recall seeing anyone else, tourist or local, do so either. Having a card that charges no foreign exchange commission could save you a bit. |
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Reply | In other news
at 11:07 12 Sep 2021
According to the Vital Football home page, their forum has been suspended pending a review of the moderation process owing to a “clear escalation of posts that raise concern”. Which will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever visited that forum. |
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Reply | Coroners Court
at 11:23 19 Mar 2021
Agree with both of those points.
My only experience of jury service was on a money laundering case with multiple defendants at Isleworth Crown Court involving millions of pounds. The case lasted six weeks. It took two days to select a jury for a start — there are a lot of people who can’t take that amount of time out of their lives and have good reasons not to do so (I had just retired so my excuses would be limited). A lot of the evidence was obviously technical; I could follow it as I used to work in the financial sector and even found some of it interesting. I doubt most of my fellow jurors did but I also think we all did our best when considering the verdict. The judge announced he would accept a majority verdict after a couple of days and the defendants were found guilty 10-2; the two dissenters just could not follow it.
Things that impressed me about the system. The jury selection process results in a reasonable cross section of society now that the grounds for avoiding jury service have been restricted. The particular judge seemed to work hard and was very good at the case management.
Barristers, on both sides, on the other hand did not impress me and lived up to my prejudices. It’s all about drama and acting, not about truth and justice.
I’m now excused jury service after that marathon. |
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Reply | where are all you happy r's originally from.
at 18:20 4 May 2020
Born: Perivale
Grew up: East Africa
Lived: Liverpool (uni), Cricklewood, Wembley, Parsons Green, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland
Now: Twickenham (two places) for 30 years |
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Reply | Haircuts! What's your plan? Will you cut your own?
at 17:28 8 Apr 2020
I must be fortunate. I ordered some clippers from Amazon last week and they arrived today. My hair is pretty thin all round and non-existent on top so I'm going to try for #2 all round and #0 on top. This is potentially disastrous but on the other hand probably no worse than anybody else when we emerge from all this. |
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Reply | What's your claim to fame?
at 11:13 18 Mar 2020
I once got into the same lift as Rod Stewart in a hotel in Sydney. He asked me which floor I was going to and pressed the button. |
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Reply | Tourism and Trains
at 16:03 23 Jan 2020
I liked that so much I shared it with a mate who is a driver with the (awful) South West Rail. He reckons it's pretty accurate. He also added that the one thing the guard and the driver agree on is that all the other people on the train are c***s. |
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Reply | Hate to say it
at 16:16 26 Mar 2019
Waving a £20 note won't get you far nowadays 
I think by "cashless" Spurs mean you use a contactless debit/credit card or Google Pay/Apple Pay. I don't think they expect punters to buy a prepaid card. It'd suit me personally as I don't carry much cash. |
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Reply | Our country is fckd match thread
at 07:46 22 Mar 2019
I also voted remain and I've more or less come round to this view as well. I think our rejoining at some point down the road is inevitable, as I can't see our country isolating itself from the people who should be our natural partners and allies working out well. I really hope I'm wrong about that. However, if and when we rejoin we won't get the terms we currently enjoy. Next time round we'll have to do it fully - in the Schengen zone , adopt the Euro, lose the current budget rebate, to name the main opt outs we have now, and sign up to whatever political union might exist at that time.
At my age, I won't be around to see that but I'm grateful that for the majority of my working life we were in the EU. |
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Reply | So at the end of all this sky induced bollox
at 19:56 9 Aug 2018
Some of the stuff on Twitter is disgusting, even by the abysmally low standard of "debate" on that platform. "F**k off ya Yank C**t" is hardly useful, whether or not you agree with the Lee Hoos. |
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Reply | Saudi Super Cup
at 18:31 28 Jul 2018
I guess we won't be taking much money at the bars. |
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Reply | 3rd runway at heathrow
at 11:11 22 Jun 2018
No from me as well. I live under the flight path and have long lost faith in airport management's assurances on anything. More objectively, I think bringing even more aircraft over a densely populated city is foolhardy. Statistically, I'm aware aviation is very safe but I can't help thinking that sooner or later there will be a major accident over London. If we were starting again, I doubt we'd build an airport that involves bringing aircraft over a city. |
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Reply | Heidar Helguson/Iceland in General
at 12:23 27 Sep 2017
Not much to add that hasn't been covered but I share the general enthusiasm for the place. Visited in October last year and really enjoyed it. It rained solidly for the entire three days we were there, and I do mean rain, I’ve never experienced anything like it, accompanied by high winds. That put paid to the northern lights, but we still managed to see the main sights — the Golden Circle, Gulfoss, the Blue Lagoon and so on.
