Paging the current and ex USA ex-pats

Having spent a considerable amount of time in hospital over the last 12
months, I can well believe it.

--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

Er....

(sorry, cheap shot I know but I couldn't resist it)

Kevin

 

TBF I'm thinking families (with homes) not individuals

 

I can't blame my kidney problems on being able to live on a
siginificantly lower income than some people think is essential to
survive.

--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

Really? Well there you are.

Here's a clue. It *was* tough.

Think carefully about the tense I use there.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

I wouldn't know, chuck.

 

We (that is V and I) rent a not-particularly-amazing two-bed flat in SW
London. Between us, it costs well over 17 grand a year, which works out
at around 30k when grossed up. And it's still half the price of a
mortgage on the same kind of place.

Daft as it may sound, moving from a flat in Maidenhead to a similar flat
in Wandsworth worked out pretty much cost-neutral, even once contents
and vehicle insurance was taken into account, because it saved us a
fortune in commuting costs.

The fact that the Wandsworth flat, including ludicrously cheap council
tax, worked out at over 26k (grossed up at basic rate plus NI) just
shows how fucking ludicrous housing costs are in this country. And for
that I blame Maggie's gerrymandering right-to-buy bollocks, wiping out
the council housing stock. The fucking witch.

 

I'm not apologising again!

 

And some areas are a lot cheaper than others to live.

I'll check with a mate whom I am seeing week after next, he's down to
that level of household income now having been unable to secure
anything reasonable since being made redundant. Then it's only up at
that level because his wife works a several low paid cash in hand
jobs. I am pretty sure he's already described it as existing rather
than living.

 

Not much really, just the fact that IT'S FUCKING DISGUSTING!!!

 

Some of it isn't great, sure, but mostly it is pretty good.

I'm of the firm belief that a lot of people a just TOO FUCKING PICKY!

 

*boggle*

OK how many marks out of 10 would you give a typical cattle class
airline meal?

Sure, but that's nothing to do with the quality of the food.

 

Dunno really, I never really think about it and just get on and eat
it.[1].

6/10 maybe.

Put it this way, if I was ever the given a choice of having to eat
either an airline meal or anything from McDonald's, I'd go with the
airline food.



[1] I rarely fly long-haul and I don't bother eating on most short-haul
flights.

 

Blimey. I'm genuinely amazed. You think they're better than half as
good as a top quality fine dining restaurant? I really dread to think
what you've eaten that would score a 1.

Ah. So you think the food's really good, & it's (usually) free, but you
don't bother eating it. I don't either, but only because I think it's
disgusting. The exception being breakfasts, which can be edible.

 

I wouldn't eat anything that scored a 1, or probably even less than 3,
so maybe my idea of the scale differs from yours.

McDonalds would be a 3 or 4, not-very-good pub grub would be a 5, so
yeah, 6 is about right.

Most of the stuff I eat would be 7-8, higher range restaurants would be
9 and Michelin-starred & the like would be a 10.

Generally, anyway.

The reason I don't usually eat it is because I can quite happily go for
2-3 hours without eating. And especially as outbound from the UK we're
told to check in so fucking early that if I think I'm going to need
something I usually get something at the airport.

Long haul, where I need a meal, is a pretty rare occurrence for me, but
yeah, I reckon it's closer to my "pretty good" than your "FUCKING
DISGUSTING"

 

Oh well, I'd score airline food 0/10 fwiw. Every one I've had has been
a tin tray full of anaemic, tasteless mush. So either I've been very
unlucky, or you've been very lucky, or we have wildly different ideas
about food.

 

And under this situation if both partners are equally bloody minded
the kid loses.

 

I suspect a combination of all those factors, TBH. Thankfully, I go BC
on long-haul, which is a different thing entirely, although it must be
said that BA's food offerings have gone downhill in recent years, from
a 8/10 to around 6-7/10 [1]. Cattle class meals would tend to be
around 3-4/10, although oddly enough we had much better meals, around
6-7, on our flights to and from Turkey last year, with two different
Turkish airlines. Really quite good, cheap and including an glass of
wine or beer.


[1] On my scale, with 10/10 reserved for a meal I've not yet found,
0/10 for... well, something inedible, clearly. McD ould be perhaps
2/10.

 

Some of it is good, most of it mediocre and some just fucking
horrible. Generally business is better and charter the worst, I'll
usually pass and just try and get a couple more G&T down my neck.

Have working taste buds you mean

 

<checks mirror>
Yup for my sins I am that