The totally off-topic thread

[QF WP]

Was nice to catch up with anat0l this morning - we caught the same bus into the City.

 

[serfty]

Did any trains leaving Carrum actually run?

There's actually 14 services schedule betwixt 7am and 8am every weekday morning ... still not a good rate today ...

 

[Mal]

I dare say there will be a lot of that here tomorrow also due to it snowing again today (and is right now). My wife commented that the National Rail website on Friday said all was OK however when getting to London Victoria station it was a different story altogether... looks like it's not just a MetroTrains issue

Hmm. Yep, a touch of snow and everything shuts down. Glad I'm flying back to LGW where there are no cancellations, unlike LHR which is still a mess. Still no guarantee the trains will be running on time (although I'm back pretty early so not too worried).

 

[Bundy Bear]

Back home now after a mad dash up to Singapore, I must be out of my mind.
So I got up at 4:30am to get to the airport to fly down to Melbourne, then up to Singapore on Jetstar Star Class for the SCs of course not the service. 2 nights in Singapore; 1st night Conrad, because of the rate with 15,000 points + $114 SGD rate. After I made my way to the Orchard MRT station then I spent about 30 minutes trying to work out which 300metre direction the Hilton was located. Had some drinks with PeteJ then went out for a few drinks with a few others including straitman and didn't get back to the hotel until after 2:30am. so 4:30am back home. :shock: Bill was smart he left around midnight.
The 2nd night at the Conrad, where we went out for dinner then Brad the organizer had an after party that lasted until after 4:00am although I and a few others left at 3:00am and then had to walk down 20 flights of stairs as the lifts were out of order. In bed by 3:00am.
So last night checked out at about 3:30pm and hung out in the Conrad Executive Lounge until after 7:40pm where I caught up with a few people at the Grand Hyatt for some final goodbyes before I caught the MRT back to Changi; Qantas use T1 and the train stops at T2, just something to remember.
Qantas are back to using the original Qantas First Lounge in Singapore. Had a piece of fruit and a shower and then got on the plane to Perth; upgrade came through so after the seat sign came off I went to sleep(well tried to) some turbulence at 3hours to go then next thing it was 25minutes to go with the captains message. The only thing I got from the FAs was a bottle of water, didn't eat anything, well I had plenty to eat and drink during the weekend so I wasn't starving.
Final flight from Perth was back in economy; so glad the upgrade came through, watched a couple of movies; now I have 2 that I haven't seen the ending. Will have to check how Ides Of March finishes up. My flight today was on an A330 with IFE and that dreaded middle seat in business class, it looks crowded.

Well that is my weekend wrap up, I need some sleep.:idea:

 

[Flashback]

The scary thing is when they get the job and get paid more than us!

---

On a more serious note, the world is changing.

Our entire creative digitial team wear tight jeans to work everyday, its like a uniform, just the way the rest of us wear suits. Start-ups and IT organisations generally don't have a strict dress-code.

There was an interesting article by Richard Branson contemplating whether attire and work output were correlated at all. I will try and find it, but I suspect a Virgin fan boy will beat me to it.


For those playing at home, I still wear a suit and tie everyday as that's what is expected

Working in the mining industry it's either PPE when on-site in Africa or Suit (no tie) when in the office in London. After having to wear a tie at school every day (winter and summer uniform...) I'm happy to be having a break

 

[Flashback]

Just saw a nice snow covered shot of a QFA380 sitting at LHR

 

[JessicaTam]

<snip>
Will have to check how Ides Of March finishes up.
<snip>

Ummm, April?

 

[JohnK]

Back home now after a mad dash up to Singapore, I must be out of my mind.

You are mad!

Oh and I really do not understand why you want to throw away that much money on hotel rooms you are not going to use. Geylang would have been perfect especially for Saturday night dinner as it is only a few minutes away.

 

[jetlagger]

You are mad!

Oh and I really do not understand why you want to throw away that much money on hotel rooms you are not going to use. Geylang would have been perfect especially for Saturday night dinner as it is only a few minutes away.

...& a very dubious area.. :shock: Hotel81 would be a certain distant size rooms than Conrad though

 

[JohnK]

...& a very dubious area.. :shock: Hotel81 would be a certain distant size rooms than Conrad though

In what way? I have stayed there many times and have never had an issue. Will more than likely stay there again on next SIN transit.

The Hotel81's and Fragrance hotels are more than adequate and to be honest what use is a big room when you are only there 4-5 hours a night?

I went to last year's SIN DO and stayed 3 nights in 3 different hotels in Geylang and paid just over AUD150 for the 3 nights. I have photos of the rooms as well which were quite good for me. The bathrooms can be quite small but that is not an issue with me even though I am a big bloke. And what is great is they have a fridge near reception with soft drinks for SGD1 and from memory cold beer as well which was not too expensive. What is the price of a beer in a Hilton minibar?

