Teenagers first holiday without parents

bluebear36 wrote: »

I've lived in Edinburgh over 30 years and have never heard of anywhere that cheap. I'm intrigued - what's it's name?

I've just been out for lunch in a pub/restaurant on the outskirts and it was £25 for 3 courses plus a soft drink. £20 is small change for good quality food.

Jolly's on Elm Row, its either £6.30 or £6.50


Desserts can vary, had pears in wine before, had home made apple pie before mains I either get a half and half or a normal main meal, always get nice roast potatoes and salad or chips with it.


Not to everyones taste but never had a problem there and the owner 3 years own still remembers me each time I go in.

Making myself the victim. On an Internet forum where people are talking about curry.

Right you are then. It's you who started banging on about your three course meal in Edinburgh when they are going to London.

Jog on.

I'm not from annandale. What an odd thing to say.

Really odd.

Are you from a town called dekaspace?

Not sure when he is off on this holiday, but a few practical tips:

Make sure his mate's phone is enabled to work in the UK!

Make sure they don't flash cash: maybe put some in different pockets and replenish their main wallets when they're in their hotel / hostel room.

Make sure they EACH have contact numbers for both families on their phones, and on a piece of paper in their wallets.

Make sure you've got contact numbers for the American family, and vice versa.

Make sure they agree what to do if they lose each other.

Make sure they know they can phone you, whatever goes wrong. But accept that they may not tell you everything, and sometimes you're better off not knowing ...

Maybe ask that if they are aware of an incident, they text to say "we're OK, nowhere near X" - and that they forgive you if you text after an incident, just so you know.

Yes, it's all based on personal experience ... DS1 in London with school friends on 21/07 That Year - I never knew but my sister was actually in London on 07/07 - and I was stuck in hospital. That was the first day I was sufficiently compos mentis to listen to the radio. I couldn't get off the ward to phone him. DH reasoned that we'd hear soon enough if he wasn't OK. Meanwhile I got the award for the Least Caring Mum because all his friends' mums had rung within about 10 minutes ...

Then there was DS2 inter-railing with friends. Phones not working (not enabled for roaming but it took 24 hours to work that out.) A long email: "We've lost Fred ... and I think I've lost my passport." They'd split up and agreed to meet back at the station to move on to the next city, somehow they missed each other, Fred had got on the train, and they hadn't. That was when I'd have liked them to have had Fred's parents' phone number ... to give me if nothing else!

And as for not knowing: DS1's phone battery died when he was seeing how far he could hitch-hike for charity. I'm really glad I didn't know what was going on in Poland and Russia ...

Good god....couldn't you two take this ridiculous tiff somewhere else?