Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

7 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

t with 1,300 people unaccounted for its bound to rise

Our nephew mainly works in Zurich now but he and his girlfriend were still renting in Tuebingen near Stuttgart as her job there has only just finished. They have been in Germany this week finalising leaving their rented flat.Where they were was just wet and windy though it wasn’t too far from places that were affected. Paul’s girlfriend now too has a job in Switzerland so they can be more settled. It is also nice as her family live in Austria but just over the border. 

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, chrisf said:

Tonight sees a welcome small step on the road to normal life.

I have read the latest advice for the clinically vulnerable and because everyone else can be more “normal” we have to be more careful. It is basically shielding again but not called shielding and with less (or no) support. I don’t need any support but it can’t be good for others who do.

[leopardml2341]

19 hours ago, laurenceb said:

It took me a while to find ERs but after being welcomed into the fold this became my favourite part and the folks here have helped me more than you know

I need only say 'Me too'.

[PhilJ W]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I have read the latest advice for the clinically vulnerable and because everyone else can be more “normal” we have to be more careful. It is basically shielding again but not called shielding and with less (or no) support. I don’t need any support but it can’t be good for others who do.

I too will carry on wearing a face mask although its not compulsory. I intend to visit a few events over the next couple of months but only those that insist on masks being worn.

[simontaylor484]

Morning all

 

I did say I didn't have a shed but we do have this my youngest sons playhouses.

[Erichill16]

1 hour ago, grandadbob said:

Buggrit as Baz would say.  Forty minutes is too long to hang on so my "really important" call will have to wait until later.  I'm off to The Shed.

Same here. Card locked.

really not having a good day and it’s only 11:00

Edited July 16, 2021 by Erichill16
Spelling

[Erichill16]

And the phone line keeps cutting out.

[Tony_S]

3 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Card locked

Last time that happened to me was because making a card payment for a funeral didn’t match my profile. I had an idiot from the bank on one phone and a really helpful person on the other line. The nice lady told me to hang up on the other call.  Matthew once arrived in Canada (for a long weekend conference)  and his English and Irish cards were refused at a cash machine. He was able to get some cash with a Dutch debit card. He was concerned that he would be stuck with dud cards. We still had an arrangement where I was on his UK account and could share information. The phone help was really good and said the card was ok, the machine at St John’s airport was issuing an error code falsely identifying the card as a credit card not a debit card. The nice man assured me Matthew’s card would work almost anywhere else! Not sure why the Dutch debit card worked. The nice man asked if I wanted cash sent for Matthew in the meantime. 
Tony

[simontaylor484]

Forgot to say about the playhouses it has a solar powered shed light installed, thermawrap insulation the foil backed bubble wrap stuff and click vinyl flooring using stuff we removed from the shower room because it was too slippy. I cut it where necessary he fitted it. It even has a house number on it 45A.

 

Normally it also has a ramp up from the decking so he can take the doggy up with him. It has been temporarily removed to replace the deck boards

Edited July 16, 2021 by simontaylor484
Further thoughts

[Erichill16]

Line has been disconnected now, half way through a process. Don’t who I was speaking to as was transferred from from one department to another. Hopefully he’ll ring back otherwise 45minutes of my life wasted.

Got up early to get some quick jobs done and it’s nearly dinner time and nothing done.

I think the bed is calling.

[Tony_S]

I had a phone call with our Ford dealers “service hotline”. Very efficient, told initially there was a two minute queue and it was probably slightly less. We wanted a service, MoT with delivery home and collection. This is for October. They are so busy anyone wanting a service now would be having to wait until September if they wanted the car collecting. 
The door fitters have nearly finished.  They had to go and get some trim but were  happy to leave all their tools here. I only covered stuff up in the garage to keep dust off it not because I was worried about the honesty of the workers,   The company have an excellent local reputation. The bank app now lets me make a larger initial payment to a new payee than it used to so even payment is easy. 
Tony

Edited July 16, 2021 by Tony_S

[PhilJ W]

I had a telephone message some months ago telling that there was a problem with my bank card. It was an automated call with the female speaker with an Indian accent and requesting me to press button 1. I thought straight away it was a fake call. A couple of days later I found that I couldn't swipe my card, when I checked up with my bank a payment request had flagged up as a bit iffy and that they wanted to confirm that it was OK (it wasn't). It turned out that the call I had received was genuine.

