good call, duly purchased!

Yes I see what you’re saying. No problems, I may or may not be wrong I’m no expert and I’ve no interest in debating it really, just sharing some opinion etc. As always standard disclaimers apply with any imparted advice on the internet and I am no exception. The reader should always carry out due diligence before drawing any conclusions :)

That’s ok I was specifically taking issue with the word ‘entitled’, you are ‘eligible’ there is very distinct difference. But pardon my pedantry, I did say it wasn’t ‘technically’ correct, meaning not far off..

Regards the rest, yes as I said I’m just reciting guff from the internet, I make no claims to expertise in the matter, though I have spoken to experts at length about my own case. As with anything to do with ‘law’ interpretations and even experiences can differ wildly.

Keeping it simple (as I do not wish to be drawn into arguments), there is a law that covers this and it is relatively straight forward to pursue your claim.

And this is frankly the wrong advice as you are entitled to claim for much more, up to three times the deposit, in england. And according to scotland.Gov it is similar . Essentially you are encouraging them to let the landlord off the hook, which is not in the spirit of the law, nor in fact is it in line with shelters mandate as I percieve it.

That’s not technically correct, you can be awarded up to three times the deposit (plus costs) by a judge if you take the case to court and win. You are not entitled to it by default.

The advice (on shelter) is correct, the very first step is to request your deposit is returned within 10 days as it has not been protected. If they refuse then you can take legal action for non-compliance of the DPS legislation.
I do believe now that if the landlords do return the deposit (with or without a humble apology!), even at the doors of the court, you’re unlikely to get a judgement against them, and thus no ‘compensation’.
Getting 3 times the deposit awarded is generally for the more extreme end of the scale (so I’ve read anyway).

Consider myself something of a reluctant expert on this having just gone through it (and won) over the last 6 months.

This is very common, you must not let them get away with it, the law is very clear.
There are plenty of template letters on the net and examples of cases. There is also a ‘no-win no -fee’ outfit who will do it for you.
http://www.depositadvisoryservice.com/index.html

Edit: oh and they CANNOT serve eviction notices whilst your deposit is unprotected and in dispute.

There is also the very interesting prospect that should you obtain a judgement you are already sat in possibly their largest asset, which gives you some considerable leverage when executing your warrant.

Edit (again sorry): Should add that you are a long long way from arguing the toss over paint chips and you should tell them asap. Lack of deposit protection trumps everything.

we had a baumatic range cooker, I changed 2 of the main oven elements myself, the grand total of 4 screws (including removing the back.
Mind you though, taking the back off revealed the true horrors of just how badly it had been put together.
Cheap nasty and hateful bit of kit, also baumatics are known for devouring elements.

Recently finished working in London for 4 months, I used them most days as an alternative to the tube, for a 6mile each way commute (Central hotel out to Canary Wharf), I can confirm I am still alive.

I thought they were brilliant actually, they are slow though, weigh a ton and only have 3 gears making a realistic top speed of about 12mph. You will have to get used to being endlessly overtaken by the hardcore commuters, some of which make a BIG SHOW of it, you’re kind of bottom of the cycling pecking order on a boris bike.

Was cheap, riding in London is great fun, I always got to work buzzing, and had no bike of my own to worry about. I can’t actually think of a downside.

Edit: just to add, they are a lot more popular than most people expect, especially now with light evenings, so you will not stand out as a cycling advertisement for Barclays. And if there is the slightest hint of trouble on the tube every bike will be taken for quite a wide radius.

just a human being at the end of the day, not sure I could ever be so disrespectful and small minded as some. But that’s just life I guess :)

admired her courage.

holy shit I’m being ripped off! 8O

#newstwthread

I know it’s complicated but, here’s what I would do:

Tell them to stop.

fwiw, I pay £12 for a clean every 6 weeks.

funky: not a ‘stw thing’, it’s opinions shared on the internet. Personally I think that’s a good thing :-)

As others have said, just run. Bit of trial and error with shoes, but do not get sucked into that running shop malarkey*

*My opinion

Sorry yeh, myfitnesspal.com

It only really occurs on exercise days (every other day), as I keep to a net of 1400 cals everyday. But as I’ve got fitter I’ve somehow needed less food so don’t eat as much to compensate for the exercise. So consequently today I hit a lower count than usual.

