Tony_S

I don’t think the Teachers Pension Scheme will be at all bothered if Aditi transferred her monthly pension from one High St bank to another. What we didn’t want to do was lose the ISA status of the investment account. In the past having to struggle to pay bills when I was ill and not earning, I never thought I would need to know about moving money in a tax efficient manner.

It certainly seems to have attracted their attention. Pity they didn’t respond properly last year when they froze access to our (a joint account originally just Aditi’s) bank account. The idiots eventually agreed that Aditi’s state and Teachers pension were legitimate sources of income and not money laundering. But we had to respond three times as they failed to keep a record,of the information. So we had provided the information, they hadn’t saved it, and so they froze access to the account. We then decided they were not people we wanted to have ISA accounts with. Our other bank (joint but historically mine) were very happy to arrange an ISA transfer that didn’t lose its ISA status as it would have if we had just closed the account out of irritation. Tony

Just had an email from one of our banks asking us if we need help with dementia friendly banking? I wonder if this is just a coincidence or related to us removing all our investment accounts from them last week. Tony

Years ago our hamster Zippy wasn’t eating and the vet said she needed some dental work as her incisors had curled and were growing into the roof of her mouth. So many people told us they wouldn’t have paid for dental treatment for a hamster, they would have just got a new one. What we did discover was that the tooth fairy doesn’t visit for rodent teeth.

I am sure our wills and LPAs were from a fixed price menu, but I know exactly what you mean.

And fits in with your comment about one of the unbroken bottles having lost its fizz, it could perhaps have vented through a less than perfect cork.

I am sorry to be bossy here but really you need to make an appointment with a gp to discuss your arthritis problems, it is affecting your mobility, the amount of paracetamol you are taking would be cause for liver function blood tests. Even if you have to start with a telephone appointment, it is a start. Covid did delay routine hip replacements but if you don’t start the process off you won’t get anything done.

Are you already on a waiting list? If you are, you should be getting some pain management advice?

Not a trick question. Years ago I thought many places in Yorkshire must be a bit grim but visits over the years have proved otherwise. My only visits to the northwest apart from a weekend in Chester have been drive throughs to the Lake District. We are hoping to meet some friends who live in Rochdale and visit RHS Bridgewater one day. My definition of a nice place, somewhere with some interesting history and where the car will still have its wheels when we return to it after a pleasant lunch.

I had a similar result once when I placed a bottle of Prosecco into the freezer to quickly chill and forgot about it.

I have never been to Wigan. Is it a nice place to visit at this time of year?

It is better though to get it done properly. We had our wills sorted/updated a few years ago. We felt it was dealt with very well. Mil needed to sort hers out but she wouldn’t use our solicitors (too expensive apparently).The difference was quite noticeable.

We didn’t need to have gas attack drills at both the secondary schools I worked at. The real thing happened frequently enough. Two nearby refineries would occasionally vent hydrogen sulphide. It doesn’t happen there anymore, both refineries have closed. Tony

Is it just the shuttle service? Will they need to provide emergency accommodation and food for those stranded?

Aditi had a colleague who would help himself to food from other peoples plates before they had finished. He used to teach on the college pastoral counselling degree. I sat opposite him once at a meal at a Chinese restaurant. He didn’t take my food. I think Aditi had warned him not to. Aditi once gave him dating advice as he said he never got a second date with anyone. She suggested not stealing their food was a good start. Tony

I stopped teaching science in 1985. Pupil safety was frequently mentioned in departmental meetings. Advice from various organisations was expected to be implemented. This was quite a relief after the first school I worked in where the Head of Science was seriously dangerous. After that I was an advisory teacher for IT and I think most of the advice was about protecting the equipment.

I don’t know if this will be “a bodge too far” for you but I don’t t think I ever had a special Romford screwdriver. I used an old screwdriver of about the correct width and cut and filed a slot on the middle of the blade. Though I suspect I won’t be able to find that either nowadays. It has been a very long time since I used such a thing.

Perhaps,if you arrange them into a little tower or buy a tiny bucket to put them in, you could pretend you are in a gastropub.

I think the plant based in @polybear s soup refers to the “creamy” bit. It used to be Creamof Tomato soup which would imply dairy content.I suspect “creamy” could mean looks like cream and might be any vegetable oil. I was,reading one of the local online news sources and a couple of vegan restaurants are now having to offer meat based options as they aren’t generating enough business otherwise.

It is only when it starts though. It isn’t an irritating noise unlike the pop pop exhausts fitted to tiny hatchbacks to make them sound faster.

We had a good journey to Solihull yesterday. The motorways were not at all busy which was fortunate as we left home exactly 40 minutes later than the time I thought we should be on our way. This was so we could have lunch somewhere before arriving at my aunts 90th birthday party at 2pm. We had time to purchase sandwiches from a Waitrose at Corley Services, eat them and then continue the journey. If we had been able to last until until we got to the party venue we would have been ok, there was a huge birthday tea of sandwiches , cheese board, and loads of cakes. My cousin had organised everything for her mother’s party. Aunty was the only one from her generation there but people of about my age who were the children of former neighbours. I was amused at how my cousin’s grandsons (age 6 and 8) decided Aditi would join in with their activities must be a reduced height thing! The journey back was fine too. We were home just after 8pm. We did think about visiting MiL in Enfield as we were quite close but when we phoned she said she was going to bed. Aditi’s brother has driven down from Kettering to her today so that will be a pleasant change for her. Tony

We sometimes hear our neighbour’s Lamborghini (are they not a sort of tractor?) starting up if he takes it out on a Sunday. We are normally asleep when he goes to work on weekdays.

I have somehow deleted my post about rainwear and only the umbrella quote remains. I did mention I had acquired a waterproof (windproof too) non bobble wooly hat. It really has been useful this winter. I was using a nice merino wool hat but it wasn’t waterproof. The new one is made by a company called Sealskinz but it doesn’t contain any animal products! We are sorting out our rain wear ready for our summer trip to Iceland. I don’t want our days out to be spoiled by the wrong clothing. The official guides mention rain quite a lot.

Until recently in the UK people reaching 70 years of age were offered a shingles vaccine. This was a live vaccine , single dose. It was not suitable for people with compromised immune systems. I couldn’t have it due to being on immunosuppressive medication. So I was given the more expensive two dose vaccine, Shingrix. When Aditi went for her vaccine a few weeks ago she was a bit concerned about whether there was a risk to me if she had a live vaccine. No they said , because everyone gets the 2 dose product now. In some countries the vaccine is recommended for the over 50s. Here it can be administered privately for over 50s but £13 a shot seems rather different to the hundreds of pounds quoted at other pharmacies

I drove past the slip road to the start of the M45 at lunchtime. Didn’t see Dick Turpin. Probably sent to Coventry…