February chat valentines and pancakes

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Furby
 
 
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February chat valentines and pancakes

Post by Furby »

Hello February

Wildrover has spent all his money on dentists and hopes to save a fiver on coffees and sandwiches. Good luck on that one people under 50 dont do such things and get super cross at mere mentions. Maybe cost of living will make them more interested in old peoples frugal ways though.

I heard a buzzing sound in my living room and suspected TV boxes and insects invading windows but it turned out to be the light bulb didn't sound at all to be coming from there. I replaced the bulb with the older style that take 15 minutes until you can see without a torch but I can't cope with buzzing noises even for better lights. I had a really old bulb that's not sold now but with energy costs as they are decided against installing that and stick with low energy one.

It's pancake Day on 21st so stock up on flour milk eggs lemons and sugar if want pancakes or even just those things because they are out of stock pancake week.
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February chat valentines and pancakes

Post by Wildrover »

I reckon it would be a tenner saving every day so over a year about £1,000 so not to be sniffed at - but you're right, MYF is of that generation that would rather spend a tenner than 10 minutes of her time. It's a bit of a surprise as she is amazingly frugal on clothes - I can't remember her spending over £20 on any item - so I guess everyone has different priorities.

I had a constant buzzing sound in my house about 6 months ago and it took me ages to find it as I thought it must be a light or heating. I eventually tracked it down to my electric toothbrush in the bathroom so that's only plugged in now when it runs out of charge. Quiz night tonight at the Millstream which is the big money one in our town - we do it every 2-3 weeks and the prize is usually in the £150-200 range (most of the others are £40-50 which doesn't even cover our drinks for the evening). It's the first time we've done it since they closed down the quiz at the start of December and it's a pretty good quiz. We've put our winnings into a pot since we started last April with the intention of going out for a Christmas meal which we had to cancel so looking forward to the reschedule at the end of February...
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OurCreature
 
 
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February chat valentines and pancakes

Post by OurCreature »

Good luck with the quiz, WR!
Like the late Chaircat Midge, I am not always right.
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Post by merry »

Thank you for the lovely new thread, Furby!

Good luck tonight WR! That prize would buy YYF quite a few sandwiches and coffees! Or one filling and a crown mould perhaps. :D (I know. Back into the pot. But still.)

We haven't been to a quiz in ages!
"... not to be told a story, but to live inside a dream." - Hades, The Burnt City
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February chat valentines and pancakes

Post by Wildrover »

We only tied for first so only £78 - no tiebreaker. I was irked as I couldn't remember Julian Barnes wrote Flaubert's Parrot and we got a couple of 50/50s wrong but even more so that the team felt I wasn't certain enough that Sydney is larger than Melbourne to put it as an answer in the knockout round so we left it blank.
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Post by OurCreature »

the team felt I wasn't certain enough that Sydney is larger than Melbourne
How annoying, especially when you got the answer right despite not being certain enough. Sydney is bigger than Melbourne both by area and population, though I have read that Melbourne is catching up in terms of population. Still got 300k people to go though.
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February chat valentines and pancakes

Post by Furby »

How does 50/50 work do you lose points for being wrong. Otherwise might as well take a guess rather than leave blank. I passed general studies a level while knowing nothing really using this method. Silly question anyway obviously its Sydney maybe was to make people think a trick question.

I never really understood the fashion for eating out. We would eat or drink before setting out and on long journey or a day out might get a drink and a biscuit. But real food in railway stations and everywhere along roads is quite modern idea. I started to notice it at stations which are 75% food and leisure now and 25% travel if lucky. But I did aways think where are all these people getting all this spare money and that's the case for many things but obviously they were and the mystery has never been solved. Other mysteries are almost everyone having a car and foreign holidays and until very recently heating homes to beyond tropical conditions.
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Post by OurCreature »

The other week when I arrived at KW I was told that the Care Quality Commission were carrying out an inspection, which I later discovered was unannounced. So I decided I had better be on best behaviour.

The results are in and KW has retained its Good status, which we are all very pleased about.
Like the late Chaircat Midge, I am not always right.
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Post by Wildrover »

It's worse than that Furby - the last round of the quiz is called the knockout round. 10 questions and you can choose to answer or leave blank but if you answer incorrectly you score zero for the entire round even if you got the other 9 questions correct. When I said 50/50 I meant I was 50/50 between Sydney and Melbourne - the question was simply which city in Australia has the largest population and as OC says there's not a lot in it - around 5.1 million in Sydney and 4.9 million in Melbourne and Melbourne is growing faster.

