Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 7:53 am  

major hound wrote:

I think this may be true, some years ago when prescriptions in the Uk cost £5.00 per item, my wife, who suffers from occasional eczema on her hands was prescribed something called "oily cream" which TBH wasn't having much effect. Normally you get Betnovate, but anyway she persevered. We went on holiday to the Costa Del Sol, and she forgot to take this stuff with her. So we went into a chemist, and he gave her a tube of Betnovate - and here's the punch-line it only cost a £1!

I was on holiday in Benalmadena in the early 80s and went down with what I can only describe as a flu-like illness. My ex-missus went to the pharmacy and attempted to describe my symptoms and came away with a bottle of bright yellow liquid. I knocked back a couple of gobfulls and then spent the next five hours sweating like a pig. I managed to fall alseep at dawn and when I woke at about lunchtime, felt as right as rain and thought I could fight the world.

When we got back home I gave the bottle to a mate who was an analytical chemist. He phoned me a couple of days later enquiring just where I'd bought it and whether I'd brought it back through customs. Apparently the main ingredient was laudanum and I could've been nicked for drug smuggling. Unfortunately he destroyed what was left.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:48 am  

cod'ead wrote:

I was on holiday in Benalmadena in the early 80s and went down with what I can only describe as a flu-like illness. My ex-missus went to the pharmacy and attempted to describe my symptoms and came away with a bottle of bright yellow liquid. I knocked back a couple of gobfulls and then spent the next five hours sweating like a pig. I managed to fall alseep at dawn and when I woke at about lunchtime, felt as right as rain and thought I could fight the world.

When we got back home I gave the bottle to a mate who was an analytical chemist. He phoned me a couple of days later enquiring just where I'd bought it and whether I'd brought it back through customs. Apparently the main ingredient was laudanum and I could've been nicked for drug smuggling. Unfortunately he destroyed what was left.

Branwell Bronte must have been as fit as a fiddle then - if you've ever been to Haworth you can almost see him walking the fifty yards down the lane from their house, past the pub where he drank himself to death and across the road to the apothacary where he bought his laudanum by the barrowload, what a life...

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:53 am  

Not entirely clear why anyone would want to go abroad in these austere times.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:56 am  

Dally wrote:

Not entirely clear why anyone would want to go abroad in these austere times.

I'm going to Portugal for a few days on Wednesday, I'll let you know.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:58 am  

McLaren_Field wrote:

I'm going to Portugal for a few days on Wednesday, I'll let you know.

Beware.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:06 pm  

Dally wrote:

Beware.

Of what ?

I'm tagging along with a developer friend who is looking at some land on The Algarve for his next project, I'm not allowed to ask who their client is but lets just say that he only designs one villa a year for the sort of people who don't have to ask "How much", should be interesting with a bum like me in tow.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:27 pm  

McLaren_Field wrote:

Of what ?

Taxi drivers.

Earthquakes.

Civil unrest.

Being asked for a bailout.....

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:05 pm  

Dally wrote:

Taxi drivers.

Earthquakes.

Civil unrest.

Being asked for a bailout.....

Being kidnapped.

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:18 pm  

Dally wrote:

Taxi drivers.

Earthquakes.

Civil unrest.

Being asked for a bailout.....

Nah,

This is The Algarve, I'll be lucky to speak to anyone who doesn't use English as their first language.


On a slightly related issue my eldest is currently in Rhodes and boy how that end fo the Med has changed - when I went to rhodes in the late 70s you would be imprisoned and probably executed as a spy if you took a boat across the short stretch of water to Turkey, if you even mentioned Turkey you'd be imprisoned and if you had a Turkish immigration stamp on your passport you'd be put back on the first plane to England, you wouldn't even set foot in Greece.

Last Friday she took an organised tour ferry to Turkey from Rhodes harbour, bought a shitload of knock-off "designer" handbags and Ugg boots - that was the only reason they'd booked the holiday

Re: I'm thinking of going to/ has anyone ever been to (Holid : Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:28 pm  

McLaren_Field wrote:

Last Friday she took an organised tour ferry to Turkey from Rhodes harbour, bought a shitload of knock-off "designer" handbags and Ugg boots - that was the only reason they'd booked the holiday

She may get stopped at Customs. When we have come back from Turkey in the past they've stopped people with loads of 'designer' T-shirts, etc. Depends whether they've cottoned (pun intended) on to the Rhodes trick!