sundries

[rm]

If you live in New York City, don't go to The Ding Dong Lounge on 106th and Columbus. I've been going there for a few years, and I've friends who have been going there forever, but then one of their bartenders tried to rape my friend and then somehow thought the whole thing could be smoothed over by buying her partner a drink. Yeah, not so much.

The protest movement in Iran now features men wearing traditional coverings for women, in response to the Iranian government trying to use female attire to humiliate men. featherofeeling also links us to NYTimes coverage of same.

A look at some statistics for those 57 - 85.

It would be completely stupid to get matinee tickets to The Mikado for like two days after Patty and I return from our cruise, wouldn't it?

lord_whimsy informs us of the return of the monocle.

Jesus fucking christ flights to England are expensive (more than I paid to go to Australia). If anyone sees a sale, please let me know, since Patty and I are going in April and I'm returning again in July (for which I wish there was some sort of grant to apply for -- actually, I found several, but the timing is ALL WRONG). Also, absurdly, the cheapest flights seem to route through Zurich, which is a long fucking detour (9 fucking hours going E-to-W after the hop from England) I don't need.

Comments

Flights

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

Transatlantic (and other long-haul) flights to London are pretty expensive at the best of times. Flights from the US to other European cities can be considerably cheaper. The trick is to look for flights into Britain from those cities on British 'budget' airlines. Easyjet are pretty good, but do not under any circumstances ever go with Ryanair.

The disadvantage can be getting from the long-haul flight to the short-haul airport.

Another possibility would be to look for flights to other cities in England. Again there's the problem of getting to London from there, but the same budget airlines run services within the UK. That said, Birmingham International has a mainline rail station, from which you can get an express train direct to London. Book the ticket in advance, though, for maximum cheapness.

Re: Flights

[austengirl.livejournal.com]

The baggage allowances on the budget airlines tend to be a lot more restrictive than the transatlantic ones, which can nullify any savings you've made if you have to pay a small fortune for having an extra suitcase or baggage over their weight limit. It annoys me to no end that Easyjet and Ryanair charge for checked baggage now and that some US airlines seem to be following suit on domestic flights.

Manchester airport has a train station with direct trains to several cities and very frequent connections to Manchester Piccadilly station where you can get a train to pretty much anywhere. It's about 40 minutes from us, so if you do need a place to crash, our spare room is very comfy. :)

Re: Flights

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

Argh, yes, you're right, sorry, I should have thought of the baggage issue.