Rik's Dongle

[quandam]

Rik,

How did the 3 Dongle perform when you were on your travels? It would be interesting to hear how it went in the 'wilds' of Scotland

[Rik]

It was fine in most places, Q, the only failure was at the Inverness Fairways Travelodge, where there was no service (only Orange was detected). Otherwise, it and the Sammy proved a perfect travelling companion for the stuff I wanted to do - even allowing me to sneak in here from Perth and Carlisle.

[Glenn]

I wondered what was in the thread from the title, it reminded me of the Chuck Berry song My ding a ling

[Rik]

My dong a long.

[Glenn]

Boasting now 

[Rik]

 

Travelodge were just daft enough to ask me what I thought about our stays. I explained that Inverness Fairways seemed to have been designed by an architect more familiar with designing prisons and that, when I booked Carlisle Todhills, it said there was a Little Chef on site. This has now been replaced by a Costa, so no real food. We had, therefore, to drive into Carlisle for a meal, passing a Premier Inn, before driving back north up the M6 before turning south again to get back to Todhills. I asked them to guess where I would be staying next time.

[Glenn]

The Holiday Inn express? 

[Rik]

 

We thought we'd come down to the one with the farm shop, is it Tebay?

[Glenn]

Tebay is a lovely location, the whole service area is family run http://www.westmorland.com/node/30 & for the area  http://www.westmorland.com/

[Rik]

That's the one. I can see us loading the back seat with food.

[quandam]

Rik

I know the TraveLodge Inverness Fairways very well indeed. My main gripe with them is the charging of parking  in front of the TraveLodge itself. As you will no doubt be aware now there are several 'acres' (a big, big area anyway) about 50 yards away that any visitor to the TraveLodge can avail themselves of, free of charge, more than suitable parking.

This situation was introduced within the last 9 months (?) prior  to that there were no restrictions on parking. What was happening, the local offices were parking there until 7pm or later thereby taking up the spaces for TraveLodge visitors, to alleviate this they introduced this parking charge thereby penalising the Lodge visitor.

I have written, emailed, phoned, sent smoke signals to TraveLodge complaining without success

Now, when my Wife and I visit (2-3 times a year) we simply park in the 'free' car park 50 yards away without problem.

[Rik]

The parking charge has been dropped, Q, I think word had got through.

[quandam]

Rik

Wow! That it is a turn up for the books It must have cost them loads to install the ticket machines and now they are totally useless We are booked there for a couple of nights in September, no parking charges

[Rik]

The machines are all wrapped in black polythene.

[quandam]

Rik

Forgot to add that during the Winter period we get a room for £9.00, yes, £9.00 per night! So, provided the Tomintoul/Lecht Ski Centre road ( Usually the first road to be closed in the UK due to snow!) is open we enjoy some very reasonably priced long weekends in Inverness.

[Rik]

Tomintoul is usually the first to go, isn't it.   The £9, and even the £19, deals are pretty good. We're off to the Fens in September and Suffolk in October for a few days each. Time to top up the dongle methinks.

[Steve]

If this rain continues the Fens will be disappearing for awhile

[Rik]

 

[Sebby]

I did wonder how Rik's dongle performed while he was away.

[colonelsun]

I did wonder how Rik's dongle performed while he was away.

I'm sure Rik's cross-border dongle performance was a delight to see.

(If any video is available i have all the codecs at hand)

[Rik]

 

[colonelsun]

I won't do a Google search for it....i still have nightmares from when i Googled organic cucumbers.

[Simon]

 

[Rik]

I won't do a Google search for it....i still have nightmares from when i Googled organic cucumbers.