Early Risers.

[pH]

When we moved here we maintained a current account and a savings account with the RBS. The accounts are no longer required and as the local revenue get a tad twitchy about offshore bank accounts I have drained both accounts to zero balance. I'm wondering if we have to write to RBS to tell them to close the accounts, or will that happen automatically?

Based on personal experience (though not with RBS), you should tell them.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Warm and dry start and a fairly hot sunny day is forecast.

Up a bit earlier than of late because I was woken up by car doors slamming and voices at 4.00am. My mate Russ next door is off on a golfing weekend to France and one of his friends arrived and they were loading clubs etc into the car. There are 16 of them going, I'm glad to say they didn't all meet here, somebody else will get that pleasure!

Some good news yesterday in that Abbie has passed her driving theory test. Now all she's got to do is pass the practical test.

She and her boyfriend are coming to dinner tonight with Nicki, Joe & Gemma so that will be another noisy laughter filled evening at GDB Towers. The more the merrier say I. 

More tea needed.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Area Group lunch was enjoyable yesterday though getting there was not entirely smooth.  At Harlington the driver came on the tannoy to say that the door closing monitors were on the blink and he could not stop at unmanned stations!  All hail the great white worm.  In the evening Calan were absolutely superb!  Their music is always exciting and to have it almost on ones doorstep is a bonus.   Sadly the new CD had been delayed and I am now most impatient to have it.  While I was out an e-mail arrived advising that the new Genticorum CD is on its way so my car will be making lots of Quebecois noise ere long.

 

A few jobs need to be done this morning for this afternoon I have my annual diabetic eye screening.  Irrigating the strawberries is high on the list but not before I have bathed, obviously.

 

It's warm thoughts time.  Let them go out to Tony and Aditi, Debs, Andyram, Andy P, Simon, Mal, Baz and anyone I have inadvertently overlooked who is in distress.

 

For some reason this post decided to display itself before I had finished typing it.  Let patience be rediscovered as a virtue.

 

Chris

Edited April 19, 2018 by chrisf

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a nice bright sunny morning in this part of the world.  Amazingly (for April) the temperature is due to get up to almost 30°C today.

 

Our dishwasher crapped out last night.  What is it with modern electrical appliances?  It is almost as if they are built to break down as soon as they are out of guarantee (although the cynical side of me thinks that is precisely what is supposed to happen.  Oh well - on the grand scheme of things, it's irrelevant - but an annoyance none the less!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[AndyID]

 

Our dishwasher crapped out last night.  What is it with modern electrical appliances?  It is almost as if they are built to break down as soon as they are out of guarantee (although the cynical side of me thinks that is precisely what is supposed to happen.

 

They call it MTBF for a good reason. In the meantime you're supposed to go out and buy a new one.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from La Charente Maritime for the last time for a few weeks.   Lots of sun outside already.  It got up into the high 20's yesterday.    Lots of little jobs got done and I also packed some items that roll on pieces of metal 32 mm apart, back into crates. These have now been secreted in the dark recesses of the cavern.

 

We're setting off back just after lunch heading for St Malo so I've got the car to pack and the trailer to hitch up.   Hopefully it won't be too warm on the drive.

 

Thoughts for all those with various ailments and particularly of Debs.

 

Regards to all et bon chance.

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

When we moved here we maintained a current account and a savings account with the RBS. The accounts are no longer required and as the local revenue get a tad twitchy about offshore bank accounts I have drained both accounts to zero balance. I'm wondering if we have to write to RBS to tell them to close the accounts, or will that happen automatically?

I'd be tempted to keep them open with a nominal 1 pound in them, just in case you find a reason for having them. Getting a new bank account open these days can be difficult and I suspect even more so with an overseas address.

[Happy Hippo]

 

 

A parcel arrived at work today that contained a dark blue box with something blue and yellow inside that has 12 wheels and runs on parallel strips of metal about 16.5mm apart. It has the letters CSX on the side.

Finally tracked down a delivery to my niece in the US that I thought had gone missing as it was shown as delivered last Thursday. This is silver, has 8 wheels and runs on the metal strips as above. This carries the wording Caltrain

 

 

May I compliment you on a first class piece of awl avoidance technique.

 

This is exemplar work which others would do well to take note of.

[jamie92208]

I'd be tempted to keep them open with a nominal 1 pound in them, just in case you find a reason for having them. Getting a new bank account open these days can be difficult and I suspect even more so with an overseas address.

 

It's an interesting question and as we are in the process of emigrating one that has been given some thought.   We are certainly going to keep our UK accounts for the time being as it will make paying subscriptions/family presents etc easier.   However I won't need to fill in an actual French tax return till next year so will have to see how it goes. Certainly at the moment I seem to be able to get a better exchange rate on block transfers than the pension companies and internet banking makes it easy to maintain the accounts.   However life as ever is a learning curve.

