Skittles!

I think we have managed to totally forget to tell you guys that we managed to book the skittle alley at the back of the Sheep Heid!
Tuesday 27th, from 5-7, we have the whole alley to ourselves. We can invite other people, or it can be just us.
We booked it a few weeks ago, and that was the only time available. As far as I know, we don't have any plans to do anything else that evening. So yay!

York

Right, train prices are insane! I don't think we want to pay around £220 (for the group). That would be an absolute minimum, involving booking well in advance. There's tickets costs several times that...
I was looking at hire cars, and using this place we could hire a 7-seater for the day for £112. As far as I can figure, fuel costs might be around £60 or so. It's about a three-hour drive, so we could pick up the car at 8-ish, leave by 9, be in York for lunch at 12, have the whole afternoon for wandering around, going to the Minster etc then get dinner somewhere before setting off back at 7 or 8. It's feasible, I think.
Opinions?

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

1 week, five days and 13.5 hours until we fly out :D :D :D

Gosh, I am getting so excited! Well, I mean to almost unbearable levels! It's worse than Christmas! lol maybe that's because it's more exciting than Christmas?

So obviously we're going to be having quite a hectic first week what with camping and then the naming ceremony and so I was thinking that maybe the first day we're there we could just spend it having a wander around the streets of Edinburgh. That's what Mum and I did the first day we were there last time and it was really nice. Just gave us a chance to relax after the flight and get a feel for the place and see a few little things. And since the rest of the week will be go, go, go, it'll be nice to just take it down a notch. What do you think?

Costs and camping

Okie dokie, I've been having a bit of a think and I figured we needed a thread like this one. First off all, it was because I was trying to figure out just how much camping would cost each couple so we all know how much to set aside for it and secondly because some things have already been paid for and I don't want someone having to foot the bill for the rest of us all because something got forgotten about! So I'll do it in two sections - camping first and then costs. If anyone else pays for something for all of us, either now or even while we're there, make sure you list it on the comments (I was hoping you'd be able to edit my post but apparently I'm the only one who can do that) and then we know how much we owe each other and it's all fair :)

CAMPING

Ok, so I've spoken to Flora about how much the site and the tent have cost, I've gone and gotten a few quotes about car hire and taken the cheapest one, I've made a rough estimate about fuel since I'm not entirely sure how much it is over there and how fuel efficient the car will be but I've not included food since that will all depend on what we decide to have once we're there I guess.
Oh and I can't figure out how to make my keyboard make a pound symbol so I'll just use a $ one and we'll all just pretend :)

Pitch - $107 = $36 per couple
Tent - $79 = $27
Car hire - $250 (approx) = $85
Petrol - $90 (approx) = $30

So we're roughly looking at $180 for each couple, not including food, and hoping we don't go through too much petrol. I guess it seems quite a bit for camping but I'm sure it will be worth it :) Christian and I are so looking forward to it, it will be so much fun!

COSTS

Ok, so there aren't many things that have been paid for in advance as yet but I'm sure that once we're there one of us will book and pay for something or other and someone will do something else and in the end if we're not careful someone could end up paying a lot more than others and I know we're all on a tight budget. So I figured if we keep a tally of it all then it will all work out fair.

So, so far...

Flora - $107 pitch
$79 tent (I know you haven't actually booked it as yet but I was pretty sure you
were going to so I figured I'd add it on here)

Nettie - $60 Adam Hills tickets

Flora, I don't think it's fair that you have to wait for us to get there to pay you for our share and I certainly don't want you to run short because of it so I'll Paypal you our share today :)

Ummmm, anything else I've missed? I'm really annoyed that you guys can't edit this post, cos then we could have made it into a proper list (lol you know me and my lists) but anything that gets added in the comments I'll come and add :)

This time in three weeks I'll be on a plane! Yay!

Dresses and whatnot

Okie, first of all I got some absolutely horrible photos of me done today from Barb. I can never pose for a full body pic without feeling and looking awkward. Plus, you can tell just how much weight I've put on :(

Anyway, this is the dress I thought you could borrow from me Ro. It actually looks much more flattering in real life, trust me. Only problem is, Barb borrowed it off me and now it has a tiny tear in the bottom but you don't actually notice that.

And this is the dress I was thinking of wearing. It's no where near as nice now that I've put on a few more kilos but it'll still do I suppose.

What do you guys think? Ro, do you like that first dress? And is mine too dressy? You can't really see the lace in the photo but the sleeves are lace and that carries on around the back...

Okie, enough of that. So I was thinking of things that we've kind of got set in stone and I thought I'd list them so we know what days we've got booked up. So...

Sat 17th - Arrive at 12:35pm, Glasgow
Sun 25th - Naming ceremony
Tues 27th - Thursday 29th - Camping
Thurs 5th Aug - Adam Hills

Is there anything I've missed that we've definitely decided on? It felt like there was more...
Anyway, so Christian and I wanted to do a day trip down to North England etc and since we'll have to hire a car for camping, it's probably best if we do the day trip either on the Monday or just after camping, so we don't have to hire it out twice. I guess either day will not be that great since the Monday we'll probably all be tired after the ceremony and camping is generally exhausting but I guess we'll just have to suck it up lol. Maybe after camping would be better since it will mean a very early start and probably getting back late and I'm sure we won't be gone all day Thursday, therefore giving us some recovery time...

I'm sure other stuff we can figure out once we're there but you know me, I like making lists :D

Can't wait for tomorrow because then it's exactly three weeks till we fly out! I am getting so damned excited! Yay! :D

Camping

So, are we wanting to go camping? Because I think we'd really need to book it soon if we do.
And for that, we'd need to know how many of us are going, whether we'd need to hire a car / people carrier, that sort of thing.

What do you guys think?
We'd be up for it, but it would have to be the first or second week, as Matt probably can't get the third week off work.

Money-saving

Ok, so I have some vouchers...

Five vouchers, each for £5 off entry to the Edinburgh Dungeon. (Chris doesn't want to go.)

Six vouchers, each giving £2 off entry to the Camera Obscura.

A leaflet which would get us £1 off the entry costs of up to six adults for Deep Sea World.

A Snapfax, which contains a lot of offers including: money off Papa John's pizza, Pizza Hut (delivery or collection), KFC, Subway, plus good offers for TGI Fridays, Chiquitos, Bella Italia, Khublai Khan.

It also has an offer for 1/2 price tickets to The Stand comedy club on Thursday (making it £4 each).

Oh, and it has offers for the Dungeons and the Camera Obscura too, but I'm not sure if they're better value or not yet.