Tonbridge Castle Christmas Fair

 We popped to the castle after lunch to have a look around the Christmas Fair.   It was very quiet as most schools haven't broken up yet but it was a bit shit. I got fleeced £12 for two goes on a hook a duck (they were elves) fair ground ride.  We had a quick walk around and left soon after.

Energy renewal

 It's time for our house to renew it's energy supplier.  We're currently with British gas and their cheapest tariff is £585 a month.  That's considerably more than we're paying now.  I've just checked with Octopus and it's £317 based on our usage which is even less than we're paying now which was fixed on a long term teal years ago before the big price hikes.  What a difference!

The posh beach

There was a very fancy beach next to the main one, we only popped down to take a look. On the way back we decided to take a less precarious route via another hotel and were busted. Luckily April saved the day with her condition.

We did need to buy two exigencies coffees in the bar though.

Ouch! That was pricey

We made an impromptu trip to our local cinema last night and it cost a bloody fortune.

There were rumblings in the not to distant past that Tonbridge was to get it's own cinema but that doesn't seem to be materialising any time soon so our closest is an Odeon on the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells.

2 Premier tickets cost us a total of £31.90, and when you add that to the cost of a couple of packets of chocolate, a large drink and a large popcorn it came to almost £45!

Jeez!

The film was fine though, Ghostbusters.  I gave it 6.3 / 10, April gave it 7 / 10.  It was funny in parts and good to see all the surviving cast show up for cameos with the notable exception of Rick Moranis.  Shame.

Sunday fun at the Pig

We popped along to the Pig near Brockenhurst on Sunday with our friends James and Vikki and their son Finn.  It was good fun and the place is lovely we'll have to head back for another meal there but it was pricey for what it was.

Basically you had to buy tokens for £5 each.  That entitled you to pretty much every thing.  Each drink was a token (other than champagne), each item of food another token. £5 felt quite steep when getting a pint and when that ran out or was unavailable a replacement bottle felt extortionate.

All of this was topped off with a massive traffic filled drive on a Sunday. Yeah!

Rail fares

When we first moved to Tonbridge our annual rail season ticket was around £2800 a year, it's now £3850, each year it had percentage increases of greater than 5%.  One particular highlight was a 12% a couple of years ago.

If this continues in line with my current salary increase then in around 70 years my rail fare will be more than my annual gross salary!  It's down to a little over 60 years on my net!!!

I'm not saying that I will be working for the next 70 / 60 years (I probably won't be alive) but it is ridiculous. When you factor that in to the fact that both of us are having to pay the fare it's a big whack out of our monthly income.

What am I going to do about it?  Not much.  I can't really drive in as the petrol and parking costs would be about the same plus I like a drink or two after work on occasion so that really wouldn't be a choice.  Could I get the bus?  Yes, but I'm not a pikey.  Plus similar to the point above they only run a couple of services at night so having a drink after work would mean having to pay for the rail fare on top.

My only plan is to win the lottery.  Saying that, I did win £13.20 on Friday.  A few more of those and I'll be laughing.

Cheeky so and sos

Before going to see Pappy's last night we popped into a small chain Italian for a bite to eat just off Leicester Square.

April managed to fund a really impressive meal deal Half price food and a free bottle of house wine if you order a started and a main each. Not bad at all. Well...

The wine wasn't great, my starter of lobster ravioli was more hardly cooked than aldente. The rest of the food was canteen average at best. Oh well we're getting a lot for half price and it was quick.

Then the bill came and they'd added on the cost of the wine. No oroblem, they swapped our bill straight away. Then we spotted that they'd already added service. This isn't a problem, but they'd charged service at the full undiscounted amount. Nearly 10 quid! We ended up giving them 5 for a total bill of 35.

Quite reasonable in the end for the location. If very, very cheeky.

Inflation?

I treated myself to some new socks and pants yesterday from m&s.

A pack of 3 boxers £17
A pack of 7 plain socks £12

WTF?

I'm pretty sure the last time I bought boxers from m&s they were £10 for 5.  I know I don't buy pants very often (usually I get them from my Mum each Christmas) but come on!

Glad it wasn't my round

I had a couple of beers with Shaz in Borough Market last night.  I stung him on his round for a pint that cost £9.70.  A Norwegian IPA.  Ha, ha.  I was stung before that however in the bar that he suggested we meet up in.  £8.44 for two bottles of Peroni.

1.71p / ml v's 1.29p / ml

I win on getting the cheaper drinks!

Another £50

I bought a new pair of work shoes about a month ago and they made me hobble about a bit for two weeks.  Last week I noticed that one of them already had a hole through the leather sole.  Bloody hell!  I'd obviously been favouring my other foot to take some of the weight of the other painful one.

I went to one of the Timpson's in the city and they charged me £50 for a resole!!!  He even had the cheek to offer me soles for £60 as they were more hard wearing!  How about giving one that doesn't wear out in a month!!!  The shoes were £70 in the first place.

Bargain

I managed to renew my annual season ticket yesterday on the way home from work.  This is pretty good as i've saved the best part of £400 as the ticket price goes up a day later to £3406.  Bastards!  The whole process did amuse me though.  When the figure of £3046 popped up on the till I sarcastically said "what a bargain", the cockney (Kent) git behind the counter actually laughed.  The cheek of the man.  It did amuse me though.

£1.55 for a can of Diet Coke

Is this a record?

I was having a beer with a couple of work collegues yesterday lunchtime and spotted a poor girl (or she was poor after paying for her drink).

If it was a pint I could almost understand but for a can of 330 ml. It's almost saying

"We don't want your sort in here"