Fozzie

YES! Give em hell! I've had my own run ins at Chester in regards to parking. Shame as it's relatively close by and a nice place to visit. In my case, they referenced a sign that wasn't even up in the carpark due to vandalism. Apparently, this was still my problem. I did not see it that way, and neither did the 3rd party who cancelled the fine. I think most people roll over and pay the £25, and it causes them to get more emboldened. So complaining and driving up their overheads is always a good move in my book.

The loft will be my personal man cave, so during winter I would look to take some bits up there definitely... Wouldn't tell the mrs though Garage extension will be where I need to put all my effort, hoping to get the footings and floor put in by a pro as groundworks can be a bugger if you need pilings. Aim is to be able to extend part way over the garage in 10 years or so, and turn the 3 bed house into a 4 bed with large garage and bigger garden (old garage will free up 16sqm of space). Ironically I'd probably then sell it then! I feel like there's a "final" house yet to come.

Good afternoon folks Pretty sure I've not mentioned it, but me and my fiancee put an offer in on a house. And it was accepted! 3 bed semi-detached, right near to where I live currently, quite literally within half a mile. Missed out on one house, which had a double garage, which was gutting, but then again the entire house needed gutting and I wouldn't have had the budget to do it quickly. This one, I'll be building a 8-9 meter garage down the side of the house and then demolishing the old pre-fab one. So I'll have more space than a single garage hopefully. There's scope to do a loft conversion in the near future as well, I might look at doing most of that myself.

I had very similar, and was chased by B W Legal for several years over what I'm sure was a £50 charge. I might have paid it, but they wanted about £400 to cover their fees and it wasn't my mistake. I sent proof it wasn't my mistake, I was free of the contract, their counter amounted to "that person shouldn't have told you that, and they hadn't ticked a box on the computer to log it, so it was never formally actioned. So you still owe us". Just told them to get stuffed and ignored their calls. They sent letters, threatened CCJ's, but nothing ever happened. They chased me for 5 or 6 years but they gave up in the end, hope it cost them an arm and a leg. But to Tinticker, I wouldn't cancel the direct debit, as it can be a lot of hassle unless you are able to put up with them chasing. If you can get access to the email accounts, and work out which one you signed up with, hopefully a quick call back will get it over the line.

Good morning, Had surgery last Wednesday. Quite a big one, in short I'm a good advert against biking Had a piece of rib cartilage taken and more or less had all cartilage in my nose replaced or reinforced. Was in a gradual state of collapse, like a slowly deflating tent. Still wearing a cast now, on day 6 and worst of the swelling seems to have passed. Just feel like I've been in a fairly bad fight now.

Yeah, it's on the edge of not going ahead. I put in an offer, 5% under asking price and it was immediately rejected. If I had a spare £100k, I could make it worth £150k more I think based on other properties on the same road that sold, but I'll only have the funds to do general renovations, not extensions. I find some of the sellers around me very cheeky, they leave their houses up for the best part of a year, stubbornly not reducing. They've all taken a punt at the prices people were getting at the top of the 2022 bubble. A time of 1.8% mortgage rates...

Well said and very reassuring. I guess I'm just suspect of the recent work. Was it done by those who lived there? Or those selling on their behalf? As the latter can result in corners being cut.

Went to see a house near me today. It's in a great location, it's bigger than everything else we've looked at, and it has had a new roof and boiler in the past 5 years. The catch? It's expensive for what it is, and that's a house that has had one couple grow old in it together and move to care or pass away. It would be an enormous undertaking for me, and I'm already busy as hell. I could shell each room back to brick, and rebuild one room at a time, and get it liveable very quickly. But there's also risk involved. There was a wet patch in the bathroom suggesting the new roof has a little ingress. Maybe easy to sort. At the front of the house, the gable end has a wooden support cantilevered from the house. None of the others have this, making me suspect a leak has damaged a lot of the underlying structure and it's a cover up job. Big project. Got a fiancee I need to marry, she also wants kids... Bugger... Guess I'm keeping my SV650 another year at least

