Bullion by post.

They have a free app which is useful for tracking live prices.

Current buying price for kruggerands now is £1293 each.

I did a lot of night riding on the road bike last summer. Used to see them a fair bit.
Unfortunately the last time I did the little bugger I tried to pass on the far opposite side of the road, instead of disappearing into the hedge on his side, did a random 180 degree turn and shot across the road into my front wheel sending me down into the road in a heartbeat.
And he ran off without even offering to pay for the damage! I went down hard at about 15mph, damage to the bike and a bloody elbow and a coccyx that hurt for about 2 months.

I’m no longer a fan of badgers.

The generalist, the OP has stated the main reason behind the move to gift money is to avoid losing cash/assets to pay for long term care, which gifting half the house on first death does exactly that as ‘half a house’ can’t be sold to fund care costs so takes the property (most people’s largest asset) out of the remit of the council to assess care funding options.
I never said it would have anything to do with avoiding IHT which isn’t a problem for most married people with kids as the threshold is £1m which is more than enough for most.
OP, there is no tax on what your mother gifts to you, it’s just a potentially exempt transfer that there could be future IHT on if you’ve underestimated the value of your moms estate (her threshold will be lower than the £1m as you’ve already received some of your fathers allowance).
I don’t really think you need to speak to a solicitor or an IFA unless there is an IHT issue which it doesn’t sound like it is. If annual gifting will achieve what she wants then It’s all pretty straightforward.

She can gift an annual £3000 with no implications. If she hasn’t already gifted last year you can go back a year and gift £6k this tax year.
Deprivation of assets can vary from council to council. You don’t say how old your mother is but if she’s in reasonable health and in her 60’s or early 70’s then you’d probably get away with it. Late 70’s or 80’s probably less so.
Many people overlook the ability to gift out of excess income which is immediately out of her estate and within the rules. Effectively, if your moms income is say, £30k, but lives on £20k, she can gift the excess £10k with no issues. There are hmrc forms available to document this.
I’ve had clients who’ve bought funeral plans to remove the money from the estate now, rather than at a later date.
From an investment point of view you can put money into life assurance bonds which, as they are classed as life assurance under local authority rules, they don’t count towards the estate calculation (before deprivation of asset rules again depending on age/health etc).
The house has already been half passed to you which is a trick many people miss so you’re already ahead of the game compared to most.
If it’s a few tens of thousands you’re realistically unlikely to run into trouble. If it’s substantial sums them more likely to arise the suspicions of the council should care be required (and despite what most people assume, only a very small percentage of the elderly end up in long term care for a substantial period).

We stayed at the Hotel Du Vin which was very nice and was offering good deals at the time. Good location and nice restaurant.

Decathlon?

They’ve got one on their site that’s about £13 and looks similar. There’s usually something there at a reasonable price. I’ve got an older design knocking around in the garage. Does the job for not much cash.

Brave man. I did everything to avoid ever discussing mine and did my best to keep it hidden.

Had the op on the NHS about 12 years (aged 35 ish) or so ago and very glad I did. Breathing instantly better but the extra confidence of losing a ‘deformity’ was by far the biggest outcome.

You’ve got to really want it though as the op is pretty intensive and it’s a whole new world of pain for the first few weeks after (sneezing and coughing is something you really don’t want to do).

If you want to PM me then i’ll Be happy to talk to you if you have any specific questions. It’s a pretty rare condition and operation so it’s unlikely you’ll find too many people who know much about it.

I’ve dusted off all my mountain bikes and been enjoying them again.

Last to go is my Salsa Big Mama, need to get the forks sent off for a service and a rebuilt rear wheel and she’ll be good to go. Can’t believe it’s been sat there unloved for a good 5 years.

That looks like the Mountain Mayhem mud that stops everything in its track!

DJ, yep Mick still has the tiger based on one. 26” gnarl machine.

Mic hasn’t changed. Just means on a road ride he’s able to murder and bum further away from home so it’s easier to dispose of the bodies.

Droitwich canal is pretty good since they gave it an upgrade.
I got all the canal maps a few years back and have done most of the canals within a 20 mile radius of Birmingham. It’s an interesting way to view the city from different perspectives. Plus it’s a nice way to get some decent car free miles in.

Mboy, Mic got his mtb back a week ago (had given it to a mate for months) so he may well be up for a bimble around the Wyre. He got it all running again last week so should be good to go.
I bet it’s totally different from when we used to ride it religiously on a Wednesday night.
Dan, i’ve Got July 1st to 12th as holiday soon so weather willing be be heading out somewhere from Bromsgrove if you’re around. Definitely gonna do the Worcester ride. Canal out to Stratford is a good ride too but it’s a 60+ miler which would be a struggle for me at the moment!

