Reply to: weekly commute

[Ignis Fatuus]

Don't fly sleazyjet or vermin air.

I periodically declare that even if it throws me out of work I'll never fly with them again. So far I have managed to stick to it for FR but not for EZ. It's OK if you're travelling to or from SE England, you have lots of choice, but otherwise you may find that most of your destinations are served by Easyjet and often by no-one else.

For example from Edinburgh to Germany (easily my biggest market) it's all Easyjet or Ryanair, except LH to Duesseldorf but that's in the middle of the day.

[Ignis Fatuus]

I used to a commute from UK to NL although later I stayed in NL at the weekends. Flying was a pain and I found driving much easier. I could leave the UK at about 10pm Sunday, get at least one hour's snooze on the ferry and get to the house in NL by 5am or even 4am; time enough for anther snooze.

Door to door time, there was little difference between driving and flying. It also meant that on the way back I could pick up chips with mayonnaise in Belgium and be back in the UK by 8pm

I sometimes did something like that too, when I lived in SE England and worked in NL. Now I live in Scotland and work in northern NL, so driving is not on.

I could drive to Newcastle and get the overnight ferry, but apart from the cost, I go home at weekends in order to be home with my partner. Driving off on Sunday afternoon instead of Monday morning feels like losing another day of the few that we have together. Getting home on late Saturday morning would just finish it off and make it feel not worth coming home at all.

PS I am a cheapskate because every extra few hundred on the commute is another day or so that I have to work.

PPS actually of course the problem is that I am not an "international consultant", I'm just a bum-on-seat office drone trying to half-pretend that I can work M-F where the work is, I am scared that if I just travelled out on Monday daytime and back on Friday daytime, and billed for a "professional week", they would fire me. Depressing but true.

[escapeUK]

However the real annoyance was that it didn't delay the train for me to leap on it, but it did for him to throw me off it.

The real reason is that despite the perceived power or success in life you have through being a high earner, one of life's nobodys made you feel impotent.

[Ignis Fatuus]

Maybe they instigated a no-tolerance policy on train doors for a reason.

Maybe they did, but maybe this was a jobsworth. While I was missing the train I had actually already boarded, his colleague on the other platform held his train for 2 more people after blowing the whistle. I am afraid that I go mental about anything I perceive as inconsistent unfairness (to others as much as to myself), no matter how trivial. However the real annoyance was that it didn't delay the train for me to leap on it, but it did for him to throw me off it.

[d000hg]

Bit abrasive today, no? I'm not asking for more customer service, just a bit less gratuitous idiocy.

Maybe they instigated a no-tolerance policy on train doors for a reason.

[norrahe]

Frites and mayo is the only way to go

ketchup

[SueEllen]

. It also meant that on the way back I could pick up chips with mayonnaise in Belgium

[norrahe]

Bit abrasive today, no? I'm not asking for more customer service, just a bit less gratuitous idiocy.

Don't fly sleazyjet or vermin air.

Though I had fun and games from NL to UK today, no trains to Schipol this morning and then flight delayed by 3 and half hours.

Lost a half days billing ( which of course I've duly sent a complaint letter to KLM about )

[Paddy]

I think the worst thing about a weekly international commute isn't the time it takes or the getting up at stupid o'clock on Monday mornings or being cramped in an uncomfortable environment for hours, or even being away from home all week. The worst thing is the sheer number of idiotic and perverse jobsworths you run into.

I used to a commute from UK to NL although later I stayed in NL at the weekends. Flying was a pain and I found driving much easier. I could leave the UK at about 10pm Sunday, get at least one hour's snooze on the ferry and get to the house in NL by 5am or even 4am; time enough for anther snooze.

Door to door time, there was little difference between driving and flying. It also meant that on the way back I could pick up chips with mayonnaise in Belgium and be back in the UK by 8pm

[cojak]

It wasn't supposed to be abrasive, just joshing. (It'll cost you more for the silk version...)

[Ignis Fatuus]

That's what happens when you're a cheapskate.

Suck it up big boy, you're paying less than the guy who gets the customer service.

Bit abrasive today, no? I'm not asking for more customer service, just a bit less gratuitous idiocy.

[cojak]

Boarding: have taken little shoulder bag out of main bag, so that I can get at passport and boarding pass, and so that when on board I can quickly put main bag up in rack, keeping little bag with valuables and book/kindle with me on seat. No: strict 1-bag policy, must put little bag inside. Then on board, start taking little bag back out again. No: please move in out of the aisle. Yes, well I'm here taking stuff out of my bag before placing in in the overhead rack just because your colleague outside insisted that I put it in there in the first place.

That's what happens when you're a cheapskate.

Suck it up big boy, you're paying less than the guy who gets the customer service.

[Ignis Fatuus]

At lease your working in the Neatherlands. Hit Abraxas after work today for some 'Tea and Cake' that should take the stress out of things

Would that be a "coffee shop" in Amsterdam? I'm not in Amsterdam, and I don't smoke anyway (I just happen not to like it).

[SueEllen]

Boarding: have taken little shoulder bag out of main bag, so that I can get at passport and boarding pass, and so that when on board I can quickly put main bag up in rack, keeping little bag with valuables and book/kindle with me on seat. No: strict 1-bag policy, must put little bag inside. Then on board, start taking little bag back out again. No: please move in out of the aisle. Yes, well I'm here taking stuff out of my bag before placing in in the overhead rack just because your colleague outside insisted that I put it in there in the first place.

The trick is to take the little bag out of the big bag once you pass the idiotic staff at the gate on the way to the aircraft.

It always annoys them on the UK side that you can fit your little bag into your big bag cos then they can't charge you more money.

That's one of my regular weekly gripes, but there are variable jobsworthings too. Like this morning on Dutch railways when I just managed to leap on to a train before the doors were about to close. A Dutch railway official held the door open and insisted that I get off the train, because I had boarded it after the whistle blew, and the whistle means that you are not allowed to get on any more.

Get your arse there earlier.

[sirja]

Boarding: have taken little shoulder bag out of main bag, so that I can get at passport and boarding pass, and so that when on board I can quickly put main bag up in rack, keeping little bag with valuables and book/kindle with me on seat. No: strict 1-bag policy, must put little bag inside. Then on board, start taking little bag back out again. No: please move in out of the aisle. Yes, well I'm here taking stuff out of my bag before placing in in the overhead rack just because your colleague outside insisted that I put it in there in the first place.

That's one of my regular weekly gripes, but there are variable jobsworthings too. Like this morning on Dutch railways when I just managed to leap on to a train before the doors were about to close. A Dutch railway official held the door open and insisted that I get off the train, because I had boarded it after the whistle blew, and the whistle means that you are not allowed to get on any more.

At lease your working in the Neatherlands. Hit Abraxas after work today for some 'Tea and Cake' that should take the stress out of things