ozzieeagle

Enjoying the very different environment (for me) of a UK winter... Thus far that is. Loving walking around and looking at the old substantial buildings in the moody atmospheric weather conditions of winter. Loving seeing all the decorations in the windows of houses. Nearly had a "I'll have what's she's having" moment when I saw the Cheese counter at Morrisons Supermarket in Rhyl, bought about 10 times the amount of cheese I could possibly eat in my over excitement. Had some proper out door raised dry cured bacon, probably for the first time ever... wow. Paid less than 2 quid for a pint of John Smiths English bitter in a proper UK pub (It's 7 quid a pint in Melbourne)... with a DJ playing music videos and people dancing all around me... Last time I was in a similar environment it would have been someone playing a Piano in a small pub in London with the locals singing... loved that one.

Amazed to see some of the amusement arcades open on the sea front with lots of people in them. Not sure if it is that much cheaper to eat out here than back home in Coburg at least. This changes all the time though with the exchange rate eh ? Taking wages difference (in my sphere of work at least at Post) into consideration I'd say Aus was still cheaper.... not on booze in pubs though.... that fine accolade goes well and truly to the UK.

A hell of a lot of swearing overhead in passing conversations from seemingly everyday people overheard on the street. I"m not sure whether that's a North Wales or UK thing yet. Never noticed this to anywhere near this extent in Melbourne.

I think thus far that strangers are slightly more insular here when breaking into a conversation. In fact most strangers will talk quite happily to each other in Melbourne/Aus pubs. I've had close to awkward convos with strangers here, but it is hard work... which isn't the best for travelling on my own.


Finally got my NI number on its way to me. Tried to sign up for the local doctors to get a carers certificate/note to cover me as sick pay instead of Long service leave. Lovely receptionist , really caring and helpful, although I would have had to pay 75 quid plus the doctors letter as I hadn't paid NI for over 5 years...... Which would be OK if I was guaranteed the sick note thing, which she couldn't. She found a way around for me and I have to go in with my dad and they will see what they can do to give me a cover note. I'll then be able to claim this trip as sick leave/carers leave rather than LSLeave... which means I keep the financial benefits of my LSL, which will be worth at least 800 bucks per week for each week away to me (5,600 dollars) at redundancy/leaving time, or actually take the LSL at a future date, if I can pull this off. Which basically more than covers the cost of the trip. She fully understood this and was very very helpful. I won't know if Aus post will accept this until I get back... my immediate boss thinks they will. Reason for this convoluted attempt at official paper work is you don't get your Sick leave as cash when you leave most jobs in Aus.

Overall quite enjoying it this time around..... despite the reason for being here.

fish.01

"although I would have had to pay 75 quid plus the doctors letter as I hadn't paid NI for over 5 years"...this type of service not covered under the reciprocal agreement ?

ozzieeagle

Apparently not.

God it's windy today.... almost cyclonic !

Pollyana

UK Storm Desmond This is the first year storms like this have had names in the UK.

Good that they are trying to find you a way through the medical maze, and loving the story of buying too much cheese - I do that every time I'm home! I pig out the whole time and have to diet severely when I get back here You are actually reminding me I really should try and go home for Christmas itslef next year, for the first time.

You sound very like I did when i went back cos my Dad had passed away - he would've wanted me to find the silver lining and I did, sounds like you have too

ozzieeagle

I'm actually enjoying battling the weather conditions, as it's something you never get to do in Aus.... Well there we battle heat, and I'd personally much rather go with the wind and the rain, than lull around feeling all lethargic sweaty and uncomfortable in 38C+ degree weather, I especially hate sweat running down to to my eyes and flies up the nose and in the mouth...Give me Storm Desmond and it's Ilk any day of the week Everyones different I know.

Slept all wrong today... went back for a nap at 4.30 pm and didn't bloody wake up till 9.30pm...Thought it was morning for the first few seconds. So totally stuffed up this evenings plans. Had my eye on a nice looking local pub.... oh well tomorrow will do.

Going to Stoke V Palace on the 19th december..... First Palace game since 1989. Very happy about that one.

Pollyana

Hope you find a good pub and lets hope Palace do you proud, you've waited long enough to see them again

ozzieeagle

One good thing about the relatively poor data coverage on the phone...... I'm not using much LOL


6 gigs is going to be more than enough for a month.

Can anyone advise me how crowded a train would be from Rhyl to Stoke via Chester or Crewe would be on the 19th of December.... I'm weighing up driving to stoke and staying over nite on my lonesome.... or coming back to rhyl over the limit same day on the train.

The good folks on the Palace boards laughed their heads off when I asked erm what the night life was like in Stoke.

GarryP

North Wales .... the land that civilisation said "you've got to be joking" to.

Although seriously, you ought to pick up some 4G coverage there.

Saturday before Christmas .... are you really seriously asking how crowded anything will be?

ozzieeagle

What even on the trains ? blimey ! I know the roads will be, but i figured the trains were prohibitively expensive ? Especially for these parts ??? Do you reckon I would have to stand all the way back ? starting at circa 7pm ish.

GarryP

I'm no expert on North Wales etc., but I would have assumed that trains from North Wales to civilisation, returning in the evening of the Saturday, would get heaving that close to christmas.

Off Peak Return Ticket = £27, so hardly prohibitively expensive !

If you insist on doing it, I might look at prebooking both the ticket, and reserve a seat online. Journey circa 2h each way. Oh, and 7pmish = 1 option, and two changes of train.

sign

If you want to stay over somewhere and have a really good night out then Chester is the place, not far from Stoke.
It is a beautiful place to visit, great pubs, great people, lovely restaurants.
Cheap B and B will not cost too much. I lived there for a year when working at Airbus as a contractor. I actually miss Chester, it is heaped with history and gorgeous buildings.

Pollyana

Definitely book your train ticket in advance. You can do it online, I use the Trainline app, then pick it up at the local station. Much much cheaper to get it in advance Difference for me sometimes doing London to Bristol is £12.50 in advance, or £125 on the day!

fish.01

Just asked because of this "as I hadn't paid NI for over 5 years"...thought she may have automatically tried to process you as a returning british citizen with NI number and therefore you fell foul of the new returning expat laws. Thought maybe she didn't even consider using the coverage under the reciprocal agreement instead.

Ignore me if you have covered all this off with her already...

ozzieeagle

Yeah just booked the ticket by train.... 27 quid.... so not bad at all.


I'll go to Chester another day


One major benefit of living in Melbourne for this trip is..... I'm not even noticing the cold here, in fact I'm quite warm at present at 11C .... The UK version of 11C definitely feels a lot warmer than the Aus... not sure how that works but it does.

More clothes on automatically maybe.

Pollyana

Chester is lovely, remember visiting years ago

Well done with the ticket