John Linton ...and it puts everything in perspective.
We had a leisurely breakfast and got a taxi to the closest main line train station (Egham - one of thousands) and for the equivalent of $A17.00 per person got a return ticket to central London with unlimited use of the London underground. The train was on time to the second and the train arrived at Waterloo within seconds of the nominated time - actually early. We moved from the main line station to the underground via a series of escalators and passageway and got to Piccadilly Circus within an hour of leaving our hotel. We had a simple agenda which we accomplished over the next two hours buying various presents for various family members.I bought a pair of Bally shoes at less than 50% of the Sydney price and Annette said the Ferragamo shop (in the priciest area of London) where she briefly looked for a new dress for the upcoming wedding was one third of Sydney's prices for identical items.
As we wandered back from our shopping excursions in Old Bond Street and the Burlington Arcade down Piccadilly 'by chance' we passed the entry to Swallow Street so, it being a very hot day in England and after two hours plus walking around we were drawn to Bentley's where we were able to get a table and had a cooling drink followed by one of their impeccably selected, presented and served fish meals for which they have been renowned for almost 100 years of three different types of oysters and Lobster a la Russe accompanied by a white wine of total beauty (with a perfectly poured and 'young' Guinness to quench the initial thirst). When we left some 90 minutes later we decided to investigate the closure of the streets around Piccadilly and Regent Street and discovered the UK version of the Sydney Mardi Gras. It seemed more of a 'political' protest than what the Sydney 'event' has become and pretty boring to be a spectator at. So we made our way back to our hotel having spent a whole day doing very little. in Sydney and at very low cost. The shopping was at half Sydney prices and the meal at Bentley's was the best possible quality produce, delightfully served at half Doyle's prices with a fine white Burgundy (of an excellent year) at one fifth the price you would pay in Sydney. I don't like London, but value for money and incredibly easy travel to every nook and corner it's almost unbeatable.
In summary the travel was of a standard, comfort, speed and precision we can only dream about and the quality and prices of everything else just make Sydney a total rip off. And an ad in the train for Tesco (a National chain of grocery stores) offered a mobile plan of unlimited mobile calls, unlimited SMS and unlimited browsing for 30 pounds ($A50.00). Which makes you think how any Australian carrier would fare against that sort of plan offering from a RESELLER not a carrier. An interesting aberration from the other information I have been slowly accumulating.
I'm not sure whether UK prices for wireless broadband mean anything in the context of the Australian markets - almost probably not - but I have found that Australia does 'track' almost everything that happens in the UK with about an 18 month delay. If that is going to continue then we would see wireless broadband with ADSL2 type speeds in Australia with around 20 gb down/up loads for around $A25 - $A30.00 before the end of calendar 2011. If that were to happen, together with whatever happens with fibre over the coming 18 months will make a very interesting scenario for ADSL and the companies that then depend on ADSL revenues for their main revenue sources.
My pre-paid wireless service is 10 pounds ($A16.00) for 2 gbytes (I didn't need a modem/dongle as I had the one from last year but if I had wanted one it was 7 pounds extra) but I could have got 5 gbytes for 20 pounds or 10 gbytes for 30 pounds....so even accounting for currency variations the prices of wireless broadband are around 40% less than the cheapest Australian plans - and they worked really well in all but total rurality on this trip.
On balance, I think I'd rather not have invested in ADSL2 DSLAMs....but who really knows?
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