My whirlpool has served me well for about 15 years, but has recently packed up. Not bad I guess. Currently doing it by hand for the last month or two, strangely cathartic.

Jesus F C – almost £25k for a 1.8 Petrol SOHC Manual car , only pumping out 142 PSI and a 0-60 in 9.6 seconds. No thanks.

I have owned two civics and loved them both, but either I am out of touch with new car prices, or these do not look like very good value for money against a Golf Mk6 or an Audi A3?

I have just been out to get two spare keys cut. Does that count?

You can still add money to a new / existing ISA from today. It doesn’t matter when the old one was opened in the tax year. You could in theory open two new accounts just 1 day apart

Keep off the booze for a couple of months, then have a couple of beers one night and it will be very evident the following day what the benefits of not drinking are.

I very rarely drink perhaps once or twice a year and even then only a couple of small bottles of beer or a glass or two of wine. Every time I wonder why I bothered having a drink.

i am certainly not fanatical about it and drank moderately for 20 years, but at the end of the day it is a poison and you need to work out whether the pleasure of consuming the drug/poison out weigh the downsides.

My view is that only over a period of several months does your perception of the relative value/benefits change.

Mines not great on petrol (200bhp petrol TSI version, giving about 35 mpg)

Sounds wonderful to me, Quattro version of the engine in an Audi is giving me 26-27 mpg overall.

What makes you think you were screwed over? You applied for a new job and you didn’t get it, someone else did. Sorry but there is nothing in your OP to suggest that the process or outcome was unfair in any way.

But, I would expect that any reasonable employer to provide you with open honest and constructive feedback as to your interview or test performance etc etc.

When you say the successful applicant was less qualified than you, you need to ask yourself, precisely what you mean by that and why you say it. I am not trying so sound like and ass (admittedly not doing a very good job), but it is a simple expression that we all use and it has just struck me that I don’t really know what it means.

It is your perception of the situation and not necessarily the truth, do you really understand what skills your employer was looking for?

In many companies and roles today so much more emphasis is being placed on core behavioural demonstrative competencies, than 10 or 15 years ago. Not true for all jobs, but true for many especially if no professional qualification is required (e.g. accountant, HR, procurement, plumber, welder etc etc).

It is often the softer skills that are most valued. Now I may be wrong but when people state that they were more qualified than person X then for me they may have completely missed the point.

But I would ask again for feedback.

EDIT. Whooops – I didn’t see the OPs second post. Sorry OP 😳

I have been looking into the same thing for a small 2nd car. In the end I have just taken out a M&S Car Loan which has a residual amount after x years. Their on line calculator is very helpful. It turned out far far cheaper than taking any dealers’ finance on both new and nearly new cars.

Yes after 3 years I need to decide to pay off the loan and keep the car, continue with the loan, or sell the car to pay off the loan, but there are no admin fees, options to buy, or excess mileage charges or haggling over condition of the car etc.

All in all it puts me in charge and not the car dealer, leasing company. My comparison is really based on Personal Loan, versus dealer HP, versus PCP and not pure leasing (3+x).

Plus the interest rate is the same whether I buy a new or a used car. VW finance is roughly twice as much for 2nd hand versus new.

I got up at just after 6am this morning to buy some fuel, only to find my nearest garage had closed for a refurb FFS. Decided then to wait until after the rush hour on my day off to find the queue at Sainsbury 1/4 mile long and 4 other garages with no fuel. Didn’t need the damn fuel especially but I do now after wasting an hour driving around. **** Tory ****

I had it done in my early 30’s whilst living in NYC, that is now over 10 years ago and no GP in the UK has ever suggested I need a check. Probably says more about the US health system than the UK.

I read / heard recently that 80% of men over 80 are found to have cancer cells in the Prostate.

