If you get an iPad as well then you can use it as a drawing tablet for the MacBook using sidecar, it’s not something I’ve tried myself and does rely on being able to afford an iPad but could it be the best of both worlds?

I completely lost my sense of taste and smell when I caught Covid at the start of 2021, when it started to come back around 5-6 months later it was very muted, like turning the intensity down from 10 to 1.

It’s either got a lot better, or I’ve got used to the lower ability to smell/taste, but I have some big holes in what I can smell – volatile chemicals like petrol/diesel/solvents etc have almost no smell to me now and, some would say luckily, I can’t really smell manure/feces/rotting matter. I joke that covid stopped my farts smelling but the reality is that it’s quite annoying as I can no longer tell if I’ve stepped in dog mess on the park.

It’s also made wine and beer taste ‘odd’, can’t really explain what they taste like just that they’re not enjoyable in the same way they used to be. I take a positive that I’m now almost tee-total.

I’ve just installed a cheap 8kw (actually outputs about 4-4.5kw) all in one to heat our garden office, only had it a week but first impressions are very good, I’ve positioned the unit outside and ran the heater duct into the building to minimise the noise, next step is to make an insulated box to reduce the noise externally.
I did worry a bit about the environmental impact but, in the grand scheme of things I’ll use less diesel heating the office for 8 hours than I do driving into my ‘actual’ office and it has also given me the excuse to add solar to the office (to keep the car battery the heater runs from charged) which long term will be expanded to supply power for computers etc and the air con unit we use to keep cool in the summer.
I’m also going to get one for the garage/workshop to replace the propane space heater I currently use as they output dry heat, propane produces a lot of water which isn’t seperate from the heat output like the diesel heaters so you get a lot of condensation and surface rust on tools.

Hard to tell from the angle the photos taken from but it doesn’t look as though there is enough pipe sticking out of the wall to engage properly with the elbow – there needs to be 30mm or so, the pipe will bottom out on the shoulder you can see on the elbow so use that as a guide.
You might be able to push the pipe from inside, also get someone to hold the pipe so it doesn’t push in when you re fit the elbow.
A bit of silicone spray or washing up liquid on the seal will help with refitting.
I’d be suprised if fully engaging the pipe doesn’t work.

Edit, also too slow typing… 😂

Does the green extent on the plan accurately show what’s being transferred or is there a mix of red and green lines making up the transferred extent?
If it’s just that the transfer describes the property as ‘edged red’ on the plan then have it amended to ‘edged green’ if there is a mix of colours and the plan is otherwise accurate (or based on a lr plan) then get the transferred extent marked in some other way, ie by colouring or hatching, and make sure the description is amended accordingly. Unless the plan is based on outdated OS detail, or is horribly distorted/poor quality then I doubt a new plan is required.
The buyers conveyancer can do this provided you give consent and agreement through your conveyancer.

Thanks Verses and Tillydog, that’s worked for me.

Also having the same issue here, at least the manage cookies pop up now has all the options unselected so I can just hit save and not get rsi unchecking all the boxes.

My worry would be that if they are no longer registered on ebay how are they going to give you the barcode to scan to confirm collection. Definitely get in touch with ebay to see what they say. I can see them arranging collection, having ‘problems’ getting the collection barcode when they are with you and trying to convince you to let them take the bike without proof of collection, then when they’ve got your bike dispute the transaction with their bank/paypal and get the payment reversed.

Ianal but do know a bit about registering land, that party wall covenant looks to be a fairly standard wording that is used in many conveyances of the time,I agree it applies to boundary b but I wonder if the conveyancers who prepared the deed (or acted for the then purchaser) were aware of the nature of the walls in question – it is usually seen in conveyances of semi-detached or terraced residential properties.
I would speak with your conveyancer to see if it’s possible to obtain any indemnity insurance or to approach the current owners of the adjoining land to see if they would release the covenant.

@kryton57 covenants normally relate to promises to either do, or not do, something with the land, ie maintain a boundary, not build on the land or not to operate certain businesses etc. Rights of access would be easements (or licences) and can be valid only for a set period, but are more commonly granted ‘in fee simple’ which means forever. Sometimes an easement can be granted with an associated covenant – for example a right of way could be granted with a covenant to build a path\roadway within a certain time period. Probably worth asking a solicitor if you’re unsure.

