Vacation Plans -- United Kingdom

Pifka, I know Gautam can provide more information on India than us 'temporary' tourists, but I can provide some perspective as an "outsider" if you will. My travel to India only included the north from Delhi down to Shekhawati, Jaipur, Ranthambore, Rajasthan, Bharatpur, Agra, Jhansi, Khajuraho, Varanasi, and Sarnath. If you're going to hit any of those spots, ask away. c.i.

CI -- Thanks for offering, but did you get me mixed up with Guatam saying he was going to India? I don't have any plans to go to India... it's just this short visit to the UK, for now. A too-short visit.

Walter -- When I order this ale, I'm going to be thinking of a Bach concerto. It should work out nicely! Bach and Fraoch on a Loch!

Now I'm really envious, I wanna meet Gautam!

The Super G Gautam is a honey! He alone is worth facing the those curmudgeons of Her Majesty's Immigration at Stansted or Heathrow!

Piffka - you've only given him 2 month's notice - he may not have that night clear!

I'm fascinated by the border ads - the one at the top of this thread this morning was for personal tours of Greenwich, and the first post is Piffka telling us that Mr P has specified Greenwich! Bloody clever...

Gautam? My wife likes him too! I think it's the dimples.

Gautam, we're talking about you! Are you grinning?

I used to like McEwan's beer, but now I only see it in tins, which I don't like.
Eighty Shilling Ale, try that, it's my favourite tipple when NoB

Wait a minute- isn't that a McEwans? Maybe Younger's. I can't remember now. (Pass that bottle, good man, Angus.) I'm getting a bit mixed up.

McT

And I'm sure, my wife will like him as well.

Maclays Eighty Shilling Ale perhaps? (We always took canned McEwans from the take away at 10 pm, when the pubs closed.)

On the banner ads, I have been noticing for a few weeks that they often relate to something in the thread. Actually, I like that myself.

If you put "Eighty Shilling Ale" on the BBC website search engine you get a whole lot of interesting stuff I didn't even know about:
this is but a morsel, the merest fragment, of the plethora of information contained there:


http://www.ensignewart.demon.co.uk/ensign/html/cask_ale.htm

McT

This reminds me that they used to sell in Heidelberg in a mainly by students visited winecellar (and probably elsewhere) 80-Pfennigs-Wine (and there was a 70 up to 120 Pfennigs wine as well).
This was the price for a glass of wine. 80 wasn't exactly the cheapest but the fastest-to-get-drunken-stuff.

I am blushing furiously. With my brown skin, that does not come easy - but believe me guyz and gals I am !!!

Awwwwwwwwwww that is so sweet of all of you to say this

MWAH MWAH !!

Sep 26 has been blocked in my diary !! I Just cant wait. Piffka and I have been threatening to get together for a long long time !!!

We are all sweet.

And better blushing than turning pale (which certainly would last much longer with you with an ordinary English gal or guy :wink: ).

We ARE all sweet! What a great line, Walter. I wonder if we can get Guatam to blush in person?

The Ensign-Ewart pub looks so interesting, McTag, and we could almost consider it a military museum. We HAVE to go! I love that it said they have live music on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and sometimes on Tuesdays and Thursdays as well. That almost covers it... anyway, all the days we'll be in E'burgh. Mr.P adores good beers on tap -- we may never see the rest of the town!

Still sad that I'll be missing this (but I'm getting over it)...

Ensign-Ewart is very Scottish, but watch out if you, your hubby or son are very tall! It's a right low wee ceiling in there

ThinkZinc -- I thought you went on holiday! Good to know about Ensign-Ewarts having low ceilings. If it bothers Mr.P, he can just sit down, right?

Funny you should mention this. I was at the dentist's yesterday and commented to the receptionist that their outside door must be small. I'd just seen a man walk through who literally had to duck to get out. We checked. The door was small by States standards -- only 6'6" high. Mr. P is NOT that tall!

I have to get up earlier tomorrow. I'm supposed to be calling ScotRail to make some Caledonian Sleeper arrangements and they close while I'm still asleep. I nearly called off the Sleeper because the price quoted appeared to be horribly expensive. Then I realized that the quoted price meant for all three of us, so it's not so costly after all, especially if we go with the APEX prices. I still have to call in, they say, since we're not all the same sex in our party.

Has anybody been on both first class and standard class sleepers? Is there that much difference in quality or service?

I really don't know much about sleepers in Britain today (but a lot of comuter trains run by WAGN!).

For anybody who might read this and want to know, I've been looking into my question and apparently the main difference between First class & Standard class on the Caledonian Sleeper is that the Standard is the same as First but has an extra bunk, raised above the other. Neither has private toilets & showers, both of them have sinks. First class also gets breakfast (not sure if standard does) and they have unlimited access to the catering car while standard may be blocked if it gets busy.

Thanks, Walter, for the offer of information on the WAGN. Next time, maybe next time!

Hey Piff, where is WA? Is it Western Australia, or somewhere in the USA?

I have been on a sleeper train only once in my short (!) life, and I remember being unable to sleep as the rocking motion of the train shuttled me up 'n' down the bunk. Other people however, swear by them. And it's a nice thought to fall asleep and wake up in another place.

McT

McTag, you noticed that WA might be Western Australia! Cool!

Alas, it is only plain, boring Washington state, way over in the upper left hand corner, just south of British Columbia. As a point of interest, the powers that be were going to name this state Columbia (the Columbia River flows through), but thought it would get confused with the District of Columbia. Things got mixed up over the last hundred & some years and now it is necessary to add "state" to Washington or most people assume we're talking about Washington D.C.

As to the sleeper train, I have some doubts, but my guys want to try it.

And, as far as I remember, 'Bombay' is just a nickname, isn't it?

I grew up on Vaughn Bay, population 200, named for Charles Vaughn, a Civil War veteran and intrepid explorer who never returned to the place after naming it for himself. Vaughn Bay is a small salt-water "loch" in the upper reaches of Puget Sound.

Bombay is what we used to call Vaughn Bay -- Bombay-Vaughn Bay -- Bombay-Vaughn Bay -- see, it's sort of like Cockney rhyming code.