What have you done today thread?

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636mick
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by 636mick »

I love the European way of breakfasting, Seems much healthier than us. In fact I’ve just had 2 croissants and a coffee for brekky instead of a bacon and egg batch.
As a government employee, we get £15 for an evening meal plus £5/day subsistence allowance. Hotels would normally include brekky. Unless, like me, you’re in Birmingham on 1st or 2nd of October when the Conservative conference is on, no decent hotels so stuck in a Travelodge with brekky in a box ffs!!
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Mr Moofo
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Mr Moofo »

Taipan wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 11:19 am
Mr. Dazzle wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 10:54 am
cheb wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 10:12 am What did the cover? The bank would pay up to £25 for an evening meal and fiver each for breakfast and dinner. That was about 3 years ago.
Accommodation and transport was covered separately (typically arranged direct by AmEx) and then the £45 was everything/anything else. They always booked hotels with breakfast included. So it was usually a £5 lunch and a £40 pub dinner :D Or in my case as cash strapped Grad, two £5 meals and £35 profit.

Current place is "don't take the piss" which generally means a half decent dinner and maybe 2 rounds of drinks.
Taipan wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 10:40 am OOI, what do they have for breakfast in Germany?


Cold meats and cheese, little breads, hard boiled eggs, random yoghurt which never seems like it fits with teh other things.

There's always a Fry Up Buffet™ for the brits too.
Spuds like a european brekkie to me. Typical fayre for most hotels I've stayed at in Spain and France?
Japanese hotels serve chips for breakfast, American punters eat them.
However you can have miso soup, chicken nuggets or a fried egg
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Pirahna
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Pirahna »

I'm sitting outside a cafe as I write, waiting for my late brekky/early lunch to arrive. The Spanish don't really do breakfast, a tostada is about it. I've ordered tomato, ham and cheese on mine.
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by cheb »

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 10:54 am
cheb wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 10:12 am What did the cover? The bank would pay up to £25 for an evening meal and fiver each for breakfast and dinner. That was about 3 years ago.
Accommodation and transport was covered separately (typically arranged direct by AmEx) and then the £45 was everything/anything else. They always booked hotels with breakfast included. So it was usually a £5 lunch and a £40 pub dinner :D Or in my case as cash strapped Grad, two £5 meals and £35 profit.

Current place is "don't take the piss" which generally means a half decent dinner and maybe 2 rounds of drinks.
Taipan wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 10:40 am OOI, what do they have for breakfast in Germany?


Cold meats and cheese, little breads, hard boiled eggs, random yoghurt which never seems like it fits with teh other things.

There's always a Fry Up Buffet™ for the brits too.

If my dinner bill was over I submitted it, if under I claimed no receipt.
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Mr. Dazzle »

R-R was the only company I've ever worked for where you got non-specific, unreceipted subsistence when travelling. But then again, it's also the only company I've ever worked for with a final salary pensions scheme and a foreman's club :lol:
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Count Steer
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Count Steer »

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 1:30 pm R-R was the only company I've ever worked for where you got non-specific, unreceipted subsistence when travelling. But then again, it's also the only company I've ever worked for with a final salary pensions scheme and a foreman's club :lol:
When I was working abroad I got a daily 'away from home' payment. Lord knows what they thought my daily essentials were, the finest wines known to mankind I think. :lol: (It was probably more compensation for being away from the bosom of the family, but more tax effective the way they did it).

I came back after significant stints considerably better off than when I went. :thumbup:
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Yorick
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Yorick »

In Toronto 25 years ago, I had $50 a day allowance. 10 brekky, 10 dinner and 20 tea. 10 for other stuff.

But only 1 receipt for each meal. So nighttime was a nice meal and 1 beer. Or find a friendly bar who will do light meal, loads of beer and 1 'good' receipt ;)
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by cheb »

The side bonus for me being away was my traveling paid off island and down to the south of Scotland. It made visits to southern England much cheaper for me. I seemed to be one of the few drivers that didn't mind being away from home so I got to drive in lots of places I wouldn't normally go. I've done most of the NC500 in a bank van.

One of the few jobs I miss.
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by ZRX61 »

cheb wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2024 10:12 am What did the cover? The bank would pay up to £25 for an evening meal and fiver each for breakfast and dinner. That was about 3 years ago.
Our rate away from the airport was $1000/day & expenses were whatever we spent on hotel, food, gas etc... which is why we were apt to spend the afternoons at the hotel pool drinking cocktails :)
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by v8-powered »

I managed a team a few years back who bounced between Poland, Germany and Switzerland - they received £35 a night for dinner. Poland and Germany, they were laughing - in Switzerland they were lucky to get a kebab for that! So much so they often stayed across the border in Germany and commuted over to Switzerland....
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Noggin »

Before we got the programme for this week from the instructor, and when we were told it would be the same as last week, I booked an hotel for tonight. Couldn't get the one I'd started using (with aircon and the same price as the shitty Formula1 place!) but thought I'd booked one near the centre of town, still closer to school than the normal place, but also near a doctor's office that I need to go to.