[Erichill16]

I’ve always wondered if you could check a scammer by ‘accidentally’ giving a wrong piece of information. A scammer would ‘swallow’ all your details and make no query but a genuine caller would not allow you to proceed.

 Haven’t really thought it through fully yet any ideas out there?

[polybear]

New light fitting installed in the loft - Bear cursed "whoever" fitted it originally, cos' the screws securing it to the rafter were f. tight; one came out with molegrips, after I'd first broken the old fitting away.  The new fitting went up with smaller gauge screws....

All dust sheets carefully removed, though an hour or so with a dustpan and hoover is required to get remaining cr@p cleaned up.  That's a job for another, cooler day though - the loft was warming up nicely already, and that was at half nine.

Buddy arrived home just in time to help shake all the cr@p out of the sheets and fold them up - fortunately no washing is required .  The road outside took a bit of sweeping up afterwards though - there were more than a few rusty nails buried in the sheets.....

Bear then made the mistake of managing to lock himself in the back garden after "going round the back way" (NO jokes...) with the black wheelie bin; I locked the back gate (with the key in the house), not realising the conservatory door was locked.....

 

Now Bear's back garden is deliberately intended to be difficult to get into...which also makes it difficult to get out of.....

Fortunately buddy arrived in his back garden just in time to put a step ladder his side of the fence - of course Bear should've done the same.  However, that takes time so Bear decided that standing on top of the stone birdbath was an acceptable substitute; it was until it fell over, leaving Bear half across the fence (which was making some dodgy cracking sounds) in a very precarious position.  Luckily it all ended ok as buddy was able to pull Bear across the fence and onto the step ladder.  Later examination of the bird bath showed it had survived the ordeal.

 

Now that Bear was in buddy's back garden his SWMBO appeared and asked if I'd witness their signatures on two legal documents for the house sale.  She failed to point out each form was different and that they required signing in a different place - Bear signed one form as though I were the Solicitor.  Oops.  New page required.....

I decided that was a good time to make for the hills....

 

The front lawn is now cut - and the green wheelie bin so full you couldn't get so much as a mouse f@rt in it.  I hope the bin man has had his shreddies, as it's "Heavy"....

 

Buddy later checked that Bear was undamaged after his exploits, mentioning he should've got a piccy whilst I was stuck mid-flight across the fence and posted it on Farcebook.  What are friends for?

 

Finally, a question for the wisdom of fellow ER'ers - can anyone tell me why Bear's green wheelie bin is marked with "99dB" on the lid?

 

[PhilJ W]

19 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

I’ve always wondered if you could check a scammer by ‘accidentally’ giving a wrong piece of information. A scammer would ‘swallow’ all your details and make no query but a genuine caller would not allow you to proceed.

 Haven’t really thought it through fully yet any ideas out there?

I have a couple of old credit card bills for long cancelled and paid off cards. I also have an open bank account that I very rarely use that holds the grand sum of 42p.

[polybear]

4 hours ago, grandadbob said:

I am sick and tired of all the PC carp being thrust down our throats telling us what to think or do and to apologise for everything that our forefathers did in past centuries.
 

 

Bear was pondering earlier (as Bears often do) - is referring to someone as being "black" now considered non-pc?  Or is the acceptable term now "coloured".  If so, does that also mean that referring to someone as being "white" also non-pc?  If so, what's the accepted term now?  Technically white is also a colour, but referring to a white person as being "coloured" could lead to all sorts of confusion.

Confused.

[PhilJ W]

Checked with Dart charge, they owed me £11.20 on my old account. As my card number had changed they couldn't send it back to my account, neither could they transfer it to my new Dart charge account so the only way they could pay it back was by cheque.

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear was pondering earlier (as Bears often do) - is referring to someone as being "black" now considered non-pc?  Or is the acceptable term now "coloured".  If so, does that also mean that referring to someone as being "white" also non-pc?  If so, what's the accepted term now?  Technically white is also a colour, but referring to a white person as being "coloured" could lead to all sorts of confusion.