Was just curious whether there was more to starvation than I previously thought, and whether I should consider it.

When I was an IT engineer I visited all manner of strange workplaces, I remember once visiting the warehouse operation of a large national food distribution company and witnessed first hand some really shocking racism directed at one of the operatives there. Even more shocking was the apparent expectation that I should ‘join in’, as if it was completely normal. It clearly was totally normal to these people.

I’d never seen anything like it before, nor have I since to be honest, and I get around a bit. It was an education!

Thought I’d add to this, having done my first 5k today.
This was my second attempt to really get into running, I had an abortive attempt last winter which ended in March with persistent painful shin problems.
I returned to it in August and built up extremely gradually.
I used the Couch to 5k program but to be honest I personally think for non-runners, and definitely those overweight, it isn’t suitable. You need to double or even treble the amount of time to build up to 5k in my experience. It’s taken me 6 months to get to this point relatively injury free.

I did get the occasional twinge in my shin, when I did I spent whole evenings with an icepack and a few days off from running and it went completely. Then gradually built up again. Just repeat until legs are strong enough.
Other big tip is just walk, a lot! My office is 7 miles away, I spent weeks walking that everyday just to get used to being on my feet/legs.
Staying off tarmac is a given, I do no more than 1 run on pavements each week.
Be extremely patient, running is brutal, you have to allow the body to get conditioned.

Personally I’ve never bothered with ‘special’ trainers. I know some people swear by them. With exception specific and certain circumstances, most people will be fine with normal trainers. Mine cost me £25 on Amazon, hi-tec somethingorothers, I throw them away once worn out. But each to their own.

I used to run regularly in the Army, and ran several marathons, but that is 15 years ago and I am 4 stone heavier, but today is the furthest I’ve run since those days, and it feels fantastic.

to be fair,the OP wasn’t ‘bashing the NHS’, he was referring to ‘those reponsible’.

That said, I think we all know and understand what a fantastic job those in the NHS do under often difficult circumstances, and what a fine institution it is, but it doesn’t place certain parts of the NHS beyond criticism when it is found to be justified.

imo (this will ofc run and run)

perfectly normal in my experience? Snow, heavy rain, fat pigeon etc.

definitely not the only one.

Victoria Coren is engaged to David Mitchell from Mitchell and Webb

Married in Nov iirc

I always remember getting a funny look from the concierge at the Grafton on Tottenham Court Road once when I was trying to smuggle a Big Mac meal into the hotel at about 1 in the morning, while being slightly inebriated.

Grafton is my second home, at least 3 nights a week, never ever had an issue at any time of the day bringing food in (of every variety!), apart from breakfast I’ve never eaten their meals. They’ll even hold the door open for me whilst I haul in my Wasabi dinner from next door.

Also doing a lot of the hairy dieters stuff. Very pleased with progress so far, steady and consistent is what I’m aiming for, using MFP to stay below 1660 calories a day which so far has been easy. I’ve done every diet type you can think of, but this so far has been the most enjoyable and realistic.

I’m also BURSTING with energy, I mean ridiculously so.

Conversely I deliberately have weigh day on the Monday to discourage ‘weekend excess’.
If you’re shifting your weigh day to accommodate favourable conditions to improve weigh-in results, then your mindset is all wrong. Doomed to fail in my experience.

Personally I’ve found I’ve less appetite for excess anyway once diet is sorted out, it’s certainly not something I feel I have to build in to my diet plan.

I’ve got a M18x R4 i7 3610 16gb RAM, AMD Radeon 7970m. etc.