I am one of those people who gets no satisfaction what so ever spending AUD750 on hotel rooms for 3 nights when I could just as easily spend AUD150. Money looks much better in my pocket....

 

[amaroo]

You are mad!

Oh and I really do not understand why you want to throw away that much money on hotel rooms you are not going to use. Geylang would have been perfect especially for Saturday night dinner as it is only a few minutes away.

I can cope with whY, I can fly J*, I can even enjoy being in China.......however, I must stay in a decent hotel.

 

[Katie]

Happy 17yrs since we started dating to Mr Katie (I was very young back then ).

And thanks to an interesting convo on the AFF FB group today for helping me realise. I was thinking about responding in a particular way, and the date dawned on me.

Thanks to another AFFer's insistence we should raid the champagne fridge with dinner.

 

[anat0l]

Math geeks unite! How fast can you verify each of the problems below?

To be brutally honest, one of them isn't exactly correct...

 

[Austman]

Pi to 1,000,000 places ?

 

[straitman]

You are mad!

Oh and I really do not understand why you want to throw away that much money on hotel rooms you are not going to use. Geylang would have been perfect especially for Saturday night dinner as it is only a few minutes away.

JohnK,
I cannot agree with your perspective at all.
Paying that little bit extra gets us as much food and as many drinks as we like at the Conrad, though they did ask us to leave at 1130PM. It also gets us breakfast and morning and afternoon tea if we want. Combine that with not blowing $500 on the porkies here and there (that I cannot understand) and we are spending similar amounts as far as I can see.

 

[JohnK]

I can cope with whY, I can fly J*, I can even enjoy being in China.......however, I must stay in a decent hotel.

To each their own. I can easily do the first one in your list. Not sure about the rest.

 

[JessicaTam]

But a bit of fun if we assume that analogue clocks are accurate to two decimal places!

 

[Bundy Bear]

You are mad!

Oh and I really do not understand why you want to throw away that much money on hotel rooms you are not going to use. Geylang would have been perfect especially for Saturday night dinner as it is only a few minutes away.

I thought I should reply, since I made an offhanded remark on my thinking.

In one way I am mad. I just spent $2314.00 for a weekend, flights + accommodation + transport and food and drinks.

But in another way I just spent 2 fantastic days with about 40 friends which will leave me with some great memories and a few photos, so maybe I could have saved the money, might even save the money on the house loan, but then miss out on these friendships.

I do enjoy the flying part but once I have got to an destination then I want to catch up with friends, if I were to go to a place where there were no friends then I would go mad after about 2 days.

We all the remember the good experiences and you generally remember the trips that you have taken with others more so than the ones you have taken yourself.

You might say that your room rate is half of what a Hilton or Conrad is, I am never going to pay $750 a night for a room, that is what points are good for, but part of the fun of these Dos is catching up with people for breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks and maybe a few adult beverages in the evening.

Will I do it again next year and complain about the cost, yes most likely.

 

[JohnK]

I cannot agree with your perspective at all.
Paying that little bit extra gets us as much food and as many drinks as we like at the Conrad, though they did ask us to leave at 1130PM. It also gets us breakfast and morning and afternoon tea if we want.

Your situation is not quite the same as Bundy Bear and myself. You are married and we are single. You go to sleep early where as we stay up much later drinking.

I know Bundy Bear loves to spend the money but I just cannot justify $250 for a night at the Hilton/Conrad when I can get a room for $50 regardless of how much food and I drink I can consume at the Hilton/Conrad. I can buy an awful lot with the $200 saving.

Combine that with not blowing $500 on the porkies here and there (that I cannot understand) and we are spending similar amounts as far as I can see.

We could not possibly be spending similar amounts.

I am going back to Pattaya, Thailand in February for 10 nights and I paid ~AUD367 for 9 nights at the Pasadena Lodge and ~AUD21 for 1 night at the Convenient Resort in Ladkrabang including compimentary transfer from/to airport. Breakfast for me is included with the golf and if I am not playing golf a full English/American breakfast costs ~AUD5.

Compare what I paid to the Holiday Inn further up. That is priced at ~AUD125/night and the rooms are fantastic but 9 nights is going to cost me ~AUD1,115 and then another night in Bangkok somewhere for >AUD100 plus transfers to airport.

Compare that again to the Hilton which is in vicinity of AUD200/night so 9 nights is going to cost ~AUD1,800 or more.

Why would I need to spend that much on my own?

 

[serfty]

...

To be brutally honest, one of them isn't exactly correct...

Yeah - one of them is ≈ 9.0047779607693797153879301498385, out by ~0.0047779607693797153879301498385 ...