Guys, guys, guys! All the talk about connections. Gopher, how crappy is your speed? Mace, how awesome is your cable?

Virgin is still copper into the home. Even the 50MB service only requires a modem upgrade.

We got Virgin and they will be giving us fibre in 6-12 months and I live in Lowestoft which isnt exactly the centre of the country, nor all that important.

Ice, 1 up 2 down. Usually it's half that, assuming it's not on-the-fritz. I have a feeling that part of it is the line conditions, and part of it is also my brother being too easy-going to negociate a better deal. Then again I don't really know the full situation down there since I usually take a hands-off approach, as he is 'responsible' for the infrastructure in our house.

Course, up here in Norway... I'm gonna miss this connection... *sobs*

Brun, is that a 50Mbps connection?

Gopher, 1Mbps uploads, 2Mbps downloads? Hahahahahaha.... if you think that's crappy, I'm on a 512kbps connection! I'm maxxing out my connection on 60kbps download speeds, I've never seen my downloads go higher than that. Oh, sure, I get 100+mbps bursts, but the average still says 60.

actually they are in reality now the same company - O2 own Be.


again not quite - LLU allows ISPs to put their own equipment into local exchanges so that they don't share with BT except for the backbone (some ISPs don't even share that).


VM cable may not be available where he ends up living & VM service is very variable around the UK - if you are in a good area it's great but it runs the gamut. They also aren't great value anymore.
I come back to recommending that ICE waits until he knows exactly where he will be living & asking around about the performance of various ISPs in that locale.

Hahaha... you'll have to forgive me, Buff. Can't wait to find out for myself, but no harm in asking others, right? I mean, I might get wowed at a certain package, not knowing it was a weak offer because I don't know the "standard" or the "usual" internet package/speed is in the UK, but since it's way higher than what I have here, then I'll bite. I don't want to have a d'oh! moment if can avoid it.

Hello again guys!

We've just filed our visa applications last week and we're told there's a 2-3 week waiting time, though for "in demand" jobs like ours, it's usually 5-7 working days. As of now, we have two tentative deployment dates, either Feb 4 or 11. Getting very excited!

I'd like to shift the discussion back to my immediate concerns, namely: Clothing and Shelter.

Clothing
I'm told that while February is still "winter season," it's coming to a close with Spring on April or so. Still, we are told to bring warm clothes. Can we re-define "warm clothes" again? What I've retained is denim jeans is okay, with just "layering" needed for the upper body plus a jacket. I've been to North Face, and jackets came in a "fleeced inner lining with an outer windbreaker/jacket" combo and a "really puffy jacket." Which one would I need? I think the puffy jacket will do a good job of keeping me warm, but I figured the fleeced-combo jacket would be useful past the actual winter season. Any advice appreciated.

Shelter
I've been told that we're going to be housed in the Stockton area for a few months (3-6) as we go through the ONP programme. The main hospital center is at Stockton, and we will be going to University Teesside, which is in Middlesbrough (how do you pronounce that?).

The housing is a single-bedroom flat (apartment, right?) and unlike previously expected, it's only 1 person per flat. It'll cost £400 per month, but I'm told that'll include water, gas/electricity, council tax, etc. I'm not sure about the phone, but I'm sure that amount does not include an internet connection. Is this "reasonable" for the location? Also, I've always expected each flat to have a separate meter for water, gas/electricity, and so on, so how can these be "included" in the £400 per month rent? We've always been warned not to be leaving the heaters on when we leave the house/flat/apartment because the bills will be ginormous, so having a "bills included" rent is confusing.


Thanks again in advance!

The UK is currently going through it's longest cold snap for something like 30 years. Hopefully you'll miss it by the time that you get here but who knows ...
if the combo jacket is also waterproof that sounds good (got links?).

I looked at the North Face website, but aside from the term "fleece," I don't know how much else to describe the jacket, so I'm not sure if I'll be linking you to the right one.

The combo-jacket looks like this one. The outer material is kinda smooth and I suspect would offer some degree of waterproof/waterresist, though I doubt it'll last me through a storm. The inner jacket is of fleece material (as the salesperson said) and is actually a separate jacket that zips onto the outer jacket, but is also removable from the outer jacket.

The fluffy jacket looks like this one, although the one I tried is black in color. Looks very warm to me, but I'm not sure I can use it later as winter wears off; it just might be too warm.

You mentioned this is the longest cold snap, but it might be over by the 1st or 2nd week of February? Should things be starting to warm up now?