Fixed it :-)

Probably something to do with laptop caching of the DNS or some such mystical network woo wah voodoo magic.

^ this :-)

Thanks all will have a fiddle in the morning

Its been Gale 8 gusting to 10 here in Lymington all afternoon and I have to ride home from work in an hour….rain is pretty fierce as well :-)

Fortunately, I’ll be long retired by the time my workplace in Lymington is submerged! There’s some very expensive houses that are going to see their values slashed :-)

@siwhite – thanks, I think I’m going to bite the bullet and move up a couple of models if only for the larger screen

Having dropped my 5S in the river at work on Friday, I’m in the market for another iPhone but I won’t pay Apple prices for a new one….

Well, knock me down with a feather! One calm and reasonable letter and a brief chat with the letting agent and the landlord has rolled over! We have early termination at a months notice. Thanks for all the comments & advice.

I’ve drafted the “letter of doom” to the agents! I’ve no intention of withholding rent (I’ve been a commercial landlord and know how much pain that can cause a tenant) – one inconvenience is that there are two landlords on the lease, one local, the other at the other end of the country and despite being related they don’t seem to talk to each other! Drives the agent mad as well….

England. We are looking at the surrender route with mitigating circumstances – the kitchen wall behind the fitted units is wringing wet and mouldy which means we can’t really use the cupboards – they stink and it looks like there is a roof leak with a suspicious damp patch appearing on the ceiling of the front bedroom……

Thanks all. The tenancy is fixed term and there’s no break so it looks like we’ll be negotiating a surrender :-(

Cheers. Will bump Monday/Tuesday….

For me, last nights “humour” was straight out of an ’80’s playground. A pastiche of TG’s past, no film of the Dallara lap and Flintoff appears to struggle to read an autocue – I’m out.

I have had an Al-Ko for about 7 years. Faultless and effective.

They only finished filming a week or so ago – saw the Dakota and chase Helicopter over the Western Solent on it’s way to France! The veterans made the programme.

To my mind, part of the problem is that picture – it looks ever so benign! I spent a good part of my teens and early 20’s climbing seriously in the UK and the Alps, days like that are few and far between, the reality is that it’s bloody cold, very windy and at altitude frankly unpleasant for a great deal of the time….and all the North Face kit in the world won’t save you if you make a mistake or aren’t competent to deal with a relatively small problem. The view is good though :-)

Redstripe – you near Maidstone? Saw the same thing on Friday over Mote Park

I’ve just verbally accepted what is essentially my dream job (bar one other but it’s not an option at the moment) only problem is that it’s a net 26 weeks per annum, pay pro-rata so alongside my pension I need another income to make life tolerable. Dilemma is that I have an interview for a job I wouldn’t mind and can do well within my ability on Tuesday that will certainly pay more as it’s 52 weeks per annum but comes with a load of responsibility and no doubt a corporate ethic etc. etc. IF I get an offer I’m going to be really torn between the two, more so since the guys I’ll be working for in Job 1 are really nice and we see eye to eye and so far as I can tell really want me to work with them. I know it’s a nice problem to have, both mean relocating but to nice places. As I sit here I’m minded to go for Job 1 and just find something easy that fills the financial gap….this all comes after a stressful 6 months giving up life in France and scratching around for £££ any way we can so I guess whatever happens is positive :-)

Did it with our place in France while we were living there. Be really accurate with your description and be clear about heating and utilities costs, only take bookings from people with reviews, set your cancellation policy to the strictest you are allowed, keep the place immaculate (if you use a 3rd party cleaner/handover make sure your understanding of “clean” matches theirs) we only had one disaster and AirBnB were really good at getting the costs back from the guest. All in all, AirBnB are one of the easiest platforms to use, just be prepared for the odd hiccup and don’t be too precious about it.

Or the day I picked up a plug from which I had earlier removed the cover and without thinking plugged it in to a socket…….that was before RCD’s were invented! I picked myself up from the far side of the room wondering how I was going to unplug it!

Most likely the thermostatic cartridge in the mixer is partially blocked with limescale – we have the same problem. I just need to find the isolating valves before I dismantle and clean it!