 

Jamie

[Mad McCann]

Morning all. Tea and Dawn Chorus here.

So nice to have a still morning with clear skies as I head off to work.

06.30 start today and done by 15.30.

Might take a run out to Silloth when finished; it makes such a difference having s car again at this time of year.

 

 

D

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner temple Here,

A poor nights sleep as I just couldn't get off to sleep, this made me a little late in rising, so there were a pair of accusing brown Eyes waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs..

 

Turning into our road last Night I was met with the apparition of a large tractor blocking the road with a board on the front saying wide load ahead. Behind it was and even larger tractor fitted with double back wheels and carrying a harrow that was brushing the hedges both sides of the road. 3 other cars and myself were forced to drive into a side lane and then reverse back out after it was gone, difficult to do safely on a blind hedged corner.

 

In a black very well packed box was two 1/144 (close enough) scale Vickers Viscounts, I would have prefered a couple of De Haviland Herons, but the only Heron kits I could find i the right scale were £68 where as the Viscounts I got for £2:50 each. the Viscounts would have been seen on the route to Tiree but only as standby by two the 3 herons owned by BEA.

 

This Morning revealed the great fried egg had risen before the accusing brown eyes went out for his morning patrol, there seemed to be a lot of animal noised out ther, it sounded like deer.

 

The radio womble revealed that the Acle Straight was shut, there had been a 9 car pile up and a totally seperate 4 car pile up over night, the road has been closed since about midnight. I suspect fog as the road crosses the marshes. The road is an old Toll road built in the 1700s and is dead straight except for one bend in the middle. It is after a long stretch of dual carriageway at the west end, and is normally the first freely moving road having escaped great Yarmouth at the east end. So cars do tend to go a bit mad along there. If you make a mistake there are big ditches either side with no run off area...

The road closure has been noticed by national radio as well as local... that is unusual...

 

This meant of course there was more traffic on my route to work, but since I hit every set of lights at green this morning I arrived early...

 

This computer now says it's going to reset after more updates

 

Time to ... go do some work.

Edited April 19, 2018 by TheQ

[Happy Hippo]

Last night's experiments with the night vision equipment went very well.

 

Active infra red takes me back to my early army days in the 70's when it was still being used for night fighting, although the first generation of passive night vision was making great inroads.

 

The advantage of the passive system was that it could 'see'  active ir beams.  Whereas the ir could only see what it illuminated.

 

The PH and I both agreed that the system  was very effective out to 20 yards, but above that, really needed a more powerful ir light source.  Although we could hit the 30 yard target consistently, it was right at the far end of the light beam.

 

Couple to that the issue of having to hold over (aim above the actual target) to compensate for the ballistic curve, so it was not quite as easy, especially when you are not looking directly through the telescopic sight, but are watching through a small monitor clipped above the ir torch.  It would have been almost impossible without the use of a bipod to support the rifle, or a huge amount of practice.

 

'The Golden Shot' sprang to mind:  'Bernie, the bolt...........'

Edited April 19, 2018 by Happy Hippo

[Happy Hippo]

It's an interesting question and as we are in the process of emigrating one that has been given some thought.   We are certainly going to keep our UK accounts for the time being as it will make paying subscriptions/family presents etc easier.   However I won't need to fill in an actual French tax return till next year so will have to see how it goes. Certainly at the moment I seem to be able to get a better exchange rate on block transfers than the pension companies and internet banking makes it easy to maintain the accounts.   However life as ever is a learning curve.

 

Jamie

When posted to Antwerp in the early 80's, I was required to open a local bank account into which the Army payed my salary. I was advised by the pay sergeant to open a Post Office savings account through the local BFPO, and then immediately transfer my salary from the local account into the post office one where I could then draw money out in Belgian francs as required.

 

On enquiring why this was needed, the very canny man sat me down and went through the mathematics of buying and selling currency on the international market which what one was effectively doing when transferring the money between the accounts.

 

It was worth about £75 a month.  Goodness knows what the CO or the Garrison Commander were getting!

[roundhouse]

Morning from a ☀️ Surrey .

 

Lots of phone calls yesterday with mum brothers and mums solicitor re the exchange of documents re her move. All very tense as the sellers of th bungalow she is hoping to buy had to get a third signature and had taken well over a week with someone in the chain buying her house threatening to pull out if the documents weren’t signed yesterday. Mum had to reply to her solicitor yesterday by email confirming she was ok to proceed with her sale but she couldn’t get the email to go. Ever since my brother bought her a laptop she has had trouble using it.