I still ride with Mic but we’re mostly Road these days. Wyre forest was always our go to place with some excellent trails but not been there for a while. Local knowledge is pretty useful there though.
Funnily enough, in the covid lockdown I’ve got all my Mtb’s back up and running and did my first run up to the Lickeys for a few years a week ago and really enjoyed it.
I’ve been pootling around the footpaths and parks in Bromsgrove the last few weeks and just enjoying mountainbiking again.
Will do the canal ride down to Worcester again at some stage soon which is a good 40 miler.

I’m doing it, start time of 7:30am.

I’ve done some training but know I’ll struggle in the last 30 miles, especially with the client climb at 85 miles. I went up there last month and it was fine but it’ll be very different with 80+ miles in my legs by then.

I think the climbing will catch out a lot of people. I did the Ride London in August but this is roughly double the climbing. The route guide says the route from Droitwich to Clent is mostly flat and I can assure you that it most certainly is not, there are at least 3 climbs in between that will test out tired legs and various ‘lumpy’ bits.

Stil looking forward to it, mostly just for the closed road novelty, even though a lot of the route is on my doorstep that I ride regularly anyway.

Placing life assurance in trust is usually done so that any benefits can be paid out easily to the beneficiaries before probate needs to be done. Most life assurance companies should be able to provide you with a simple trust form for free. I’d try that before parting with £300. Unless of course he’s recommending a trust for an entirely different reason as it’s not clear in your original post.

I’ve got a first generation XL Honzo. The frame weighed in about 7lbs if I recall (I built mine from frame only). It’s a fun bike but I haven’t ridden it in a while as have ended up on the road bike more. Must wipe the dust off it and get it out again. It rides lighter than it feels on the scales. Running mine with 140mm 20mm Revs, made a surprising difference over the 120mm I started with.

I’ve got that engine in my A5. It’s not the quietest at idle but I’ve had no major issues with it in 60k miles. Having said that, a £5 part of a plastic manifold snapped which resulted in having to replace the whole bloody thing at £600!! Seems pretty quiet once it’s moving and oil consumption is not great but it only takes a 5l bottle over the space of a year or so (although this is only 10k per annum) which is only about £30.

Johndoe, I have an A5 Quattro as well and I know exactly what you’re talking about. It’s the most hateful gearbox and my next car will be another manual. No more autos for me until I’m at retirement age!

I had a remap done but it did nothing to help. I bought the powerful petrol model and Quattro as I wanted the acceleration from a standstill and I’m so disappointed that any manual car on the road can gap me in the first 30 yards. It’s put me off ever having another Audi. It’s a well known problem apparently but Audi do nothing about it.

Have you replaced the big rubber band thing that powers the main brush? Mines gone several times but the replacements are only about a fiver for the pair and easy to fit.

I’ve been on an IO mortgage for 12 years and have been quite happy with it. Unfortunately my area has not benefitted massively from house price growth and it’s only gone up about 15% in that time but I occasionally pay some extra off it a make my savings elsewhere. Seeing as my lifetime tracker is currently sat at 0.73%, even my cash isa rate exceeds that, let alone my other savings.

I will,at some stage, get a sizeable inheritance (maybe 2) but hopefully not before I retire. As above though, I’ve always played it safe whereas with the benefit of hindsight, I should have borrowed massively for a bigger house in a better area and I’d now be quids in. A £400k mortgage would currently be costing me around £260pm and I’d be in a much nicer house with loads of room for my family. Whether I’d be happier or not I couldn’t say.

I’m an ifa and in my experience the people who’ve gambled (not recklessly) have generally done very well, although the wealthier they are, the more convinced they are that they’ll lose it all. Sadly, lots of these people die with massive assets that they never got to enjoy. I wonder sometimes why they worked so hard to save it if it never does them any good.

I’ve got an A5 2.0tfsi (2011) and real world mpg is about 25, not remotely close to the published 37. Plus I hate my auto box and will be going back to manual in my next car. I’m not a diesel person either but this engine is nowhere near powerful enough to justify the mpg (I have the 211bhp variant). My dad has an S6 (4.0l V8) which gets roughly the same as mine. If I have a day of ‘spirited driving’ I’ll get closer to 19 mpg.

This was my first Audi and will be my last. Ymmv

Mine also get through a load of oil as well (although one 5l bottle a year mostly covers it) which Audi seems to think is well within normal parameters. Muppets.

If you join Stourbridge tennis club you have a good chance of seeing him regularly.

I thought about using my credit card when I bought my motorbike years ago but if I recall the dealer would let me use it for the deposit but it was about an additional 3% charge or thereabouts to use it for the full purchase. Things may have changed since then.

