Jonboy

This is the real laugh, Ant and Dec alone reportedly take home more than the entire beeb list of “talent” that are on over £150k.

Our industrial estate street names around 6 years, tv licensing promptly duplicated the records rather than amend, so two rounds of regular threats started appearing. mind you openreach did the same...

We have a couple of sets of traffic lights round here, controlling narrow Bridges (crossing the thames), one of which is 200 yards long. This type of game is common there in rush hour. Last night a merc was positioned behind me on the wrong side for a good 20 car lengths ready to put the boot down if the lights changed.

Something to be aware of is that sharing via picture message/text will cost around 45p on many tariffs (pay as you go and some contracts). Sending via email as above (or messaging apps such as Facebook messenger or WhatsApp for example) will cost a lot less as it goes as mobile data (or free if connected to WiFi). this is just something to be aware of if Mrs Spikey or other friends or family get/have smartphones.

There are lots of oddity's in the pension world at the moment, such as https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17960800.retired-plumber-fears-financial-ruin-1-2m-pension-scheme-debt/ .

It should be noted the linked guidance relates to VAT registered businesses, and not private individuals who will likely have different procedures available to them.

installed this today to give it a go and found no mini dump files to analyse, guess windows must of cleared them in the reset process.

because it’s the only part that’s changed, and the only part that changes itself by design.

So 8 working days into using my work pc, upgraded to 10 over Xmas I suffered BSOD crash on startup and had to reset windows.....which having suffered similar antics on a laptop was why I had held out for so long....

There is a company local to here that deals in warranty’s for another domestic item (that is subject to regular damage through consumer neglect/accidents). They apparently pretty much stopped taking on permanent staff in favour of temps in the call centre as no-one would put up with the customers attitudes long term.

Is it just me that is impressed with the way retailers are seemingly avoiding any scrutiny for their failures under the sale of goods act to ensure their stock was fit for purpose? I am also surprised that whirlpool are offering refunds when they wouldn’t have seen a substantial part of the margin in the first place. Are they full refunds or is there a wear and tear allowance taken from it? (we did have one of the tumble dryers in the previous recall, sadly it died a normal end of life in the year(!) between registering it on their website and them contacting us to arrange a repair...).

With accountants the bill will depend on what you give them, give them a nice clean list of sales and purchases, that match your bank, etc and the tax calculations will be quick, low cost and reliable. Give them a shoebox of receipts, unclear sales and you will pay for the time to get it organised Also, start looking for next years filing in the spring as they will generally charge a premium this close to filing day, if they can fit you in at all. (accountants have chatrooms too )

Will be Interesting to see how this affects post from the uk to these markets. And what this will do for the Chinese exporters who send on mass to forwarders in the Netherlands for it to enter the postal system for onward travel to the UK (often a cheaper way than sending direct). Could get interesting for a while.

I finally updated my work pc to from 7 to 10 over Xmas, having been ignoring the IT Managers requests for at least 18 months due to the poor experience on my home laptops and actually am quite impressed with it for the work experience. The free upgrade from 7 to 10 still worked as well. Sticking with Linux mint on the home pc mind you....

I have been known to have a single pint if I am aware I won’t be driving for 4 or 5 hours (e.g. when at long winded weddings). Even if I wanted to drink more I wouldn’t dare as the strength of ales varies so much these days.

my grandfather had two, homemade to help the lawnmower reach the bottom of the garden...

To me personally these look like the things loving family members would buy the steam punk enthusiast in their life....rather like a certain clock that is still worth the manufacturer paying for regular adverts for....

I have worked in an office of around 8 to 10 staff at any one time, for 16 years from the lowest position to the highest. In that time we have been through around 50 staff with around three moving on to new pastures each year (not counting those who don’t last more than a couple of weeks). one thing I have observed is that people adapt to naturally fill the social positions as these changes occur, the chatty one, the bitchy one, the lazy one, the quiet one, the geek, the stubborn one, the social butterfly etc. Etc. if a prime position such as grumpy one comes up for grabs, someone will fill it naturally...Every time...

less worried about the owners now the murdochs aren’t involved, it is more Martin Brundle that kept me away last season. I may however suck that one up and give nowtv a go this year as I don’t like the lack of continuity in constant highlights...

are you sure on those numbers, I am sure you went away for a week around 2010, when we had mod’s 1 through 6 to annoy instead?

We bought the father in law an Ender 3 for his birthday back in the summer. The included vinyl bed mat gave no end of adhesion issues, changing it to their glass version solved it all instantly.

Regarding your payment issue some of our European customers use transferwise to pay us cross borders, as a better value service than their banks and with less hassle.

Why would an accountant know the details of confidential internal policy’s and procedures of a particular model railway supplier? They will likely be able to advise typical possibilities but won’t Typically have any direct contact with the suppliers.

I manage a SME wholesaler to small retailers and we see a roughly 50/50 split in registrations for small bricks and mortar for ltd vs sole trader. Partnerships are rarely seen. I make decisions based on trading history, by which I mean frequency, volume and how easy you are to deal with. (Sadly) History shows If customers are a pain to collect proforma payments from, and make lots of alterations(changes and removals/returns) to orders in the early days, they are likely to be a hassle to collect payments from in the longer term simply because they are likely to be disorganised, even without the roller coaster that retail can be. where ltd vs sole trader can make a big difference is if the supplier is using credit insurance/factors to underwrite debtors (with or without your knowledge, beyond the pages of t&c’s many use, as a customer) as the insurer will be calling the shots. The other thing that can help is simply picking up the phone and talking through your requirements with the credit controller in advance(or in advance of them calling you in the case of an unexpected issue, such as recent changes to water billing that have thrown some retailers cash flow out). If they understand your requirements they can help work through them.

Slightly surprised earlier as I bought a bottle of wine and 4 bottles of ale in the local coop on their self service machine, paying in cash. No red light and eternal wait for ID check, and no staff member on the main tills to approve remotely, so not sure how they checked....unless it simply not a yoof choice of alcohol...