Hard Facts Community

Busy day today. This morning I attended a funeral - the chap who lived next door with his family in Sermon Road when we moved there in 1967. He and his wife and children were lovely neighbours, and they had a beautiful black cat called Benjy; they used to put him out at night but dear old Benjy soon...

Spot on with Lotte Lenya and Lois Maxwell, WR. The only other person who I think I spotted is the chap whose head looks as if it is in between Lotte Lenya and Sean Connery, looking to the left in the pic. I'll leave it for a day so that you can guess who he might be and then I'll say who I think he ...

Correct with Ian Fleming and From Russia With Love , Eccs! I think in between Ian Fleming and the next lady to the right is the back of Bernard Lee's head. The pretty lady on the left isn't Yvette Mimieux, though I can see the resemblance. She's an Italian former actress Daniela Bianchi. Her voice i...

Sean Connery is there as you have pointed out, Eccs. It is an early Bond film, the second in the series and dates from 1963. I was careful to say 'guests' because not all of the people in the photo are actors - the chap in a suit and bow tie looking right in between two of the ladies isn't an actor ...

Thank you all for your kind thoughts.

A party! Can you identify some of the guests and the film the actors were in?

The church with the tallest spire/steeple in the world is Ulm Minster @161.53 metres in Germany. Cologne Cathedral isn't far behind with its twin spires @157 metres making it the tallest church in the world with 2 spires and, per Wikipedia, the third tallest church in the world of any kind. Who is s...

More answers. Another 5/7! 9 South African golfers who won the Open Championship. 10 Surahs of the Qur’an named after animals. 11 Subjects of Einstein’s four “annus mirabilis” papers in 1905. 12 Districts of Seoul. 13 Kings killed or injured by arrows ( debatable in Harold’s case). 14 Celebrated tra...

Somewhat belated answers, but never mind! 5/7 for the Gang.

1 Hungary.
2 Devon.
3 Grand larceny.
4 Gordon Brown.
5 Wildcats.
6 Goodison Park (Everton FC).
7 Daughters of the American Revolution.
8 Astronomical objects (catalogued by Charles Messier).

9 Mathews (timed out, 2023); Endean (handled ball, 1957); Hutton (obstructing field, 1951)? First instances of these dismissals in international cricket; the Mathews (Sri Lanka) dismissal was in the recent Cricket World Cup when the Bangladesh team decided Mathews was taking far too long dealing wit...

9 Mathews (timed out, 2023); Endean (handled ball, 1957); Hutton (obstructing field, 1951)? 10 Hula; lei; kahuna; muumuu; ukulele; wiki? 11 Sam Ryder; Imaani; Sonia; Michael Ball; Live Report? 12 Mount Whitney and Badwater Basin, both in California? 13 Crown; escapement; mainspring; motion works; wh...

.............died in the early hours of 1 December; one of his daughters and her husband were with him when he died. Although old people living in care homes have a tendency to do this, I still find myself sad about their loss; it will be a little while before I do some more 'befriending' as Brendon...

Dear Merry :hug has sent me a lovely pre-Christmas present - an Advent Calendar with a difference. Behind each day's door there is a 187ml bottle of wine. Clearly each small bottle is intended to be drunk on the appropriate day, so I have drunk the bottle for December 1 - a red wine from Portugal - ...

1 Which animals survived on Wrangel Island until around 2000BC? Mammoths 3 Whose impromptu memorial read “Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman”? This is about Captain Oates who left the tent saying he would be some time, in a vain attempt to save Scott's party by in effect committing suicide and...

Captain Kirk looks as if he quite enjoyed giving a pill to the cat.

What really annoys me about Nottingham is that IIRC much of the trouble stems 2 years ago from some idiot authorising the transfer of lots of money from the housing account to somewhere else when they shouldn't have done such a thing. That is sheer incompetence.

6 April 2023 to 5 April 2024 Is £1,000 Year before it was £2,000 Next tax year it’s £500! When HMG announced that these changes would be made 2 or 3 years ago I decided to take action and move the shares that were outside the ISA into the ISA, the shares with the highest dividends being moved first...

Furby wrote:- it's unclear how tax on savings and dividends is known about and paid for I was unclear about this so I did some digging. As we know, banks and building societies have to send annual returns to HMRC showing how much interest they have paid to 'reportable persons', and when that informa...

After 50 minutes on hold I spoke to a pleasant gentleman at HMRC who noted the interest on my account against the relevant institution for 2022/23 and told me what my underpayment to HMRC now was. I can expect to receive the new paper notification in 10 working days. My hope is that if the bank ever...

It's time for my annual round of discussions with HMRC re taxable interest for the previous tax year; this time's misdemeanour is that I haven't been taxed on the interest earned by one of my savings accounts. HMRC told me they owed me some money because their estimate for interest received by me wa...