The Elite and the 24 hour #glitch people :)

HILLBERN

mhoc wrote: »

My entire life is like this - and its contagious so never ever be in the same room as me

This is a prime example - as I've said before its like I live in a very badly written soap which has been given over to the most junior of copy writers straight out if uni :rotfl:

As Miranda would say Previously In My Life ...
Youngest son is an outdoor sports instructor and after uni he went to work for an international company and he has been based in the Lake District for the last 2 years.
Last year he applied and was accepted for a six month secondment at one of the other bases of the company in Hong Kong
So for the last six months getting ready for Hk has been the pre occupation - this included getting the visa was a long job but he also had to organise his jabs, get a medicle, do a life guarding course, do a first aid course, go on a course to learn to drive mini buses and pass - 3 attempts at the theory, 2 at the actual tests, extra courses on sea kayaking etc - as well as the usual work, GF, social life etc ...

The visa came through 17 days ago so then he had dates to finish his contract at the Lakes and his start date for HK - July 1st.
This also coincided with the end of the tenancy for the shared house he lived at.
manic is not the word for it - he had 3 days off work in the last 3 weeks and everything else had to be fitted around work - emptying, cleaning and clearing the house plus all the preparations for moving to Hk.
I managed to get him home for just one day - he took his mini bus driving test in the morning - only realising the night before he had the time and venue wrong and he had to be at Stoke for 6 in the morning - passed fortunately.
In the afternoon he had a dental check up.
Inbetween we had to cram everything else in - this included booking the flights - I've only ever booked short haul flights before a couple of times - son has never booked any, only flown once before.
With all of the delays and booking so close to the date the flights cost about £200 more than they should have - I've paid or rather Grandad did. In the end we decided we might as well book the direct flight - Manchester to Hk - it was working out much the same and a much shorter total flight time. Also we would not have the worry of changing flights in the middle.
Work would not let him finish until Sunday June 28th, flight booked for Monday 29th to arrive Tuesday 30th and start contract on July 1st.

The return flight was also an issue - HK wanted him until January 1st but Ullswater wanted him back for staff training on 03/01 - line manager said book 19/12 - HK then agreed to finishing on 25/12 - so the day after we booked he had to ring and change his flights to 26/12 - getting back to the uk on 26/12

So Sunday night he finally gets home at 10 at night - its a 3 hour drive - with a car load and his GF - first time we have met her. The car is emptied, our house rammed with his belongings (as is GFs house) we feed them, the packing starts, finally get to bed at 2 in the morning.

GF has a train at just before 6 to take her back up north so we are up at 5.15 to hassle them out of the house - our main road is shut so its now a 5 mile diversion to get to the train station - they make it with 1 min to spare having not left the house until 5.45
Then youngest son comes back, sorts his banking out, cancelling SOs and DD so his UK account stays solvent while he is away, also cancelling his car insurance as his car is SORN d and kept at home while he is away.
Then more packing, he is still ramming stuff into his bags at 8 and the train is at 8.30.

We get the train to Manchester airport and walk along to terminal 2. Son has his boarding pass on paper and on his phone as I booked him in online on Saturday - you can do it 48 hours before.

He goes straight to check in, no queue, stowed bags get booked in, we go for a coffee - son has a chat with his brother and sister - all very nice and calm at this stage - we then see him off into the departure lounge - flight is at 12

So with a few tears and a huge sigh of relief we make our way back to the station, job done
We wait for our train, get a message from son that his flight has been delayed now due to fly at 13.00.

Of course though it doesn't

The plane has an engine problem,after 2 hours delay they get a £10 meal voucher with a very limited choice of places to use it at.
finally at 9 on Monday night - having had everyone sitting around all day - we had been at the airport at 9.30 in the morning - they bus everyone who should have been on that noon flight to a hotel somewhere near Stockport.
Airline pays for the hotel for the night, 3 course buffet dinner and breakfast and wi fi in the public areas so son is very happy - his stomach is always his major problem.

