Be Excellent To Each Other

No fucking kidding.

I've just remembered that Kissyfur is staying at mine as well. This is going to go well at all, is it, if we're getting split up more than a month in advance?

Not that it matters because, of course, he's not going to turn up anyway.

Are we talking about the Monsoons on Oxford Road, not far down from the railway bridge (heading out of town)? It's pretty amazing that so many of us have eaten in the same kebab shop

Also, insert predictable "there's more United fans in London than Manchester" type joke here.

I can make it to this now! Not sure where I'll be staying, it depends on many things.

I'm a bit excited. I wonder what to wear?

Shoes and ships and sealing wax?

Well I'm thinking fur coat and no knickers.

Fancy.

I suspect Myp will wear a duvet and some knickers if we're lucky.

Maybe he'll wear /\|ß|ñ0 like a feed bag.

Or like one of those horse nappies.

Not long to go now.

thank you Goatboy.

Just tried to order my train ticket online and am now completely mystified as to how the tickets work and who to buy them from and what to do or anything. So I haven't. Hopefully turning up on the day and asking a human being behind a sheet of glass will help.

Nope. That is MADNESS.

Go to the train station at least a few days ahead and purchasing from the glass bound ones will save you much monies. DOn't buy on the day, or you turn into a sheep. A SHEEP!

Go to thetrainline.com and do it there. It's simple. You can either have them post you the tickets, or you go to the machine in the station and insert your card and it produces your tickets.

Ah yes, that's much simpler. Except they want £3.50 if I want to use my credit card so I'll have to buy on the day.

Wow. Was only 50p to use a card for me. Saved me about £100 over buying the tickets on the day, too.

That 3.50 adds another 1/3rd of the cost of the entire ticket onto the final price, so they can GTFF.

Get thee to thine Rail Departure/Arrivals Emporium, Squire!

When I bought a ticket from London to Nottingham on the day of travel (which was entirely my fault) it cost £90. I think the original tickets (that we got in advance) cost around £15.
This is £3.50 wisely spent.

Don't you have a card that isn't credit.

Indeed I do, but I will never use a debit card online.

Pity no-one can offer a lift. I was hoping that Mrs D was coming too.

Nah, Hell's had enough of dealing with my vomit at these sort of things. Plus our noisy sexual intercourse would keep Zardoz awake.

Oh I always use my normal card online. But I never have any money so no-one can steal anything anyway

I've been doing a lot of travelling for work recently and I order my tickets through the national rail site and then choose to buy from Chiltern Railways. They don't charge me anything extra for using a credit card, and I'm pretty sure I've ordered some tickets from there and had them posted for nothing (as long as you order far enough in advance). You'll need to create an account there though.
Of course, you could always cut out the national rail bit and just go straight here

Oh, I accidentally CrossCountry trains a few weeks ago, and they didn't require a login, nor did they charge me extra for using a credit card. Pretty sure they insisted on posting the tickets first class (and charging me), even though they're for travelling in March. There's still the option to pick them up from a station though.

Also, if you're using The Trainline or Raileasy, you can get cashback from Topcashback.co.uk (and probably other sites too). 1.5% from the former, 2% from the latter. Might just defray booking charges on a larger order.

Awesome. Chiltern worked a treat. Booked.

Yay.

We're all going to Norwich, now.

In July.

2011.

WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!

Once it's past 4.30am I can sleep through anything.

Not long to go now.

I thought that in Nottingham, till I realized at 6am Sunday morning that there was a church belltower outside the hotel window.

Yes.

DUMPH DUMPH DUMPH DUMPH DUMPH DUMPH DOOBA DOOBA DOOBA DOOBA

Ted Danson!

Sorted your crashings yet sinister? There's a small sofa at my place unoccupied, I think. Or if you're lucky, you can share with me, Grim... or KC.

Not long to go now.

You know you're getting a fake address from me if you wear that joke any thinner, don't you?

Not long to go now.

I can't come to this now.

WTF

Are you Mr Chris in disguise (it's not a very good disguise)?

What?

Oh, wait - that was a typo. I meant to say "Not long to go now".

Am I that uninviting?

Well advance scouting reports are in from the curry house of choice for all discerning people, Lal Haweli. It says "Clearly under new ownership, food excellent as always, ambience and service nosedived. "

Though I did remember that Tai Wu do a supoib all you can eat Chinese Buffet for about £12 on a Saturday night. And it is in the vicinity of where we will be drinking.

All you can eat Chinese Buffet + drinking = mistake. I did that in Glasgow and ended up pouring an entire night's worth of booze onto the greasy food already in my stomach where it had absolutely no effect. In the end we just gave up in disgust and went home, still sober.

Yeah, I'm coming to the conclusion that I'll be eating OR drinking on Saturday, don't want to mix and match

A small amount of eating on the Saturday would be a good thing. Like nuts, crisps, pork scratching or, if we're going totally crazy, chips.

Although I think I must be the only person in the world who's never done the going out on a drinking marathon then going for a curry thing.

Also, I agree that Chinese food and booze don't mix.

I'm excited about this now. I've asked myp 20 questions about who everyone is, where everyone's from, what games they play... And now I can't remember anything as I have broken my memory with vodka. Dang.