Car hire is not too expensive and a standard Golf type vehicle will do for most trips, unless of course you’re going to remote locations in which case 4WD will be needed. If you were thinking of going off the main roads, there is an app called 112 Iceland which works by your sending a rescue coordination centre your last known location (by SMS) so they know where to start looking if need be. You can update as often as you like on your trip, provided you can get a signal.
Eating out is not cheap, though quality seemed generally good. The bars in Reykjavik have happy hours and the trick is they stagger them so one bar might do, say, 4 -5, then they go back to regular prices but the bar around the corner then does, say 5-6.
Iceland is close to being a cashless society and card payments are universal. I didn’t take or withdraw any currency.
Enjoy your trip. |
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Reply | Uber banned in London?
at 15:59 22 Sep 2017
I have mixed views on this. I do appreciate where TfL are coming from but on the other hand, although I do not use the service often, I've always found Uber cheap, efficient, and convenient and the payment option suits me as I don’t carry much cash now that the world is going contactless/phone payment.
Aside from the expense, the fact that even though they have been forced to take cards the machine is always ‘broken’ and their refusal to venture outside Zone 1, it would actually take a lot to ever get me back into a black cab again — but that’s just a personal and very subjective opinion of course.
For those of us in Zone 4, the alternative isn’t really black cabs anyway but the local mini cab firms. They appear to be getting something of a let out in this debate. I’m sure a lot of them operate the same undesirable practices for which Uber is being cited by TfL and seem to get away with that. Possibly it’s a question of volume. As it happens, quite a few of the drivers with the biggest firm round my way also drive for Uber and, from my, admittedly limited, sample of them none of them have a problem with Uber.
Uber will appeal the decision and I suspect some kind of compromise will be reached whereby they keep their licence subject to certain conditions. After all they have a lot of customers and, indeed, a lot of people work for them. Maybe that’s a good outcome and maybe, just maybe, TfL will have successfully regulated the industry. |
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Reply | The Putney Bridge Pusher
at 15:26 11 Aug 2017
The guy 's lawyers have now issued a statement saying he can prove he was in the USA at the time in question. |
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Reply | Tougher Border Controls
at 13:36 3 Aug 2017
It’s probably a bit longer, I didn’t time it. Maybe I was lucky as the plane change and baggage transfer went very smoothly. I was on Aer Lingus for both legs of the flight, which may make a difference — it might be more difficult if you were transferring to a US carrier. I agree with EastR that it was a more civilised experience with the US authorities in Dublin than I have experienced on previous trips clearing customs and immigration at US ports of entry. I should probably also say that the week after the referendum I registered for Irish citizenship (my maternal grandparents were Irish) and obtained an Irish passport.
You can also do US pre-clearance at Shannon. I believe it’s one of the selling points of BA’s ‘super premium’ service from London City to JFK. |
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Reply | Latimer Road
at 09:39 22 Jun 2017
I expect there will be a substantial pay off and generous pension arrangement involved here. |
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Reply | Tempur Mattresses
at 16:59 4 May 2017
Another vote for memory foam mattresses. I bought mine in a sale for £800 - I think the original price was £1200. It's a lot of money but well worth it to me. |
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Reply | Black Cabs versus Uber
at 15:59 1 Mar 2017
I'm a satisfied Uber customer. My experience is that they charge less, use clean vehicles, their drivers are polite and the cars turn up quickly. I also like the fact that I don't need cash - I'm one of those people who uses contactless cards wherever possible - though I'm aware that black cabs have, belatedly, started to accept cards. My one issue with Uber is that the drivers don't always know where they're going and their navigation app seems to throw up some strange suggestions. But every time I've asked them they've been quite happy to change the route to my directions and wait until their app resets again.
On the other hand their corporate culture seems to lack something. Apart from the sexist stuff mentioned above I noticed this today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39124096 |
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