Early Risers.

[Andrew P]

Great news from Dave, hope your Dad continues to improve.

[Andrew P]

And its another glorious start for the day, although it looks like we've had some frost, but I'll check on that when I go form my Walkies.

Yesterday its was Sun, Snow, Sun, Snow, etc all day, but we did a run to the Garden Centre to look at Sumerhouse, and it was bright and warm whilst out, if not a little LOT chillier than it looked. 

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and well, and keep smiling, it might only be wind.

[polybear]

10 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I was told when I had my first Covid vaccine that I would get a second dose date within 6 to 8 weeks. That has gone now and the site used by the gp practices seems deserted., So just in case I have booked an appointment with the online scheme for next month. It is easy to cancel if the gp system restarts.

 

Bear notes that the vaccination rate appears to have dropped right off - on 20 March it was 752,000, on 5th April it was 40,700.  I wonder why?  Vaccine shortage?  Lack of staff?  People not bothering now that we are into the lower age groups?

 

9 hours ago, pH said:

I worked in a new building where the opposite had happened. The company building it had been having obvious financial problems and sub-contractors had been rushing to finish in the hope of being paid before there was a bankruptcy. There were all sorts of ‘teething problems’, one being a whole section of a floor with no power. A physical inspection of the wiring showed no problems, but a connectivity check showed a break at a wall. It was a double-leaf brick wall. A major cable had been put through one leaf, and a major cable came out through the other leaf. The problem was that they did not connect in the middle.

 

Bear heard of a similar incident in a house, only this time it was the sewer pipe off the back of the loo not connected to the stack pipe within the cavity wall.  The smell in the house was the first tell-tail sign....apparently the clean-up and repair bill was something else....

 

9 hours ago, Simon G said:

It has been very cold here along with a stiff northerly wind, making  feel even colder.  Rather than outside tasks, I have concentrated on the bedroom decoration today.  I finished off a large can of white emulsion paint and started a new one, supposedly identical to the first one.  On first evidence, it seems thinner and doesn’t cover as well, but maybe it will look better when fully dry.

 

Ah yes, the "new improved formula" scenario.  Only it never is.  It's almost always down to some smartar5e deciding that the ingredients are far too dangerous for mere mortals to be using, or a cost-cutting exercise.  RIP "proper" Hammerite

Rant over.

 

In other news:

Bear has plans to do some more wall painting today, only to remember that someone is (hopefully) coming to collect some lathe tools and milling cutters that have been cluttering up my shed for some years - another fifty quid in the kitchen fund.

There's only so many cutters a Bear needs, and the need for 1" cutters isn't high on this Bear's list.  As I don't possess a milling machine (apart from a very small Proxxon jobbie) the only possible time I'd get to use them would be at Model Engineering Evening Class at College and (a) that's suspended for the duration (will it ever start up again?) and (b) all cutters are imperial - and the collets at college are metric.  Turdycurses.  Besides, the college has cutters anyway.

Anyway, said visitor is due "between 9 and 10" which kinda screws up an early start - once I'm painting even a short break of 5 minutes is long enough for the paint to start to "go off" which would spoil the finish when I start up again.  So wait it must....

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Parcels to pack and post, shark to be wielded... and another week goes by...

 

I must dig out my cricket gear as I am umpiring a preseason game on Saturday. Thermal socks, shirt, fleece line trousers, wool gloves...about 3 shirts a jumper and a coat... if I wear a mask I can keep my nose warm!

Heat pads will be used..

 

Enjoy your day.

 

Stay safe and Carpe Diem!

Baz

[AndrewC]

Good moaning. 

 

Good news about Dave's dad. May the recovery continue. 

 

The limited number of remaining balanced news sources (not BBC or Sky, etc) were all reporting on a drop off in vaccination rates due to vaccine availability, staff fatigue, and logistics from the end of March lasting around 30 days. Apparently this was a predicted lull and things will ramp up again. 

