hanging my head in shame

worried_jim

I though that I would save a few pounds by buying some Riemann p20 online as it is £24 in boots and is brilliant- you simply can not burn with this stuff on and its only once a day, why use anything else to protect yourself from sunburn. Got it for £10 inc delivery but unbeknown to me it has to be signed for so I got the card through the door last Thursday to say it had gone back to their depot, so I arranged delivery for today as I am off.
Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I cant arrange delivery for another day as I go to Leeds on Saturday for work and don't come back until Friday. Fortunately I had £85 in capital bond vouchers so hit boots and bought up everything I need for the holiday, plus, enough shower gel, toothpaste and deodorant to last me a year (I am not joking). As I was exiting Boots I saw a very attractive lady in her 40's kneeling down and clearing a shelf into her rucksack. I had to do a double take as she looked like a school teacher not some thieving chav. I was halfway down the street until I realised what she was up to. I bet she does it every week.
I have also recently been awarded with a £50 Amazon voucher from work so have just ordered enough books to stock a library so I am now sorted for some serious holiday reading material, and the racist pensioner neighbour has got me a small travel guide to Turkey's coastal regions.
All I have to do now is get possibly the most demanding working week of my life out the way in Leeds and I will be in full on holiday mode, which starts for me at the airport- I love them.

ClootiesMum

Just a quick pop in to say Hi

Glad the holiday is booked & paid for - you'll love it.......

12 hour shift for me today & tomorrow - last ones for a while so I donlt mind too much. Take care

CM

worried_jim

ClootiesMum wrote: »

Just a quick pop in to say Hi

Glad the holiday is booked & paid for - you'll love it.......

12 hour shift for me today & tomorrow - last ones for a while so I donlt mind too much. Take care

CM

I am off to Leeds today for the next six days and will be in the office tomorrow 6am onwards for D-Day. There was a sense of urgency yesterday trying to get all the queues done for 5pm but no real issues. There were people in all last night monitoring the progress. 7am Monday morning will be pretty exciting with all the hbos staff looking to me if it all goes wrong, I've taken the credit for training a hundred people I will have to take the blame if they all start saying "no body told me" - which is our office joke. I am 100% confident that it will all be good and am actually looking forward to it, nice hotel in the brilliant city of Leeds and a lot of people that I know will be there as well. We even have some activities planned such as a pub quiz and a roller disco!
Back on next Friday night, get the washing machine going and pack again for Sunday. Just a few more days.....
I hope all of your testing goes well and I'll see you on the other side on Monday.

MrsPorridge

Jim, Hope all goes well in Leeds, have a fantastic holiday and will look forward to reading all about it when you get back.

savingwannabe

When's he back? Jimbo hope you are having a ball.

Do you ever have any reunions in Brighton? Want to meet ya. Am not a perv or anything though so dont worry.

worried_jim

I am still in Leeds until Friday then turkey on Sunday. Not really been out much after work as i am so tired. Just been for a curry which was a little bit too hot and am now settling down for the night as i can barely keep my eyes open. have a lie in tomorrow as i dont have to be at work until 8am. i need this holiday.

savingwannabe

Have a lovely holiday. Look after your sugars. Have a laugh and fabulous memories ok.

Coooeee was that a yes? Steve'n' Andy can meet ya too they rock. Brighton is nice in the summer. I will hopefully meet you one day then when i am better too. Dont worry petal your body is perfectly safe. I is a very good person. Honest ask Porge.

worried_jim

savingwannabe wrote: »

Have a lovely holiday. Look after your sugars. Have a laugh and fabulous memories ok.

Coooeee was that a yes? Steve'n' Andy can meet ya too they rock. Brighton is nice in the summer. I will hopefully meet you one day then when i am better too. Dont worry petal your body is perfectly safe. I is a very good person. Honest ask Porge.

