h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wed 22nd March - Mog arrives in Gatwick and goes too Seville
Thu 23rd March - Z and Ben go to Seville
Fri 24th March - Seville
Sat 25th March - Seville
Sun 26th March - Seville
Mon 27th March - Seville
Tue 28th March - MoG and Z and Ben arrive back at Gatwick
Wed 29th March - ??
Thu 30th March - ??
Fri 31st March - ??
Sat 01st April - Getting drunk in the North - either at the Manchester Spring Onion, or with Alfter, Icecoldalex and SoRB
Sun 02nd April - ??
Mon 03rd April - ??
Tue 04th April - ??
Wed 05th April - MoG goes home from London Heathrow

The ideas at the moment involve the North East coast of the UK, London and Dublin. MoG's current entourage consist of myself, Z and Alfster.



Ben

London:

London Eye http://www.londoneye.com/about/default.asp?section=about
can book online with 10% discount, 11.70/22.50

Riverboat cruise http://www.londoneye.com/booking/london.asp?section=booking&secondnav=london&productID=23 40 min, 9.00, located by London Eye (is this the boat trip you were talking about, Ben?)

tour http://www.theoriginaltour.com/tour_information/ online rate 15.00, cannot be booked day of, also appears to include free river cruise http://www.theoriginaltour.com/special_offers/

British Museum http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/ 10:00-17:30 Free

Tate http://www.tate.org.uk/

Museum of Natural History http://www.nhm.ac.uk/ 10:00-17:50 Free with tickets required for special exhibitions (Wildlife photography)

Fri 31st March - Annie
Sat 01st April - Getting drunk in the North - either at the Manchester Spring Onion, or with Alfter, Icecoldalex and SoRB and Annie
Sun 02nd April - Annie

*fingers crossed*

That would be WONDERFUL!

I dreamed about this last night you know. We need to fit Dublin and London in too.

How about:

Wed 22nd March - Mog arrives in Gatwick and goes too Seville
Thu 23rd March - Z and Ben go to Seville
Fri 24th March - Seville
Sat 25th March - Seville
Sun 26th March - Seville
Mon 27th March - Seville
Tue 28th March - MoG and Z and Ben arrive back at Gatwick & go to Dublin with Alftster
Wed 29th March - Dublin
Thu 30th March - Dublin
Fri 31st March - MoG, Z and Ben hook up with Annie, Alfster hooks up with SoRB and Alex
Sat 01st April - Getting drunk in the North - either at the Manchester Spring Onion, or with Alfter, Icecoldalex and SoRB
Sun 02nd April - MoG, Z, Ben and Annie spend day together and then MoG, Z and Ben go to London
Mon 03rd April - London
Tue 04th April - London
Wed 05th April - MoG goes home from London Heathrow

This sounds fab! I've had this non-stop on my mind too.

I'll be arriving in the UK at Heathrow on the 22nd, not Gaitwick, Ben. Have just under 2 hours to get on the Seville plane, *hope* I didn't cut myself short with that, but the afternoon flights took about 6 hours (long layovers) and didn't arrive in Seville until pretty late.

I want to make sure to have some time with alex and SoRB aside from the meetup too (I get befuddled in big groups, never feel as if I've really had time to *talk* to anyone because I'm too easily distracted) so let's try to make sure we can get over their way early in the day and we can either stage an invasion or roust 'em and kidnap 'em for the day.

Also, don't forget we're having Alfster with us for the whole part of the UK tour, though he's allowed to spend some time with alex and SoRB.

**uncrosses fingers**

I have news...

It'll cost you some though, and maybe a glass of that

**opens another bottle**

Hic!

OK I'll have to leave a note...

Fri 31st March - my son's birthday & the day he breaks up for Easter holidays. Am booking him off school that day & taking him out then handing him over to my daughter at tea time or whenever she can leave work if earlier I can set off earlier. Set off for Yorkshire. MoG, Z and Ben hook up with Annie, Alfster hooks up with SoRB and Alex.
Sat 01st April - Getting drunk in the North - at the Manchester Spring Onion - I want to go to this...I want to hug Granny Weatherwax...
Sun 02nd April - MoG, Z, Ben and Annie spend day together and then MoG, Z and Ben go to London and Annie drives home.