 

Lousy night of rampant insomnia. Finally fell asleep around 3am. Woke at 4,5,6, and up by 7. Meh. 

 

Another fun filled exciting day of work. I have a feeling it is going to be a bad one. 

 

Enjoy your day. 

[The Lurker]

 

duplicate

 

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by The Lurker
duplicate

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup which is becoming increasingly sunny. No doubt the early frost is melting off the roofs of cars and houses.

 

We had snow flurries yesterday afternoon, which was a distraction from the 2 hour Teams call I was on.

 

Today promises more of the same - but it is the last day I am working this week. I will fill my days off with exciting things like cleaning out the gutters and maybe jetwashing the front drive.

 

And next week I hope to get my haircut. Boy, does it need it!

 

It was nice to be reminded of the origins of the tax year by John. One thing that didn't change were the Quarter days (days when rent was traditionally due); 25 March, 26 June, 29 September and (I think) 25 December. I seem to remember being told that they were tied to the old new year but the "theft of the days" does not seem to have affected them. There were Calendar Riots because people believed that their allotted span had been diminished. Perhaps they also realised that they were paying the same rent for a shorter period.

 

And Trevor Chappell with the cricketing equivalent of tax avoidance. Something perfectly legal at the time (underarm bowling) but something deemed a moral outrage. 

 

Good news about Dave's Dad; let's hope the recovery continues well.

 

[Mike Bellamy]

22 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear heard of a similar incident in a house, only this time it was the sewer pipe off the back of the loo not connected to the stack pipe within the cavity wall.  The smell in the house was the first tell-tail sign....apparently the clean-up and repair bill was something else....

 

 

My brother has recently joined a building firm as Plumbing Manager and got sent to a site where there had been complaints about smells from the drains. After some investigation he discovered that when the downstairs loo was flushed, nothing appeared in the manhole outside. After digging though a load of smelly sh!t outside he found the soil pipe went outside for a couple of inches but then the three foot gap to the manhole had never been completed. It was a good job he was able to put the blame on his predecessor - in fact that's not the only job where he's had to sort out problems - another was a number of leaks in underfloor heating that all had to be ripped out and replaced so any profit on building that house went on repairs.

.

[AndrewC]

Looks like the forum software needs a good kicking. At the same time Lurker double posted my post took several minutes before the page refreshed. Oh well. 

[Winslow Boy]

8 minutes ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

My brother has recently joined a building firm as Plumbing Manager and got sent to a site where there had been complaints about smells from the drains. After some investigation he discovered that when the downstairs loo was flushed, nothing appeared in the manhole outside. After digging though a load of smelly sh!t outside he found the soil pipe went outside for a couple of inches but then the three foot gap to the manhole had never been completed. It was a good job he was able to put the blame on his predecessor - in fact that's not the only job where he's had to sort out problems - another was a number of leaks in underfloor heating that all had to be ripped out and replaced so any profit on building that house went on repairs.

.

That is probably why your brother is 'newly appointed' as his predecessors 'errors in judgement' were beginning to catch up on him and a quick departure from the scene of crime was called for.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Blue sky and sunshine here but plenty of frost .  Depending on which app you believe the temperature here is either -3°C or 0°C.  Much scraping of ice from windscreens and warming up of car engines by at least 3 neighbours earlier. 

Finished cleaning the BBQ yesterday and no mention of oven cleaning by The Boss.  Wonders will never cease.  I expect she's trying to lull me into a false sense of security.  We didn't even go out yesterday so no garden centres were invaded but some hints have been dropped about doing that today.

Nothing else to report and it's time for a bit of brekkie.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited April 7, 2021 by grandadbob

[TheQ]

45 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear notes that the vaccination rate appears to have dropped right off - on 20 March it was 752,000, on 5th April it was 40,700.  I wonder why?  Vaccine shortage?  Lack of staff?  People not bothering now that we are into the lower age groups?

