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¶: Greetings From Heather Stern

Greetings from Heather Stern

Greetings everyone, and welcome once more to the wonderful world of the Answer Gang.

Those of you who follow the Mailbag may recall that I visited our Weekend Mechanic, Thomas, as well as the country he lives in. England was nice. Rick, our resident Viking, took special care that I should have a maximum amount of the very best information so I shouldn't get too wretchedly ripped off. I didn't follow all of his advice, but I think we managed to get less burnt for his care, at least.

Sights I did get to see: foreign skies. My favorite. But then with a name like 'starshine' for my domain you probably expected me to be fascinated with that. Great countryside - not just from above (keep your eyes open as you pass sunset at the terminator - "wow" isn't enough to describe) - but you rush past pasture and forest as much as an occasional industrial blip on the trains. Fascinating paintings on some underpass walkways - to my great pleasure, there are walking/biking paths everywhere. The motorways are full of mildly crazy people but you don't have to have a car.

You could take the train just about everywhere for city-to-city travel - but it's not all that cheap, even though it's not exactly "may as well go for two weeks as a half day" kind of expensive. I enjoyed a ferry over to the Isle of Wight. It was nice enough, with a curious church, a plaza with plaques thanking those who prevented them being bombed completely back to the stone age (instead of about halfway), the charter of the original colony of Maryland...

2c tips for travellers:

• Before we went I was unsure, now I'm positive; if you travel there as a foreigner, do get the BritRail pass ahead of time, it is worth it. The only reason I broke about even with not getting one is because some of the things I really wanted to see weren't to be reached by train. There seems to be more than one on-line vendor. Also - it's possible to get them once you're in the UK but they cost double, and you can't just get them anywhere.
• Click, don't walk, to your nearest online American Express terminal, and use their FX4YOU service to get the best exchange rate... and escape the extra service fees because your transaction began outside airport control. Keep your order number as it's your proof of the transaction already in progress but then show up at the AmEx kiosk, make your exchange, and go.
• Your ATM and credit card actually get decent exchange rates. Make sure you get charged in pounds and not your local currency; you want your bank to handle the exchange, again saving you kickbacks extra service fees.
• Pack your luggage a little on the lighter side rather than stuffed; if you have to bring back an additional piece of luggage you may run into weight limits per passenger. Didn't catch me with that one, but I brought a bunch of consumables.
• Airline food is so-so. If you have allergies or care how much of something you get, bring some snacks of your own; what you really get can't be easily predicted.
• Don't buy the airport wireless, it's terribly expensive and will claim nonsense like "a whole day of service" when you know you're just going to arrive at the other end, fail to find a hotspot, manage to find your hotel, and zonk. Also see if you can find cybercafe shops instead of forking over hotel rates for built-in internet.
• Small ordinary pubs where normal blokes and gals go for a meal or some brews charge something like normal prices for normal food. Fancy restaurants on motorways near areas with hotels are bound to be a rip-off in the money department. Since the US dollar kinda sucks against the pound, this would be the fast way to flatten your wallet. Simple is good, and if you've the opportunity, buy groceries. My best lunch deal was 89 pence for a sandwich at some local liquor store.

I'm sure I'll make my way back there sometime. It was as much fun to go to Thomas' local LUG and speak about X windowing (one of my favorite topics) and meet people I'd only ever known online. Having entertained a very few of them when they visited here made my arrival so much more pleasant.

In other adventures - Thomas has found online, the one, the only, the xteddy teddybear. Per his author's homepage, he's a Gund "tender teddy". Well, he's Gund Tender Teddy model 2123, a nice brown with a cheery red bow, born 1983, and Thomas found him vacationing in Hawaii. There's a ticket booked for him to the UK and xteddy will soon grace Thomas' desk directly.

Winter's here, but I hope it's not too chill to you - in whatever way you need to hear that. Time for the hot choccy, I think; settle into a warm chair, pore over a few techie manuals, and enjoy our current feast for thought. See you next month!