I have just checked out my Google Street view.  It shows an empty driveway from one angle with my van that I bought about 3 years ago, parked outside.  If I look from another angle, it shows my wife’s previous car in the driveway, that she got rid of about 5 years ago.

As I WFH, I have more me time due to not wasting two hours travelling to and from work.  I walk my dogs between 10-12KM a day (split over a few walks). If I wasn’t currently recovering from a MTB injury, I’d mountain bike 2-3 times a week.  I dabble in wood working and I’m more focused is I’m working a commissioned job (a job that family or friends ask me to do but not paid).  I garden but less now that ‘the summer that never was’ has passed and we’re into autumn.  So thinking about it, I have a lot of me time but then again my youngest is 23.

I am a full member (paid up in August 2024) but on every forum I go into I get a bloody video clip forced in the middle of the page.  I normally then move down the page to force it out of site but then it is placed on the lower right of my screen and still playing.

I thought being a full member meant you could avoid ads and such crap???

What sort of prices are you paying for your broadband?

We had three degus in a home built cage that was large enough for my daughter to stand in.  Unfortunately, they were bought from a pet shop and were never handled enough and we couldn’t break that cycle. Each time we went near the cage they scattered like I was a predator coming to eat them 🙁

My wife has long  said I have ADHD but I never paid it any real mind as I was was always restless and fidgety.  After reading these posts and doing a bit of Googling, I think I have to agree with her.  This is an extract from an NHS website and I check nearly every box.

• carelessness and lack of attention to detail
• continually starting new tasks before finishing old ones
• poor organisational skills
• inability to focus or prioritise
• continually losing or misplacing things
• forgetfulness
• restlessness and edginess
• difficulty keeping quiet, and speaking out of turn
• blurting out responses and often interrupting others
• mood swings, irritability and a quick temper
• inability to deal with stress
• extreme impatience
• taking risks in activities, often with little or no regard for personal safety or the safety of others – for example, driving dangerously

At 57, will I bother to get officially diagnosed?  Maybe not but the idea of experiencing life with the correct medication, does seem rather intriguing .  I did get myself professionally checked for dyslexia in my early 30s and sure enough, I am dyslexic. Which as it turns out, is also associated with ADHD.

So what cameras would you recommend?

I am paying €80 PM for 1GB broadband with Virgin Media (Southern Ireland).  One of the many offers from another provider that I am considering is 1GB for €34.99 per month for 12 months, then €75.99 PM.  Virgin Media just don’t want to compete, they seem to think they have it all wrapped up.

That reminds me of my honeymoon in USA.  We were staying in a house in New Jersey and left early in the morning to get a bus to Port Authority, New York.  It was in the middle of nowhere so we had to walk about 6KMs to the bus stop, after a while we decided to try hitch a lift.  Someone reported us and the local police stopped us, we explained our situation and they kindly dropped us to the bus top.  My one and only time in the back of a police car 🙂

I’ve bought a few items from them and never an issue.

Just one but she really loves it when I introduce her as my first wife.

I call mine my favourite wife.  She’s stuck with me for 30 years, so she’s definitely my favourite 🙂

And you somehow still have the time to post on this forum!

If they can build this then they can surely rebuild a wonky pub safely?

I pay €4PM for my Google Nest doorbell and 5 cameras being recorded for 30 days.  Mind you it’s only sounds and detected movement that’s record, not 24 hours a day.

Last year we replaced our 25 year old double glazing.  We got new triple glazing windows to the front of the house, this was recommended by the sales rep to reduce noise as the front faces a main road, the rear of the house was double glazed.

Did it make a difference to the bills?  I’m leaning towards yes but no empirical evidence.  It did eradicate condensation in the front and back rooms, reduced noise in the front and the windows have a much cleaner and nicer look.  The new front door also has multiple locking points so feels very secure.  It was a messy job and you end up having to sand and paint all around the new windows.

We have a horse but don’t have land so we have to pay to keep him in a local stables.  A young colleague of mine was boasting that himself and the missus just bought a king size bed and when I told him we had a super king bed he was stunned 🙂

I came from working class parents but according to the BBC link on page one I am Established Middle class, little did it know I’m Irish or it might have marked me down the rankings!

So, we’ve two days/two nights between Dublin and far south west. It could be we just stick to plan A – Wicklow and Roundwood campsite

What to do and any campsite suggestions?

I live in Wicklow but don’t have any experience with campsites.  However, there are a few bike trails in the area that I have experience of and I’ll gladly show you around them, assuming you are bringing the bike.

It looks good to me but I’m not sure if it’s MrsOmen’s cup of tea, she gets scared easily.

-2c .  I cycled my mountain bike into work to help with dodgy road conditions. However, my dropper post wouldn’t work (wouldn’t stay up).  It’s not the most comfortable way to cycle with your knees touching your chin.

I assumed the cold had something to do with it as it was fine on the journey home.