I’ve got some imou cameras that work like that, no need to take the cloud subscription to receive movement notifications on the app. With an SD card installed you can select for them to only record movement (they record continuously while they are detecting movement and I think you can set how long they carry on recording once movement stops but the default seems good) or to continuously record where they act like a dashcam and overwrite the SD once full.
Very occasionally the push notifications stop on one camera until I reboot the camera, I think this is more to do with being on a shonky internet over power WiFi extender plug in the garage which occasionally drops connection though.

Not M&S.
We ordered 2x 2 seater sofas during lockdown in February, mostly as they were the only company we could find that said we could return if we didn’t like them as we couldn’t sit on one before ordering.
Initial 6 week delivery time ended up being 16, within a week one of them had partially collapsed and it took another 14 weeks for them to get a replacement to us with 2 cancelled delivery days.
By the time the replacement arrived the other one has started to creak and has a noticeable sag in one side.
Can’t face the hassle of trying to get them to fix it so will put up with them for a year or so then get some more.
They do look nice though.

Another vote for the BT Youview box here, we’ve had a couple over the last decade or so, other than a drive failure on the first one we’ve had no problems with reliability (only replaced the first one as I could not get a replacement drive to format correctly).
Weirdly it won’t play nicely with our new, cheap, LG 4k telly, something in the on board scaling algorithm makes the picture look like garbage, it’s definitely the telly as if I turn on scaling in the AV receiver it looks great again, unfortunately the receiver is also driving a projector which won’t take a 4k signal so unless I take a chance on a 4k Youview box I’ve got to put up with it!

Did the deeds you hold for the house include the yellow land within the demise or was it just that it was included in the fenced extent on the OS map?
If it was included in the deeds then, unless there was a mistake back in the 60s and it was also included in your neighbours deeds then he must have made an application for adverse possession and was only likely granted a possessory title (or good leasehold if his house is also leasehold) these are easier to dispute than absolute titles.
1st thing I would do is contact the Land Registry and dispute the registration, if he currently holds any title over the land then if you can’t agree a price to sell he could always rely on his limited title and sell anyway, you’d then be facing a legal battle with a new owner who might be more motivated to litigate.
I’m not 100% sure how you would be able to sell land you currently have no title to either, I’d guess that he would have to inform LR there was a mistake in his registration, they would check your deeds and rectify the titles to give you the land back, then you would have to transfer it to him.
Again, if your deeds show ownership of the yellow land then get that corrected first then discuss selling it back.

We’ve had a nest for several years (it’s a 1st gen one so some of my issues with it might have been resolved in newer versions) my experience has been generally good with a couple of things that, had I known before purchase mean I probably wouldn’t have bothered with it.
The good:
Remote access
The way it learns how long your house takes to warm up and cool down and uses weather data to pre heat/turn off early to maintain the set temp.
It has a light sensor so if its in direct sunlight and warms up it doesn’t turn the heating off
The not so good:
Presence sensing, ours is on the upstairs landing and will turn off if no one walks past for an hour- should probably disable this
Erratic geofencing, it never really coped with multiple users and either didn’t turn off or on when we got close to home – I’ve turned this off now.
The bad:
Not being able to set a time period where the heating would be forced off, because you use set temps in time zones and it pulls weather data to ensure the house is at the set temp at the start of the zone combined with the placement of the device our heating would often come on at 3-4am on a really cold night which woke us up. The only way I’ve managed to stop it is to set an initial temp of 12C from 5-6am, but then I get up to a cold house and have to manually turn it up which kind of defeats the point of a smart system!

I’ve had two on my left knee, 1st was done by a ‘general orthopedic’ surgeon and tbh was a nightmare, took a couple of weeks to be able to support my weight and never felt right.
It was redone about 18 months later by a knee specialist and the difference was astounding – I walked out of the hospital the afternoon of the operation and was able to gently ride within a week.
It took a few months to get to a point that I could pedal out of the saddle up a hill but its been about 7 years now and I’ve had no pain or problems.
I’d definitely say get it done, but make sure the surgeon is a knee specialist.

Burn her etc.. 😂

Is that the only photo? All it shows to me is that the light was red sometime after she crossed the white line, its conceivable it was still Amber when she entered the junction.

