What are you all up to
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Fireworks going off here sporadically since about 4pm, a few the last couple of days too. Expect it will get worse later in the evening.
We are finding the lack of being able to use a phone when we want, at a reasonable cost, increasingly annoying ( we have broadband and phone line very reasonably but the calling plans are expensive), we use our mobiles when essential but PAYG at the moment is not good when it takes 20 minutes just to get to talk to someone at the bank.
DD has found a monthly plan with 3, who we are already with, £5 per month for unlimited calls and texts plus 1GB of data, so we are going to transfer my phone to that. 18 month contract. OH rarely uses her phone, so that will stay as PAYG meantime.
OH had to ring bank as 2 accounts had had fraudulent debit card transactions on them to Amazon Marketplace. Very odd as we never use debit cards online, plus she has never made any transactions on these (TSB) accounts other than removing interest and transferring funds internally.
Money now refunded and they are investigating. The cards are locked away at home in our fire safe, never been used, seems there must have been a data breach at the bank.
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Lovely morning in Stonehaven blue skies and sunny about 16c. Left site at 11.30 later than planned but we got talking to a couple who have the same van as us. Swapped lots of tips, they also go to France/Spain so lots of comparing of sites and interesting places.
Good drive up to Moray, sadly the blue skies and sun left us shortly after we arrived. Wind has picked up and now rocking the van.
NTH, we are on pitch 3 first on the right between the hedges. Views great down to the coast, unfortunately the wind is blowing from that direction.
I have to admit I love fireworks it brings out the big kid in me. Usually go to an organised display every year.
Think we are going home after here, sites are still busy. Can't get into Grantown on Spey for Saturday night. Nothing in Ullapool open, our other choice. Oh well maybe we will get the spare bedroom decorated now.
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K, are you aware TSB have a free phone 0800 number? Might be worth looking it up for future reference. PAYG is horrendously expensive of calling banks or energy companies
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Thanks Tda, we expected it to happen so we're ready for it. Will just have to see what's what in December, although we are booked for both Xmas and the New Year.....We should have stayed in Scotland!!
I'm sure that there are quite a lot in the same position,as us, having to return early from sites, but I imagine too that there could well be some who are hanging on to complete their "holiday" on the odd CL that's still open.Nice to read all the news from Millie and B2, you both seem to have managed to fit in a lot of family visits, be they in real life or digital, before the lockdown. Hope the carry out went as banned tonight, B2, and OH enjoyed his birthday meal.
TG, that's the pitch we've had on both occasions. Have you thought of going to Dornoch? We regularly used the Dovochfin CL there, and although it's grass it does drain well. You should get some cycling in there too.
It's been a dull but very still day here at home. Last of the washing was completed and I got the car washed. Back to the same old, same old with regards to walking Flyte, but it does mean that I'll up the mileage again after a week of rather shorter walks. The fireworks haven't been too bad tonight, but Flyte was upset for a while, as he's not used to them, as we are usually still away on a quiet country CL at this time of year.
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MillieH and others
Thanks for your kind thoughts & comments wrt aged Sister, as mentioned she has tried getting back to normal too soon, but counter staff in her local CO-OP, directly across the road from her residence, have taken to lecturing her ( Where's your stick, hearing aid etc etc ) and are not above trotting across the road to 'spill the beans ' when her children { all in 60's
} arrive !!I won't be entering her house, just dropping in the weekly supply of magazines for her to read when she's not knitting, and bellowing greetings from the doorway.
Noticeable that it was fairly quiet tonight, few loud fireworks but most seemed to be the rocket variety that finishes with a fizzing and sparkle display -- audible but not visible from my windows and its a very fine misty / foggy night !
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Yes, she rang that one first as soon as she discovered the transactions. They cancelled the cards and arranged new ones, but gave her another number to ring in office hours for the fraud department.
We were at DD's the next day so used her phone to ring, she has unlimited calls. Just as well as it was a long call!
Since we stopped having a calling plan on our landline, we have rarely made calls, other people ring us. This was fine when we used to be away a lot, but now we are home much more, OH came round to thinking that we needed to change that.
