good monday morning

Pointy - my flights cost over £1000 for the both of us ><

We bought our tix in March to fly to the UK in July they cost us $919 each. That was the cheapest we could find. Stinks big time, but we really wanted to visit.

Can I just say that while trying to call Custom House, I managed to get through to a sex line?!

I bet you stayed on the line, though!!:lol:

No - I stayed on long enough to confirm it - I actually couldn't believe it at first - it was just some American woman (recorded) talking about wanting to speak to hot women...

That's your story and you're sticking to it eh??

Shhhhh!!!!!

you got the right number. it's a new service custom house are providing, it's a new place to send thousands of pounds!!

Looks like hot, dirty oily talk is the custom of the house!

I always thought that Forex always sounded a little kinky.

"This is a high class bureau de change!"

Mm, gotta love the out-sourcing of helplines.

Man: Your boss, please.
Me: I'm afraid he's out of the office this afternoon.
Man: I CALL REGARDING BT COMPLAINT MUST SPEAK WITH YOUR BOSS.
Me: Um, I'm afraid he really is out of the office this afternoon. He is at a meeting.
Man: He is not in office?
Me: No, he is at a meeting.
Man: Get him to call me. Can I take your name?
Me: Yes, my name is Rachel.
Man: Please repeat.
Me: Rachel.
Man: I'm sorry, how do you spell Rachel.
Me: R-A-C-H-
Man: R-A-E-H-
Me: No, C-H-
Man (interrupting): R-A-E-H-C-H, how do you say name please.
Me (but you just said it!): It's Rachel and it's R-A-C-H-E-L not E-H-
Man (interrupting again): Okay bye.

see, you did reach the right number

g'morning everyone.

Tomorrow Nicky will fly in....I was going to clean last night but the neighbor came over and gave me salsa, so I felt I had to be a good neighbor and invited him in for a beer.

Then again, I don't think the cleanliness of the house is going to be foremost on Nicky's mind

I have to present my paper in an hour and a half. I am also mucho hungover.

I think I might barf onstage.

Eek! Good luck and I hope that you don't barf!

Ugh...follow on from that earlier telephone conversation. The guy rang back and my boss was still out of the office so he just chewed my ear off for ten minutes because 'he has to get back to me tomorrow or the complaint will be closed'.

The complaint being one that my boss logged more than two months ago. The guy says he rang five days ago but he certainly did not ring me, and in any case, he doesn't really have a right to yell at me for not passing on a message to an absent boss when the first I heard about his response to the complaint was shortly after lunchtime today! And this is supposedly the 'customer service' desk.

So how was the HotLine Aly? I didn´t use Custom House. I just did a direct wire transfer. Thought the less people in between the sender and the recepient, the less money on fees they take from us

Why are you drinking so much the night before???

Best of luck, maven!!! I hope you manage to keep your lunch down!!

because I'm an idiot. And the governance community loves to drink when they get together. And because I'm an idiot.

She celebrated just in case there is nothing to celebrate some other day Good luck Maven

Sometimes I feel like I need to to make people understand something. It frustrates me.

Me?

Oh dear, what's happened?

NO!!!




Just some n00b who desn't believe/comprehend me!

Done! I was actually pretty relaxed. My report was praised and I am so relieved.

Julez: link to the thread! Link to the thread!!!

Good for you Maven!!! Maybe the hungoverness gave you something to focus on and so you didn't have a chance to be as scared about actually talking!! A blessing in disguise?

By the way, my local corner shop is on fire!!! There are 6 fire engines, and it's been going up for hours. The poor guys who work there, it's their life. They are such lovely guys, and they work all the hours of the day in there. I really hope they have good insurance.

Hooray, hooray for maven!!!

Link http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=132634 - now please go back me up!!

(I freely admit I may be over-reacting a bit, but I have PMS and am in no mood)

Poiteen, sorry about the fire. I also hope they have good insurance. they are going to need it!

also: is 2h 55min enough time to allow to transfer between Terminal 4 and Terminal 8 in JFK, considering that I would have done immigration preclearance in Shannon, and also our bags would be checked through to the next flight.