I absolutely love it, far and away the best bit of kit I’ve ever bought. I also bought an iMac 27″ around about the same time for similar money and it was bloody awful by comparison although granted entirely different tool. But I regret the 1.5k I paid for the iMac, but don’t regret that at all for the M18.

I ‘live’ in hotels for work, hence why I bought it as I also love gaming etc.

People bitch and moan about Alienware, yes it is a bit aimed at the kids (rich kids) with all its fancy lights and styling, I’m 40 btw, but the build quality is superb I cannot fault it at all. Almost a year on it’ll play anything you throw at it with ease.
I’ve had to call support once and had the screen replaced, they were excellent, engineer next day to the home.

Edit: it does weigh a ton mind.

we were plagued by these when we changed to virgin media, the previous ‘owner’ of our new phone number must actually own money to the entire world. We tried telling these people they had the wrong number, but they straight accused us of lying.

So, ringer is off, has been for months, we just never answer incoming calls on it. Everyone who knows us uses our mobile numbers.
Tbh I don’t even know why we have landlines now. we’ve only ever used ours since for emergencies, perhaps once in last year.

yep been almost completely incapacitated for the last week, but definitely entering the recovery phase now. So I should be right by about April then. :cry:

Similar city-link woes this morning, Amazon order which should have arrived Saturday. Tracking info says it was delivered and signed for…10 days before I ordered the item. 8O

2 sessions of 30mins on hold, given up. If/when it ever gets here it’s going straight back as I’m popping out to Argos to get a replacement item today.
I think generally city-link are ‘known’ for this, I’m more annoyed at not knowing beforehand that it would be them as I would certainly not have ordered otherwise. I suspect that is why we don’t know though.

It’s heartening to see religion on the decline. Although I think the number of non-religious is obviously much much higher, but we’re starting to see people take the question more seriously. I think many are too apathetic to even care so put the ‘default’ of CofE or similar, etc.
I know I did for years.
With any luck religion will be reduced to a niche hobby within my lifetime.

I love most the infectious energy of the place, I find myself doing things I just wouldn’t normally do anywhere else.
I almost always make time to walk rather than tube, where practicable. Not long in from a walk from Waterloo to Euston. Just so many sights, experiences every second of the way. Superb.

Not much I dislike. Not much of a fan of canary wharf, seems to be a microcosm of intense snobbery, very much unlike central London.

Genuinely un-sure what the benefits are of this.
Being ID’d is way down on the list of my own priorities should I be incapacitated for some reason.
Fairly sure should it become necessary, and when the immediate priorities have been dealt with, getting ID’d is relatively trivial these days. Probably because of irate wives ringing the Police/Hospital wondering where the hell you’ve got to this time :)

Edit: Unless you have a medical condition obviously.

Entirely about context, as swearing should be. Adjusting language to suit various social contexts is perfectly natural, we all do it.

Completely comfortable with my own assumption my kids give as good as the rest on the playground, but they have been brought up to know when it is and isn’t ok. It’s a respect thing primarily, swearing is perfectly fine when used in the correct context with the right audience.

I back onto a high school field, working from home, the language from girls and boys (say 12 upwards) truly shocked me when I first moved in (and I was shocked that I was shocked!), I very nearly complained about it, but now just accept it, they probably don’t even realise residents can hear them.

However, they also swear a great deal during PE lessons with teachers present. I don’t think that’s acceptable and teaches nothing about how and when to adjust you’re language/behaviour. Which I feel in turn reinforces a general lack of respect/consideration of others.

We have had the odd slip up at home, but it just gets laughed off, we all know we all swear, but no need for it in the home.

