Early Risers.

[Gwiwer]

 

 

Can confirm the Contented Pig in Littlehampton is now closed 

 

 

 

 

But The Castle in Worthing has reopened under new (ex-Dark Star, apparently) management.  Good reports received thus far.

 

Morning all.  Welcome to Fry Day.  This shall be celebrated a little later by heating a large flat pan in the hopes of converting some piggy slices and cackleberries into edible format.

 

Only ever done straight repayment mortgages here.  I had a brief flirtation with the industry in the UK once and learned very quickly from that time to avoid endowments.  They work well for a minority of folk but leave the majority short of cash at the end.  No-one knows what will happen with the value of their endowment over its term.  As with all financial products your cash is at risk.

 

Very windy.  Very wet.  Uninspiring weather yet a supermarket trip is required at some stage.  Already have the sheep chops out of the fridge and coming up to room temperature for tonight.

 

All best wishes.  See you soon.

[BR60103]

What do A level results have to do with drinking?  Have they finally established a literacy test for alcohol consumption?  (Name 5 drunks in Shakespeare and tell why each one drinks.)

 

Anyone in England and Wales thinking of a lunchtime pint would do well to remember that the A Level results are out today.  I'm tempted to venture out just to watch the fun but if you are uneasy in the presence of massed trainee drinkers it would be best to stay at home.

[Gwiwer]

 

(Name 5 drunks in Shakespeare and tell why each one drinks.)

 

 

 

 

Sir John Falstaff in Henry IV part 1 and part 2 also in The Merry Wives of Windsor

Sir Toby Belch in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Claudius in Hamlet

Caliban in The Tempest

Michael Cassio in Othello

 

Because ale was probably a safer drink than water in Shakespearean days

 

Do I get my A-level now?  

 

My memory is dimmed by years but I certainly spent some of my A-level years studying the bottoms of pint pots in the local ale establishments.  Because I could and because others did so too.

[emt_911]

Morning all. A bit grey this morning and precipitation is forecast.

 

I slept far too well and now feel exhausted at the start of the day. More caffeine required.

 

Have a good day everyone

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

If Facebook is to be believed - always a big if - today is World Photo Day.  Accordingly I present:

 

 

The man in mid air is 26 year old Dan Liddiard from Honiton and the lady in the purple tights is his partner Rhiannon.  The picture was taken in the Market Square in Sidmouth on 31st July.  Check Dan and Rhi out on YouTube.  You may find this hard to believe but acrobatics is something else that I leave to the experts.

 

I paid off my mortgage the day after 9/11.  It felt good.

 

This morning at 11 am I have an appointment at the VW dealership.  My petrol Polo has a little over 28,000 miles on the clock and deserves a fate better than crushing.  All I have to do before then is find the folder containing the purchase paperwork, registration document and finance details.  Sounds easy, doesn't it?

 

Best wishes to the ailing, recovering, supporting grieving, missing and depressed.  Today it might be an idea to add car sales executives.

 

Chris

 

[Donw]

Morning all

 

Happy birthday Brian.

 

Has anyone met, or know anyone who has met this situation.

Our mortgage finishes at the end of this month. I had been waiting for letters from the mortgage and endowment (yes, I know) companies with further details etc. These arrived at the start of the month giving the various amounts, instructions etc etc. However, it appears that the endowment is not assigned to the current mortgage holder but to the one we were with at the start of the mortgage which has changed a couple of times since then. The solution suggested was that the current mortgage company has to, with my permission, make a claim of interest in the endowment policy. Then the endowment company has to trace the original firm and get them to rescind their right to claim. I said they could do this at the start of the month and they said they would raise the claim within five working days. Yesterday I got a text saying that they were only dealing with our request now and would do so within five working days. I'm a little concerned that they will be wanting payment in full soon but the endowment business will not be sorted.

Has anyone any knowledge of resolving a similar situation?

 

We had paid off the mortgage early so the endowment policies were allowed to carry on to build our saving a bit. There were three as we had added a couple of extras when moving. However when they came to maturity we had to get a letter from the mortgage company to say the mortgage had been repaid and they no longer had an interest in the endowment. I believe this is because at the time of taking out the endowments a charge is placed on it to give the mortgage company the first claim to the money on the policy.

In our case it was no problem although with the first one it may have delayed payment by a week. It was not a problem as there was no outstanding mortgage. If yours is an interest only mortgage you will still owe the full amount and would be liable for interest until it is repaid. However it seems odd to me that the new mortgage company didn't get the claim to the mortgage money switched to them at the time of taking out the mortgage. I would have expected the mortgage company and the solicitors to have sorted that out at the time of the conveyance. 

We only became aware of the issue as paying off the mortgage had just been done by ourselves. It would pay anyone in a similar position of having switched their mortgage company to ensure that the insurance company has been advised of any change and have the necessary letters.

