I did a batch cook of Bolognaise sauce today. Hob and splashback tiles needed a good clean afterwards too.
What have you been doing today?
- Thread starter Mottie
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Funnily enough we have FD accounts and I was onto them at 03.00 this morning, trying to chase down some payments.
They are excellent.
A bit of argy bargy this morning. Seems like they can't agree where to dig next! There’s a bloke walking up and down with some kind of underground detector thingy pointing here, pointing there, others are pointing elsewhere. I think one of them is on the phone to head office…..I was assuming the main sewer was just into the road but it looks like it might be on the other side. Starting to get fed up with it now - I wish they’d just pull their finger out and get on with it. I think they must be on a day rate - they certainly seem to be dragging the job out.
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I've just cut my grass after No Mow May, it was up my knees in both the front and back. There was a noticeable increase in the number of birds and animals in my garden, I had a hedgehog in the front garden one night, that's the first one I've seen for years. I also had two foxes in the front and, I've never seen one in my frony garden, plenty in the back but never the front.
Went and had a check on todays progress and I can’t work out what’s happening. They have gone well past the middle of the road and under what I would assume is the main sewer pipe. Feck knows where they’ll end up!
I had a covid jab appointment, at a chemists, almost next to Lidl, so it would have been rude not to look in there....
The 12volt solenoid valve, for the automated garden watering project, was restricting the flow/pressure of water too much - there wasn't enough pressure at all the outlets. Lidl, happened to have a made for the job unit - valve plus irrigation timer, which runs on a couple of AA batteries. You just set up the days for it to switch on, how long to switch on for - six different programs can be preset. A very clever gadget indeed, and not expensive £14.
I guess it must somehow use the water pressure, to open and close the solenoid, the batteries certainly couldn't hold a solenoid valve open for long.
The 12volt solenoid valve, for the automated garden watering project, was restricting the flow/pressure of water too much - there wasn't enough pressure at all the outlets. Lidl, happened to have a made for the job unit - valve plus irrigation timer, which runs on a couple of AA batteries. You just set up the days for it to switch on, how long to switch on for - six different programs can be preset. A very clever gadget indeed, and not expensive £14.
I guess it must somehow use the water pressure, to open and close the solenoid, the batteries certainly couldn't hold a solenoid valve open for long.
In our water/timer the batteries turn a motor to open it and the same motor to close it off. It doesn't use solenoids and ours will open and close even if not connected to a tap so not water pressure dependant.
I think you are correct - there is a distinct click, when it opens and closes, whether the water is on or not.
Very clever devices, and there was me trying to put a similar system together from bits on the shelf
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I've been moving some cash about. I don't want to lock things away, because rates might change, or I might want to spend some or something.
Found a strange account at First Direct.
It doesn't often come up in the "Best of" lists because it's not "Easy Access", and for a fixed rate it's not the very highest.
The odd thing is that you can have several accounts. Closing them costs a flat £100, no loss of interest.
Normally you expect to lose 90 days', if it's possible to take the money out at all.
If you have say 40k in one, closing it loses you less than 3 weeks interest, and pro rata.
So I'll have a few with ratios of 1,2,3,4 or 1,2,2,4,8,12, or something. You'd close the largest which suited the amount you wanted out.
About the best for Isas I found is Virgin Money, 2 years /90 days loss of interest on early withdrawal.
An andvantage for you of holding a long fiixed non-isa rate is that you get to keep that rate if rates fall, but it can be criticial to your tax, too,
if earnings say this year push you across a tax threshold. If you defer the availability of the interest to when rates are lower, you'll have less comng in now, from other accounts.
The other thing you can do on that is buy stocks which pay good dividends. Mine bought for the purpose have yielded several percent, which is taxed separately from other income, and at lower rate. (Allowance is dropping, watch it).
I went through all this for a mate, who's retired and got himself stuck.
Found a strange account at First Direct.
It doesn't often come up in the "Best of" lists because it's not "Easy Access", and for a fixed rate it's not the very highest.
The odd thing is that you can have several accounts. Closing them costs a flat £100, no loss of interest.
Normally you expect to lose 90 days', if it's possible to take the money out at all.
If you have say 40k in one, closing it loses you less than 3 weeks interest, and pro rata.
So I'll have a few with ratios of 1,2,3,4 or 1,2,2,4,8,12, or something. You'd close the largest which suited the amount you wanted out.
About the best for Isas I found is Virgin Money, 2 years /90 days loss of interest on early withdrawal.
An andvantage for you of holding a long fiixed non-isa rate is that you get to keep that rate if rates fall, but it can be criticial to your tax, too,
if earnings say this year push you across a tax threshold. If you defer the availability of the interest to when rates are lower, you'll have less comng in now, from other accounts.
The other thing you can do on that is buy stocks which pay good dividends. Mine bought for the purpose have yielded several percent, which is taxed separately from other income, and at lower rate. (Allowance is dropping, watch it).
I went through all this for a mate, who's retired and got himself stuck.
I've just ordered a pair of prescription sunglasses online, for £21 inc. delivery. It's made me think about how the price of glasses is incredible these days. A similar pair I bought in the mid 1980s, cost £400 in today's money.
@JonathanM where did you go for those?
Goggles4u UK | Save 80% on Spectacles
Shop the finest quality spectacles & sunglasses from Goggles4u - starting at £6.95 only. Choose from a wide range of eyewear for Men, Women & Kids. Delivering since 2003.
www.goggles4u.co.uk
They seem to have a discount code every day, which you type in at checkout.
I've never used them before. I think they might be made abroad, maybe Vietnam.
I've used several other online firms, though, for normal prescription glasses and I think they were almost as cheap. Last one was GlassesDirect, where I bought intermediate/computer glasses.
EDIT: The discount applied was more than I had expected. I don't know if there was a fault. I was expecting about £25 + postage but it ended up about £17 + postage.
EDIT2: Discount is still working the same. It knocked 50% off automatically, taking the bill to £25, and then when I entered the code it knocked off another 31%.
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They look quite good, I'll give them a go. I always ask what my prescription is. I found they can be reluctant to tell what you your interpupillliary distance is, because that's not part of the prescription but it's needed by who ever makes the glasses. By doing that they're trying to make it hard for you to get specs made elsewhere. It doesn't change though. You can read it off decent binos or binocular microsopes.Goggles4u UK | Save 80% on Spectacles
Shop the finest quality spectacles & sunglasses from Goggles4u - starting at £6.95 only. Choose from a wide range of eyewear for Men, Women & Kids. Delivering since 2003.
They seem to have a discount code every day, which you type in at checkout.
I've never used them before. I think they might be made abroad, maybe Vietnam.
I've used several other online firms, though, for normal prescription glasses and I think they were almost as cheap. Last one was GlassesDirect, where I bought intermediate/computer glasses.
EDIT: The discount applied was more than I had expected. I don't know if there was a fault. I was expecting about £25 + postage but it ended up about £17 + postage.
EDIT2: Discount is still working the same. It knocked 50% off automatically, taking the bill to £25, and then when I entered the code it knocked off another 31%.
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