Smartie's It'll Do Bar & Grill #28

Yum, looks good OT. ...but no whipping cream and syrup for me, the strawberries and bananas is all the sugar I desire.

Sorry to hear of your snow, and cold temps. Just pace yourself on the shoveling, better that than being all worn out... and it continuing to snow.

For what it's worth, if I were your neighbor, I'd help you with it.

 

Waffles look good OT. Snow....ech.

Off to Cuba in a few hours. I plan on giving Castro a piece of my mind, cuz he ain't got much of one left.

 

Give him a good minute or two for me to would you please. LOL

 

Howdy.
One each of the waffles, please, and a nice cup of coffee. Who's buying?
Is stuff really that expensive across the pond?

 

I'm buying today. And here's your coffee dear.

 

Looks good and strong, just the way I like it. Thanks.

Hey, guess what? Gots the entire weekend off. Watch out.

 

Good question! One of those big waffles with the stuff loaded on it is 3 Euro, which is about $4 US, and £2.60 UK. I would say that's a little on the expensive side, but not hugely so.

It depends where you are buying them - in a cafe in London I'd expect it to be at least that, but in a bakery in South Wales it should be less. Alot of people seem to make the mistake of coming to the UK, staying in London, and saying prices in the UK are appauling - what they mean is that prices in London are appauling, and anyone in the UK would say the same. I guess the same goes for big/capital cities in much of the world, and those waffles could have been in one of those.

For a more direct comparison, the prices on the Big Mac index for July 2011 shows that they are slightly cheaper in the UK than in the USA, but quite a bit more expensive in the Euro area. I'm still trying to work out exactly how the PPP (purchasing-power parity) thing is supposed to work, though, and that is comparing both with the US dollar exchange rate, rather than directly with each other.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/07/big-mac-index

 

Interesting, probably depending on supply and demand?
I recall ordering coffee (not sure where...France or Switzerland perhaps?), then another and another, expecting free refills, ending up with a huge bill.
Being able to read the menu (along with prices) posted outside a restaurant was very appealing to me, not sure where that was either. Its been a while.

 

Are you going for pleasure or work? Don't forget to get your banana rum and cigars.

 

How boring would it be if you only had this much snow to shovel.. This is the snow we had around our fish pond. I was so excited, not often it snows where I live.

 

It's not just supply and demand. There are all kinds of reasons for cost differences between places - labour costs and tax laws between countries, things like rent (and again labour costs, since living costs for workers can be so much higher) costs in big cities, and so on. McD's seem to charge the same in every outlet within a country, which Burger King certainly don't - a BK in a motorway service station in the UK is ferociously expensive, but a McD is normal price - guess which I try to stop at! I guess they have different business models and franchises and so on.

Beer prices are notoriously high in London, too. They can be almost double what they are in some other parts of the UK. Personally I can't imagine why anybody would want to live in a big city like that anyway!

 

Boy do I wish. But after all I do live in the mountains. So I got no one to blame but myself. I could move, Nah, you can't blast us out of here with a case of dynamite. Besides, we want to be here to see the show when the park volcano finally does blow it's top. As we are only about 60 miles from it we should get spectacular show.
Of course the experts say that everything within a 100 mile radius will be instantly wiped out. But what the hell, who wants to live forever. Here is a picture of old faithful blowing it's top today. It is in the heart of the caldera.

 

It'll be a great show, I'm sure. It just probably won't last very long for you! Like you say, though, what the hell - I'd be thinking the same. It would have to be worth seeing, and I can see the attraction of going out in that kind of blaze of glory, rather than hanging around afterwards as a refugee trying to survive in what's left of the USA - it's going to make an almighty mess when it does go up!

 

Are you keeping track of the steam holes that seem to be popping up in different areas of the park?

 

I tried that but there are to many and the park never gives out the right information. But I do moniter the seismograph readings at both the park and the Teton faulu line right outside of Jackson. It is over 10,000 years over due for a 7.5 or bigger. Or so the experts claim.

 

I thought the cost reasonable. The €3,50 / $4.75 one, I would expect to be €4,50 or perhaps a bit more in Italia.

Of course, as you alluded, country/location is a factor.


Oh well, I don't really care for them anyway. haha

 

Gas went down this weekend. They've got us right where they want us... I was thrilled to pay $2.97 a gallon.

Brrrrrrrr, cold front moved in and we've got a howling north wind! OK, so it's still 51... baby, it's cold outside!!!!!

 

Hi Smartie! I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Brrrr at your cool weather, just stay inside with a good coffee!

About the petrol prices, you know, we are fortunate in the U.S. to have those prices... the equivalent in Italia is in the $8 range.

...based on avg. €1,55 liter

 

so you think that is cold? Here it is 8:31 pm and the outside temp right now is 13 degrees. It will get down into single digits again by morning and maybe even below 0. It is now starting to get a little chilly up here.

 

Yeah well, fortunate to me is more like $1.65 gallon! We've got lots of wide open spaces to get thru over here, ya know? And those pickup trucks are gas guzzlers!

 

I'm sure you're all snuggled in, darlin. Might as well be... you've got a long winter ahead!

Pics of Old Faithful are awesome! I dunno if I'd wanna be around for that big blow. Sounds pretty scary to me!!

 

its hard here when it drops to 30 degrees.

dont know what 13 degrees is like, that must hurt exposed skin?

during the wind chills here that drops the temp down to the teens it feels painful on exposed skin

 

Trust me, this is a deluxe model (lol)...

 

The wind chill will get you faster than the temperature will. Here you learn to dress warm in layers. I have seen 32 below zero here, and when the wind kicks in holy crap, that's cold.

 

Here you go Smartie, this far more likely seen in use, than the fancy one I posted previously. Wouldn't you just love commuting in this?....