Edit. Didn’t think it had taken me so long to type that…

We started with a halfords peltier coolbox for the camper, then fairly quickly upgraded to a waeco compressor fridge.
As has been said above they use a lot of power as they draw their rated load continuously, they only cool to ~16C below ambient but will freeze when ambient drops below 16C. You can’t really use them as a fridge ie they will keep cold stuff cool but don’t really work well if you put warm drinks etc in.
That being said we do still occasionally use it over the compressor fridge – it’s much lighter and takes up less space for the same internal volume as it doesn’t have to house the compressor. If we go for a day trip in the car it can run while driving and keeps drinks/sandwiches cool for most of the day.
One thing that really helps both types is adding some extra insulation, we’ve made covers from some left over space blanket insulation which keeps the boxes much cooler if they’re in a hot car or direct sunlight.

Rustoleum combicolor is pretty tough,or they do one called ‘hardhat’ which is supposed to be even tougher.
When I had my last frame powder coated I was told they couldn’t do the fork lowers because the heat might damage the bushings.

Probably depends on how recent the mot is if you’ll get anywhere with dvsa, have you looked at the mot history to see if corrosion is mentioned in previous tests?
As above though private sales (and was it definitely a private seller or a trader trying to hide the fact?) are normally buyer beware.
Bad situation to be in though.
I remember buying an MG Metro with a fresh mot when I was about 18, took it in to a garage as the handbrake wasn’t holding and they discovered the whole rear end was made of newspaper and underseal – bloke I bought it from initially tried to fob me off that it must have been an old repair and he had no idea until I pointed out that the newspaper used was only a fortnight old.

The land registry only* deals with ‘general boundaries’ not the precise legal boundary which is usually a very expensive thing to determine through the courts.
Depending on the scale of the original Ordnance Survey detail a 0.5m line on the title plan has a tolerance of around ±30cm on the ground.
I’d either let him build it or not but wouldn’t be too concerned about Paperwork as over time he’d gain adverse possession rights through occupying the land anyway.
I think if you wanted to allow him to use the but of land but stop him claiming ownership you could grant a licence to occupy the land with a pier that could end should the wall be rebuilt again in the future.
IANAL though so as suggested above if you are concerned then take legal advice.

*There is such a thing as a determined boundary but they are expensive, involve surveyors and plans to a high tolerance. From memory there are only a handful of such things in the whole country.

It’s not just builders merchants, I spent over a decade working in and managing motor factors before I escaped the trade, penultimate place I worked in actually had a prize for who could ‘extract the highest gross profit’ from a non account customer each week. Tbh that wasn’t the most toxic part of their culture and I left as soon as I could.

I had an email from plusnet yesterday letting me know that as I was out of contract I was paying £36 for their unlimited fibre and did I want to lock in for another 12 months at £22.
Quite surprised at how proactive they were and as I’ve had no problems with the service I’ve renewed.
TL:DR I reckon you’ll be OK haggling with them.

We had something very similar, when we moved in our neighbour had a huge leylandi ‘hedge’ down the boundary that overhung the garden by several meters. We originally only put the roof on to stop leaves and bird crap falling on us when sitting outside but the addition of the roof made an area we could use for 3/4 of the year. The trees were felled a few years ago but we kept the roof as it was so useful.
We had some canvas panels made up which we could attach to the side if it was windy and kept it warmer into the evening for sitting out.
Being able to have a party or BBQ and not worry if it was going to rain was also really useful.
We had it taken down last year and a garden office put in its place to allow us to wfh but will definitely be making a covered area at the other end of the garden this year.

I miss my 2004 Forester, bought with 140k on as a cheap automatic following knee surgery and kept it for another 45k before rust got the better of it. It was thirsty, did 24-25mpg regardless of how I drove it, but other than oil changes and a couple of sets of brake pads cost me nothing while I owned it.
Check for rust on the inner sills near the rear wheels, mine had no rust at all on the body but was like lace underneath the underseal from front to back.
Might be worth checking the VED rate as well, mine was ~£300 but I think the 2005 models were close to £600.
Boot isn’t as big as you’d think but I coud fit my fatbike in with the front wheel off.

Our cats have donated their dreamies for the next couple of weeks to help :)

I’m also immunosuppressed and have been out for local rides, I’m not far from Hicks lodge but so far have avoided it. The kids are desperate to get back there though.
Until the last week or so it was rare to see anyone else out but now it seems to be a free for all of stopping in groups in the middle of the road or path chatting with no attempt at social distancing so I might actually stop going out now that I’m ‘allowed’ to!

