Well - family grumpy have just got back from a week in Madeira. We stayed just outside the capital - Funchal, and there was very little to get grumpy about - in fact we had a jolly good time!
We booked with the Ilkeston Co-op travel agents branch in Leicester (I had a bad experience with an on-line booking, so I now prefer to go and talk to someone!) with Sunspot holidays. We flew with TAP on a scheduled flight from Heathrow (now there's somewhere to get grunpy about!!!).
TAP's staff showed a remarkable disregard for the normal rules of safety on both the way there and the way back - on the way out, they let a sleeping woman lie accross three seats with no lap-belt on during landing, and on the way back the video screen swere left down, and the lights on full during landing. Not impressed.
The transfer to the hotel was a seriously scary introduction to Madeira's curious driving regime. Speed limits are a challenge to the more masculine male!
The hotel was the Jardins d'Ajuda apartment hotel - and very good it was too. We were unfortunate in being assigned a 'sea view' room - which gave a good view of the main road - what you want here is a garden view room! We were staying half-board, and cannot fault the food or the staff.
Mosquitoes! We got bitten during the night, and I don't ever get bitten! That I don't understand!
The hotel is a little way out of town, but there is a good hotel bus service, and an even better public bus service. Car (and motorbike) hire is available for the brave.
Funchal is not a place for the young, kids or teenagers, the whole place is geared up to the 'more mature' visitor, something it does extremely well. Everywhere sells tea and cakes. (We recommed the 'Loja do Cha' in Funchal centre - tea milk shake, anyone!)
We found 'living costs' to be very reasonable - we spend a lot less here than we did in previous weeks in Croatia and Morrocco!
Everyone (except the german tourists) speaks at least some English, and the currency is the sensible mainland Euro. (Why do we persist with the little-Englander pound? )
A week wasn't long enough to wind down, and to get the best of the place - we'll be going back!
Sunday, 18 February 2007
Wednesday, 7 February 2007
Rant Alert! Parking on pavements!
What is it about a certain part of the motoring public that thinks that they can block pavements by parking on them?
Pavements are for people - roads are for cars.
Round here there are a number of partially sighted people, old biddies in those dreadful motorised shopping carts, lots of mothers (and probably fathers too) with push-chairs - so why do selfish bl**dy drivers think that these people don't exist?
Parking on the footway, even just a teeny weeny bit of it, is not only is dangerous, because the poor old pedestrian has too go out into the road to get round the tin-can, but the tin-can is damaging the footway too - which has to be paid for out of taxation - that is the council tax.
AND another thing! Don't get me started on the selfish winghing of the poor motorist when it comes to "Car Tax" - get real -there is no such thing - read it again Car tax does not exist - what the keeper of the car pays (that's the keeper, not the driver) is Vehicle Exise Duty - which is a tax that allows him (or her) to keep the car on the road. VED does not pay for the roads, it does not buy a patch of roadspace, or a parking space - it is a general tax.
I seem to recall reading (no I can't reference it) that if the motorist had to pay the true cost of motoring the tax would be somewhere nearer £2500 a year.
The roads (and footways) are paid for out of general taxation - most significantly out of Council Tax, which everyone pays, including pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders, and bl**dy selfish car drivers. Remember motorist - when you moan about cyclists, or pedestrians not paying road tax - they are paying for that road you are driving on, and not using the benefit of that payment.
Don't park on the pavement, it's dangerous and its' anti-social.
-------------------------------------------------------------
No I've not received my Dutch Flyer tickets. No there's still no contact details on the DutchFlyer website - and yes it's looking like a shambles.
Pavements are for people - roads are for cars.
Round here there are a number of partially sighted people, old biddies in those dreadful motorised shopping carts, lots of mothers (and probably fathers too) with push-chairs - so why do selfish bl**dy drivers think that these people don't exist?
Parking on the footway, even just a teeny weeny bit of it, is not only is dangerous, because the poor old pedestrian has too go out into the road to get round the tin-can, but the tin-can is damaging the footway too - which has to be paid for out of taxation - that is the council tax.
AND another thing! Don't get me started on the selfish winghing of the poor motorist when it comes to "Car Tax" - get real -there is no such thing - read it again Car tax does not exist - what the keeper of the car pays (that's the keeper, not the driver) is Vehicle Exise Duty - which is a tax that allows him (or her) to keep the car on the road. VED does not pay for the roads, it does not buy a patch of roadspace, or a parking space - it is a general tax.
I seem to recall reading (no I can't reference it) that if the motorist had to pay the true cost of motoring the tax would be somewhere nearer £2500 a year.
The roads (and footways) are paid for out of general taxation - most significantly out of Council Tax, which everyone pays, including pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders, and bl**dy selfish car drivers. Remember motorist - when you moan about cyclists, or pedestrians not paying road tax - they are paying for that road you are driving on, and not using the benefit of that payment.
Don't park on the pavement, it's dangerous and its' anti-social.