+2 what franksinatra said, but I would leave out the last part post the last “comma”. All in all an excellent positioning statement IMO

A manager also has a “duty of case responsibility” for their employees. I would sue the shit just for asking me to come back to work 😆

But seriously I agree with Cougar’s comments above, I was just giving a different perspective on the problem. A typical example of a a manager’s excuse to shift blame and guilt on to their staff to cover their own failings.

Exactly, it was all planned. The boss should either be in the shop or decide to close it for the day if the reason he can’t be there is more important. Simples …

I think you boss is taking the piss. Not sure if he is the owner or just the manager but either way he is being very unprofessional. He knew you were having surgery and would require time off, but has not made any arrangements for your cover. His bad management IMO

Another option, fly out from a Euro destination instead of LHR (the flight will bring you straight back to LHR to meet the plane you would have taken) and the Club cost will be half LHR direct. A nice way to start a honeymoon.

Technically this is breach of contract :(. But more pragmatically, I would expect people on honeymoon to have through checked hold baggage. Can you check-in just for the first flight on your return.

BA used to have revenue protection executives stop people checking in for Concorde at LHR when they had bought a Paris-New York ticket (no doubt pre self service ckeck-in) 😆

What is this economy or plus things you speak of? I didn’t realise there even was a rear of the plane until this thread. Having said that we do have a very favourable agreement with BA being another ‘british’ company.

That’s the spirit 😆

One of my colleagues sons broke down into tears once when his father took him down from the Club upper deck to show him what it was like in Economy. He was about 8 years old a the time

Travel in World Traveller Plus and you will be doing your bit to ensure I get a bonus next year 😆

I have only travelled in it a few times and have pretty mixed feelings about it. The first time I didn’t even realise I was travelling in WTP, the second time may have been OK, but the third time was a middle seat of three on an overnight flight and I didn’t rate it at all. If I had paid good money for the last flight then I would have felt cheated.

But my reference point is different from the paying traveller

Chances of an upgrade to Club are greater if you have bought a WTP ticket although Gold Card holders and the like travelling in Economy would have a higher priority.

One thing to remember is that the cabin on has 30 seats so the chances of BA needing to upgrade are typically higher on busy flights. Also, remember that airlines sell against virtual capacity and several weeks out they may already be planning on upgrading people, of course the move now is to proactively get people to pay for this and not give it away for free on the day.

br – Not too worried about the depreciation. If I keep it for a few years it won’t be too bad (famous last words).

But, I do want something that is still under a manufacturer’s 3 year warranty, to be hassle free for a couple of years at least. So not able to spend too much less and get the latest shape Polo.

rootes1 – Member
1hr from putney to Kingston!

Is this because you think it takes longer or less, and not skipping out the big loop around hammersmith??

You could just cycle all down the river to Staines and then head to LHR, rather than leaving the river at Brentford. You could then have coffee and cake at Hampton Court Bridge, overlooking the Palace.

You may have your work cut out to do it 3 hours though? I reckon it is 1 hour from Putney to Kingston and about an hour from Kingston to Staines. So you have the Liverpool St to Putney, and coffee and Staines to LHR to do in a hour.

Audi Quattro, something with the 2.0 TSFI engine. Choose whatever body shape suits your needs and style best. That or my concession to to a BMW would be a 3 series coupe 330 Ci.

Has this not come about after months and months of consultation with and agreement from the Pension Trustees. Surely, it has not just come out of the blue??

We went through a similar process a few years back. I thought staff’s expectations were managed very well and a range of pension options were put forward. For example, I could keep my retirement date at 60 by paying more, could opt in to different accrual rates 1/60, 1/75 etc.

Hopefully next week, but I am not expecting much, it will be the first for a few years, so many I have lost count.

No experience of Ti MTBs.

But in terms of road bikes give me a good carbon frame any day of the week. I never really got on with my Omega Alchemy Ti road bike. I bit too soft, dare I say flexy, for my liking. It was just never as much fun as riding any of my carbon bikes.