Another no, but only because i’ve already got one.

If you stay within your arranged overdraft you will be better off.

Depends on your overdraft limit and how much of the month you’re overdrawn. For a while when Mrs MikeG was on maternity leave and until the kids started school we had a £2k limit and would be in it for most of the month. I think we paid about £10 a month at the time, looking at most accounts they will soon be charging about 10p per £100 per day and I reckon we’d be looking at over £30 a month if we were still in the same situation.
I imagine there are lots of people who live in their overdrafts who will have to pay massively more come April

Not quite Nottinghamshire but The Powdershack near Coalville are good. Matt has done three frames for me now and I’ve been very impressed.

Not a curtain fitter but when we moved into our house one of the bedroom curtains was really hard to draw, turned out the previous owner had fitted that track upside down.
The sologlyde profile looks like it should be impossible to put upside down without it being screamingly obvious but you never know.

I’ve been diagnosed with UC for around 15 years now and been on immunosuppression for a decade, to be honest I’ve not really found that diet plays a big part in how active the disease is – although regular oxo cubes will turn my stomach to water within 20 minutes of eating anything made with them, the low salt ones have no effect on me.
What I do find is that I need a different diet when having a flare, normally I try to have a fairly low processed carb diet but in a flare eating loads of ‘crap’ carbs and starchy foods really reduces the pain. I think it’s the fact that when you’re going to the toilet 20+ times a day you need plenty of easy to move bulk passing through.
I will probably be trying it soon though as my daughter has said she’d like to go veggie.
My consultant says some people respond to dietary changes and others don’t so your stepson has nothing to lose by giving it a go.
Wish him my best as it’s a horrible disease when active, hope he can find a balance of medication and diet that suits him.

I’d also not bother with trying to save the old battery, even if you got some life back if you’re not using it daily it will not last.
Also consider disconnecting the battery when you leave the car, just the stereo drain will flatten the battery in my camper in a month and once a car battery goes below about 50% charge its already damaged.
A charged battery should be good for upto 6 months left in attached, if its going to be left longer then charge fully periodically.

When I did the same to my old xz1 compact there was an a program I downloaded from the Sony site that allowed back ups and resets etc to be done through the USB cable.

I like the look of the parf guide system as I’m building an mft style workbench at the moment and I don’t want it the standard mft size.

£150 is very steep for something I’ll use one every few years though.

Re cheap extra track – I’ve got the Lidl parkside saw and have just ordered another 4 700mm lengths of track and joiner bars for £30 delivered direct from kompernass who deal with all the Soares and servicing of parkside tools.

I dont know if the Aldi saw is compatible with the Lidl track – I know my saw will run on festool rails but I was shocked at how cheap the replacements were.

Perhaps Aldi can offer replacements for their saw at a similar price?

That dough looks handy, we’ve not had much success freezing leftover dough.

I’ll also recommend what I’ve got, or at least one that looks very similar;
Linky
Had it about 3 years now and it’s fantastic, cooks a 12″ ish pizza in under 2 mins, we’ve had parties where we’ve made 30-40 pizzas in succession. Holds the heat well afterwards and often chuck a leg of lamb or big joint of beef in to cook in the residual heat.

Philips do sets containing the bulbs and a light switch that are paired together and don’t need a hub to operate, if you later get a hub you can easily pair them all together.
The switches are great and have a wall mount but can be taken with you like a remote.
I’ve 3d printed some covers for the normal lightswitch which hold the remote and help stop the lights being turned off. I’ve seen some for sale on eBay if you don’t know anyone with a 3d printer.

Gates or SKF are the best brands for timing belts (gates belt kits will likely contain skf bearings and tensioners and vice versa) but as said above I’d get the garage to supply and fit as if there are any problems, ie your engine goes bang very expensively, you don’t want the garage saying they wont warranty the work as the part you supplied was faulty or the belt manufacturer rejecting a claim because it wasn’t fitted correctly.

When I used to run a motor factors I saw far too many disputes like that.

I’d also be surprised if you’d be saving more than £30 or so by supplying parts yourself.

Had another message, and a refund, when I got up today

Dear customer,

Thanks for your message. Due to the system problem, our system listed the wrong price. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. In this case, we would like to issue a full refund asap. Thanks for your understanding.

Sincerely,
Casie