Will be nice to be able to make calls whenever we want without considering the cost. I was pleasantly surprised that the monthly cost was so reasonable. Will get DD to sort it for us tomorrow.
We have now been engaged for a second full week of looking after Callum, the other grandparents are to stay away for a full 14 days, even though they seem fine.
It has been useful for DD to have us there while her builders are there, to discuss the problems, and since I have been under the floor several times, I was able to tell them where to find the various pipes and wires.
I think the plasterer is now finished in the bedroom and bathroom, and the tiler is making good progress with the walls he can do at the moment.
As we plan to get our en suite revamped soon, we have found it useful to be able to see what pitfalls we may need to be aware of.
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Forgot to mention that after feeding the tweets this morning and playing on here i went for a light lunch & came back to order some bird food (!!) peeped thro' the windows to see empty seed feeders, nut feeders mixed feeders and fat slab holder -- all gone in under two hours !
No further comment from me or this thread might get blocked
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ABM. It comes to something when the "neighbours" are telling the children what their parents are getting up to!
I have been speaking to one of our elderly neighbours, we're back on to on line deliveries with them as she is spending most of her days in bed. Her even more ancient sibling was outside chopping down overhanging branches a neighbour had complained about...the branches were on the much younger neighbours side!
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My Daughter popped in yesterday after having a cancelllation from one of her "clients", the company she now works for,are an "upmarket?" care company,the "customer base " evidently do not want to acknowledge to neighbors they need home care?,so staff must not be seen visiting ,wearing anything that may identify them as carers
It quite good money with allowences for thir own clothing
She did come bearing gifts of fancy cakes from out local bakers
She has the Trace app on her phone (company supplied
and was saying that her cousin in Sheffield has tested positive and she got an alert warning she had been in close contact? who she has not visited this year 0 -
You are taking a chance there JV🤷🏻♂️, I’ve not seen any of my family for a while now due to the virus spreading rapidly. I hope you get away with it, good luck👍🏻
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We are finding the lack of being able to use a phone when we want, at a reasonable cost, increasingly annoying ( we have broadband and phone line very reasonably but the calling plans are expensive), we use our mobiles when essential but PAYG at the moment is not good when it takes 20 minutes just to get to talk to someone at the bank.
Kj
One reason I keep hold of my landline as I find it easier to make calls on a "proper telephone" with no problems with poor signal. We pay about £36 a month for internet (Fibre), landline and anytime call package which I think is pretty reasonable. We both have mobiles on contract which cost about £10 a month each. The mobile phones come into their own when we are away in the motorhome, not only for the occasional call or text but also for data.
Re your card fraud. Were you expecting new cards when it happened? The reason I ask is that twice in the past I have had new cards stolen in the post which resulted in a lot of money coming out of my account.
David
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KJ-check out ‘giffgaff’ they do no contract deals for as little as £6 p/mth. I’ve been with them a while & many of my family use them due to low costs👍🏻
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We used to be with Giff Gaff (O2) but have now moved to Smarty (3). Both companies are very good value and have different plans.
Our Smarty plan is ideal as we can cancel at any time and can increase the plan to provide more data when we are away in the caravan. The plan can then be decreased the following month if required. Any unused data will result in a saving on your bill the following month.
KJ, check which provider is best for your area.
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Its great to know Brue that, despite all the growling and grumbling we hear, there really are caring folk out there
!! As far as the branches go the simple answer is to start a small smokey bonfire on days when the wind 'helps' the smoke into the younger neighbours home, probably won't get asked again
but one can get a fair amount of exercise leaning on a fence laughing !!1 -
Regarding phones we run a complicated system, but it's giff gaff for the mobiles. With quite a few family members on it too we have free calls with them. Wonder of wonders fibre is arriving on our doorstep soon so we will have to re-think the whole thing!
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We have a good signal at home with 3, and their coverage around our area is pretty good, we have also found it fine when away in the van, and abroad when roaming, but will check out other suggestions, thanks all.