Confused.

The current 'correct' term is black as I understand it. Of course it might change next week and again the week after. I was criticised once for using the word 'coloured', by someone who was always saying how much he hated c***s and n*****s.

[Barry O]

Walked to the butchers..  no power at the Butchwrs but could buy and pay for pies.

 

Power had come back on at home.. it has now gone off again with my banana and peanut butter loaf in rhe bread making machine. Mega buggggggggrrrrrriiiitttttt. 

 

Baz

[petethemole]

20 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear was pondering earlier (as Bears often do) - is referring to someone as being "black" now considered non-pc?  Or is the acceptable term now "coloured".  If so, does that also mean that referring to someone as being "white" also non-pc?  If so, what's the accepted term now?  Technically white is also a colour, but referring to a white person as being "coloured" could lead to all sorts of confusion.

Confused.

In the words of the late Captain Beefheart, "Everyone's coloured, or you wouldn't be able to see them".

[jonny777]

30 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I have a couple of old credit card bills for long cancelled and paid off cards. I also have an open bank account that I very rarely use that holds the grand sum of 42p.

 

I have an old M&S store card account, which I tried to pay off about 30 years ago. I paid the entire balance as requested, but then had another statement telling me that between the statement date and them receiving my payment (a cheque in those far off days), my account had accrued further interest. 

 

So in desperation, I sent another cheque for double the interest amount and thus ended up with my account in a small credit of about £1. This is how it has remained since the 1990s, except that the account pays interest on credit balances. So, every few months they send me 3 pages of bumpf to tell me I have earned another 1p interest, plus a demand to pay the balance which is a negative number. 

[simontaylor484]

Our bedroom tv has gone and died, well it has gone black screen got sound but no picture. Pah

 

 

[simontaylor484]

When i got my lump sum i paid off credit cards with it. The only one i had problems with was the halifax one. I rang up and asked to pay it off and close the account i still ended up getting a small bill for interest.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup which this time is gloriously sunny.

 

It is the last school day of Mrs Lurker's isolation. I think she has attended all the classes she needs to attend to support her 1:1 and needs to report in to her boss. Then she can clean the bathrooms and put the washing out, tasks that have devolved to me over this WFH malarkey.

 

I will need to start putting together the necessary evidence to allow me to attend the F1 with Younger Lurker.

 

1. tickets - check

2. park and ride ticket - check

3. fastrack ticket - check

4. photo ID - driving licence for me and oyster card for YL

5. vaccination passport for me. - this needs to be printed out in case there is no phone reception; they have a 2 day life so I will download one tomorrow

6. lateral flow test negative within 24 hours for YL. Again a task for tomorrow. I need to double check if I need one.

 

Younger Lurker approved of the posher LDC (strictly a lemon and lime DC) although fortuantely for my wallet he perfers the bog standard version)! It was bigger than the normal one so Mrs Lurker decreed she and I should have a slice each, which was a shame!

 

And with that, have a good day all

 

6

[Erichill16]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Let me guess - and it was the least favourite of all those on your list?

 

 

Bear is rapidly becoming disenchanted with his weekly saveloy & chip roll; it doesn't seem to have the taste appeal it used to have, and the ever-increasing price (it's now four quid FFS) is well into "p1ss take " territory.  I can see it becoming more of a once-a fortnight (or less) option in the very near future.

 

 

That's better.  I really, REALLY wish I could do that, especially the first bit....

 

 

Piccies?  Yes please.

 

 

That's not a car, it's a bulldozer....

 

 

 

It’s  at Grassington, a nice area but very close to Skipton where we’ve been twice in the last month.

was hoping to go to Ayton, near Scarborough where we were last October. Everything we needed was close by including GF chippy. Sydney likes it at the seaside and was going to take him on NYMR.

He’ll have to make do with Embsay Bolton Abbey Railway.

 

you only live once but if it’s not up to scratch……..

 

Yes I’m lucky still to have her.

 

I thought it was a snow plough.