[QUOTE=Capt. Ridley’s Shooting Party]
Oi!
[/QUOTE]
Oh come on, you know it’s true 
Why for a few quid more they’d throw in the pier and Wigan FC
[QUOTE=Colophon]
I’m not sure that’s true any more in a lot of places. Thanks to the ubiquitous out-of-town Tesco, much of the population has a huge superstore within easy reach that happily stocks 50 types of breakfast cereal and a dozen types of toilet cleaner. My local big Tesco just has far too much of everything and is too bloody big - unless you plan your shop with military precisionn, you end up having to walk a quarter of a mile to the other end of the shop and back because you forgot something from the veg section.
[/QUOTE]
True, but the vast majority of in-town supermarkets don’t have that much selection. Sainsburys has like 3 brands of bread other than their own bakery breads.
[QUOTE=GomiBoy]
1.39gbp per litre * 2.2 litres per gallon * 1.9 $ per GBP = $5.79 per gallon.
[/QUOTE]
There are 3.7854 liters per US gallon, not 2.2. And the exchange rate is 1.9725 at the moment.
So: £1.39/liter * 3.7854 L/gal * $1.9725 = $10.38/gal.
Last week in the Isle of Man I paid $10.03 so it has gone up a bit.
[QUOTE=Desert Nomad]
There are 3.7854 liters per US gallon, not 2.2. And the exchange rate is 1.9725 at the moment.
So: £1.39/liter * 3.7854 L/gal * $1.9725 = $10.38/gal.
Last week in the Isle of Man I paid $10.03 so it has gone up a bit.
[/QUOTE]
Jesus, what a long day already - my brain ain’t back up to normal yet from the long weekend.
Your math is right, mine’s wrong, sorry about that.
Yes, GBP 1.39 is very high for a litre of unleaded. Around here it is GBP 1.169 at the moment. (Still bloody expensive!)
[QUOTE=GomiBoy]
True, but the vast majority of in-town supermarkets don’t have that much selection. Sainsburys has like 3 brands of bread other than their own bakery breads.
[/QUOTE]
But the vast majority of supermarkets are out of town.
ETA and Sainsbury’s is doing petrol at £1.14 a litre.
[QUOTE=MarcusF]
Yes, GBP 1.39 is very high for a litre of unleaded. Around here it is GBP 1.169 at the moment. (Still bloody expensive!)
[/QUOTE]
That was at motorway services on the M6 on Friday, so maybe they bumped it up for bank holiday rip-off.
It was a Little Thief, though 
[QUOTE=GomiBoy]
True, but the vast majority of in-town supermarkets don’t have that much selection. Sainsburys has like 3 brands of bread other than their own bakery breads.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, my in-town Sainsburys offers mainly Warburtons, Hovis, and Kingsmill in addition to own-brand.
But each of those brands offers a full variety of bread types.
How many types of bread offerings do you need, anyways? 
[QUOTE=jjimm]
But the vast majority of supermarkets are out of town.
ETA and Sainsbury’s is doing petrol at £1.14 a litre.
[/QUOTE]
No, the vast majority of superstores are out of town; I shop at Sainsburys in Kingston or Waitrose if I’m feeling rich, and whilst both are ‘supermarkets’ neither of them are ‘superstores’ like you’re describing. Brand choice is limited to 1-2 choices per item, or maybe 3.
[QUOTE=sandra_nz]
Yeah, my in-town Sainsburys offers mainly Warburtons, Hovis, and Kingsmill in addition to own-brand.
But each of those brands offers a full variety of bread types.
How many types of bread offerings do you need, anyways?
[/QUOTE]
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not bitching about the choices, I think the selection is fine and don’t really care if I get Warburtons, Hovis, Kingsmill, or Own Brand as long as it’s what I want - multigrain seeded usually. It’s just very different from shopping in the US - you walk into a Safeway in the US and you’ve got like 20 different brands, even before the type of bread to choose from. The same goes for lots of other products in the US - you’ve got tons of brands doing the exact same product, then you’ve got 15 varieties for each brand.
