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391

General Discussion Area / Bahamas

« on: 05 April 2011, 08:15:28 »

Just back from holiday - on motoring front the only quirky thing is that they drive on left as a former UK dependency (until 1973) but most of the cars are left hand drive given proximity to US and therefore easier access to LHD.

The hotel thought it was cute to send a whacking extended limo to pick the 2 of us up from airport. I quite like the big Lincolns we used during trip though.

This caught my eye:

392

General Discussion Area / Difficult decision - do I really clear the loft

« on: 31 January 2011, 16:08:42 »

After 36 years of marriage you can guess the amount of valuable goods we have collected over this amount of time.

But how long do you hang on to this stuff/ will anybody really be bothered only you.

Keep - yes - photos, Leeds United programmes from 60s and 70s

But what about games from the 60s - Mine a Million, Formula 1 - should I bin them or continue to store as  momentos. My son would scrap the lot.

I have several tonnes of books - again - why can I not wiz them - after still giving laods to charity shops.

So yesterday I rented 100 sq ft from Big Yellow Storage (just opened in Camberley) and started to at least get the stuff out of the loft and garage -  to review it all , knowing it is costing me money if I keep storage beyond 8 week offer period which is quite cheap.

In the meantime will get the loft re-insulated. Then what to load back in is the question.

Anybody else a hoarder - or do you find it easy to throw out old school/college papers, birthday cards/anniversary cards, clothes?

393

General Discussion Area / Potterton Suprima

« on: 26 November 2010, 14:49:37 »

Boiler has worked fine for 5 years but last 2 days boiler is running but no heating being delivered consistently - thought it may have been pump or room stat.

My wife called in a heating engineer different to the plumber installer who says that it is not wired correctly. Bascially pump is supposed to be wired in directly by running additional cable from airing cupboard to pump. This was never done but boiler as said has been working.

Proposal is to change pcb to see if that corrects problem. Has anyone come across the issues of the need for this extra pair of wires - is this likely to be part of the problem?

394

General Discussion Area / combi boilers and triton showers

« on: 29 May 2010, 20:35:41 »

Silly me - I thought I would have a chill out weekend but then the call comes from my daughter.

Basically the thermostat lock on the heat control valve cover has broken but in any case apparently the water temperature variation has been all over the place for some time - scalding one minute freezing the next.

At my house we are on gravity plus power showers so no problems but can anyone confirm that with a combi boiler and a theromstatic valve you are bound to have problems with water temperature control if someone runs a tap elsewhere and any solutions.

I suspect one of the problems is that as my daughter is in a victorian terrace on a shared supply with two other houses there is an increased problem.

I have had a go at trying to set the temp with a wrench whilst the valve cover is wrecked but it is impossible.

Anything recommended for  showers with combis?

395

General Discussion Area / Council salting of roads - is this right?

« on: 02 December 2010, 16:17:59 »

Reply from Council today

"We don’t use grit we put pre wetted salt down that is colourless and we have to do this before the rush hour.  It then takes traffic movement to make the salt work.   

The problem that the traffic all comes at once and before the salt has had full effect.  As a result we get traffic jams which limits the speed of movement and things come to a halt.  Lorries find stop start very challenging on an incline and rear wheel cars will always struggle relative to front wheel drive cars in such conditions.  The situation gets worse if the temps drop below the -5/10 range as the salt becomes less and less effective. "

They know when traffic is going to arrive so why do they seem surprised?

396

General Discussion Area / Iberia

« on: 15 November 2010, 08:23:41 »

I have been here at Heathrow T3 since 6.30 for 7.30 flight to Madrid and connection to Ecuador. Flight now delayed at Heathrow and they cannot say when it will leave but connection definitely missed. Good job I assumed they would screw up so travelled a day early. No serious attempt from them to try and get me to Madrid earlier - will not use this mob again except in extremis. BA now owns them of course. 

397

General Discussion Area / Keep things in perspective

« on: 30 October 2010, 10:41:20 »

This week have started on an issue to help an army family. Young guy stood on mine in Afghanistan - lost an eye and lots of other damage I will not go into to upset your weekend.

Now battling with insurance policies sold to him in full knowledge he was a soldier - this is separate to the army welfare situation but will be watching these proposals carefully also.

He has been in hospital for a very long time and may lose sight of other eye.

We all think we have problems.

398

General Discussion Area / AAC/MP3 files

« on: 30 October 2010, 09:43:25 »

My understanding is that AAC is a better quality sound than MP3. When I buy on line or import from genuine cd my Itunes saves the audio files as AAC.

The cd player in the Signum seems to only want MP3 files. If I create MP3 version in Itunes to burn MP3 cds for the Signum I then of course get an AAC version AND an MP3 version in the Itunes library which is hassle to sort out and avoid duplication on the IPOD if dealing with a large number of tracks.

Is there a workaround for this?

399

General Discussion Area / Silver found on the Moon

« on: 22 October 2010, 16:27:39 »

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20101022/twl-silver-found-on-the-moon-41f21e0.html

But , as yet, no sign of the Lone Ranger

400

General Discussion Area / Ireland

« on: 11 October 2010, 20:59:06 »

Something came up in discussion today about Irish emigration. Population of Ireland is 4.2 million according to CIA Factbook.

Apparently nearly 400,000 Irish people are trying to move to countries such as US, Canada, Australia to escape financial situation and political system corruption - the embassy's etc having difficulty to cope.

Googled a bit and found this

http://www.civitas.org.uk/wordpress/2010/10/04/irish-emigration-a-lesson-in-language-barriers-in-the-eu/

401

General Discussion Area / Computer says no - buildings insurance

« on: 07 October 2010, 16:18:56 »

My daughter's house has a cellar - 4 years ago we had 2"of water over the floor always dry in past (house built in 1878). Problem was something to do with Thames Water but we could not prove it and insurance company paid for tanking. We had a leak in her kitchen last year - fixed again by insurance (Direct line)- I would say total costs were £14000 over the 3 year period or so.

Problems have been fixed but first attempt to check whether price we are now paying to current insurers is ok and the response from a new company (via LloydsTSB) is you have had a flood computer says decline. "Yes but it has been fixed" - doesn't matter computer says decline.

Annual premium has goone to £1100 pa - on one hand you don't mind staying with insurer who has been brilliant in meeting claims once you get past difficult loss adjusters but on the other hand it is spread of risk that you are buying into in the first place. I would say extra cost is £300 a year so maybe do the right thing for a year or 2 and stick with insurer that gave good service.

How many cellars up and down the country must get water in and have not been tanked??

402

General Discussion Area / Street Names

« on: 04 October 2010, 12:51:38 »

Just had a letter in from someone in Tilburg in Netherlands and the street name is...........

Girostraat

Wonder where that might be twinned with in UK?

403

General Discussion Area / Ecuador

« on: 30 September 2010, 22:46:27 »

hmmm - is my next overseas trip!!

404

General Discussion Area / M6 northbound crash today

« on: 09 September 2010, 22:29:20 »

Went to Manchester and back today - an accident in which 2 guys were killed on hard shoulder between j17 and 18 going North happened at 11.15 am and we went by there on way up about 30 mins before. On way up M6 a lorry started to veer into my lane - driver was texting when we went past.

This could not have been same lorry that crashed but it is ridiculous that people should take such risks.

Coming back of course with northbound closed and rubber necking going south it took a while as I had to bypass M6 south down to Alsager. Long day but terrible for families of the 2 guys. Lorry driver has been arrested.

405

General Discussion Area / Trolley Bus video

« on: 04 September 2010, 10:19:24 »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p008lwzs