Bus comes to collect them again at 11 on Tuesday morning ( they would have been in Hk at 6 ) At the airport everyone has to book in again and book their bags in, this time it takes nearly 2 hours to stand in the queue. Sons phone contract ran out as he was not even supposed to be in the country but I manage to ring him and I also email Hk to keep them up to speed

Finally son flew out at 15.30 Tuesday afternoon, 27 hours delay

This is typical of my world - I don't know why I ever think anything would ever be straight forward and go exactly to plan.

Oh my goodness me- your life is certainly a good read, but hectic I'm worn out just reading it. Hopefully you will have a few months respite, but if I were you I shouldn't plan any celebrations at Christmas with DS arriving home boxing day, knowing your luck the plane will be ahead of schedule and you will be driving to the airport xmas day only to be told the plane has been diverted to London due to bad weather---I hope not;)

Dippydoo

SweetnSavvy wrote: »

HD from yesterday afternoon.


Asdawaitrose1x Asda Smartprice Rice Pudding (400G)£0.15N/A

1x ASDA Loose Oranges (EACH) £0.30£0.34

0.17x ASDA Grower's Selection Loose Bananas (PER KG)£0.12N/A

1x Asda SmartPrice New Potatoes in Water (550G) £0.15N/A

8x Toblerone Milk Chocolate (400G) £24.00£6.000.


22x ASDA Loose Carrots (PER KG)£0.18£0.17

1x ASDA Smartprice Spaghetti (500G) £0.20N/A

1x Asda Smartprice Mandarin Pieces in Light Syrup (312G)0.35N/A

1x Asda SmartPrice Sliced Carrots in Water (300G)£0.19N/A

1x ASDA Longlife Soya Milk Unsweetened (1L) £0.59N/A

6x Udi's Gluten Free Strawberry Flavoured Toaster Pastries (260G) £17.70£6.00

1x ASDA Loose Lemons (EACH) £0.30£0.35

Comparison total (compared products only)
£42.48 £12.86+£29.62cheaper

22 carrots for 17p bargain :rotfl:

Sunshinemummy

Tinyshoes wrote: »

I am only going for a week so 15 would be far to extravagant. I was hoping to take 2 bikinis and 2 costumes along with a little bottle of hand wash, do you think that's about right?

Flip, you sound like my oh. My answer to him, is would I be happy going on holiday with 4 pairs of pants which I intended to wash out... no.... get spending girl! x

mhoc wrote: »

My entire life is like this - and its contagious so never ever be in the same room as me

This is a prime example - as I've said before its like I live in a very badly written soap which has been given over to the most junior of copy writers straight out if uni :rotfl:

As Miranda would say Previously In My Life ...
Youngest son is an outdoor sports instructor and after uni he went to work for an international company and he has been based in the Lake District for the last 2 years.
Last year he applied and was accepted for a six month secondment at one of the other bases of the company in Hong Kong
So for the last six months getting ready for Hk has been the pre occupation - this included getting the visa was a long job but he also had to organise his jabs, get a medicle, do a life guarding course, do a first aid course, go on a course to learn to drive mini buses and pass - 3 attempts at the theory, 2 at the actual tests, extra courses on sea kayaking etc - as well as the usual work, GF, social life etc ...

The visa came through 17 days ago so then he had dates to finish his contract at the Lakes and his start date for HK - July 1st.
This also coincided with the end of the tenancy for the shared house he lived at.
manic is not the word for it - he had 3 days off work in the last 3 weeks and everything else had to be fitted around work - emptying, cleaning and clearing the house plus all the preparations for moving to Hk.
I managed to get him home for just one day - he took his mini bus driving test in the morning - only realising the night before he had the time and venue wrong and he had to be at Stoke for 6 in the morning - passed fortunately.
In the afternoon he had a dental check up.
Inbetween we had to cram everything else in - this included booking the flights - I've only ever booked short haul flights before a couple of times - son has never booked any, only flown once before.
With all of the delays and booking so close to the date the flights cost about £200 more than they should have - I've paid or rather Grandad did. In the end we decided we might as well book the direct flight - Manchester to Hk - it was working out much the same and a much shorter total flight time. Also we would not have the worry of changing flights in the middle.
Work would not let him finish until Sunday June 28th, flight booked for Monday 29th to arrive Tuesday 30th and start contract on July 1st.

