OT: Cell phones in the US

[Randybee1]

 we would just have to have it somewhere the significant others could be kept occupied for a couple days.

A place with a kitchen and laundry room ??

[AdeV]

Thanks guys, all good information. We have similar phone laws over here, you can use a hands-free kit, but only because the police find it impossible to detect if you're on the phone or not. To be honest, I'm surprised I've never been pulled over for shouting at the idiots out there who dawdle along at a snails pace, wandering all over the road, setting down roots at traffic lights, etc...

Bob - I definitely want to come out for longer, I think what I'd like to do is take maybe 4 weeks, fly over to California, buy an old car, drive it over the next 4 weeks on temporary tags, maybe visiting some of you guys (if you'll have me, of course) along my way; but basically the idea would be to end up in Florida after 3-1/2 weeks, load the car into a container & send it over to England, and I will fly back.

That way I get to bag myself a classic "Yank Tank" (I have my sights on a 1965 Lincoln Continental rag-top, have a proper road-trip holiday, hopefully hook up with some guys I reckon I can call buddies (or pals, in the mother tongue) along the way & generally just have a chill-out time.

Just need to stop spending all my money on Listers & machine tools...... (got a CD coming my way )

[d34]

I dont know how much you want to spend or what your needs are but Straight Talk from wal-mart has a plan that allows international calling.  I think its unlimited use here in the states and 1000 minutes for international.  Seems like the price was $60/month. 

[quinnf]

Woohoo - found it! Typical, it was in the last place I looked _again_.

Well, naturally! I usually stop looking when I've found it 

Ever since my kids were little, when one of them would ask me,

"Dad, where's my . . . ?"

I'd always reply, "You always find what you're looking for in the last place you look." 

That always elicited a logical argument, to the effect, "Yeah, but that's because you stop looking when you find what you're looking for." 

So I'd reply, "Then save yourself some time and look there first."

They don't ask anymore because they know the answer. 

(Youth is wasted on the young)     

q.

[bschwartz]

Quinn,

It's times like this, that I wish I listened to what my father told me when I was younger.

[AdeV]

It's times like this, that I wish I listened to what my father told me when I was younger.

Oh, go on then, I'll fall for it (I know the punchline already):

Why, what did your father tell you when you were younger?


Meanwhile, the journey is off to an inauspicious start - the very first leg (well, excluding the ride to the railway station) is running 30 minutes late & getting later all the time, thanks to a broken tilting train (it won't tilt - luckily, it's stuck upright, it would be very tricky if it were at 15 degrees starboard...)

Good job I am coming down the night before the flight, this is the sort of glitch which causes people to miss planes...

[AdeV]

I dont know how much you want to spend or what your needs are but Straight Talk from wal-mart has a plan that allows international calling.  I think its unlimited use here in the states and 1000 minutes for international.  Seems like the price was $60/month. 

Sounds way to posh for me!

I'm looking at a 30-buck phone, with a $25 top-up, that should last me a week. Heck, it's only 20c or 30c to call the UK (assuming AT&T's tariffs are reasonably representative), and I hardly know anyone in the States to call...

When I get back here, I'll probably sell the phone & any spare credit to someone else going to the US for a holiday.

I plan on buying a satnav too - overstock.com are showing the 5" tomtom for just $160 including North America, Canada & Mexico maps - and I should be able to stick my Western Europe map in the same device when I get home; and if my fly-drive holiday plan comes to fruition, I can bring the thing back next time.

Gotta get me a new camera lens too... if you look at the UK vs US price, it's basically £1 = $1, so I automatically save about 30% just by buying in the US. Normally, postage and UK tax kills any savings, but I can just shove a new lens in my bag w/o its box & claim I took it with me.


Someone told me that every Saturday night in Kissimmee there's a bit of a classic car parade, noting official, just the locals out in their old motors - anyone confirm this? Sounds like the sort of thing I'd be interested in, I'd get to see a load of US classic motors up close, it might help me refine my choice of motor...

Damn shame I couldn't have fit some of those Listers in my case But with only 23kg baggage allowance, a rocker cover would have been about my limit...

[bschwartz]

    
"It's times like this, that I wish I listened to what my father told me when I was younger."


......"Why, what did your father tell you when you were younger?"

I don't know Ade......I wasn't listening!

[quinnf]

I count the time I spent watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, and reading Douglas Adams' books among the best expenditure of my time, bar none.  Some of the Britishisms had to be explained to me, such as Trillian's explanation of how riding a moped around Hyde Park Corner prepared her to deftly maneuver a space ship.  

FORD:  Where did you learn a stunt like that Trillian?

TRILLIAN:  Going 'round Hyde Park Corner on a moped.


Or this one:

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that You exist, and so therefore, by Your own arguments, You don't. QED"

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.


Never knew what a zebra crossing was until it was explained to me.  I'm sure there are many others I haven't yet figured out.

Quinn

[AdeV]

   
"It's times like this, that I wish I listened to what my father told me when I was younger."


......"Why, what did your father tell you when you were younger?"

I don't know Ade......I wasn't listening!

Da-boom tish!

I'll set 'em up, you knock 'em down 

[AdeV]

I count the time I spent watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, and reading Douglas Adams' books among the best expenditure of my time, bar none.  Some of the Britishisms had to be explained to me, such as Trillian's explanation of how riding a moped around Hyde Park Corner prepared her to deftly maneuver a space ship.  

FORD:  Where did you learn a stunt like that Trillian?

TRILLIAN:  Going 'round Hyde Park Corner on a moped.


Or this one:

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that You exist, and so therefore, by Your own arguments, You don't. QED"

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.


Never knew what a zebra crossing was until it was explained to me.  I'm sure there are many others I haven't yet figured out.

Hmm, I doubt you'll learn much that is useful from Monty Python - except, obviously, that an Englishman who is being funny, and an Englishman who is quite, quite mad, are utterly indistinguishable.

I always liked this exchange, which appeared in either Dirk Gently's Holisitic Detective Agency, or The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (both also required reading), regarding the offer of a cup of tea:

"Darjeeling will do fine," replied Richard

"Milk?" called Reg.

"Er, please."

"One lump or two?"

"One, please."

"Sugar?"

I don't know if sugar comes in cube form in America? If not, 1 sugar cube is roughly the equivalent of a level teaspoon of sugar. I'm not sure how big a lump of milk is...

I also loved the invention of the Electric Monk - so much that it was, for a while, my online moniker:

"The Electric Monk was a labor-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself. Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe."

Douglas Adams really was a genius.

[quinnf]

Yes, it does.  And so does milk that's been left in the 'fridge for too long.

I think it's probably the silliness that's been so long absent in American humor, just like spelling words with extra vowels (humor vs humour), that I found refreshing, if a bit tedious at times.  But MP had great sight gags and so did Benny Hill.  I miss him, too.  Long live slapstick!

q.

[quinnf]

Douglas Adams really was a genius.

Agreed.  The coolest of cool froods who really knew where his towel was at.  


q.

"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no
account be allowed to do the job."

-- Douglas Adams

[vdubnut62]

"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no
account be allowed to do the job."

-- Douglas Adams

+1
Ron.

[AdeV]

Blimey, that was a palaver - 1hr delay at Gatwick while they levered the Family Fatarse into their seats; 9hr flight; 2hrs in the queue at Orlando just to get into the country, then there was a smash on the interstate just outside the airport.... hey ho.

Still, here now, and it's nice & warm (even though it's cold for Florida)...