 

So today we will find out if the move is still on for next week.

 

Going to be a busy few days trying to sort it all out in between work meetings.

 

Brother in Devon can’t help as his other half has just had an operation.

 

At least the weekend isnt to far off and brother flying back from HK next week to help as he isn’t working at present.

Edited April 19, 2018 by roundhouse

[Barry O]

Sunny...again? Rain now forecast on Saturday.. in the middle of my cricket umpiring!

Ed cold still progressing. 8.5 hours of sleep may help.

 

So lots to do today..but first a mugatea!

 

Positive thought to all who ails or are missing from here.

 

Baz

[beast66606]

Morning all.

 

A lovely sunny morning here in Norfolk. Went to bed last night and checked out "our" hog - hedge variety - he/she was happily munching some dog treats, deers barking somewhere in the distance and an owl accompanying them, some noises from the bushes which were probably rats, they're common (when I was doing a bit of gardening last night I had one watching me from the corner of the lawn) and as long as they aren't in the house they are fine - it's good living in the country.

 

Tapes have arrived safe and sound with the converter, the rogue one should arrive today and in a few weeks I'll have digital copy of all of them - and then I can move on to my ca 75,000 negatives ! - "I think I'm going to need a bigger boat"

 

Like Baz I'm having a mug of tea (my second of the day) - pint size, no wimpy mugs at my desk.

 

Have a good one all.

[45156]

Morning All

 

Bright and sunny here in North Lancs, but not yet as warm as they have been saying on the London-centric radio - to hear Chris Evans (if you must), the whole country is getting the same weather as down South, the temperature indcator on the car was at 17^oC at seven twenty this morning when I took 30747 to work (she's got to work every day this week due to staff sickness and holidays).

 

There are too many special mentions needed for me to be sure that I've got everybody, but Debs, Andyram, Tony and Aditi, Andy P, Simon, Mal, and Baz come to mind.  And of course generic greetings are also on offer to anybody else deserving of them.

 

Yesterday I had my annual diabetic eye screening, which is no longer conducted by NHS operatives, as it was put out to tender, and is now done by an outfit called EMIS.  It means that instead of two staff, there is now only one, and also many of the venues which used to be on offer are no longer available.  There should have been one locally (happens every two months) but the last one was cancelled, and I was sent to another venue in Lancaster.  The guy doing the test didn't really listen when I told him that I am very sensitive to the drops, and only need a tiny amount - result was that I was still dilated eight hours later, and had a severe headache which persisted into the night, and left me awake for about an hour around 2 am.  Still, it's done now and it will be a year before I need to have this process again.

 

And today the creative writing courses restart, so I will be off there quite soon.

 

Meantime, I will just shoot off and be back tomorrow after the fodder run.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone

 

The sun is out and it’s quite warm but I’m not going anywhere today. As it’s Thursday and Sheila is at her Zumba class I’m going to make some jam, rhubarb and strawberry jam to be precise and as a result, the whole house will smell lovely for the rest of the day.

 

Back later

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Sunny here. No heating required.

Very quiet apart from a cooing pigeon.

I think we will be in Enfield for lunch.

Tony

[jamie92208]

When posted to Antwerp in the early 80's, I was required to open a local bank account into which the Army payed my salary. I was advised by the pay sergeant to open a Post Office savings account through the local BFPO, and then immediately transfer my salary from the local account into the post office one where I could then draw money out in Belgian francs as required.

 

On enquiring why this was needed, the very canny man sat me down and went through the mathematics of buying and selling currency on the international market which what one was effectively doing when transferring the money between the accounts.

 

It was worth about £75 a month.  Goodness knows what the CO or the Garrison Commander were getting!

 

I'm being careful about pensions as a couple of years ago there was a big fuss as out pension administrators (It's outsourced) moved it's forex dealings from one company to IIRC Western Union and their rates were consistently worse than the previous forex dealers.   As a result for the time being I'm going to sort my own transfers out but will keep looking for information.

 

Jamie

[Simon G]

Morning all,

Currently in the chemo ward of the local hospital getting my 4th round of treatment. I have just received the usual pre-chemo dose of Piriton, so am feeling sleepy as I usually do. Last time, I either dozed or slept through most of the treatment. I should hopefully get the results of my CT scan later today, which will tell how effective the chemo has been so far.

[lightengine]

Hope all is well Simon

[Horsetan]

.....Very quiet apart from a cooing pigeon....

 

Coo!

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A bit late this morning as after my bath this morning I decided to have a few minutes eyelid inspection, that few minutes turned into a couple of hours so I've just started on brunch, now got to rush a bit so its be back later.

[BoD]

Fingers crossed for the scan result you hope for, Simon.