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Posts Tagged ‘travel’

Your on an Easyjet flight. You’re waiting in the departure lounge. Suddenly there is an announcement, could Mr Bloggs travelling to Edinburgh on EZY426 come to gate 7.

Why then do about 100 others get up and start queuing at the gate? What possible advantage do they think they are going to get. I’ve seen them there 15 minutes before the flight is called. Everyone has a ticket with a boarding group ( Actually Easyjet’s entire boarding palavar just makes me sooo annoyed. I honestly can’t beleive this is better than giving everyone allocated seats. More later- I digress) , the groups used to be A,B,C and D but now I notice its A and B only. They have allowed for the first group now being “passengers who purchased ezy boarding”.

Easy Boarding!- what a bunch of muppets. Do you know I priced this for some flights I have to take with the family later in the the year-and it would have cost an extra £30 on the total cost of flights which were £130. Thats a cool 23% mark up – for what- so you can stand at the front of a queue- and queue longer! Half the time they use a bus to board the plane anyway so speedy boarding gets you precisely no where!

Anyway back to the queue- so you have 100 people crowding like a rugby scrum in front of the gate and then they say could people travelling with young children or needing more time please come to the gate. Next time I see a couple of middle aged adults with young Johnny (age 14 and 6 foot 7 tall) go to the front …. and get on, I am going to go tot he front too. When they question me about why I have pushed through I will let them know I am travelling with a virtual young child- just like Johnny’s Mum and Dad cos there is no way he qualifies!

The “infirm” too- I have no problem with old codgers who have to walk slow or can’t manage the stairs very well going up first but half of them that I see have just completed the veterans class in the London Marathon and are using their age as a VIP pass! Pay for Ezy Boarding you old buggerz!.

Then the moment comes- passengers with boarding group A please come to the gate- Half of the back of the queue surges forward because the knobs at the front are all in other boarding groups- but they are not allowed on yet. So now you have people who are allowed on trying to read other people who are in the queues boarding cards to see if they can overtake to get to the front- their now rightful place. I watched a fat lady stand at the front of the queue for a good 20 minutes the other day and she was to be one of the last to board. SIT DOWN YOU STUPID FAT BAG!

Finally the final part of the scrum ensues- everyone else comes forward. and proceed to get through the gate. Of course this is when high farce sets in, because the plane isn’t actually ready for boarding yet, or there is no bus to get you there. So everyone is simply queueing up outside.

You get to the front and they ask you for your ID. Now what exactly is this about? I fly all the time and the only people who do this are SqueezyJet. Why? I have a boarding card- LET ME ON! And now they ask you again between the gate door and the plane- usually there is some ground handling agent hiding between a couple of baggage trolleys carrying a Jobsworth clipboard, and they jump oit and ask you again. Its sooo annoying because you have usually just put it away so you are organised for tackling the final part of this pantomime- getting a seat!

So you get onto the plane, up the steps- more boarding pass chaos, and into the aisle of the plane.

Now practically everyone with EzyBoarding has grabbed a window seat, though theres usually loads left if your bothered. Everyone else who hasn’t got a window has grabbed the aisle seats- they don’t want to sit next to a stragner so they leave a space in the middle. Also the middle seat always feels more cramped as you have someones elbow on each arm rest either side. So we all grab the outsides in the vain hope the plane will be quiet and no one will want the middle seat….. but they always do, so the people in the outside need to stand up and let someone in the middle. Now I can sort of understand this bit- I hate the middle seat you get jammed in and feel squashed up. But why not simply allocate seat numbers or board by rows? My God its not difficult nor any more time consuming than this shambles! And then you finally discover that not only do you have a really cramped seat but also on the latest Airbuses operated by Squeezy Jet they did not buy the reclining seat options for passenger seats, so your fixed in an unnaturally cramped upright postion for the whole journey…… ARGGGHHHHH!

Just back from Sharm- really good holiday, and wanted to mention the subject of eating out. Sharm has to have a selection of the cheapest good quality, restaurants for any fairly commercial holiday resort I have ever been to. We ate at pretty well a different place very night, we had a couple of repeat visits due to “popular demand” towards the end but you could easily eat in a different place every night for probably a couple of months if you were to try all the hotels too! Also we had a couple of night at the hotel, once while we were getting our barings, and a couple when because of dicky tummies we stayed near the room!. The dodgy tummies do not appear to be in any way food related, more likely to be dehydration related as we all had them at different times and were eating much the same stuff. None of the upsets were in any way serious, just minor upsets. Will spare you the details!

All these places are clustered in or around Naama Bay. Prices based on two adults and a child.

Pomodorro: An Italian eatery in the heart of Naama, part of the Camel Dive Club Hotel on the main street. Very popular, very busy, but very very nice, chic interior and a busy outside- eating outdoors in July can be a bit warm (was 26C at night and could be a very hot dry wind on occasions).However they have a water sprinkler thing outside to keep diners cool. There is air con inside (as there is everywhere). Food is Italian (obviously) pasta and pizza are both very nice. Very nice Lasagne with roasted vegetables on the side. Think we paid about £20 for three main courses with drinks and some side dishes.

