Be Excellent To Each Other

Eh? I get an open return fare to London from Lancaster and it is £45.60p.

Is that 1st class?

Nope, cattle class. Do less people leave Lancaster?

today I bought a packet of wasabi flavoured seabrooks crisps, a bar of green and blacks butterscotch milk chocolate and wrestling stickers for my nephew, also got to check out the toys without looking like a loon since me nephew was there. Pretty good afternoon.

Butterscotch Green & Blacks? Tell me more...

I have an unopened bar in the fridge

Green & Blacks Organic Milk Chocolate with crunchy butterscotch pieces for an extremely moerish taste.

nicked from the wrapper, was a bit like honeycomb the pieces, it was awfully nice though. There was cherry dark chocolate one that nearly tempted me aswell.

Oh my!

Erm... is that at "peak time"?
You can get from Manchester to London AND BACK on £65
Tbh, just fly for 130.

WHAT?!

Ok. So: Glouchtstsershire= 140. Manchester = 65. Lancaster = 45.
Under this scheme of "further = cheaper" they should be paying us to go to Scotland?

No one is going to go to Scotland voluntarily now, are they?

Sorry, yes, it's actually £69.50 for an open return London-Lancaster. I forgot that I use a railcard But still, it is nearly half the price of going from London to what is relatively 'up the road' in Stroud.

Mr Chris' journey would have been weekday AM peak, remember.

Is that a different fare, then? I always travel weekday peak at exactly the same price as at any other time.

Oh. It is indeed more expensive in most places. A 1-day london travelcard, for example, is about £9 peak and £6 off-peak.

I have not bought anything today but this week the postman has delivered some ace things I ordered off teh internets....

I got this necklace, which is decorated with space invaders, PSPs, SNES controllers, pac-man and ghostie things, tetris shapes, arcade machines and other stuff. It is clearly the bestest jewelry I own.

I also got 2 pairs of shoes, various items of clothing and a new debit card....I think my spending broke'd the other one, oooooops.

London seems to be the only area that does the "Peak" thing. Infact, I was once getting a ticket to somewhere neeeeeeear london, but not actually into it. The ticket-selling man made sure I said I didn't need to go into london. I think it saved me some cash. Additionally, my ticket said ROUTE: NOT LONDON on it... So maybe there's a special "capital tax"? :/

I don't know of any area that doesn't do the Peak thing.

An example of train-related pricing idiocy for you.

When I went to New York last year, I needed to get a train from Shrewsbury to Heathrow, and obviously back again for the return journey.

A ticket from Shrewsbury to Heathrow was £144 return.

A ticket from Shrewsbury to London Euston was £40 return. Plus £3 for the tube journey to Heathrow, or whatever the Tube cost at the time.

A £100 price premium just for taking me to the airport instead of the main train station? FUCK YOU TfL.

Can no one read?

I said "OPEN RETURN".

Open Return being non peak, right? My tickets were open return, if you care...
In short: It's ludicrousuorus

Bloody peak the times I went.

I thought given that "OPEN RETURN" meant you could travel at any time, peak or non-peak, this was one of the reasons they're more expensive than the hookers who hang out in the cafe in Fortnum and Mason.

I think it's the "Saver return" you want. From what I've seen, they were identical but cheaper...

I wasn't paying, so I'm not too fussed I missed out on the cheaper option. but still, FUCK. It's a FUCKING TRAIN. It shouldn't cost over a hundred pounds to travel ANYWHERE ON EARTH by train. "The Mariana Trench please". "50 pounds"

No Saver Returns have restricted validity, particularly into London. Opens are super fancy, any train you fucking like expensive magic.

Advances are pretty reasonable though I'm going from London to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to Manchester and Manchester to home (near London) at various points in a couple of weeks for £100 all in.

Speaking, nay typing, of which any tips for things I should do in Edinburgh? I've decided to resolve my resentment of it as a city by going there again and having a good time for a change.

There's no such thing as a saver return any more, as from this Monday just gone.

http://gouk.about.com/od/gettingaroundt ... avel_3.htm

There's a fucking awesome restaurant in Edinburgh by the bit with the stuff. I'll try and narrow it down tomorrow, as it's somewhere I went while visiting Mrs Chris while she was working up there and she'll know.

The armoury up at the castle is worth looking round. Also - the parliament thingy. And the hill up behind the town (it has a name of some sort) gives you a lovely view.

Not so bothered about dining recomendations as I can pull in favours from our rep there to get treated nicely by customers. Daytime cultural excursions / walking routes and tips for stuff to do in the evening that won't make me feel like an idiot for being on my own welcomed though.

Then I'd repeat hill, castle, parliament.