Someone at my work thought they scored a great "gotcha" by saying "If I'm doing 70mph in the middle lane, you can't over or undertake me without speeding and breaking the law, so why is it so bad?" And I asked how she knew she was doing 70? Speedometers all produce different levels of inaccurate reading. So unless you have a precision calibrated speedometer, she's probably been holding people up... And rules don't just stop applying because of another rule, they work in concurrently, not one or the other. Someone speeding up the inside isn't necessarily undertaking if the lane is clear, so at best they are both as bad as each other, and worst, she's the only one committing a crime. She sort of smugly dismissed my comments. And mentioned how everyone does it. I think I made a comment that if women ever get hunted as witches again, I'll note that it's ok as everyone does it Was told that's a different matter entirely, and I agree, but the principle is the same, so where do you draw the line?

Make lane discipline part of the test. Then install lane hog detection cameras. Put a £50 fine on it, with a rule that get 3 strikes in 1 year and you get points for careless driving. We live in a world of everything all the time, right now. But also paralysing complacency. Everyone wants everything as quickly as they can, with as little effort as possible. And I think this has infected the mindset on the road. Why go in the left lane? You'll only have to come back out in a mile... Why move to the middle lane for a guy not moving much faster behind me? Someone in the left lane might pull out and I'll have to slow down... You force people to drive in right lane. They'll grumble at first, and then it will become second nature and it won't be a problem.

Good morning! Glad to hear all went well @rennie. Hopefully a quick, and easy recovery to follow. I'm off to a hospital myself this morning, although it's work related.

Thanks! Though in the interest of balance, less and less people bother with it these days. And of those that do, quite a few pursue it for bad reasons. So never discount that you might have dodged a bullet. I've talked about getting married in the past with previous partners, but this was the first time I've dropped down on one knee, and formally popped the question. I actually furiously googled if there was a particular knee you were supposed to drop onto moments before Back to the grind of work now anyway. And need to get planning the day. My plan at present, tell my fiancee she can book what she likes, but remember we are buying a house soon. Seems the safest route!

Took a full day for the emotions to hit my good lady She was obviously very happy once the pure bewilderment passed, but I said quite quickly to just let herself be shocked. All the good stuff comes later when it sinks in. Sure enough, the next morning I showed her a picture of the proposal with a little music over it, and she burst into tears and needed a long hug. After I left she said she had on/off tears the rest of the day. Was carefully planned with a few alternatives in place. There was only one tweak, but it ended up moving the point I snuck up to a nicer spot. Only day of clear sunshine the whole week as well! So we were very lucky as she's back home this Friday.

Good morning all I had a good weekend, I got engaged. Was carefully choreographed. My fiancée went to the Isle of Wight to see family, it's arguably her favourite place as she used to live there. I snuck onto the island early Sunday morning, and went to the Needles. With the help of her sister, we got her into position near the cliffs on her favourite island hike. I'd sent a love letter message an hour earlier that she said made her tear up, and she couldn't wait to be home. I walked up avoiding detection as she posed for a picture, looking out to sea. She asked her sister if she could turn around and I replied she could. She was completely stunned. And I was very relieved I'd pulled it off without a hitch!

I guess so. He might have left me up a mountain in a strange land if we fell out It is getting more fractious online I've noticed. And so many bots and fake accounts spewing random conspiracy in comment sections. Loads of them if you scroll through them, you find what looks like posts in Russian language if you go far enough. Can't say I'm surprised.

Good afternoon Had a weird interaction this morning, the old bike blogger Mordeth13 has gone off a bit of a cliff more and more over recent years. Shares increasingly unhinged conspiracy stuff, and I decided to just quiz him on one. Blocked me quite quickly after a number of insults. I once hoped to one day do a tour of Taiwan on a bike with him. Guess that's not going to happen anymore

The HISS can be defeated, yes. Both bikes I've had stolen were both fitted with it, although they were thrown in the back of a van and taken. Both had physical security. Keeping them out of sight isn't an option for those who have bikes as an only means of transport, and locking them down only holds off the opportunists. The big issue is social media has led to opportunists being more able now than ever. There are literal guides on how to bypass all sorts of immobilisers. It's why land rovers are also pretty much uninsurable in parts of London. A mob of criminals have just hoovered them up in big numbers, all with the information on how to do it readily supplied. Organised crime is now a bigger business than ever as social media has no regulation. I still occasionally use my bike to get around, doing general duties rather than just for fun. So for the time being I have an SV650 as next to no one wants to go through the effort of cutting through the security I have on it. When I go full time fair weather rider, I might treat myself to something more exotic, but in the meantime, I've found no other means of security better than having a bike someone can't be bothered to steal.