Nope, turns out that it's just by the Formula1 - and I think it might even be less nice!!

FFS!!!

Hey ho - just one night. :crazy: :crazy:
Life is for living. Buy the shoes. Eat the cake. Ride the bikes. Just, ride the bikes!! :bblonde:
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Taipan »

Yorick wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 12:37 pm
Taipan wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 12:24 pm
Yorick wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 11:14 am Yesterday actually, I did first day of a Govt Spanish course.
I've tried loads of stuff here to learn, but struggled. Did a few courses, but not with proper teachers.

This lass was good and had us all interacting with each other. I like the way it works. 30 week course :)

She spoke Spanish all the way through, but clearly and slowly with simple words. I was surprised how much I already knew.
El Cato sat on el mato? :D
Una jarra por favor.
:wtf:

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Yorick
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Yorick »

Taipan wrote: Thu Sep 26, 2024 3:55 pm
Yorick wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 12:37 pm
Taipan wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 12:24 pm

El Cato sat on el mato? :D
Una jarra por favor.
:wtf:

We're learning Spanish here and the teacher has to add the proper Spanish words when she uses Canarian Spanish. And also comments on the Latin Spanish sometimes.

Then there's Catalan Spanish :obscene-birdiedoublered:
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by MyLittleStudPony »

Bocadillos con quesos, rapido, rapidomundo!
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Yorick
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Yorick »

MyLittleStudPony wrote: Thu Sep 26, 2024 6:06 pm Bocadillos con quesos, rapido, rapidomundo!
¿Con papas fritas?
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gremlin
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by gremlin »

Not today, but yesterday, whilst on the train journey from Hell, I helped a bunch of Italians out on the train, translating the announcement and letting them know there were more seats up at the front.

The lady came back to thank me and we had a little conversation (basic, but understood) in Italian.

I was quite chuffed with myself, and basked in the glow of looking all exotic and cultured in front of my fellow monolingual travelers. ;)
All aboard the Peckham Pigeon! All aboard!
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Yorick »

gremlin wrote: Fri Sep 27, 2024 11:38 am Not today, but yesterday, whilst on the train journey from Hell, I helped a bunch of Italians out on the train, translating the announcement and letting them know there were more seats up at the front.

The lady came back to thank me and we had a little conversation (basic, but understood) in Italian.

I was quite chuffed with myself, and basked in the glow of looking all exotic and cultured in front of my fellow monolingual travelers. ;)
Can you order a pizza yet?
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Count Steer
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Count Steer »

Given blood. Well, not exactly....been for a 6 monthly scale and polish at the dentist. None too gentle. :(

Consoled ourselves with a trip to a new, rather chi-chi café for breakfast. 'Café' doesn't really seem like the right word, given the crisp white tablecloths and the chandeliers + the welcoming 'Good morning! Breakfast? Have you booked?' :D

Had breakfasts (coffees, scrambled eggs (+bacon and smoked salmon respectively) with sourdough toast...of course. V nice.

Got the bill. :o

Went to Screwfix to pick up some guttering bits which I'll use to repair a couple of leaking joints...when (if) it stops raining.
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by gremlin »

Yorick wrote: Fri Sep 27, 2024 12:40 pm
gremlin wrote: Fri Sep 27, 2024 11:38 am Not today, but yesterday, whilst on the train journey from Hell, I helped a bunch of Italians out on the train, translating the announcement and letting them know there were more seats up at the front.

The lady came back to thank me and we had a little conversation (basic, but understood) in Italian.

I was quite chuffed with myself, and basked in the glow of looking all exotic and cultured in front of my fellow monolingual travelers. ;)
Can you order a pizza yet?
Si. :thumbup:
All aboard the Peckham Pigeon! All aboard!
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Re: What have you done today thread?

Post by Taipan »

Yorick wrote: Fri Sep 27, 2024 12:40 pm
gremlin wrote: Fri Sep 27, 2024 11:38 am Not today, but yesterday, whilst on the train journey from Hell, I helped a bunch of Italians out on the train, translating the announcement and letting them know there were more seats up at the front.

The lady came back to thank me and we had a little conversation (basic, but understood) in Italian.

I was quite chuffed with myself, and basked in the glow of looking all exotic and cultured in front of my fellow monolingual travelers. ;)
Can you order a pizza yet?
I heard him on The Highway yesterday, Domin-oh-hoo-hoo ...