Good Morning All (at least it will be when you read this - unless of course you have insomnia). I spent a frustrating 3 hours today on the phone (well SKYPE) trying to arrange a flight to Blighty and a car hire to boot. I tried to book an economy flight and using air miles, (I have 89,000 of them) upgrade to business class (I don't fancy 24+ hours next to the passenger from hell with my knees tucked under my chin. I found out in this case that the flight booking and air miles systems are completely separate and that never the twain shall meet! If I upgraded an economy flight I get to change cabins but still only have the economy luggage allowance and also don't get any extra air miles. I bit the bullet and booked business without using any air miles.. Then on to the car hire. Despite using a UK credit card and booking with a UK company I get charged in $ because I booked from Bolivia (according to my IP address that is). The web site that I used changed my details and dates so I ended up with a one day car hire. I got onto their (rentalcars) chat line and they said they could change the booking fot the 12 days that I required. One day was $28 but for 12 days it was only ¢148 (compared with my last car hire in the UK with the same company and a similar car which was $600). I questioned the amount and I was assured that it was correct. Some you lose, some you win!. Then I had to get a special code for my UK driving licence and I need to show a utilities bill that is less than 3 months old which is going to be difficult because I haven't been back for a year. If I arrive in the UK in a state of sanity I'll be surprised!

Don't worry Rod. If you arrive sane, you'll be insane by the time you leave

Good morning all

If you're in the UK in January Rod and you have some spare time, it would be nice to meet up, even if only to say "hello". My brother lives in Solihull (assuming probably wrongly that's where you're going), and its only 40 minutes from where I live.

Good evening all. Yes Dave Nags Head, Greater Malvern, Saturday lunch - Perfect! I'll have to go very easy on the loopy juice though, don't want a run in with the boys in blue! PM me a phone number and I'll send you my UK number.