Nob of the day this past weekend had to go to my friends nephew. Was a bit serious, but also a bit funny in the end. He's 12, and is mostly looked after by his mum and the surrounding family. I was at the pub with friends, including his aunt, who answered the phone and suddenly looked shocked. She then dialled into the homes Alexa device (didn't know you could do that) and she heard him screaming. Apparently he had been left alone, and someone was trying to get into the house. His aunt runs from the pub, into her car, and screeches away. I quickly point out if there's someone breaking into the house, a little 5ft woman is likely heading into a dangerous situation. One of the girl knows where they live, and we dive into a car and start racing there. Quite a lot going through my head about whether it was real, and if we were going towards a situation against someone armed. Police were called. Nearly got there and found out it was a false alarm. He has a penchant for drama apparently... Returned to the pub, and his aunt was beyond angry. The lad was sobbing down the phone and thought he was now going to get arrested. I actually suggested I dress as a police officer and put the fear of god in him. The little turd.

Good afternoon! Mid-week, and a lot of the drama from the past couple of weeks both at work and outside it are thankfully moving off now. Still got a lot of CV's to work through and produce a short list. But a light at the end of the tunnel.

Got stung for £2000 in an old claim due to a tweak of the small print I hadn't seen when I had a claim. Similar to this kind of thing. Was MCE. And I bet when they say "locked away in a garage" they mean your garage and only your garage. I'd double check that.

I had 2 x pfizer, didn't bother boosting as that seemed mostly focused on the older folk. And I'd already had covid so to me I'd already had two boosters. Over 3 years ago now. Got to say, Facebook comment sections are draining. Any premature death, even ones later to be found are drugs/suicide bring them all out now. They seem to think it's like a quick acting asbestos effectively.

Thanks, I can relax a bit now as I managed to get most of it taken care of. Not had a weekend in quite a while, but the operation is going to give me 10 days off. I absolutely agree, he should have walked away. I don't agree with the two guys who have come out in defence of the assault either. I have no way to verify, I've heard threats were made that the ex-bf ignored, but was later assaulted by a stranger outside his local pub. He got wind of claims being made that made him feel his life was being turned upside down. He confronted her friends first, but then goes on to his ex's home to confront her and it quickly escalated. I reckon I've been approached as in the final encounters I had with this girl, I recorded video with my phone in my pocket due to the nature of what was being said/done, so suspect they worry I might be a third person. But I want nothing to do with it. It could have been avoided, but what is done is done. Never personally directed violence towards women, and find the guys speaking up weak in their arguments, as they only describe low level stuff like slaps/punches. Had a few of those, it never warranted smashing someone's face. Comes over like they want to be justified in doing more in retaliation.

Oof, that doesn't sound pleasant. Hope she gets through it and recovers well! I've had it a few times, the first being the worst. Was before lockdown, but confirmed later when I took part in an anti-body study (I did some volunteering). The original put me on the sofa for 4 days, wheezing, passing out a couple of times when I tried to stand up, and genuinely the worst I've ever felt. Both times since, barely gave me a fever and a tickly cough. Weird how variable it is.

Good afternoon! Or is it evening now the nights are drawing in? Just finished work, and got packing to do. Decluttering the flat as we are rapidly approaching the date we get it on the market. I feel ready to get into a house, but equally, I feel it's going to be very costly. My area saw 3-4 bed properties rise by 4 times the average wage in 5 years, peaking back in 2022. The flat I'm in saw a good rise, but nowhere near the rate of the houses. I was hoping the post covid bubble pop would put a bigger dent in the market than it has.

Good afternoon Was meant to have an interview this afternoon. This one didn't even show up. Least it saved me some time I guess