PeterBB

Thanks @Jamie. You have just stirred a memory. Many years ago a young cousin was playing with her dad's motorbike . My aunt told him that was so and he replied words to the effect that it was safe and would not fall over ... then suddenly my aunt screamed at him "The kids have got the b****y thing started". My uncle was a big man but he then moved quite quickly as he heard the clutch ... thankfully no injury and the cousin is well into the 70s now.

We did too but nearly lost it as a resultof the waiting time for the tax office as the only way to sort their error. They allow a very tiny bit over but on a repeat they then go back to the full unlimited time option but that cost quite a bit more. Going back to pension payments - the day pensions are 'delivered' is dependant on the last two numbers of your NI number thus 00-19 - Monday; 20-39 - Tuesday; 40-59 - Wednesday; 60-70 - Thursday; 80-99 - Friday - not related to my half-remembered birthday thought.

Sorry to hear that White Rabbit, not the news I would think anyone would like to hear but hopefully ... inoperable was the information given to my father but he lived another twenty years although admittedly the last two were not the best, but thoughts are with you.

Yes, it is 'every 4 weeks' and payments come on certain days depending - cannot quite remember the criteria - but believe it relates to birthday SWMBO gets hers on a different day from mine.

With the 'loan' system currently in place the above statement is probably true but there again a few years ago it was deemed that 50% of children would go to uni that in turn made it uneconomic for county councils to fund scholarships ... hence the current system where public school trainees pay less than school fees and everybody else has to spend a lifetime paying back the 'loan'. Not sure if this is a rant and hope not political.

Not sure if NHS still does but in terms of removal expenses to a new position a minimum time in post was required to avoid having to pay back the said expenses.

@PhilH, @GDB @polybear Interesting thoughts. Have been doing DIY for over 70 years yet still find it irksome to pay (extortionate prices) for work that I am quite capable of doing howbeit take a fair bit longer to complete these days. SWMBO still thinks I do 'too much', probably has a point, although in work on things that run on parallel strips of metal says that I should be doing more but always disagrees with the plans then made. Sold an exhib one some years back but am reluctant to dismantle the other at present as it holds some great memories and the bits are worth more to me than selling it off. Future time to be spent on a club layout ... @The Lurker. @Gwiwer. We too had a bailif call on one occasion, it seemed that former tenants who had scarpered without paying rent had also run up some other bills. This was some time after we had located them and successfuly summoned them to court. The latter came from thinking that we knew where one worked so day 1 park up near to check suspicion - tick, another day follow for a mile or two - tick, and not long after found out the current abode, checked it again and then made the necessary arrangements. They were surprised to be summoned, denied it, but the proof was there as they had been reminded in the appropriate manner a time or few. It therefore cost them rather a lot as they had court costs to pay as well as our back rent.

Happy birthday Mike. Yes, it could well have been the 70s as it was with ex. Thanks for the reply. Came across 1975 as the year while working through the posts above as the likely year, also seems that you had fun and games at the clubhouse.

Since food and what I will euphemistically call 'pop' music not been to my taste although the 60s was ghenerally OK - but I do appreciate classical music and particularly pre-Russian revolution composers, did visit the Old Vic fairly frequently when is was Shakespeare, can take the odd opera but much prefer the light-hearted e.g Gilbert and Sullivan variety, the latter especially when playing the redundant G-trombone in the school,orchestra.

Thanks for the trigger. One Easter while camping in the Peak District woke up to find 5" of snow on the tent - probably early 80s, Mike Bellamy might remember the actual year. I might add that I am one of those who hates the cold and is really really glad to be retired when there is snow on the road and no need to 'brave it' for work. ID That Nimrod performance was fantastic and very moving as it is/was also as part of a band playing it.

Its quite possible that i have unintentinally heard a Pink Floyd song.

Too many pages to go through although started. One topic noted was 'kitchens'. We too are in this process and ID basically has it in a nutshell. although in my case generally leave cooking to SWMBO since - as you know - food is not my thing. Obviously it is pertinent that I agree .... Beyond that other changes but like the kitchen generally there is a need but ... now, the sooner it is started and better still finished ... today we have a 'start date' so we will see. Putting the place 'right' has and does involve 'Poly work' as well and we still have boxes (circa things that run and involved with metal ...) but the "When are you going to build ..." comes up. On a different note visited a place in Swindon yesterday - definitely worth 5 stars- and with superb 'blue card parking' meant SWMBO enjoyed it.

@monkeysarefun I take your point when it is mandatory to vote but have noted the mess in a number of situations when the overall effect is stalemate or 'nothing positive' takes place because a will not work with B if they want this and C won't work with A becaue of this and that - the 'take things seriiusly and discuss' does not seem to happen.

Absolute wow!

According to a lot of 'companies' thjey don't need to - 'just log-in to their mobile and the information is all there to see!' as they expect everybody to have up to date mobiles and the ability to use them. Coming down to earth, with no credit card and no' high polluting' mobile how are you going to pay the excessive car park fees with cash? Oops it seems it became a rant.

'Eruditedly' the above sounds a bit like an epoxy glue!

Well we are an erudite group this morning, not heard that word for a long time.

Truly a surprise when the bagpipes appeared.

We obviously live in the 'wrong' area for that sort of price. Scaffolding added quite a bit to ours but boy are they efficient!

Came back on-line to ER. Thoughts with TheQ and his family. Still trying to downsize as we need space, DAve's daily walks and with others lots of interesting pictures. Life expectancy - ONS figures and IDs comments both very interesting - like to live but hope not to end upsitting in a chiar somewhere and not really being with it or in so much pain and with nothing that can be done about it. Council tax - local cannot recall ur band at present but believe we will pay similar to GDB - nothing we can really do about that but have read that Burton has lost its brewing heritage site because of apparently dodgy council decisions and Derby council also doing some silly things although the good news as I see it is that Deby is the new national home for the 1:1 models that we perhaps know a bit about. Soldering irons and Poly Bear Phil and GDB as well as our very arthritic friend having problems. Brits and other drinking habits, Greek mythology - didn't access as it wanted 'agreement' - the trouble with skimming is you think that you will remember the topics when you come to comment as you blog but the mind goes blank making the last few hours ... Anyway best wishes and condolences as appropriate.

Remember the construction well. During my student days my 'mapping area' involved driving up many times to Oban past the then very narrow A85 road that gradually became wider as the rock from the boring was tipped into the deep Loch Awe. Many years later, approx 20 years ago, was quite impressed by it as a visitor to the working station. It uses more power than produced in pumping water back up to Cruachan Reservoir but but its main concept - power at peak times - works. Also visited one in Wales and there are many others these days. @Hroth said that UK could do with more mountains etc. - the problem with this is how they are formed viz. normally earthquakes and resultant massive earth movements and we know just what else can happen with these events as exemplified by the tragedy of Turkey and Syria. Thus, the statement 'Be carefull what you wish for' can have massive consequences. Also liked iDs assessment of 'alternative medicines'.

Good night all.

Ditto

And of course the Isle of Wight sands. Thoughts were also of Chris F whom I did meet at shows although hadn't realised today would also have been his birthday.

Interesting article on costs but it starts off with 90% of tomatoes in supermarkets come from abroad yet towards the end it states that a UK grower provides 40% of the tomatoes for supermarkets. Someting does not quite fit.