I'm trying to decide between flying straight from Ireland to Miami, stopping over in JFK, or coming back to London, and getting a direct flight. Only tour operators do charter flights to Orlando or something, there are no other direct flights to Florida from Ireland. My darling OH's least favourite activity is flying, so trying to make it as easy and quick as possible.

I'd say 3 hours is ample time at JFK, especially if you have cleared immigration at dublin already.

Good news on the paper, maven. I did my best work at university the year I went to the most parties. I'm sure these things are correlated and can be scientifically proven.

ha, but other morons have told me other things, blah blah blah. Why oh why must they question the superior knowledge of the founder of the Peanut Gallery Posse?

Thanks for the back-up Poiteen!

just a general note re the JFK query that they were announcing at LA that it is 'US policy' that all bags be picked up and re-checked at your FIRST arrival destination, even if they've been booked through to a final destination... not saying I'm sure, just saying that's what they were saying

yay maven! well done!

going off to read linked thread
and declare war on all n00by n00bs

Egads! Picking it up and rechecking it? Hmmmm. I will certainly attempt to clarify that before booking. Thanks for the heads up

StP is right. You'll only go through Immigration at Shannon, not customs as well. In order to clear customs at your POE you have to have your bags with you, which is why you'll need to collect them and re-check them. Bit of a PITA!

Gillian

I knew I wasn't doing customs till actually in the USA, but I was thinking that I would do it at my final destination.

The Aer Lingus website, that if you have an onward flight booked with airlines they have a baggage agreement with, they check it through. StP, do you know if this was a new thing?

they were making it sound like it was, but it was the same deal - and same wording - that I encountered when I went to the US last time, which was November 06

it may not be a big deal... when we landed in LA, the baggage belts were about seventeen steps from the immigration desks; you could SEE the bags going round while you were waiting in line

Your bags will be tagged through to your final destination but you will pick them up at JFK, take them physically through customs and then put them right back on a conveyer belt on the other side where the airline will (hopefully) put them on your onward flight. Should be pretty painless.

That was the case when I last went through JFK, though I had come from London and Dublin and had to clear immigration first.

3 hours sounds OK but if anything is delayed - it will suck.

---

I want to hurt this condescending jerkface at work so badly!!!

Luckily my boss put the smack down on his smug arse.

well here are some wedding pics.

http://www.stearmanphoto.com/ and go to wedding three in portfolio

Looks fab, Debz - congrats!

Debz -- you look beautiful! Congrats again.



Woo hoo! You know how I feel about n00bs being steered wrong by people who have no idea about London-specific questions. Keep on fighting the good fight!

The thing is, that you will have it checked through but you will still have to go through the customs with it and then give it to the guys that stand next to the "transfer belt". Then they transfer it onto the flight for you and therefore you don´t have to go check it in again or something like that But it´s a pretty fast procedure, especially if you aren´t standing in looong immigration lines So it shouldn´t delay you too much

Beautiful pics Debz And you don´t look worried about anything at all I hope you had lotsa fun

Did I make a joke there where the link is?

Absolutely lovely, debz! Thanks for sharing!

I do hope this means you'll be around here a bit more!

EGADS! Nicky is at this moment somewhere over the atlantic on Aer Lingus Flight 125.

Got my bouquet and Nicky's buttonhole from Scotland today, as well as his Saltire belt buckle LOL. Ironically the belt buckle came from Thailand!

Btw...beautiful pictures Debz. Glad the fickle Nebr. weather came out lovely for you. Praying for the same in Chi-town.

Have a super fantastic reunion, Ginger!!! I gues you'll be a MIA for a bit!!

Oooooh you must be so excited.

I won't be MIA...I need something to do at work. Jeez...what's work without personal time on the internets :-p

Luckily I have been kept somewhat busy today so that has been keeping me from mulling on it too much. I'm such a dorkus maximus though...I have a flight tracker on him through Flight Stats although I can't see exactly where he is yet as the program only shows flights over US/Canadian airspace. So I assume he's still over the atlantic at the mo'