Don

[Donw]

Sorry, 40F, but the schools break-up earlier so that the kids can help farmers bring in the harvests - so it's a 19th century tradition which bears little relation to the 21st.

Mal

Rather odd that as our holidays in England were supposed to be timed for the Harvest. The corn harvest has been done here in August and is just about finished with today's fancy harvesters. I presume in the past they may have been pushed to get it all done before the end of August.

Don 

[BoD]

However it seems odd to me that the new mortgage company didn't get the claim to the mortgage money switched to them at the time of taking out the mortgage. I would have expected the mortgage company and the solicitors to have sorted that out at the time of the conveyance.

 

Don

That is exactly what I thought. I didn't realise this hadn't happened until the 'settlement' letters arrived earlier this month. The one from the mortgage company not mentioning the endowment and the one from the endowment company mentioning payment to this mortgage company we can't now trace.

We must have remortgaged at the time banks were throwing them about like confetti. We had one very short meeting at the local branch then went back a short time later to sign the line with them doing all of the work in between.

 

A case of mea culpa.

Or are theya culpa?

Edited August 19, 2016 by BoD

[AndyID]

 

This morning at 11 am I have an appointment at the VW dealership.  My petrol Polo has a little over 28,000 miles on the clock and deserves a fate better than crushing.  All I have to do before then is find the folder containing the purchase paperwork, registration document and finance details. 

 

If you have not already signed anything, you might take a squint at this or similar websites.

I'm not sure how things work in the UK these days, but I suspect they are not so different from the US. Here, you can save a lot of money (I mean a LOT) by shopping around for a new car. Once you have the best price you can find, even if it's from a dealer a considerable distance away, you go back to your local dealer and let them know you are prepared to buy from a remote dealer. The local dealer will usually make a significant adjustment to keep your business.

[Donw]

A true ER this morning the rain started at 4.40am I got up to check in the loft that the tarpaulins were doing the job of keeping it out. Didn't feel like going back to sleep so I had an early breakfast.

 

Belated Happy Birthday to Brian

 

Endowments

Origninally the idea was that as you needed to have insurance to cover the mortgage in the event of an early death ( this was to protect the mortgage company not you) paying a bit more for an endowment would cover the mortgage and the profits would give you a bonus. The monthly mortgage charge would be less as there would be no repayment element so it generally was a good bet. However two things happened.

 

They came up with the idea of a low cost endowment mortgage where the profits were assumed and included so that the actual sum assured was less than the mortgage. This was fine as long as the profits were maintained.

 

Then the financial world shifted and the profits became less so people started finding the payout with profits was not sufficient to meet the outstanding mortgage. The resulting mess and miss-selling claims further reduced the profits paid on endowments.

 

As far as ours were concerned we would probably have been better off with repayment mortages and doing our own savings, but then we might have spent the money and done no saving so its swings and roundabouts really. Probably the best thing I did  re saving was to buy extra years of pension but that was in a cast iron scheme.

 

Enjoy your day 

Don

[Oldddudders]

That is exactly what I thought. I didn't realise this hadn't happened until the 'settlement' letters arrived earlier this month. The one from the mortgage company not mentioning the endowment and the one from the endowment company mentioning payment to this mortgage company we can't now trace.

We must have remortgaged at the time banks were throwing them about like confetti. We had one very short meeting at the local branch then went back a short time later to sign the line with them doing all of the work in between.

A case of mea culpa.

Or are theya culpa?

I think the various reshapings of the UK financial services sector, initially with carpet-bagging the former building societies and the introduction of financial 'products' like endowment mortgages etc, and more recently with meltdown among major players, was bound to create this sort of mess. Tough to disentangle, and only the poor customer has the motivation to do so.

[Donw]

That is exactly what I thought. I didn't realise this hadn't happened until the 'settlement' letters arrived earlier this month. The one from the mortgage company not mentioning the endowment and the one from the endowment company mentioning payment to this mortgage company we can't now trace.

We must have remortgaged at the time banks were throwing them about like confetti. We had one very short meeting at the local branch then went back a short time later to sign the line with them doing all of the work in between.

 

A case of mea culpa.

Or are theya culpa?

 

Exactly who should have done what is debatable between solicitors mortgage companies and you. I cannot say whether it would be best to leave it to them or write pointing out that they should have done this at the time it is a tricky situation. 

Don

[JohnDMJ]

Good morning.

 

Good morning one and all

I paid off my mortgage the day after 9/11.  It felt good.

 

This morning at 11 am I have an appointment at the VW dealership.  My petrol Polo has a little over 28,000 miles on the clock and deserves a fate better than crushing.  All I have to do before then is find the folder containing the purchase paperwork, registration document and finance details.  Sounds easy, doesn't it?