I’m in the same boat as you, with the CX5 top in my wife’s opinion so far. However, all the reviews out now say the new Seat Ateca is the one to go for and we’ve literally just returned from having a look at one this morning in our local dealer. They’re not out yet officially but there is one touring the country at the moment before the launch next month. It seemed very nice ( no test drives allowed yet as the car was left hand drive) and apparently drives more like a car than its competitors. Nice looking, pretty upmarket interior and good choice of specs and engines. We’re putting off buying anything until we’ve had a proper drive in the Seat.

We don’t like diesels generally and there is a good 150ps 1.4 petrol engine that looks like a great choice, especially compared to the 2.0 in the CX5.

Just because some sunglasses are expensive it doesn’t automatically make them better. You’re often just paying for the branding that they’ve built up. The mark up can be huge. I bought 2 pairs of Giro glasses from my LBS when they had a few pairs left after they stopped stocking them, they were RRP £100 & £90 and they let me have them at their cost price which was £25 each, that’s a hell of a difference. For general riding I use clear lense ones that I got at decathlon for £7 each and I can’t fault them.
But as has already been said, if you like posh sunglasses and are happy to spend hundreds, then go for it, everybody’s different.

Love my 1st gen Fargo. My favourite bike, pretty heavy (especially in my XXL) but by far the most comfortable bike I’ve ever owned. The 2.35″ big apples do help with that though.

You don’t need the home button. There’s a setting in the phone which puts a digital one onto the screen instead.

The chap in the Apple Store put it on my aging iPhone 4 as the home button is hit and miss.

Edit. Go to settings, then accessibility and turn on assistive touch.

Apparently it was designed to help people with disablement to their hands.

I’ve just stepped into my first posh wellies with an impulse purchase of some Hunter Balmoral Hawksworth boots. Love them so far but I’d expect mine to have a pretty easy life as I don’t have a dog to be out with everyday.

Got mine in a outlet shop that only had them in size 12 & 13 so heavily ‘discounted’ to £100. Cheapest I could find elsewhere was £200+ which is crazy for wellies.

Only tried them on to kill time but was amazed at how comfy they were compared to any other wellies I’d owned so decided to bite the bullet and try them out. They look nice too.

Hopefully they won’t fall apart as per other people’s experiences.

Bump for the evening crowd before I stump up full price…..

Cheers

Cheers but it won’t work for Bontrager unfortunately. Or most other brands oddly reading the small print!

Anything else out there?

Thanks

Afraid not Ton, I already have way too many bikes in the garage, including my massive XXL Fargo ‘cross” bike. I’m trying to make some space.

My XL Kona Honzo is still sat in my garage Ton…….. ;-)

Steel, burly, fun etc etc

My dad left his trainers in a changing room once and when he went back to get them somebody had stolen the insoles.

Always had good service from them but if their products were better I’d never have had to find out. I’ve had 3 of their lights and the first was always going wrong and is now dead, the two newer ones I was foolish enough to buy get nowhere near the burn times they should.

Love the design and ease of their lights but I will not be buying from them again in the future, it’s not worth the hassle.

Just out of interest, for those of you that caused damage to unoccupied cars, how many of you hung around to fess up and pay for any damage?

Just wondering?

My car had its bumper ripped off whilst in a car park and I was just full of joy that the ****t had just driven off leaving me with the bill.

Bell Laps on my Fargo and my Canyon Road bike. Love them.

I’ve got an unused XL Honzo sat in the garage that I could be persuaded to part with?

Burly build, hope hoops, xt/XTR but it’s 1×10 and is not designed for a front mech (given your health issues that may not be suitable for you?)

The XL is a 20″ frame with a longer TT than the L. 130mm 20mm thru axle revs

Great fun bike but I barely Mtb these days

It’s pretty easy to ride up to the Lickeys from bromsgrove on back roads and footpaths. Riding area is limited but there’s still enough up there to kill an hour or two. Me and Mick have ridden off-road over to the Wyre but it was a 60+ mile ride and a bit of an all dayer.

There is a good off-road route up over the Lickeys to Clent and back which I’ve done with Mic Arms a few times.
Finally, there’s easy access to the canal network which can take you up into Brum or down to Worcs. I’ve down Stratford once but again, that was 60/70 miles and a full day ride.

Me and Mic both live in Bromsgrove.

I get an extra 0.5% on my cash isa account but apart from that it isn’t really any different to my standard accounts.

I think it also allows you to take out a few hundred quid more each day from your account than the standard account does.

There’s a load to choose from on eBay. I bought one for my car and it’s been fine. It was around £30 I think.