Nice people thread part 6 - thrice by twice as nice :)

Spirit_2

Happy 33rd Burthday Chewy.

So young. Great time of life though.

I liked being 33 . Thought I was invincible.

chewmylegoff

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, i don't speak german, where the best ones are i am told, but i found germans extremely generous and embarrassing in their numbers of anglophones.

But i do not do coaches. If i can fly by then i would be prepared to meet you there though

I missed the one in bath this year. Went the day before it opened and i believe just missed it after it closed. A bit annoying but i have survived.

my mum goes to german christmas markets every year, and although she thinks she can speak some german, she definitely cannot.

however, because the christmas markets are very touristy, it doesn't matter, as they're going to be more than happy to speak english (which they are much, much better at than e.g. the french) to you so you can buy something from them. the touristy bits of france which rely on english speakers buying stuff are quite similar as well - you get a very different reaction if you speak english to a waiter in nice than if you try it on a sulky parisienne waitress for instance!

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i wanted a GPS watch for running/skiing

If you don't know where you are.... maybe you should have chosen to sit in a beer garden and calm down a bit instead.

I mean.... how hard can it be to know where you are when you're running/skiing?

vivatifosi

chewmylegoff wrote: »

so is it the case that i can just turn up to the olympic park at whatever time i want if i have tickets for an evening event? i'm pretty sure that's right but can't see it written down anywhere. if i can i want to get there at 9am and wander around all day, watch stuff on big screens etc. and of course go to the butterfly garden.

You can turn up any time you like (2 1/2 hours before the event is recommended anyway). Once in the park, you can go around, but you can only enter your particular venue a certain time in advance. I don't know what this is for the aquatic centre, but it could be, say, 1 to 1 and a half hours before the event.

Other things he tells me you might find useful:
1) If picking tickets up from the box office, factor time in for that too as they don't have lots of windows open. It took 45 mins to get the Opening Ceremony ticket, but queues tend to be shorter earlier on in the day and after the crowd have entered the stadium for the morning events.
2) If it suits you to do so, the route out to West Ham station is much less crowded after a big event. Having said that, the aquatic centre is the closest venue to Stratford tube, so you're probably still better off going there.
3) If you're planning to eat there, it's easier to have something in Westfield where there are shorter queues than lining up at the world's largest McDonalds.
4) Check the weather forecast before you go. If its rainy, there's not a lot of places to shelter other than the ticketed venues.
5) If you want to have a wander round and see the buildings, pick up one of the free London 2012 park maps from the Games Makers so you can see what's what.
6) Inside the park, the world's biggest McDonalds is huge and busy, but the busiest place is the 2012 store. When he went on Friday the queue just to get in the shop was 45 minutes.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, i don't speak german,

s'OK, I got a Grade D O level in that a few years before chewy was born.... we can get by.

There's probably an instant translator now... and/or app for that.

lostinrates wrote: »

But i do not do coaches.

No, it sounds hideous.... and you have to pee while contained in a sealed box in a moving vehicle.... hoping he doesn't brake hard I bet.

lostinrates wrote: »

If i can fly by then i would be prepared to meet you there though

I'd probably end up in the wrong country, or arrested, if I tried to go abroad alone

lostinrates wrote: »

I missed the one in bath this year. Went the day before it opened and i believe just missed it after it closed. A bit annoying but i have survived.

Bath sounds easy ..... could put that on the shortlist of destinations.

PasturesNew

Spirit wrote: »

Thought I was invincible.

Did you get bought the big pants for that outfit?

chewmylegoff

Spirit wrote: »

Happy 33rd Burthday Chewy.

So young. Great time of life though.

I liked being 33 . Thought I was invincible.

i thought i was invincible when i was 31, but 32 saw my body start to fall to bits with constant injuries. i think i am finally going to have to start warming up and stretching down properly otherwise i'm going to do some real damage. i might need to get some sports physio and i probably also need knee realignment surgery, and replacement achilles, adductor, neck muscles and a couple of replacement vertebrae.

lostinrates

My dh is leaping arpund the roomd naked wirh an electric tennis raket killing mosquitos. Our room smells of babequed insects and it sounds and looks like tiny fireworks.

And people wonder what wr do for nightlife/entertainment in the country side.

chewmylegoff

PasturesNew wrote: »

If you don't know where you are.... maybe you should have chosen to sit in a beer garden and calm down a bit instead.

I mean.... how hard can it be to know where you are when you're running/skiing?

the GPS thing doesn't tell you where you are, it tells you how far you've run / skiied, and how fast, what your split times are, how many calories you've burned etc. especially useful if you always run the same route (which i generally do) because you can see exactly where you are improving vs. before, and what the effect of putting more effort in on uphill bits is on the flat bit afterwards etc.

PasturesNew

LLs put a small bedside cabinet in my room... it's old and badly painted in some white gloss.... says he wants to have a go at decoupaging it with flowers in the long-term, but it might as well go in here now as there's no bedside cabinet.

And earlier I had to watch some poncey swan lake stuff on the telly .... somebody's interpretation of it (didn't catch the name... but some poncey kn0b ... began with a G).

This place is stuffed with culture and class..... I sat and watched something I didn't understand and sucked on my throat sweets noisily. LL ended up nodding off still holding a glass of wine (now THERE's a talent).