 

Best wishes to the ailing, recovering, supporting grieving, missing and depressed.  Today it might be an idea to add car sales executives.

 

Chris

 

So you've been mortgage-free since 12/9, or 10/11?

 

Good luck with the car; hope things go the way you want! Car sales executive - I fear you may be 'bigging' him up too far!

Edited August 19, 2016 by JohnDMJ

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a cloudy village.  Off shortly to take Beth for a diabetic eye test as she won't be able to drive afterwards.   Then off to the clubroom for a day stringing knitting.   Back home for tea then back to the clubroom.  Not a bad day in prospect.

 

I started with an endowment mortgage and had a with profits policy for it but when I got married and we bought our present house I had to get a straight repayment mortgage.  The endowment stayed though and was used by us later for something or other.    I think I bought the materials for Long Preston's fiddle yard and Beth used her share for a pilgrimage trip to Israel.  We paid our mortgage off when I retired but then the kids needed help with housing and  then we bought a house in France so we now have  a mortgage again.  However it will be paid off whe  we sell our current house when we move.   It's interesting how the simple method of repayment seems to have come back into favour.

 

Apart from that, not much to report.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Coombe Barton]

Three things have started this morning.

 

Our holiday to east Devon

 

Our final packing of the car and caravan

 

The rain.

[Barry O]

Morning all

Wet here. Still fuming gently over last night's meeting. Bare faced cheek!

Mortgages been there (endowment paid our home off) done that (10 year variable interest rate for the house for my ex job in Barrow - paid off when the FiL passed away). It helped that in both cases we had the same mortgage providers throughout the terms of the mortgages. I seem to remember something about major difficulties (cost) of reassigning endowment policies to different lenders.

 

Some shopping and packing to be done today.

 

Have a nice day, Rick enjoy the lamb chops and have a nice evening.

Baz

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.  As it is my day off, it is absolutely bucketing down.

 

As a result, I have been left a long list of honey-do's, not my idea of 'me time'.  Then a head eye test this afternoon, which will be garnished with a telling off as it is 6 months late, I have an annually monitored issue so I always see the same opthalmist, but actually finding an appointment with her when I am also available has been troublesome.  She is a very pleasant Irish girl so that will make it less of a chore!    I should move to a practitioner nearer home now (they were handy when I worked in the Big City) but the continuity of service bearing in mind the complicated issue makes it worthwhile staying there.  And her of course.

[roundhouse]

Morning fro ma drizzly London.

 

On line departure board looked fine at home but by the time we got to the station they had found some over running engineering works to cause delays plus a trespasser at South Croydon. Luckily not too bad arrival at LBG.

 

had a good nights sleep for a change so up at 5am to do an hours modelling fitting ditch lights to another  n scale Amtrak loco.

 

Tomorrows plans may change as we were planning on heading to Harwich and Ipswich but the forecast strong winds may mean that we head West to Bath and Swindon for beers.

 

Luckily we can but tickets on the day with more delay repay vouchers.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Rather damp out and overcast this morning.

I don't know what we will be doing today until setting off to Stansted this evening to collect Matthew.

Robbie's vet seemed pleased with his blood test results. His next visit will be routine for annual booster inoculations in September and he can also have his blood calcium checked. He seems really well.

Tony

[New Haven Neil]

Just watching Cav on BBC news - he has again said the crash was his fault, not paying attention.  Good on him, for his honesty.  I declare bias though.

[lightengine]

The Weather.

Presently in sunny Teignmouth we are experiencing light rain and slight winds (ie trees are moving but not too much). According to the seaweed danglers we have sun approaching later from Cornwall.

Update later.

 

The US swimmers versus the Brazillian petrol station contest seems fascinating. An attempt by gold medallists to make America great again!

[AndrewC]

Moaning all from a slightly damp boring borough. Little to report workwise apart from I've now officially given written notice that I will no longer work away from home for extended periods of time. (1 night away max) This was a pre-emptive strike as the rumour mill had me going to Manchester for 4 months. f*ck that. There is nothing in my employment contract that says I am expected to work out of hours or away from home. The 0% pay review this year has also contributed to my bolshie attitude. The practice has lost 4 people in the past month over the company's tight arsed remuneration.

 

When we originally bought our mortgage it was a 2 year tracker, then variable. Within the first 12 months the interest rates at the BoE dropped from 5.25% to 0.5%. We kept the payments the same and in doing so will knock  at least 14 months off our repayment period.

 

Not a lot else happening. A bit of reading/training. Like others I've finally had a good solid night's sleep. So good in fact I slept through the first alarm this morning. Tomorrow sees us trundling up the M1 & M6 to the Donkey Sanctuary near Brum. SWMBO's sponsored critter is being retired and moved to Devon so its her last chance to meet face to face as it were. A couple of bags of carrots and apples will be brought along as critter treats. A pub lunch will be the treat for this critter.