Landline and broadband at present are £21 per month for us, cannot remember what the call plan was, but remember we considered it expensive at the time. When away we use the 3 mi-fi, about £40 for 2 years use. Our PAYG spend for 2 mobiles has been in the order of £20 per year, so you can see we are not usually big phone users!
Our family in UK is pretty much only our son and daughter, and their families, and otherwise there are my sisters in Norway, we mainly use Skype, FaceTime or Messenger to keep in touch.David, the cards were new last December, and have not left our house since, and have never been used, so it is all a bit of a mystery.
The only other debit card problem we had was once, many years back on a different account, when we had to use a debit card to buy Camping Cheques. A few months later the bank stopped some suspect transaction, we never heard any more.
We have only had two incidents with a credit card, also many years back, someone trying to book a hotel in USA, and someone on a different card trying to buy cosmetics from Italy, so I think we have been quite lucky on that front. It probably helps to have a very difficult to pronounce and pretty unique surname.
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As David has said previously we always keep our landline for anytime calls and broadband with BT. It’s probably not the cheapest but we feel it’s the safest for us. The OH has an O2 mobile, and I have EE but wouldn’t use them for everyday use, I find it harder to hear clearly on my mobile and our signal is not always reliable (for either mobile network).
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Another one with BT full package but 87 year old MiL won't/can't use anything mobile so we're stuck with that ( BT not the MiL, then again...
) Have a separate EE, monthly rollover contract for when we're away. We pay slightly less than DK, even though it seems the same deal. Do you pay upfront annual line rental David as we get a discount for doing so?Bad night last night. Mrs WN had a mild bout of food poisoning. We had Salmon fillets, wild salmon. Everyone had the same sauce base, home made, and pasta so she must have had a slightly iffy fillet. Enough to make her need a sleep in this morning so I enjoyed a solo trip around the lanes in beautiful sunshine for a change.
ABM , I'm having the same problem with the local birds. Going through a lot of fat balls.
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We have a landline phone via for 18 months @£18 inc vat which gives us broadband and anytime calls
OH has a very old EE package on her mobiel @£ 5,25 per month
I have an anywhere sim card in my phone @ £60 for twelve months and picks up the strongest signal from any UK network where ever we are,
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Ooh dear, hope Mrs WN recovers soon. I've nearly caused upset stomachs in our household today. I had a big baking session this morning, thought the lemon cake looked a bit strange...tasted it and it was awful. I had had used Bicarb instead of Baking Powder. OH must have a cast iron constitution because he say sit's ok and he'll eat it...it sort of fizzes in your mouth!!
Anyway not as bad as a friend's husband who'd over indulged on drink and food one night so crept down stairs for some bicarb to soothe his system and took a spoonful of baking powder....
Hope the day is going well for you all, sorry I haven't replied to previous posts. Not enjoying this lockdown malarkey even though I keep saying to myself it's not that different from not being in lockdown..going out with the dog now to enjoy some late sunshine.
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Dicky tum is never nice☹️ We used to throw Bicarbonate into swimming pools, so heaven help those who take it neat🤢
Boiler saga has a new chapter.....we got half hour notice of underfloor laggers coming this morning. We are lagged now, but not boarded yet, so a bit of progress. Just awaiting call from scaffolders next.....
Meanwhile, breadmaker is in action, my lovely new lampshade is in place, it’s nice outside so I am gardening, dog is snoozing after his walk, OH is on t’internet searching for his birthday present in Australia, and thankfully it’s very very quiet round here. Next door neighbour starts her new job today, managed to get a job at our local Tesco, so really pleased for her. She works in beauty industry, so it’s been awful for her these last few months, we have fingers crossed for her that all goes well.
I see Sainsbury’s are doing away with lots of front of house staff from butchery, deli, fish counters. Our Tesco went this way a couple of years ago, and it’s not the same store. Very sad for these folks.☹️
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It's truly amazing what the human body can tolerate when you think back at some of the appalling stuff we have eaten and drunk over the years, then POOF out of the blue comes, literally, a shock to the system. No real reason, just the body getting it's own back I suppose
.As you say TtDA the Sainsbury news is so very welcome right now, folks stuck at home and Christmas on the horizon - the ideal time to tell staff they are looking at unemployment as a New Year Gift !!