Perhaps on a 5 hour plus ride I would be grateful for it, but those rides were/are few and far between for me, and am I pretty sure the fatigue is just down to me and a bike no matter how good will make not an enormous difference.

Sold mine, sad to let it go, but I can’t say I miss it.

Its seems to be all the rave at the moment cross selling ancillary sales, low revenue but high margin, perhaps not always done that intelligently, but for some companies it now becoming a key strategy.

Generally I have been led to believe that it is considered to have better conversion rates than up-selling, plus some things can’t easily be up-sold, how can I get people to buy a higher priced, higher margin deoderant especially when they are already at the till point. So, you can see why stamps and gum are offered but is it really very successful? And as people are saying, it just pisses people off.

Would you like to supersize that? = up sell
Would you like fries with that? = cross sell

So not really very new, just becoming much more pervasive in our retailing culture.

You could take the train out to Teddington, walk to Teddington Lock, walk along the river to Hampton Court Palace, have lunch at Hampton Court, then walk back to Teddington via Bushy Park. About 6-7 miles in total, nice walk on a sunny day. Or even keep going down the river a little to Lower Sunbury.

But pretty much anywhere on the River can be nice if the weather is good.

Not really London or secret, but I do feel very fortunate to live where I do. So close to Bushy Park, Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park, the River and Hampton Court Palace. But I did grow up in St Helens 😆

My vote goes to Siemens unless they now cost as much as Mielle. When I bought mine they were the same prices as Bosch or thereabouts. But when I looked at new Dishwasher they seemed to have risen a lot.

Have they returned the handbag?

Given your background and role I am surprised you are not using SAS. That seems to be where it is at in terms of Customer Insights and CRM stuff. Having solid SQL will be a good skill to have alongside SAS.

Programming with the view to developing actual systems would be very different to what you are doing now. Do you enjoy the technical side and wish to continue in that, if not then have you read up anything about Business Analysis?

CountZero I am not quite sure what raised my interest. I think someone recommended it a long time on one of my what should I listen to next threads. I bought a best of Elliot Smith album, but never really took to it, but then again didn’t give it much of a chance. Will try again …

Only about 40 years too late. I think he died (overdose) in 1974

I have always been a fan of Diesel jeans, They seem to last so well that I got the shock of my life the next time I went to buy another pair a few years ago and the cheapest one were just shy of £100 FFS. My G-star seem to be doing well but again not cheap.

Never tried M&S, but the ones I had from John Lewis have done me well, and they are a bit more understated in so much as you would not really know where they came from.

I sort of feel that when the time comes for a man buys his jeans from M&S, then it is all but over and it is time to book a flight to Switzerland and visit Dignitas.

2112 is still my favorite, then either Fly By Night, or Farewell to Kings. I pretty much stopped at that point. I remember buying both Hemispheres and Permanent Waves, but the joy had gone for me by then.

Bought two EC70 seat posts this week ! One from Wiggle and now another from Merlin, don’t really need either!

3 weeks to see my own GP the senior partner, 1 week to see a 24 year old. ********** disgrace. Asked for any day any time and any damn Doctor still 7 days (5 working). My practice has really gone down hill in the last couple of years.

If you need to ask on here you are not much of a mate IMO

Two tubes, levers, CO2 inflator, Multi-Tool, Phone, Money (may be Credit Card), small lock, HOUSE KEYS!!!!

OK so their is agreement that if I wish to stick with KMC then that is not a problem. Any ideas on whether I need a 112 link chain. I find it hard to imagine that a move from 11-34 to 11-36 requires a much longer chain? I must typically remove what 4 or 5 links on a standard chain for a 11-34 cassette?

Looks like and XT cassette is only £8 more expensive than an SLX one, so I can stick with that

Born and raised in St Helens, where I lived until leaving for university.

Uni in Sheffield, Lancaster and Loughborough. Moved to London for work, moved to new york for work,moved back SW London for work. Simples …

Diamante Pro-Lites 😆 I hope you will be racing with some spare tubes!