 

Happy Friday everyone.

[Happy Hippo]

I awoke to the hiss of cars driving through the  puddles in our lane.  How much longer this daily flood of vehicles will continue is open to offers.

 

We had a visit from a local councillor, who had been part of a traffic survey team.  The level of traffic on the road is unacceptable at peak times, because of the speed at which they travel, and because the road has no pavements.  The situation will become much worse when the local recycling centre (for the whole of Telford) comes on line in a few months time.

 

It is likely that our lane will become a cul de sac.................which means we will have a 4 mile drive to the new 'tip' rather than a mile!  I am told it will also lift the prices of the houses in the lane, although my muddy hollow will still be worthless, although it will remain a SSSI.

 

I had a long chat with him about the lack of joined up thinking in the council who planned two new industrial estates next to an existing one, but didn't think to join them all together with strategically placed link roads.  These would allow traffic to flow more naturally and would then ease pressure at the existing entry and exit point of the estates.

 

Yesterday was a far better day weather wise, so much so that I walked to the hospital for my outpatients appointment, and back again afterwards.  As usual, no change, so I will see the ophthalmology team in about 6 months time.  I ought to be used to the prodding and probing by now, but had a double dose, because I was first examined by a very young and earnest SHO, followed by another by the Consultant. I'm sure there must be a note on my hospital records about being a valuable training aid which should be used at every opportunity.

 

The walk down to the hospital left me rather peckish and thirsty, so i called into the volunteer run caff(sic).

 

I asked for a Belgian bun, and on receipt, I asked whether it was the Flemish variety or of the Walloon persuasion.

 

The ladies behind the counter then started looking at all the packaging to check!  I refrained from asking about the Berliner, as that would really have caused grief and anxiety.

 

I can offer no help or advice on the subject of mortgages as I've never had one, I mean, a muddy hollow is a muddy hollow.  Home improvements are confined to shifting the soil and water combination around to vary the texture of the mud,  although I do recall the Obergrumpenfuhrer (currently absent in N Wales) pointing out a mortgage is wider than a narrow gauge.

 

The PH is off for the weekend to Cornel Scout Centre (Nr Llanrwst) for some sort of maintenance jolly, which leaves us(the Obergrumpenfuhrer returning to the hippodrome this afternoon) to enjoy a quiet and peaceful weekend (as if!)

 

Da iawn Jade Jones.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Happy Hippo

[Oldddudders]

 Tomorrow sees us trundling up the M1 & M6 to the Donkey Sanctuary near Brum. SWMBO's sponsored critter is being retired and moved to Devon so its her last chance to meet face to face as it were. A couple of bags of carrots and apples will be brought along as critter treats. A pub lunch will be the treat for this critter.

 

Happy Friday everyone.

I know I'm only a damned foreigner these days, but isn't the M40 the better route from the South East? Then taking the M42 as necessary? Despite living near the M6 south of Stafford, Sherry would always use that route to get to the Home Counties. Not least, it's not so far around the M25!

[andyram]

Good morning all and belated birthday greetings to Brian. I am sorry I missed the day itself, I hope you had a good one - I certainly like the plate you showed in your photograph.

Mick.B I am glad to hear of Karen's continued improvement.

Chrisf - what a well timed photograph. I have seen the Facebook claim that today is World Photograph day. I may try and present my favourite offering later if I get on the laptop. For now I present this IPad image showing yours truely having some attention from cat number 3.

 

The last couple of days have been satisfyingly steam filled. On Wednesday I took Amber to the Churnet Valley and we had a couple of trips behind their Polish tank engine. I was particularly impressed with their "children's activity pack", purchased for £3.50 from the gift shop. If featured a small activity book containing colouring pages, word search, stickers to add to pictures, a maze, spot the difference and a couple of other activities that were all themed around the railway. There was also a Churnet Valley themed board game with press out engine pieces and a card fold and press together model of one of the line's diesel locomotives. It kept Amber amused throughout the visit and she loved spotting the locomotives featured as the characters within her book. A very good idea - why do more railways not do similar?

 

Yesterday it was off to the Severn Valley whilst MiL came over for the day. Another enjoyable day although quite eventful. I had the Southern Pacific "Sir Keith Park" on my train. It came off shed and gave the carriages a hefty bump in the morning - then it struggled away from Bridgnorth. Further along the trip it struggled to get away from Highley and Arley, having to set back slightly before moving forward. This continued on the return trip to the point that it stalled as it climbed out of Highley and had to run back into the station. It stalled again on the second attempt before succeeding at a third attempt after running back through the station to get a run at the gradient. The result was a thirty minute drop in the timetable. The TTI on the train called SKP a rubbish loco, personally I would say it was rubbish driving.

 

Raining here today. Have a good one.

Edited August 19, 2016 by andyram