My visit down Sarf

[timwilky]

OK, back home so now got an internet connection.

Well what an experience, probably the grottiest hotel I have ever stayed at. Free, paid for by the training company who relocated my course to london AKA Weybridge or I would have walked out. 2 tiles missing from the bathroom wall, broken panel on the bath, mould growing on most of the walls in the the bathroom. Bedroom carpet stained, single bed. and a flat roof full of sky rats to wake me at first light.

When I did wake, I went outside to buy some breaky, not wanting to pay £8 for the continental variety. To find 2 cars on the car park had broken windows. Went inside to report it but they already knew. Went back to my car thankful that I had not been hit when, damm they had taken a screwdriver to my lock and punched it through the door panel. At least a window can be fixed same day. This is a body shop job.


So much for southern hospitality. Turns out the other 2 cars belonged to lads who like me had been relocated from the undersubscribed course in Manchester. like evenually 4 of the 7 of us on the couse. Surely it would have worked out cheaper to relocate 3 to the north.

So that night I console myself with going out for a ruby. Never looked at the bar price list, ordered a Cobra and a second mid meal. Damm £5/bottle, that is theft again.

Course itself was good, apart from one guy who worked for a city bank who had the cheek to talk about "poor people" and described himself and the other course attendees as predominently middle class. Turns out this prat was originally from Middlesborough so had little room to speak.

Journey from Shepperton to Weybridge everyday was an experience. Talk about pushy drivers. who don't understand rights of way and priorities at roundabouts, lane dicipline. Those who ride amonst these ignorant tw?ts I applaud your sense on invincibility.

Still managed to persuade the tutor to work through Friday lunch so we could leave at 1PM. Only took 6 hours to slog back up north. By which time I was too knackered to do anything.

Now for the fun part, sort out insurance claim for car door. Will this effect my own personal insurance record as it was a company car and I was tucked up in bed at the time?. Expenses are going to be fun as the finance dept will want to know why I paid for the course myself instead of them being invoiced for the course. (They will not pay in advance and the course operator demands payment up front). As the course was supposed to be in Manchester there should not have been any living costs, now I have to justify £25/day for food as the course failed to provide lunch so I had to buy 3 meals a day.

But you guys down sarf. please answer me one question. Why do you accept such rip off prices for beer. I asked the question in pubs and they try to explain higher costs. BullPoo!. the cost to brew is the same. transportation costs again bullpoo. if anything it costs more to ship southern beer up north and we are paying a £1/pint less. Property prices again male bovine excretia, the pubs are paid for so there is only the maintenance cost which again is the same as for a northern pub. so the only valid justification is wage costs and I doubt that a southern pint puller earns £60/hour more than a northern one assumming he pulls 1 pint/minute. I am sure you would be asking questions if you were being charge a £1/litre for fuel more than us northern types.


Well there is no place like home and after a week away I glad to be home. and going out tonight to Manchester to watch Little Britain live

Yup, tis a ripoff down south...... but £5 for a beer is excessive even for there...

Glad you survived the drivers down ere

[Sid Squid]

I don't, and wouldn't, pay anything like the figures you quote for a beer, (much less for Cobra, about which you are being very generous if you describe it such.) London is just like other cities when it comes to buying everything, there are places I would and places I wouldn't visit my custon upon, this IS the the same the country over. As an example just recently I was in a pub in Sheffield*, very nearly a pint, (another issue entirely), was placed on the bar and the conversation went roughly like this:

Barman: £3.60 please.

Me: Err...how much?

Barman: That'll be £3.60 please.

Me: Not to me it won't, good afternoon.

*Which isn't down south, oh no not a bit, it is most deffo up north, where you can very easily get stuffed for a pint just as easy as 'round this end of the country.

I whinge when i get charged £2.60 for a pint. More so, i refuse to pay similar amounts for the "convenience" of a bottle!

2 pubs same area one charged 2.40 a pint the other charges 1.60

So um, you're staying up north then Tim, are you?


.

[mattSV]

So Tim, if me and Scoobs bring £1.35 and a lump of coal between us for the North meets South weekend, that should be enough then?

Originally Posted by mysteryjimbo

I whinge when i get charged £2.60 for a pint. More so, i refuse to pay similar amounts for the "convenience" of a bottle!

Same here. In fact, I complain if it's more than £2 a pint round here.

Originally Posted by mattSV

So Tim, if me and Scoobs bring £1.35 and a lump of coal between us for the North meets South weekend, that should be enough then?

And two lumps of coal if we want the penthouse and strippers?

u wanna be in stoke- we drink halves here- cos we know our ale..and real beer drinkers drink halves..
I am talkin real cask ale - !!

and its a premium half...!! costs ya about 10p more for 2 halves than a pint..!!