 

 

 

 

 

That's first dosers only, add in the number of second dosers and the vaccination rate is still near enough the same.

The total number will start increasing again now the Moderna vaccine is being rolled out.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. No sign of Arthur Itis this morning but his mate Si Attica has tried having a go but he's been put in his place by Nurofen. Very frosty this morning, the car had a heavy coating, I'm so glad I no longer have to go to work for a living. I had my first jab mid February but no news as to when I will get the second one but I understand that supplies of the A-Z jab will be arriving later this month. Time to get on with the rest of RMweb, be back later.

[PhilJ W]

46 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Looks like the forum software needs a good kicking. At the same time Lurker double posted my post took several minutes before the page refreshed. Oh well. 

When that happens I click on refresh. It means that you have to then clear the editor and then refresh again before leaving the thread to make everything as it should be. If you let things run their course it still remains in the editor until you clear it.

[Mike Bellamy]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

That is probably why your brother is 'newly appointed' as his predecessors 'errors in judgement' were beginning to catch up on him and a quick departure from the scene of crime was called for.

 

I know - and he thought it would be a nice quiet job in an office before retirement after 45 years 'on the tools' . . . 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Another day with the skies blue and the sun shining, although according to the app on my phone, it’s only 1C out there! Despite the temperature, I’ll not bother with a jacket, as I’m planning on getting the last few feet of path dug up and the work is in the sun and I’ll soon warm up once I get started. Once it’s all done and I’ve cleared and levelled the ground, the plan is to temporarily lay some pavers to give Sheila an idea of how the wheelbarrow run, which will be down the middle of the camomile path will look. It’ll also give me an idea of how many more pavers I’ll need to buy. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian

[tigerburnie]

Morning, bright cold and still breezy, had a call from my GP bringing my second vaccine jab forward as it seems they get done faster than the first ones, I'm then told I NEED to get a haircut as it is now as long as hers after 12 months of no cutting lol.

[New Haven Neil]

Late riser - for the first time in living memory, I had a lie in, perhaps the new medication regime has some benefits after all.  Thing is, I feel crepe, hip is very sore, but I slept better. Odd.

 

Great news about Dave H's dad, and the manner in which he has been dealt with - the NHS can do it, the good times don't get reported as a rule, only the bad.

 

Covid here is under control now, 1 new (already isolated and tracked) yesterday with down to 108 live cases and only 1 in hospital, 7 day average 1, 14 day average 4.  42k first doses administered and 15k second, so about half our population have at least the first dose - and yet the great Manx public moan like hell our Government haven't done well.  Really?  It seems to be a local trait not to know when you're well off.

[polybear]

2 hours ago, The Lurker said:

And Trevor Chappell with the cricketing equivalent of tax avoidance. Something perfectly legal at the time (underarm bowling) but something deemed a moral outrage. 

 

 

It seems that Mr. Amazon has found a conscience at last:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56657596

 

Any predictions as to whether or not he'll start to pay his fair share in the UK though....

 

Bear's visitor arrived at 0910, so that disruption was quickly out of the way.  Spent some time fighting with an Amazon Smart Plug that normally lives in the shed for the purposes of controlling the outdoor water feature; it'd flipped out and was refusing to "pair" with the Alexa unit.  Eventually got that resolved (after plenty of new words), only to discover it didn't want to play when installed in the shed - but was fine in the house.  Bear suspects that the new Plusnet Router provided when I went over to fibre broadband doesn't provide the same wifi signal strength as the old router.  Turdycurses.

 

No painting started - after din dins is the plan now.

[Coombe Barton]

Sunny, but ****dy cold. Great news about Dave's dad.

 

Although I'm on annual leave have to communicate with students over what's happening next week.

Mugacoffee being had.

[PhilJ W]

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

It seems that Mr. Amazon has found a conscience at last:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56657596

 

Any predictions as to whether or not he'll start to pay his fair share in the UK though....

