Blog: Archives

I've been looking at the situation in Serbia this week with more interest than usual: partly because I've just been reading about Sealand, an self-proclaimed independent nation ten kilometres off the Suffolk coast in the book Attention All Shipping by Charlie Connelly, but mainly because we're planning to drive around that region (although probably not as far east as Serbia) in the summer.

The breakaway of Kosovo, of course, represents the final nail in the coffin for Yugoslavia, the kingdom that used to encompass what is now seven countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia (and now Kosovo). Despite officially ending in 1991, The name Yugoslavia ceased being used in 2003 when Serbia and Montenegro changed its name, before splitting peacefully in 2003 to become two seperate countries.

Another four years on, and Serbia has lost even more of it territory - but this time perhaps it won't be quite so peaceful. The UK, Ireland, the European Union and the United States are all ready to recognise Kosovo: but Serbia, and the wider region, don't seem to be.

During the hour-long session in the Kosovan Parliament, shown live on most 24-hour news networks around the world, Serbian TV was showing a tennis match, Croatian TV a documentary about the archbishop of Zadar, and Montenegrin TV a soap opera.

What's even more interesting is that these countries - particularly Serbia - will not recognise Kosovo as a seperate entity - despite doing through the same (and, in the process, kicking off the Balkan war) in the early '90s.

Three hours or so after the announcement, word is filtering through into the BBC Newsroom about violent protests, some involving hand grenades, outside US embassies in the Serbian capital Belgrade and the nothern Kosovan town of Mitrovica. As I've been typing this post, video feeds have just popped up from Belgrade showing protestors clashing with security forces and throwing firecrackers in the street.

I hope it doesn't, but it could mean lots of overtime for me and my colleagues in Traffic... but possibly no holiday to the Balkans to spend it all on!

Dover-Calais return ferry & 6 bottles of wine, £20! screamed the headline from my favourite weekly inbox treat, the MoneySavingExpert mailing list email.

Looking further into the offer, with ferry company P&O, you book two of the special £10 each way crossings to return on the same day, and they give you a case of six bottles of red or white wine, plus a voucher for a BOGOF meal on board. Sounds good - perfect for the so-called 'booze cruisers' who head off to Calais, stock up on all kinds of alcohol and tobacco, and then head back to the UK with a heavier car and a lighter wallet (but not as light as it would be in the UK!).

One problem: we weren't particularly interested in getting crates of lager and boxes of wine - and we don't smoke. But, what we did need was practice driving on the other side of the road before our summer trip around Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. As it will be our first time driving t'other way round, some practice would come in handy in order not to crash on the way out of the car hire shop.

A cursory glance at Google Maps showed us that places of interest around smelly Calais could be Lille, Boulogne or, just over the Belgian border, Brugge (or Bruges). Chocolate (and the fact we'd also get experience in border crossing protocol!) took precedence over frogs legs, and the decision was made.

The P&O website then decided it was an opportune moment to crash, at the last stage of the booking process. We thought we'd have a quick peek at the other ferry services out of Dover to see if the deal could be beaten (I know, we should have done this first...). Then we discovered that Norfolkline sail between Dover and Dunkerque, about a third of the way between Calais and Brugge, for £19. Despite missing out on the free wine and one free meal, what swayed it for us was the fact that you could return on a different day if you wanted. So, instead of having to leave Luton at 0500 and arriving back somewhere around 2300 on the same day, having driven for most of the day across three countries, we could stay a night, get up and arrive back at decent times, and make a weekend of it.

St Christopher's Budget Hotel was duly booked with the Norfolkline ferry tickets (whose website worked throughout), and for £44 plus petrol, I think it's the cheapest city break we'll ever have been on!

I've just heard about the new Directory Enquiries service which is free to call and free to use.

Ever since the privatisation of BT's directory service databases in 2003, opening the floodgates for any company to set up such a system, we've been swamped with 118 companies and the trauma of seeing those silly moustached old blokes everywhere.

After paying somewhere around £1 for a minute's call to all the new 118 services (BT itself is the cheapest at 78p for one minute) for the last five years, someone's come up with the idea of offering directory enquiries for free.

The catch? You have to listen to a 20-second advert before you get the number you requested. But, as you're on a free phone call (it's an 0800 number) that doesn't really matter. You can still get a text to your mobile containing the number (and another advert) and all the bells and whistles that come with other similar, paid-for services.

But, hang on, hasn't this been tried before? According to a December 2006 article, 118 118 launched a free-to-use-with-advertising-and-voice-recognition service. I'm guessing, with that combination of 'features', it didn't last very long - as I've never heard of it.

There's been plenty of technological revolutions involving the word 'free' over the past few years - FreeServe launched free dial-up internet (a few years after X-Stream, with their "free internet as long as you install an advertising bar which takes up a third of your screen and you use it after six in the evening and before midnight and don't mind being disconnected every two hours and then putting up with 15 minutes of engaged tone", launched). This week, BT announced that all UK-based weekend calls would become free for all users (for an increase in line rental). Ryanair regularly give away free seats (as long as you pay all the taxes, and don't mind paying £6 to check in at the airport and £12 to put a bag in such as place where it travels below you in the hold instead of above you in the locker).

So, how long before broadband becomes free? Or flights? Or even computers (complete with advertising, of course)? I've noticed that o2 have launched a broadband package which is much cheaper than other companies (as long as you're also on a mobile phone contract with them). Governments are never going to stop charging taxes to fly in or out of countries, although I've long said that it will soon be possible to fly to the other side of the world using only low-cost carriers - say from London to Istanbul, Istanbul to Mumbai, Mumbai to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta, and then on to Perth, Sydney or New Zealand. I give it another five to ten years before you can do at least half that journey for less than a direct flight on a flag carrier to Sydney.

Don't think you'd want to do all that without having some frills, though...