Jonboy

There are some models of gas smart-meter out there that can communicate directly, but most go via the electric meter because the short range communication to an electric meter needs a much smaller battery (the electric meter obviously takes it running power direct from the mains supply). I am currently in the fun position where the gas meter is happily submitting readings via the electric meter, but the electric readings are not being submitted….

Is that with Larkmead? If so, we are finding they seem to be leaving all the specialist cat treatment to a specific Vet (who is admittedly very good) and getting the required appointments with her needs booking well in advance.

This is locally generated, franked NHS letters from the John Radcliffes Post room rather than anything out-sourced.

We apparently have recruitment issues round here in Oxfordshire and appear to be getting it every other day, up from once a week recently (although we get very little these days anyway). The only bit that bothers me is that various areas of the law work on the basis of timely delivery (service assumed second day after posting first class etc) and the local NHS depend heavily on it, and there seems to be no acknowledgement of this in the various discussions around it.

The horse set round here seem to be a law unto themselves when going to/from events, particularly when it comes things like seatbelts on children, observation, right of way and other areas.

Generally if they give assistance over 15mph they are not e-bikes and should be licensed under motorcycle rules. one manufacturer sells them as fully legal for uk use, but their website details the easy (move one wire apparently) modification to unlock the higher power mode if you want it for private roads….!

You wouldn’t fit a fire engine on the levels of the Luton car park height wise and I have a suspicion the car park would have a vehicle weight limit far below that of a fire engine (round here there is car park built over a mezzanine with a 5 ton vehicle (not per axle or any other measure) limit. I haven’t seen any images of mains risers etc in the press yet but would assume they are present.

There are a few more than two but they are still a temporary legal trial which is supposed to be used for feedback to shape the final law. Round here there are very few e-scooters, but seemingly more and more of the modded e-bikes that can go excessively fast.

If you replace the weights with 17 and 12 stone I could have written that post Jim. For me what has changed my mindset this summer was getting someone to cycle with regularly for a couple of hours twice a week.

The driver seemed to realise he was in the do do, and just stopped whilst the copper did a three point turn and followed him meekly to a safe spot to have the chat….

Had a Audi overtake a couple of cars behind me and then myself at around double the speed limit; drew up to the next car and attempt to overtake it approaching a blind bend only to have to throw out the anchors for a police traffic car coming the other way on patrol….was slightly surprised the driver just stopped after the imbecilic manner of his overtaking…

Stupid question but is the system time and date correct?

They only warranty the in house display for 12 months and are under no obligation to replace that part of it( I believe they class it as “gift”). There is an app called Bright from a company called Hildebrand that can connect to most smart meters, or they do replacement IHD for around £50 that they send preconfigured to your meter. (Alternatively some people sell their IHD on eBay and you could discard the meter and just use the cable)

Normally after the first £15k or so dividends are more tax efficient than salary payments for what was a family owned firm (exact position may vary). I have seen the £77million was over 10 years and their annual turnover for 2022 was a apparently £1.24 billion and lower than in previous years (summary here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilko of you don’t wanna wish to wade through companies house filings) , suggesting the dividends were less than 1% of turnover over the period** and at least five of the last seven years they were in profit (one of the years covering covid lockdowns). **That is probably less than the random fluctuations they saw on each of exchange rates/fuel/energy prices and several other variable costs over the period

All marketing, makes the £15k version on hire purchase look so much more reasonable to the yuppies…

When the wife’s Grandmother went into care it emerged her utilities were still in her late husbands name 30 years after he had passed and the grandmother had not dealt with Probate for him at the time. Thames Water wouldn’t do anything regarding the account without speaking to him, and having got the mother in laws phone number kept calling asking to talk to her late father regarding the now overdue account (property was vacant pending sale to fund grandmothers care costs so rates should have been suspended). Ultimately the mother in law gave the cemetery address as his forwarding address and blocked their number.

I would ultimately ask for a smart meter and loose the ladders.

We are currently having almost all residential areas changed to 20mph round here in Oxfordshire. As a cyclist who averages 16-18mph it is awful, instead of motorists making a clean overtake they hang on your back wheel for a lot longer than they used as the approaching traffic takes longer to reach and pass presenting a gap the motorists feel is appropriate. If they do get past you then catch up with them at the next parked car, traffic light, traffic calming measure etc and if you choose to pass them the whole charade starts again…. At some point increasing the amount of time cars and bikes are in close proximity and number of overtake attempts must have an impact in accident numbers and I doubt it’s going to be in the correct direction in the longer term.

but, but, but it doesn’t tell you which service, utility company and contractors are involved - adding four more lines of text at least -rank amateurism by some examples round here recently…

I totally get that, despite knowing how they work for me they are normally a great reminder to unsubscribe from said emails…along with any company that schedules such emails on Xmas day, Easter Sunday, overnight or just when I am feeling grumpy…

Almost any pictures or URL’s within the email will also have such tracking links that feed back on an individual basis.If you download pictures or your email client or email service does it automatically it will show the email as opened. If you click any link within such emails to view something on their website it will likely direct you through the mail service server, log you clicked it and then forward you to the website page (some websites are a bit more advanced) Overall it can provide very useful feedback to the marketing team on what email formats are interacted with, read the most and lead to orders. The same stats also show how many customers unsubscribed or emails bounced (which needs to be kept low to keep a low spam score with outlook/hotmail/gmail etc). On a person by person basis it is tedious data that is of very little interest and I write this from the point of view of a wholesaler who knows more than half our divisions clients individually…. We could set up the “you are not opening our emails, here’s a voucher” or similar messages to run automatically (e.g. for any customer who hasn’t opened the last 10 messages/in last 60 days etc etc) if we wanted.

A couple of months ago a friend got me back on the road bike a couple of times a week after several years hiatus. Pleased to have knocked out just over 50 miles this morning, although the wife just laughed when I said she might need to massage some feeling back into my buttock’s…

I normally shop in Aldi shortly after opening in the morning, and never had issues, went in at 7pm the other week and thought I must have missed another lockdown announcement….

Have you seen the width of the pillars either side of a modern car windscreen, can easily lose cyclists and small cars at roundabouts and certain none 90 degree junctions with mine…..

There was one that was a photo of glitter in the works last weekend…