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The forecast was light cloud and sunny intervals, which really meant low cloud and damp intervals. Still a great day out and a slight navigational error (I could say due to the fog but it was gone by then) made me find another unseen by me part of Newcastle and a new watering hole. St Peter's Marina just a few minutes ride from the quayside. The cheese and onion toastie was absolutely wonderful
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We were quite friendly with specialist staff in our Tesco, fishmonger mainly. He was devastated when he got the news. It was a double whammy for his household, as his wife was the in store butcher. It’s just not the same picking up a pre wrapped pack of fish. We use a local proper fishmonger in our inside market now, or I might pop into Morrison’s for fish. They have always had excellent fresh fish counters at Morrison’s, more so than other supermarkets.
Loving the photos Corners. It’s probably my favourite River is the Tyne, such a lot to see, and of course the Roman remains around Corbridge and Hexham..
Did you get the footwear sorted out for Winter? I have OH researching his birthday present at the moment, suggested a camera for when he is out. Jury is out on whether helmet or bike mount is best, but he has found a helmet that has both front and rear cameras, and it’s looking good. Most things like Go Pros aren’t really what he needs, the battery life isn’t long enough, as it’s mainly a safety thing for road cycling rather than short videos of downhills etc.....
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ABM I had to laugh about the local co-op 'snitching' on your sister! Good for them for keeping an eye on her.
TDA pleased for your neighbour's new job as I am for anyone who has managed to get a job in this troubling times.
Bakers2 It sounds as though your had a lovely day with your son and DIL and also a virtual meet up with your NZ family.
It has been a beautiful day weatherwise here. Very cold but lovely and sunny so a bit of time spent in the garden in the morning - OH cleaning and clearing the patio, me general tidying and filling bird feeders. I managed to find a few roses to pick and bring indoors for a bit of cheer. Son from NI rang last night - did I have my Dad's Army Records as he had been trying to find how to get them online. Yes I do! So I spent the rest of the day sorting them out, scanning and sending them to him. Also some army photos of my Dad. Of course I got side-tracked while looking through all the paperwork and photos as you do so that is the afternoon gone!
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Thanks, yes almost sorted, feet now warm using a liner sock and merino top sock which appears to work. As said before head is kept warm by skull cap and neckwarmer, and upper half by a Gore wear thermo C3 (brilliant jacket) with a merino layer under and a waterproof Gore jacket is kept in my bag which comes into play for an extra layer.
The only thing now is trousers. Knees were a bit cold today. I've tried my hiking fleece lined ones but a bit too bulky, I might have to go for a cycling lined pair but they seem too close fitting? I haven't got the figure and legs really and will end up looking silly (but at least warm)!
Interesting to hear about the camera, seen a few who have them today but on their handlebars
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We've had a wonderful day, woke up to brilliant sunshine (is it really November)
After breakfast we unloaded the bikes and set off towards Buckie along the old railway line, now a tarmac cycle path. Views of the Moray coast for majority of the ride.
Once in Buckie we headed down to the coast road and cycled out to Buckpool and the onto Port Gordon. Lovely coastal village with small harbour, we sat on a low wall and enjoyed the warm sun watching seals playing in the sea. A couple came up to admire our bikes, a nice long chat followed, turns out the gent was German and now lives here.
The CL has filled up today, one arrived just as we got back from our ride, we were next to them when we were here back in July. Two more arrived in the dark tonight.
WN hope OH feeling better by now.
NTH, thanks for the suggestion of Davochfin farm, unfortunately the owner passed away earlier this year. I found out today when chatting to the lady on the next pitch to us here.
Off home tomorrow
We will return though in the future.Have a safe weekend all.
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Allow me to recommend football socks, up over the knees as a cheap option. Thermal long johns/base layer, Aldi do some good ones, for cycling/running. You can get mountain bike trousers as well, OH has Endura ones for Winter.
Above all, don’t bother what you look like, it’s all about keeping warm and having a good time.👍
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Thanks I'll look into them
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