If there is a local meet next summer then who knows.....

worried_jim

Having returned now from my holiday I can give you the run down of the Jetline/deal of the day experience.
Turning up at Gatwick without a ticket was not a problem- didn't even need a copy of the booking email, just handed passports over and that was it booked onto the flight. I flew to Turkey with Onurair, the flight was on time but the temperature on the plane was very hot and uncomfortable, there were no free drinks/meals and the prices for food was a rip off. Fortunately Boots in the departure lounge get rid of all there sandwiches from 9pm onwards so everything was 75p- a real airport bargain so we took a few onto the plane.
We had paid for a transfer from the airport (£40 both ways) - could have got a taxi cheaper as it was only 8 miles. It was a small four door car (Mazda) and there was another couple sharing with us (that's 5 people crammed in) the driver couldn't fit the luggage in the boot so had to leave the boot open and tie it down with string. On the return journey they sent a Citroen C3 to pick us all up - he had to make two trips as there was no way we could all get in with luggage, this caused quite a bit of stress for the other couple as they were then worried about missing their flight. This is the company - http://taxitransfers.co.uk/ if you want to avoid them your selves in the future.
The hotel. Oh the hotel. When we arrived at 6am it was pitch black- all the lights on the pathways and drive ways where out. The reception had a desk a tv (all security guards watching it) and nothing else- no what's on boards or adverts for trips/things to de see etc. Jetline had charged us another £42 to upgrade our rooms which we paid but all the rooms were exactly the same with the same view so this was another unnecessary spend/rip off. The hotel was AI but the food was disgusting we ate the for one evening meal. I has to queue for 25 minutes for some bbq chicken- I could have ran that grill more efficiently- when you have taken some cooked food off, put some fresh on. We went to lunch most days, although I only has bread and butter, that is until they ran out of butter during the second week and didn't get any more! Slicing the bread was a chore as well as they has the world's bluntest bread knife. I naively thought that there would be pitta bread, humous and olives to eat but sadly not.
The pool and beach were very nice. However during the second week the pool became unusable as it had turned dark green and you couldn't see the bottom. It was useable after two days. The beach had a water slide going into the sea but again was not usable as there was no water flowing down it from the top as the pump as broken. The beach was private and view was stunning, the water was warm and clear and a real delight. It was just a shame that it wasn't cleaned and was covered in fag ends.
Other facilities at the hotel included a tennis court (no rackets or balls) a ping pong table (no bats or ball) a dartboard (only one dart). There was also an entertainment team and they did work very hard, well for the first six days of the holiday and then they left so no entertainment for the last week of the holiday.
We found out that the hotel was owned by a government corporation so the staff were practically un-sackable, we saw a huge fight between them one morning. They were very friendly but I have a suspicion that as soon as your back was turned they were being quite unpleasant about you in Turkish. By the end of the first week most of the staff had left as we found out the hotel was closing on or about October 10th see we could see why everything was getting wound down around us, those staff that were left did work. It seemed that the workforce was bloated so no body bothered to do anything as they just thought that some one else would do it instead.
The AI bar was always running out of drinks, white wine was the first to go followed by red (never replaced). Vodka often ran out but there was always some more the next day. The beer finally ran out for good on our last weekend, the draught had ran out a few days previously but they has been pouring Skol from big plastic bottles.
During the two weeks there were 5 power cuts (three of these affected the whole town) and two I would put down to Thunder storms. Our biggest issue was when the hotel ran out of water for seven hours! Not bottled water, but turn your tap on have a shower flush the toilet water. We tried a fire hydrant and this was dry too, we asked in reception what fire cover they had in place and were told if we don’t like it go to another hotel.

Of course we had read the reviews on trip adviser before we went and we thought that is surely can’t be that bad- it was. The town, Gulluk, (http://www.gulluk.co.uk/) was a delight and we had a fantastic holiday and would definitely go back to the town again- the friendliest place I have ever been to.

Would I book through deal of the day/jetline again? Definitely not. If I go to Turkey again I would only go self catering and if I didn’t book an apartment privately then I would use a big tour operator.

savingwannabe

Oh bolloooks, did you book this through icelolly. com? My students loved their holidays and always recommend them. OMG so sorry.

Your write up rocked though. Hope you had lots of good bits too.

Welcome back. No you haven't missed much.