Working canary Wharf at the moment, so it’s either a 3 hour each way on one of the worst train services in the country or hotel, currently doing 1 day commute, 2 nights hotel, fridays working from home. I don’t mind it, although I never seem to relax when staying in hotels, time flies by so quickly once I’ve eaten, had a beer or whatever, checked some mails, watched a bit of tv, I’m so tired I’m reading/falling asleep by 10. I quite enjoy it actually. I’m fully expensed, so that may make a difference.
Edit: I also always pack a gaming laptop, for total guilt free gaming with a beer, in my underpants.

bit of a myth that it is anything to do with ‘personality’, it’s just the name of the award (since 99). It’s; “Awarded to the sportsperson whose actions have most captured the public’s imagination”

For that reason I’m going for Mo. I think the Armstrong thing has torpedoed chances for brad, sadly. Too much of a risk for the beeb who are obviously extremely risk averse currently. As far as capturing the imagination goes, probably Mo, or a good few of the others.

Would be very happy to be wrong though.

I don’t get the fawning over 6 music, yes the music is superb, but the talky bits are just dreadful, radio1-esque dreadful.

That Adam and Edith(argh!)Bowman thing consisted almost entirely of reading out ‘hilarious’ tweets/texts in increasingly shouty funny voices, juxtaposed with actually half decent music.

Though I think it’s a modern radio problem, not a 6music one. Somewhere along the way DJ’s lost the art of being able to talk intelligently to the user, without the need of listener participation or a ‘laugh on cue’ sidekick.

interesting, but cannot stand that bloke for more than a minute. He’d make a good children’s tv presenter, call me old (and grumpy) but I like programs that are at least partially pitched at grown ups.

All the comments no matter how varied are helping so much thank you.

Putting the dog down had never even entered my head, that would be for the Trust to decide I’m not even sure we can do that without letting them know first at least, but personally for me that isn’t an option, I don’t think its necessary. To be brutally honest the dog has never been great with the kids, it can be domineering especially without me around. But it deserves the chance to be re-homed more suitably.

Obviously yesterday was grim, we ran through the entire gamut of emotions as a family, but the responsibility is mine, the final decision is also mine. The general consensus from children/wife is the dog can stay but in all honesty I get the feeling it’s reluctant and driven by a desire not to upset me. He has always been considered by them to be my dog. I have made the point that if he was to stay that would need to change as I think that’s creating more problems.

I thought I’d be better this morning, but I’m worse, failing miserably to hold it together if I’m honest, incredible how dogs can get to you like that. I am closest to the dog, it was my idea to get it in the first place, and to be honest I accept I am totally responsible for this. Through perhaps my own inexperience and poor handling I’m going to lose my dog

I know in my heart he has to be re-homed. I’m away often with my work and without me around to manage the dog in the past it has been often tricky at times, but now it’ll be impossible.

He’s had a muzzle on frequently since the incident, especially when asleep. Because of the fireworks he’s taken to sleeping on the landing. So I’ve had mostly a sleepness night worrying that my son would step out of his room in the darkness straight into the dog.
The house is tense obviously, I know in time this could heal, but I cannot square that in my head without it feeling selfish, and maybe foolish. To be honest, I only have to look at my sons face, it’s just crushing me to be honest, absolutely devastating.

I want ot take an active role in finding him a new home if I can, but no idea whether that’s possible. My wife mooted the idea of fostering until he can be found a new home, but not sure how that works with the Greyhound Trust yet, I guess I’ll need to make that call later. Once I’ve pulled myself together :)

Thanks again input has been massively appreciated by me and my family

Morning, thank you all for the responses, with such an extremely difficult situation I’m trying to field as many opinions as I possibly can.
My son is 11, the dog is 4. My son had some sutures and is on anti-biotics. They try where possible to leave wounds from dog bites open due to risk of infection from the bite itself.

We were awake until well beyond 3 talking about it, but no decisions have been made will work it through over next couple of days. whatever happens to the dog it has to go via Greyhound Trust, it’s in the re-homing contract, so they will be first point of call for some advice at the very least.

