A Long Time Ago

Scan11237
Originally uploaded by AndrewJGraham

I came across this image and I thought it was interesting enough that I would share it with everyone. What is so neat about this image is that it is a scan of my "One Day Travelcard" of my first visit to London, way back on May 25th, 1988, which of course is EXACTLY 20 years ago. Some of you may know that I have the habit of collecting the oddest of things - old ticket stubs being one of them. The only reason this image is scanned is because I have been on a digital archiving kick at home - and this happened to be something that I kept from that first European adventure so long ago. Its hard to believe that it was 20 years ago....sometimes it seems like just yesterday, and other times it feels like a lifetime ago.

Just for kicks I looked up online what a "One Day Travelcard" costs today - and its a whopping 6.7 British Pounds Sterling. So, simple math means that the cost has gone up 4.7 Pounds in 20 years. BUT, we should figure out what that is in Canadian $ taking into account the historical exchange rates. God bless the internet, its easy to do. The exchange rate for May 25th, 1988 was 2.3179 CDN$ to 1 Pound - so, the Travelcard cost me exactly $4.62 CDN back in the day. If I buy one today - the current exchange rate is 1.9503, so that means it will cost me $13.06 CDN. Bottom line = I will not be buying a "One Day Travelcard" but instead will buy a nice expensive airport beer!!!! Of course, as my friend Luke has pointed out - I am not taking into account the inflation rate. If I did, it would look a whole lot better - but, then - who cares about inflation anyways!