 

This might have something to do with it.

https://www.ft.com/content/f17a406e-021a-11ea-b7bc-f3fa4e77dd47

[The Lurker]

14 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

It seems that Mr. Amazon has found a conscience at last:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56657596

 

Any predictions as to whether or not he'll start to pay his fair share in the UK though....

 

Bear's visitor arrived at 0910, so that disruption was quickly out of the way.  Spent some time fighting with an Amazon Smart Plug that normally lives in the shed for the purposes of controlling the outdoor water feature; it'd flipped out and was refusing to "pair" with the Alexa unit.  Eventually got that resolved (after plenty of new words), only to discover it didn't want to play when installed in the shed - but was fine in the house.  Bear suspects that the new Plusnet Router provided when I went over to fibre broadband doesn't provide the same wifi signal strength as the old router.  Turdycurses.

 

No painting started - after din dins is the plan now.

the higher US tax rates drove a large proportion of the shadier side of tax planning for many years. It was the ability of US companies to trap reserves in low rate countries and reinvest the reserves and so avoid US tax, coupled with the ability to book value generating intangibles offshore that drove much of this. The high US headline tax rate (35% plus state taxes of up to 10%) meant that there was an incentive to keep funds offshore and to invest in projects/production sites offshore. The Trump reforms were intended to make America great by making it much harder to keep funds offshore (and having a one off repatriation tax) while at the same time lowering the headline rate - the classic lower the tax rate but widen the tax base. There were also incentives to produce in the US (FDII) and to capture tax incomes from overseas (GILTI).

 

The Biden proposals undo quite a lot of this, as well as seeking to up the tax rate. Unfortunately for Biden he does not have a senate majority and one of the democrats has said that he will not accept a 28% headline rate (although 25% would work for him). There are thought to be 7 or 8 other Democrat senators equally unhappy. To actually push reform through without a "budget reconciliation process" I think there needs to be a 60-40 vote. So not only do they have to persuade their own crew they need about 10 Republicans to come on board. The budget reconciliation process is normally limited to once a year but the Democrats have persuaded the powers that be to allow them 3 goes this year. But they still need a majority

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

It seems that Mr. Amazon has found a conscience at last:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56657596

 

Any predictions as to whether or not he'll start to pay his fair share in the UK though....

 

Bear's visitor arrived at 0910, so that disruption was quickly out of the way.  Spent some time fighting with an Amazon Smart Plug that normally lives in the shed for the purposes of controlling the outdoor water feature; it'd flipped out and was refusing to "pair" with the Alexa unit.  Eventually got that resolved (after plenty of new words), only to discover it didn't want to play when installed ihn the shed - but was fine in the house.  Bear suspects that the new Plusnet Router provided when I went over to fibre broadband doesn't provide the same wifi signal strength as the old router.  Turdycurses.

 

No painting started - after din dins is the plan now.

As you pointed out that is the great U S of A and not us poor plebs of the old world.

 

Interestingly I note that he says he's all for an increase but not clear on whether he thinks the tax they are currently paying is correct. Interesting semantics.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Winslow Boy

[Barry O]

Wlak has been completed. Items have been posted. 

 

Growler has been bought.. toad in the hole for tea made with Dragon Sausafe.

 

@Coombe Barton.. didn't read or see of a plan for students.. no doubt DrEldest Herbert will tell us tonight.

 

I think that Mr Bee Zos will still not pay tax here.. notice that Mr Biden is threatening action if we set to and have an on line point of sale tax... lets jdi....

 

Baz

[Coombe Barton]

3 minutes ago, Barry O said:

@Coombe Barton.. didn't read or see of a plan for students.. no doubt DrEldest Herbert will tell us tonight.

There isn't one. Or at least it's unchanged since 3rd March

There is a letter to the PM from universities UK asking for clarity.

Two thirds of our students want to remain online.