We’re not blaming the dog, he just did what dogs have a tendency to do when cornered/scared, it’s my fault, it has completely caught me out and I hadn’t anticipated what could happen, with a quick google this morning there was half a dozen things I should have done to prevent this from happening during fireworks.
My own principles make it extremely difficult to see beyond re-homing, but I can see how that is likely to leave my son without the opportunity to re-build confidence with dogs in general, and it is very harsh on the dog as obviously it’ll make it extremely difficult for the Trust to re-home him.

Hmm – so what does your wife do with the baby, when she’s turfed you onto the couch and leaving you to do all the night time stuff?

I have three kids – we always split the kid stuff down the middle. Neither of us or our relationship would have survived, if it had been otherwise.

Amazed this wasn’t asked further up. I’ve never heard of this kind of thing before and I’d be worried about the precedent it sets.
I have two kids (14, and 11), we split everything down the middle irrespective of other stuff. I also worked long hours during the baby years, with a lot of driving, I received no leniency and didn’t expect any. We may have shuffled the feed shifts around a bit sometimes if one of us was particularly struggling, but never ever was one reduced to sleeping on a sofa!

different strokes I guess. Good luck :)

I think he has the right idea. The idea of retiring and sitting on your arse/tending a small garden is already outmoded and has no appeal to me. I want to work until I drop, or at least be contributing to society in some way (I’m 39), and I’m very proud of that.
I loathe the old fashioned idea of downing tools at some arbitrary age because you’ve somehow earned it.

When I did jury service there were loads of us, at least double what they needed, they discarded people with obvious show stopping issues, then what was left was filed into court (a lot more than twelve), then the judge just asked if anyone had any reason why they felt they couldn’t be a juror or stay the course of what was expected to be a long trial.
To be honest anyone who had any issue at all was let go, the Judge basically saying that it was more hassle than it was worth having high maintenance jurors.

I did it, it took 3 months. But what I heard during jury deliberation shocked me more than the trial itself and has seriously dented my faith in the jury system, I think only 2 of us actually took the duty seriously and put any effort in, and at least half were happy to settle on a verdict based only on their openly stated prejudices. It’s an eye opener but well worth the experience.

Have you read Curse of the Strong, by Dr Tim Cantopher? (apologies if I’ve missed it in this thread, reading fast on my lunchbreak!).

Everything you have described sounds very familiar to me personally, and the book will help.

I’ve had severe depression on and off for much of my life, but really hit rock bottom 4 years ago now when I was talked off the ledge by the Police and found myself in a mental hospital. What followed was probably the most amazing few years of my life as I was re-built by wonderful people in the NHS and by my family. I consider myself well and truly cured now, and I’ve never been happier.
I had therapy, medication etc. But most of of the prescribed treatments were sticking plasters to me which is how I believe they always should be, the actual cure came from within myself. I educated myself and I knew I had to tackle some significant demons and alter my approach to life if I wanted to see my kids grow up.

My point is, get some help, that will provide the foundations to allow you to have a long hard look at yourself.
Read books, study the illness, take those long walks and be honest with yourself. Learn the signs, know what to do to avoid escalating symptoms. Almost all depression is caused by simply ignoring the signs or trying to ignore underlying insecurities.

I could rattle on for hours, but please drop me a line if you need a patient and understanding ear.

Ah, I was 100m from finish, wondered why Wiggo looked so thoroughly pissed off when he came past. That crash wasn’t mentioned at all anywhere, commentary was too busy lamenting the fall of Cav.

…not enough to make a big difference

For some reason I find those few words really depressing :(
It would make a massive difference to me personally, and I’m sure many others, and I don’t mean financially either. If I ever got to the stage where I thought 30k wouldn’t make a difference in my life I think I’d have to have a few words with myself! :)

For me I definitely would not waste it on mundane crap like bills/mortgages/savings/cars/tat, 30k dropping in your lap really doesn’t make much of a difference if spending it on those is the limits of your imagination.
I’d spend it on an experience, if it is inheritance, make sure it is something truly memorable. For me that is a simple 30 footer, and cast off towards the horizon for a while.