On the travel front MYF gets the 7:11 train when she goes in and just can't face food that early, only gets half an hour for lunch and gets back around 6:30 so she says she feels knackered and its just quicker and easier to buy ready made stuff. I cann't say I blame her but then again I'd never take a job with a 90 minute commute.
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Post by Furby »

Commuting is not much of a life is it. Thats another thing younger people seem to choose not even wanting to be near work. It's one thing if you have to get a job and thats all the jobs you can get but I worked with people who lived walking distance and chose to move to bamber bridge which a very long way and meant they couldn't work if it snowed or cars broke down.

I might be getting a gas man today. If it happens I won't have a cooker but I managed well enough without one and better than looking at the thing.
Update - not until Thursday now. Still at least they answer messages unlike the real British gas. It's been all lockdown a few more days won't matter but once one gets the idea in ones head one wants it done now doesn't one.
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Post by eccles »

I totally sympathise with WRYF. Once, I had to commute from near Bristol to Westland's in Yate for contract work. It took just over an hour each way along the awful A39/A37 and I hated it. I stuck it out for about a year before moving to easier/closer jobs. Good luck to Furby with her gasman on Thursday.
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Post by Patience »

I’m really not a fan of commuting and I like to live within a 30min walk of my place of work. When I first started with the company I am with now, all my projects were on a site which was a 55min drive away.
The worst commute was Stratford- upon-Avon to Sale each Tuesday am Thursday. That was a 2 hour drive each way. Packed that in after a year.

In other news, my car was due on Sunday past….
However I received an email on Friday to say it would be delivered Monday ( today) however I am working. They phoned about the new delivery. I wasn’t happy that they have now decided that they no longer deliver on a Sunday. 😡 it was looking like the next time I could take delivery was March so I have cancelled my plans for this Saturday. Here’s hoping.
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February chat valentines and pancakes

Post by Furby »

I never had anything as big as a car delivered but it's so annoying working and being there for available deliveries isnt it. Interearing they aren't doing Sundays any more surely it's the busiest favourite day for deliveries as more people can be at home. Best wishes for Saturday.

There does seem a general shift back to the old normality with interest rates back to 4% and companies like British gas only open.9 to 5 Monday to Friday when working people can't stay on phone for over an hour. I can in theory but don't want to pay the 15 pounds an hour as my phone's are PAYG. My bank also had a message about daytime only hours I thought it used to be 24 hours. For automated button press lines I can't see why they have to reduce working hours maybe workers have to bycyle the machines or they run on solar power which would explain reducing to daylight hours only.
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Post by Furby »

One of my last passbook savings accounts have written to say tough luck I am being converted to a smart non passbook account. Its only minor savings so isn't really that important in the scheme of make furby rich again things but I am upset because my dad took me to open that account many many years ago so it's the end of an era.
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Post by OurCreature »

Aww that is sad, Furby. :sad It's the sort of thing that would upset me as well. My Icelandic deposit account has gone all paperless as well AFAIK but I shall never throw away the original passbook because old Oddur helped me open that account and my current account over there.
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Post by merry »

Furby :hugs

I know what you mean.
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Post by merry »

Going down to Cheltenham today, a rare trip for us these days which is funny as we lived there for so many years, as Juliet is donating blood.

The donation centre is at a modern church which last time was not very welcoming and did not allow non-donaters in even to sit on a sofa in the large, empty lobby, which might have been just because of Covid, but if it wasn't, then it will either be a long sit in the car or a chilly walk around a featureless shopless toiletless area of the town. :(
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Post by Wildrover »

I think I'd be buying an overpriced coffee or an overpriced pint and sit in the warm...
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Post by Wildrover »

Little Miss Wildrover has had her offer on an apartment in Cambridge accepted today so she's researching mortgages today. It seems the cheapest fixed rate mortgage you can get is around 4% (and that's with a LTV of 30%) but that's still well under the standard rate. The good news is that she will not have to pay stamp duty and even better, because the owner is moving abroad she sold LMW all the furniture, TV and white goods in the house for £2,000. As LMW has been living with her mum for the last 3 years she has zero furniture so this is a real boon for her. I'm really happy for her as living outside Cambridge at her mum's has really curtailed her social life. The apartment overlooks the River Cam and is a pretty good size compared with others we've seen, two reasonable double bedrooms and a large lounge with a little balcony.
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February chat valentines and pancakes

Post by OurCreature »

Well done Little Miss WR. I read yesterday that the cheapest mortgage you can get has dipped below 4% but it is for 10 years. If she manages to get 4% for a shorter period then even more well done LMWR.

The trend on interest rates for savings for Joe Public is well and truly down, with one year rates significantly less than they were just after the Truss/Kwarteng induced panic. The timing was all wrong for me and I have missed the boat for my one year bonds. Never mind - many would say it's a nice problem to have.
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