Sunset last night on my local trails

Malinois are amazing animals.  Last year I fostered two Malinois puppies from about 8 weeks old until they were 3 months old, until they found their forever homes  Just before COVID I had another young Malinois puppy (called Ruby) and she was adopted by a young local lady.  I still meet Ruby on my walks every few weeks and she gives me a lovely greeting.

I remember one man telling me that some dogs will scale you back garden wall to escape, a Malinois will scale your house to escape 🙂

I got a good laugh out of some of those replies 🙂

I haven’t bothered with Dry-anuary and maybe I should but it doesn’t impact my ability to do anything, other than driving as that would be driving under the influence.  MrsOmen might argue my performance might suffer but that’s for another discussion 🙂

I try to be environmentally aware in most aspects of my life. Then you look at what damage and resources are being used in Putin’s war on Ukraine, it makes you feel like your are p1ssing in the wind.

Love it ^

He was a singer too, Silver Lady

My daughter is interested.

“an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Based on the above definition is the hunting of animals a sport?  I’m not sure the animals would agree.

We have fostered a few over the years, from puppies to dogs.  We only ever had one problem dog and the charity took him back the next day. The bigger problem was giving them back.  We have two large dogs (they got jealous) and one cat, meant we never really able to keep any of them 🙁

I regularly meet up with one of the dogs we fostered on our walks as she was adopted very locally. She still remembers me.  What’s worse is my two dogs still remember her and still give her a hard time despite her still trying to win their approval.

About 5 years ago we got a collie mix for company with our then 3  year old black German Shepherd. They get on together so well and as the GS ages, the younger collie keeps her more active as the GS has a lazy disposition. 

We were told the GS will only live to about 10 years of age and not only will we be devastated when she dies but the collie will be lost without her.

We have tried to introduce a third dog so when the GS passes away the collie will have company but the two b1tches won’t accept another dog.  We’ve fostered a few young pups, male and female but none are accepted.

In answer to your question, would I do it again? Yes but as others have mentioned bills, mess and going away on holidays requires extra money and effort.

I have two original Play Ones that haven’t been used in a few years. I am trying to reconnect them to the Sonos app and it keeps failing despite resetting the speakers, hooking them up to an ethernet cable.  It’s quite frustrating.

This is from a Southern Ireland perspective and a middle income earner.  We are mortgage free so this helps a lot We don’t have government backed student loans and I earn too much for her to get any financial assistance.

My daughter is in University (entering her 3rd year and final year but dropped out of her first course before this) and she narrowly missed doing medicine by a few points.  She lives at home and commutes there by bus.  She works part-time but most of that money seems to be spent on her  non-education interests such as travelling and keeping online shops in business and her old Fiat 500.  She doesn’t socialise that much but that’s another story.

We pay her fees of €3000 PA, her private medical health insurance, we typically pay for her medical related costs that aren’t covered by the private health insurance (including all prescription medicines).  She lives rent free, doesn’t contribute to food or utility bills, . We’d sometimes pick up the tab for some of her car expenses.

For the previous 3 years we were also paying €300 PM to our son who was in a London university but that’s finished now.

We also pay €110 PW for her horse but my wife likes to use the horse so I guess it’s not single use.  Having said that, the use of the horse per cost ratio is pretty crap IMHO.  There are also other horse related expenses such as shoeing, medical, dental…  It costs a lot more to run a horse than a mountain bike (and an eBike at that)!

Having done well in a recent GAMSAT exam, she hopes to have enough points to do medicine next year.  This is where it becomes really expensive.  Medicine costs €16000 PA (4 years) and we have agreed to pay €12000 PA so she’ll have to work for the other €4000.

At 56 years of age, everything we pay for her means less for our retirement but medicine is a dream of hers since she was a kid so I don’t begrudge her.  We joke she is our pension but in reality we don’t expect anything back from her.

Shop assistants yapping on their mobile whilst simultaneously attempting to serve you. Surely the height of ignorance.

I was in a pub waiting to be served by the barman who was too busy on the phone to notice me. After a minute I shouted to him will I send you a text to order my drinks? To be fair be was embarrassed and apologised.

It really wasn’t his fault as I somehow always seem to wear a cloak of invisibility when I’m at a bar as they never see me…

I took up mountain biking in my 50s, back in my 40s I thought I was too old to start!

I got the attic and garage insulated with spray foam, windows and doors replaced (triple glazing in the front) and topped up the firewood.  Hopefully I’ll see a reduction in the utility bills for all this effort and cost.

There’s an interesting mix of those using MPH & KPH and of course those using both. Is the use of MPH for the cough older generation or of a certain political persuasion?

Myself and my wife are Irish and in our mid 50s, I use KPH but she can’t get her head around metric.

Thank you all for your suggestions\advice. We were just thinking of basing ourselves around Inverness and then travelling around from there.