Lived in Brittany and have driven that route many times! 8 hours without stops is about right, the only significant traffic is round Bordeaux but the two lane section South of Bordeaux can be a bit slow if there’s a lot of lorry traffic – there are long stretches where trucks aren’t allowed in Lane 2 at certain times

I have met the man – the image of him portrayed by the media is far too benign imho!

Fell 5 metres into a crevasse on the Bossons Glacier, broke my ankle, fractured skull and my ice axe landed on my face (missed my eye by mm’s) – I had all the rope in my Sack. Clambered out and my mate dragged me to the chair lift leaking blood from at least twop laces on my head arriving seconds before it closed for lunch. Made it to the car and thereafter Chamonix Hospital….

Saga here, or would be if I could get through on the phone. They are 2nd best value on the Meerkats! LV were the best a couple of weeks ago but seem to have dropped off the list completely!

But the delivery on this one is only £3.45 and it’s “professional”

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Professional-roadbike-racer-Barely-used/254018313782?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D0f178c4ff1fd44d5b01e1b52aeec2064%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D283345105011%26itm%3D254018313782&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

I’m an unashamed carnivore. However, my wife is following a vegan diet, consequently I only eat meat a couple of times a week as I/she refuse(s) to cook two completely different meals every day – having tried some of the “meat” substitutes and looked at the ingredients we prefer not to use them and concentrate on making the veg work. We use some Tofu for bulk and texture occasionally but that’s about it. I find it weird that the food industry ties itself in knots creating faux meat products that require huge amounts of processing and packaging and still taste absolute carp!

It’s DHL this time – email to say they’d deliver between 14h45 & 15h45 yesterday. Then the O2 outage hits and we get a message to say the driver is delayed. At 18h20 last evening we get another email to say that the parcel was delivered at 14h55 and signed for with our surname. Now, I was in at 14h55 because we were expecting said parcel and nothing was delivered or signed for by me (the missus was out walking the dog!) – twunts!

Thanks for all the replies :-) The vendor of the LR has let me down so I’m off to look at a Mercedes e240 Estate this afternoon (buy shares in Shell…) being sold by a much nicer person!

Keeping the S-Max for the time being is plan B!

Baguette dough is made about 24 hours before it’s baked – supermarkets all (mostly) sell frozen product that’s baked off on site, Lidl included (even here in France!)

Tuesday night the old SKY box reported “a technical fault on this channel” for all channels. The HUMAX box was fine. Last night we couldn’t get BBC2 HD on the HUMAX but BBC 2 non-HD was fine. We’re in Brittany so reception is less than optimal.

Seems such a remote chance if people were behaving sensibly

Far too common – most hunters are old, stupid, drunk (pick any two from three) and have a cavalier attitude to safety, firing at anything that moves whether they can see it or not. This includes each other, themselves and their dogs!

This morning here in France – via Sweden…….

You will have a large pile of spongy soil/chippings to dispose of and a hole to fill so order plenty of topsoil! Nowt will grow in the mulch that the grinder produces and it doesn’t compact. You could compost it but that will take a while. We had three Oak stumps ground out 2 years ago and I’m still dealing with the consequences in one spot!

 Considered Plymouth? Cheaper and better access to good riding. Also a marine industry (although not as big).

We have, we’ve lived in Devon previously – it’s the distance to family that’s a killer otherwise we’d be seriously considering a return!

Are you sure you want to return to the congested South?

Not really but needs must!

I think its SPH, CYL & AXIS. The others are the corrections for vari/bi focals (I’m not an Optician, I just happen to have had a conversation with a lens manufacturer about this the other day!)

You forgot to mention you get tax relief on your contribution and you can carry forward three years worth of unused allowance…

But there’s a maximum proportion of “salary” that can be contributed isn’ there?

On the pension front it’s worth considering the tax position – the Inheritance will arrive tax free (IHT if applicable paid by the estate before you get it) – if you pay in to a “pension” arrangement, any income derived later will be taxed (excluding of course the 25% lump sum). If you save in ISA’s etc the output will be tax free (in general). FWIW, I paid off my mortgage knowing full well that I’d be tempted to dip in to the various pots for things I wanted/needed as life went on.

Go to Newtown – its NT but free. There’s often some nature trail type stuff on for the kids and early morning or late evening its beautiful (I am biased, I used to work there for the NT – best job I’ve ever had!)