you'd better not mess with major tom

search for jtuk on there, i basically just use it to pimp my blog at the moment

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so i am going to coventry for a weekend. no, don't laugh. anyway, the return train ticket would cost about 35 quid. so i obviously investigate. i plan to leave on the friday and come back late on sunday.

first thing i do is randomly think "ooh, if i could stay until monday evening, i could play the pokers", and by randomly reading something on another forum, i check the megabus website, and can find coventry - manchester on tuesday afternoon, for, er, free. just a 50p booking fee. woo.

well, that's very nice. that covers the latest departure, but let's sort out the arrival. leaving friday at about three, i could buy a ticket direct to my destination for 14 quid, but instead i can buy the same advance to birmingham for seven, and then get a normal cheapo single to cov for four. first beer bought.

so now i just need to worry about the way back should i not be able to grab sofa space. i notice that if i wanted to get national express back, it'd cost me 16, which is ok, but i can do better. a single on the train would cost me 33 (note that, as the return is 35 or so, it is ridiculous), but i can own that, surely?

why obviously. that ticket price is from coventry - my shitty village.

if i buy four singles, from coventry to wolverhampton to stafford to stoke to my shitty village, it, er, is ten pounds cheaper.

so, yeah, owned?

this is also the same system that allowed me manchester to london first class return for under forty quid because i bought in advance.

you fill up my senses
like a gallon of magnet
like a packet of woodbines
like a good pinch of snuff
like a night out in sheffield
like a greasy chip butty
like sheffield united
come fill me again

na na na na na OOOH AAAH!

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anyone denying that this is the best christmas song ever should be permabanned.

you tell them

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so that's what the music in the gears 2 trailer is. thanks kexp.

A test of the emergency broadcast system. Woo.

also, thank fuck that those that actually had a say in the matter overwhelmingly voted no to the manchester congestion charge. of course, living just outside the boundaries of the county, my opinion doesn't count, despite the fact that any job that i would want around here would be within it, therefore i'd have to use the really shitty public transport that is provided, or get a car and pay the fecker. because, of course, it goes outside of the area therefore we can charge whatever the fuck we want and put on as bad a service as we like. example - since the early 90's, prices have gone up 200%[1], more so on shorter routes, weekend services are close to non-existant, the services themselves have reduced routes, if i want to use a train there's basically no sunday service either and most summers see the entire thing replaced by buses because i live on the main line which they've been trying and failing to upgrade for the past decade.

[1] - i have no idea how much that is in real terms, but if i want to travel ONE WAY into town, and that isn't even the city centre, just the shitty satellite town in between, that'd cost me £2.60, or about $4 (would be nearer $5 before the pound went down the shitter). compare that to NYC where you can travel on ANYTHING all day for $7.