[QUOTE=MarcusF]
Note the size of the bedrooms in **Colophon’s ** original link . 7’2" (max) x 7’ (max) - I wonder just how much of this room is the “max” width of 7 foot? :dubious:
[/QUOTE]
The house I am renting now (terraced) is just under 9ft wide…
[QUOTE=GomiBoy]
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not bitching about the choices, I think the selection is fine and don’t really care if I get Warburtons, Hovis, Kingsmill, or Own Brand as long as it’s what I want - multigrain seeded usually. It’s just very different from shopping in the US - you walk into a Safeway in the US and you’ve got like 20 different brands, even before the type of bread to choose from. The same goes for lots of other products in the US - you’ve got tons of brands doing the exact same product, then you’ve got 15 varieties for each brand.
[/QUOTE]
I think I’d get shopping-paralysis if I had that much to choose from! 
[QUOTE=GomiBoy]
London transport is hugely expensive, as already stated - I pay 172GBP for a zone 1-6 travel card per month - that gives me access to all the trains, buses, and tubes in the greater London area. But I don’t own a car; lots of people who live in London don’t. And there are lots of ways to offset this cost - 60+ and kids under 15 ride London transport for free, and there are ways to offset the cost even more. You can also travel cheaper by getting a bus-only travelcard (which is slower but will still get you there) or other tricks.
So I guess my anecdotal summary is that things are cheaper in the US, but the standards of living are very close to being equal.
[/QUOTE]
This is the only part i’d quibble with. London Transport isn’t actually very expensive and is incredibly good in terms of frequency in comparison to the majority of major cities and particularly in comparison to elsewhere in the UK.
A lot of people forget how close things are together sometimes, and that the tube isn’t the only part of the London Transport Network. If you get to know the various parts of the network and do a bit of forward planning (and lateral thinking) you’ll often find you can get around far cheaper than you’d think, particularly if you don’t focus solely on the fastest possible route.
By way of an example, here’s my daily commute:
Live in: Hackney, E5 (East London)
Work in: Ladbroke Grove W11 (West London)
Duration: 1:15 (approx)
Total Daily Cost: £2 (£1 there, £1 back)
I use the TFL network, have no special discounts, have a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card, and don’t cheat fares to do that. It just required a bit of lateral thinking and a quick glance at the London A-Z.
Any guesses? Answers on a Postcard…
London sure seems expensive for transport to me. In Prague a 3 month unlimited pass for all public transport is £38.
[QUOTE=garius]
Any guesses? Answers on a Postcard…
[/QUOTE]
Queen’s Park?
Also, congrats to you and Becks on the wedding!
I too don’t think garius is right. Surely London’s transport is expensive, when compared to places such as New York? (How it compares to Japanese cities would be interesting.)
As for the difference between London fares and those of other cities, this is probably true, although in most, that 8 mile commute would take you straight through the entire city rather than from east-of-centre to west-of-centre. For a comparable journey elsewhere, you need to look on an equivalent scale, not an another 8 mile journey, which would take you all the way from Manchester out to commuter-suburb fake-Cheshire Altrincham. Or only two miles more gets you from Leeds to Bradford. Those journies are quite reasonably more expensive than an inner-London trip.
My questions would be “what does that include?” and “what is the relative cost of living in Prague?”
Don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying that London transport is cheap, i just think that objectively speaking its not particularly bad value at all.
Close
I use the Overground from Hackney Central -> Kensal Rise, then walk down (which takes about 20mins or 15 if you’re in a hurry).
Means i never leave Zone 2.
Fantastic restraint shown by the Mornington Crescent fans, there
[QUOTE=Usram]
Fantastic restraint shown by the Mornington Crescent fans, there
[/QUOTE]
I was tempted. But now you’ve opened the floodgates, Snaresbrook.