-------------------------------------------------------------
No I've not received my Dutch Flyer tickets. No there's still no contact details on the DutchFlyer website - and yes it's looking like a shambles.
Saturday, 3 February 2007
Integrated Transport? Maybe....
So, we thought we'd book a couple of weekends away in the summer......
First we went for The Dutch Flyer - a website which lets you book tickets from any One Railway station in the UK, a ferry ticket, onwards to any Dutch railway station. Good Idea! We fancied a weekend away in Noordwijk on the Dutyc coast - sounds good, doesn't it!
Wellllllll..... first, the nearest One Railway station to Leicester is probably Cambridge (or we could have gone via London, Liverpool Street), but the site doesn't let you order connecting tickets, or let you even look at timetables - but, never mind - carry on regardless.
It's a bit of an odd site, where you have to book the UK rail trip, pause, then book the ferry, and the Dutch bit just falls into place (I think).
So, I did the required messing about, gave it my credit card details (secure site etc etc), and Hey Presto! "This site cannot be displayed". I've no bloomin' idea whether I'm going to get my tickets, and no idea if some scoundrel in Kurdistan has got my credit card details - and there's no contact details on the website, and the WhoIs leads to an advertising agency.
I'll wait and see if my tickets turn up (I've waited a week already now).
Next.
Sailrail, is another great idea - integrated rail and ferry tickets from any UK rail station to any Irish railway station via almost any ferry route. Great! Lets work out which way is the most econonomical, whenI can go, polish the credit card and.......... Oh, I can only buy the tickets by phone or at my local railway station. How very modern!
I think I'll try that at Leicester station at about, say, 8:15am one Monday morning!
First we went for The Dutch Flyer - a website which lets you book tickets from any One Railway station in the UK, a ferry ticket, onwards to any Dutch railway station. Good Idea! We fancied a weekend away in Noordwijk on the Dutyc coast - sounds good, doesn't it!
Wellllllll..... first, the nearest One Railway station to Leicester is probably Cambridge (or we could have gone via London, Liverpool Street), but the site doesn't let you order connecting tickets, or let you even look at timetables - but, never mind - carry on regardless.
It's a bit of an odd site, where you have to book the UK rail trip, pause, then book the ferry, and the Dutch bit just falls into place (I think).
So, I did the required messing about, gave it my credit card details (secure site etc etc), and Hey Presto! "This site cannot be displayed". I've no bloomin' idea whether I'm going to get my tickets, and no idea if some scoundrel in Kurdistan has got my credit card details - and there's no contact details on the website, and the WhoIs leads to an advertising agency.
I'll wait and see if my tickets turn up (I've waited a week already now).
Next.
Sailrail, is another great idea - integrated rail and ferry tickets from any UK rail station to any Irish railway station via almost any ferry route. Great! Lets work out which way is the most econonomical, whenI can go, polish the credit card and.......... Oh, I can only buy the tickets by phone or at my local railway station. How very modern!
I think I'll try that at Leicester station at about, say, 8:15am one Monday morning!
Thursday, 1 February 2007
Specsavers - The end of a long relationship!
I've been a customer of Specsavers in Leicester for a good many years, and both my kids and my wife have been their customers. Their prices have always seemed fair, their staff knowledgable, and the shop clean and comfortable. There's never seemed to be the pressure to spend 'just a little bit more' that I've heard of from customers of other chains.
So, what's gone wrong?
Last July I replaced my ageing varifocals with a new pair, as you do! I've recently noticed that in some light conditions they look as though they are dirty, and when held at an angle the lenses look crazed - or at least the coating on the lens looks crazed.
These lenses had the same non-scratch surafce that my previous pair had, which served me well for, what must be, four years, and they never looked like the new ones.
So I took them back to Specsavers for them to have a look. It seems that I've either been heating them up to very high temperatures or mistreating them. The treatment they had was no different to the old pair that lasted five times as long.
I was particularly upset at the offhand way I was dismissed as a serial spectacle abuser! I was not looking for a refund, but an offer to look properly at how the non-scratch coating had broken down might have been more re-assuring - or a small discount on a replacement pair.
I have heard good things about the Opticians at the local Tesco.
So, what's gone wrong?
Last July I replaced my ageing varifocals with a new pair, as you do! I've recently noticed that in some light conditions they look as though they are dirty, and when held at an angle the lenses look crazed - or at least the coating on the lens looks crazed.
These lenses had the same non-scratch surafce that my previous pair had, which served me well for, what must be, four years, and they never looked like the new ones.
So I took them back to Specsavers for them to have a look. It seems that I've either been heating them up to very high temperatures or mistreating them. The treatment they had was no different to the old pair that lasted five times as long.
I was particularly upset at the offhand way I was dismissed as a serial spectacle abuser! I was not looking for a refund, but an offer to look properly at how the non-scratch coating had broken down might have been more re-assuring - or a small discount on a replacement pair.
I have heard good things about the Opticians at the local Tesco.
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