TGI Fridays: Yep- you get them everywhere and Sharm is no different, same stuff as in UK basically, food was nice, burgers and chicken were both good and lots of it. Much cheaper than UK though. Starters, and main courses for three with two rounds of Non alchohoic cocktails and soft drinks for the kid, were £24! TGI’s was better than Hard Rock Cafe in my opinion though its very cold in the air-conditioned interior.

Hard Rock Cafe, Sharm: Again much the same as home with the exception of a very theme park type exterior that has loads of tourists taking snaps. Bar is very busy and prices are much as the UK for cocktails. We had to wait about 30 mins for a table but that is no problem when there are the screens and music to keep your attention. Food though again is much cheaper than UK and we had Main course and dessert with drinks (cocktails) and it came to £29.

Mexican Bar, Naama Bay Hotel: Just off the main street of Naama is the Naama Bay Hotel with a number of attached restaurants. The Mexican Bar is a mexican diner in the wild west stylee and was pretty good. Big Fajitas, Enchiladas etc. Nachos were nice. Margheritas were nice here too. About £27 for Main course and drinks (cocktails and soft drinks)

China House, Namma Bay Mall: Up on the roof, eating outside is OK here as it gets a bit of a breeze. Really nice Chinese food and plenty of it. Three main courses, with extra rices and kids food too plus drinks was £23. Recommended are the Lemon Chicken, Beef and Oyster Sauce and the Sweet and Sour Prawns. One observation all over Naama, maybe surprisingly, seafood is slightly more expensive in Sharm, especially shrimps and Lobster. Though still cheaper than UK.

India House: Next to China House- really nice Indian food, too much to eat to be honest, we had meals for two with nans and rice and it was only £16 with drinks.

Jolie Ville Hotel: Italian Restaurant: Accessed up an escalator from the top of the high street, this is a nice place to look out over the resort in the cool. Jolie Ville Hotel looks very nice and the restaurant is quite a classy affair though they don’t mind casual slobs like me either. Food is a bit more Nouvelle Cuisine, with huge plates and smaller portions, but none the less very nice. Think I had some sort of home made ravioli type thing with a cream sauce, it never looked much but was quite filling really. The garlic bread is done in the pizza oven and is very thin. The meal came to about £28 if I recall, pizzas seem to be popular there and are very nice.

Italian Restaurant : Hilton Fayrouz Village: Along the promenade at Naama, outdoor BBQ/Italian with freshly made pizza, and pasta, all you can eat salads and deserts. The Pizzas  and pasta were excellent- all made to order and preference. Again pretty cheap, Two courses for three with drinks was about £27 ( and if staying there kids eat free).

To be frank this is probably just scratching the surface of the good places you could try. Amongst some of the others which may be of interest are:

Little Buddah: This is a popular eatery/night club right in the centre opposite Hard Rock. They seemed to specialise in Sushi but I suspect there is more to it than this. Probably an adult preference as its a bit more sophisticated looking.

On Deck. Heard some good reports for this place. Its a restaurant on the end of a boardwalk on the seas edge at the Lido Hotel. This is the hotel right at the end of the Naama Bay area behind the Police post  at the turning point outside the Naama Bay Hotel. Its about 10 minutes walk from the Area of TGI Fridays/Hard Rock- towards the sea, past the casino. It seems a fairly up market place but we heard of a fixed price menu there. When we took a look it wasn’t offered and prices were relatively steep (compared to local prices- fair by home standards) and food looked to be of a high standard- Lobster, steaks etc.

Hope this post proves useful to anyone heading to Sharm. Enjoy.

You get on a plane going to or from your chosen holiday destination and about 1/3 of the male (and often a number of female) passengers are wearing football shirts- in my recent trips case- Celtic or Rangers.

Why?

What possible benefit do these to$$ers really think its going to give them? What is the point? Do they think half the plane is going to come over and say- wow your really cool. Cos the other half is just as likely to say- look at that knob in a Celtic/ Rangers strip- because they support the other team.

Do they think that they will get less hassle from taxis/baggage handlers by wearing one. “Sir sir, I will take your baggage, I speak very very good hinglish- , Me Celtic/ Me Rangers, very good friend, very good for tourist…..”

Honestly- have they nothing else in their wardrobe? Do they have clothes like Shaggy- only a load of green shirts and brown trousers except in this case- Celtic or Rangers shirts- probably one for each year.

Do they want to offend someone in the check in queue by wearing a shirt they know a sizeable percentage of the other passengers will hate? If you want to offend people do it right- by flying from Edinburgh when you come from Glasgow- or vice versa and wearing a shirt that says- East Coasters are all Gay. At least you will have a consistent result. Everyone will hate you!

Get a life