The return flight was also an issue - HK wanted him until January 1st but Ullswater wanted him back for staff training on 03/01 - line manager said book 19/12 - HK then agreed to finishing on 25/12 - so the day after we booked he had to ring and change his flights to 26/12 - getting back to the uk on 26/12

So Sunday night he finally gets home at 10 at night - its a 3 hour drive - with a car load and his GF - first time we have met her. The car is emptied, our house rammed with his belongings (as is GFs house) we feed them, the packing starts, finally get to bed at 2 in the morning.

GF has a train at just before 6 to take her back up north so we are up at 5.15 to hassle them out of the house - our main road is shut so its now a 5 mile diversion to get to the train station - they make it with 1 min to spare having not left the house until 5.45
Then youngest son comes back, sorts his banking out, cancelling SOs and DD so his UK account stays solvent while he is away, also cancelling his car insurance as his car is SORN d and kept at home while he is away.
Then more packing, he is still ramming stuff into his bags at 8 and the train is at 8.30.

We get the train to Manchester airport and walk along to terminal 2. Son has his boarding pass on paper and on his phone as I booked him in online on Saturday - you can do it 48 hours before.

He goes straight to check in, no queue, stowed bags get booked in, we go for a coffee - son has a chat with his brother and sister - all very nice and calm at this stage - we then see him off into the departure lounge - flight is at 12

So with a few tears and a huge sigh of relief we make our way back to the station, job done
We wait for our train, get a message from son that his flight has been delayed now due to fly at 13.00.

Of course though it doesn't

The plane has an engine problem,after 2 hours delay they get a £10 meal voucher with a very limited choice of places to use it at.
finally at 9 on Monday night - having had everyone sitting around all day - we had been at the airport at 9.30 in the morning - they bus everyone who should have been on that noon flight to a hotel somewhere near Stockport.
Airline pays for the hotel for the night, 3 course buffet dinner and breakfast and wi fi in the public areas so son is very happy - his stomach is always his major problem.

Bus comes to collect them again at 11 on Tuesday morning ( they would have been in Hk at 6 ) At the airport everyone has to book in again and book their bags in, this time it takes nearly 2 hours to stand in the queue. Sons phone contract ran out as he was not even supposed to be in the country but I manage to ring him and I also email Hk to keep them up to speed

Finally son flew out at 15.30 Tuesday afternoon, 27 hours delay

This is typical of my world - I don't know why I ever think anything would ever be straight forward and go exactly to plan.

Flip, what a marathon.

Now you need to go home and hug your OH, and cry a lot x Then drink a bit and cry a lot more xxxx

DS1 is in the same field, and went to work in the middle east (very long story), after numerous telephone calls, an interview which led to another interview which he could not go to as he was at a wedding in America, he got a telephone call on a Friday where he was interviewed, and told his flight was booked for the Monday, he had two days in Abu Dhabi whilst they did the health tests, immigration, banks etc and then he was transported to where he would be working. He did not have to arrange anything or cover any costs himself.

We have to admit when we took him to the airport, we went to McDonalds for a few hours .... just in case he changed his mind!

hugs xxx

LEJC

curl_girl wrote: »

Running low on both but the BNI range has once again disappeared from my store, will have to go on a road trip!


ty

They were removing it from display in my local T today too...to make room for more summer products....
I think its one of those ranges that is sometimes sidelined for a while at key points of the year...I think they did it last summer too and certainly at christmas in selected stores.

mhoc

HILLBERN wrote: »

Oh my goodness me- your life is certainly a good read, but hectic I'm worn out just reading it. Hopefully you will have a few months respite, but if I were you I shouldn't plan any celebrations at Christmas with DS arriving home boxing day, knowing your luck the plane will be ahead of schedule and you will be driving to the airport xmas day only to be told the plane has been diverted to London due to bad weather---I hope not;)

Yes that's something I've not thought about - its quite a possibility - if this happens, diversion to London, do they bus them up to Manchester or do they make them wait a day and fly them up?