Ooooooh, this is coming together perfectly! I'm so glad everyone is able to get some time while I'm there! Annie, you are a terrible tease. I'd have been bombarding you with emails if I'd been home to see the unveiling.

Coelacanth, I've foisted all planning duties on Ben and Z, so whatever works for y'all is fine with me. I'm going to be having a ball no matter what we're doing as long as we stay out of jail, hospitals and department stores.

I'm tempted to go shake up a celebratory martini but I'd better not or I won't get up early for the gym tomorrow.

You want to stay out of jail?



There goes my number one plan.

We have very good-looking policemen you know

Oops, thought I'd replied, Annie. I don't care *how* good-looking your policemen are, I prefer freedom of movement and am a bit selective about who I share a room with. :-) Ben, did you see this http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F19585?thread=2261412 on Ryanair? I read a bit from the first link, it looks as if when things go wrong with that airline they *really* go wrong, and nobody's much interested in making it right. Makes me wonder if Dublin is such a good idea, after all. Do you suppose we can lure the Irish to come to your side instead?

Well I think the documentry was a load of guff, yes the customer service was awful and the cabin crew were awful, but that's not really safety related is it?

I'd still fly with them!

Annual leave booked!

I start a new job on the 5th of April, and I'm finishing my old one on the 21st of March.

You planned that brilliantly, Z! What will the new job be?

I don't care about customer service on the flight, it's a short trip and that doesn't matter. Reading the first link on the h2 thread there were a *lot* of complaints about flights being cancelled, sometimes at the last minute. People were left stranded overnight, sometimes had to travel to another airport in another town and get flights on different airlines because the Ryanair couldn't accomodate them, had to pay for hotels and stuff and weren't even reimbursed for any of the expenses. If that were to happen it would get really expensive quick, especially trying to purchase last-minute flights. Also the baggage weight thing worries me. It seems they've changed it recently to virtually nothing. I certainly don't need to bring *all* my stuff with me, but I'll need substantially more clothing than y'all do. I'm a delicate tropical fleur, ya know. But seriously, we're having a near-freezing-at-night cold snap right now and I asked some tourists from London yesterday if the weather was likely to be like *this* when I visit. They said it might be very cold (and almost certainly would up north) or that it might be warmer, but it certainly wouldn't be *hot* like yesterday was. The wife was running around in a lacy sundress with bare arms and back, and I was wearing my heaviest jacket with muffler and hat. Even in my apartment I have on 2 layers of snugglies and a beret now, and it's 54F and sunny outside. I'm glad I had the chance to talk to them, my ideas about what clothing to bring has drastically changed as a result because I'm pretty miserable when I'm cold.

Maybe we should change the agenda to two days/one night in Dublin on the leading edge, that way if flights are canceled and we're forced to stay an extra day it'll not be as dire or expensive. I'd be deeply disappointed if everything got screwed up and cut into Annie/Alex/SoRB time.

So I'm thinking something like this:

Tue 28th March - MoG and Z and Ben arrive back at Gatwick & go to Dublin, afternoon flight.
Wed 29th March - Dublin, back to London in the evening, pick up Alfster or go on to Z's
Thu 30th March - head towards Ben's when traffic is manageable.

Does that sound reasonable?

My preference would be to travel back to England early on Friday, instead of late on Thursday, but it's your Special Trip. Z and I can go to Dublin anytime.

B

Ah! You were in here while I was bopping around and writing an email to you.

Let's do one night in Dublin then if flights are still ridiculously cheap, that way my anal side won't be quietly worrying the whole time about *what if* Ryanair decides to cancel flights JUST to mess with the best-laid Plans of MoG and we can't escape and the leprochauns attack and all that foolishness. That way I can pack just a carry-on with basic cosmetics, camera, a change of the under-most layer of clothes and some sweats to sleep in. That shouldn't exceed the weight limit, I hope.

MoG, I never travel with more than a shoulder bag because I don't like being parted from my luggage so you can have my luggage allowance.

If the flights are cancelled then we get a refund and come back on the ferry and train, which we can easily do in a day, doesn't need booking in advance and costs not very much at all!

We could get the overnight ferry to liverpool with Noarseferries for £40 including an evening meal and breakfast. I don't think that includes a cabin but you can always sleep on the floor somewhere...

I reckon that getting by ferry and train to Manchester would cost about £50 if we go via Holyhead.