London airports are a minimum of 3 hours from us on a very good day so he would have to put up with the long distance bus trip.

We will be driving up to Manchester airport on Boxing day anyway, trains not likely to be running. OH is on call so its going to be a sad sack of a Christmas anyway.

Eldest son - it will be his first Uk Christmas in 4 years but I don't know if he will be home much, it depends on wether his GF stays home or goes back for Christmas - she is German. He might even get an invite to go back with her.
Eldest child - she insists on coming home and doing the full Christmas traditions as she thinks her BFs family don't do Christmas correctly - so she comes for 2 days and then joins him up north once the trains start running again.

Now you have started me thinking about Christmas and its only July :rotfl:

fuzzgun19

Has anyone else had problems with gift cards bought from Highstreetvouchers.com?

I bought £25 Asda cards, the £5 one worked, but the other 2 £10 ones keep getting declined.
I checked the balance on Asda, but got "Your balance check is failed . Error -Account Locked".

logie

Morning all :wave:

Today is a busy day. I was up early as one of the boys had a bad dream at half 5. He went back to sleep but I couldn't. There was a lovely cool breeze so I bit the bullet and went out for a run. Was home by 6.30 That's week 6 of C25K done. Had been avoiding the 25 minute run but I paced myself and even managed a sprint finish. There was plenty of time for a shower and breakfast before the school run too.

Second job done was to see GP. Had some extra tests last week and results were all good :j

Still got a play date this afternoon for DS2 and dinner out for me this evening. We're going for a curry - clearly we'll need something hot and spicy to eat on the hottest day of the year :eek: I'm hoping the restaurant is air conditioned :rotfl:

ruthber

Anon wrote: »

Thank you. We haven't bought any for a while as ended up with a few blocking space in the freezer. What price are they comparing at at the moment please? £1.90 for curries v A?

Many thanks

Anon

Yes, it is £1.90 for curries and £1 for flatbreads in A. HTH

mhoc

The weird thing is my normal default position would be to howl for days but I think I've cried myself out in dribs and drabs over the last 6 months and I think the tanks are empty.
I had a few tears after he went through into departures but those were relief tears.
But youngest son is such a procrastinator its been an incredibly stressful especially in the last 3 weeks - he is not grateful for anything we have done, possibly does not even realise how much background work has been done - things like organising travel insurance, ordering some currency, figuring out what needed to be done for his car, writing letters so he just had to sign things as well as doing research on flights and routes etc

I really want to drink quite a lot but OH is on a health kick so its 2 Budweiser's with dinner (amongst youngest sons belongings so we have claimed them) and a late night G & T

So much easier if your employer arranges and books everything - eldest son is in the army so he has mostly been out of the Uk but its so easy, we only have to think about how he gets to Brize Norton and putting the SORN on the car and that's it.







Flip, what a marathon.

Now you need to go home and hug your OH, and cry a lot x Then drink a bit and cry a lot more xxxx

DS1 is in the same field, and went to work in the middle east (very long story), after numerous telephone calls, an interview which led to another interview which he could not go to as he was at a wedding in America, he got a telephone call on a Friday where he was interviewed, and told his flight was booked for the Monday, he had two days in Abu Dhabi whilst they did the health tests, immigration, banks etc and then he was transported to where he would be working. He did not have to arrange anything or cover any costs himself.

We have to admit when we took him to the airport, we went to McDonalds for a few hours .... just in case he changed his mind!

hugs xxx[/QUOTE]

logie

Haven't checked stock (don't think my boys would be fans :rotfl:) but spotted this on the Ashleigh FB page

Disney kids dressing up clearance is still working with the 'buy 2 save £10' discount at Argos. Prices for individual dresses from £5.99

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9015003.htm