What are you all up to
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Looks like Scotland has a completely different system and gains income from all inclusive rates so they're unlikely to want anyone to find ways to reduce the flow of income. they're onto a winner with all that water falling from the sky!
Mind you Scottish Water hasn't been sold off so everything should go back to the people and benefit local services....hopefully.
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Beautiful sunny cold day here.
Waiting on window fitters coming to install new windows. This doesn't bode well been waiting since 8am. The truck delivering said windows is sat outside but the team fitters nowhere to be seen
Water charges, don't know what ours are but nothing like Kjs. Nothing is easy in Scotland these days, everything always seems to cost more than any other part of the UK. The government just can't seem to get their figures right on anything. Everything they touch ends up going way over budget costing tax payer's a fortune. Nothing new there I suppose. Given how much spare water we usually have up here there is little incentive for the government to encourage water meters.
Window fitters just turned up.
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We woke up to snow here this morning. Couple of inches had settled, but it’s warming up quickly now with lots of sunshine, so it’s thawing rapidly.
Finished bathroom off yesterday, all bar a bit of wood to skirting. Looking good, really pleased with shower. Saved a fortune as well. Next projects, outside step for OH, bedroom decoration for me.
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OH has been outside with a pal doing some landscaping work, the wobbly paths around the greenhouse are about to get a makeover. Visiting dog thought all the digging was great fun and attempted to dig a very large hole himself, he had to be hosed down later. 🐶
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Our Airedales used to re landscape the garden regular if left unsupervised. The blighters worked as a team of three, two in one out in rotation. We used to fence off certain areas of garden at times. Great fun on a Sandy beach with them though🤣
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No, no houses have to have meters, only farms and I presume industry.
Our son purchased a former farm......house, outbuildings but only about 20 acres of the 90 available, the rest was sold separately and the land he retained is mainly rented to neighbouring farmers......so he has a meter for the agricultural side, but also a private water supply and a septic tank for the house, so he pays very little to the council.
A band A house pays a flat rate of £318.96, so even that sounds expensive compared to what water in England costs.
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Perhaps worth passing it by your MSP to see if they understand the massive difference between England and Scotland. However from an observers point of view you do seem to have other benefits that we don't enjoy south of the border like free university education, free prescriptions and free elderly care most of which would offset what seems a very high council tax and water rates. Obviously attitudes towards those benefits will vary depending of what use they are to you but that is true of all Government spending.
David
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I do so wish that you good folks would stop talking about water and such like things, I just took a couple of handfuls of newspapers out for the silver/grey waste bins and I GOT SNOWED ON !! It might help if you chatted about warm dry beaches and dog walks PLEASE .
Th-th-thank y-y-you alllll !
Shivers, of Crewe
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Woke up to a snowy landscape which was beautiful as the sun was shining and clouds billowing. Waited a while until it melted then we all went for a walk before having a very satisfying and substantial meal at The Craven Arms, found on the A65 on the outskirts of Giggleswick near Settle.
MiL enjoying her birthday. We have found the cottage to be great for the three of us. Nice position, quiet, well stocked, nice owners, ponies, donkeys, sheep, chickens, dog and cats, They’ll stable a horse as well if you need it.
Off home tomorrow. Snow showers as I write. Supposed to be very cold tonight.
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We had a hard frost last night but the day has been mostly sunny with blue skies but a chill north wind. Crystal clear views across to Arran, the Kintyre Peninsula and north to Bute from up on Carrick Hill. We did have a short but heavy hail shower around 4:30 turning the grass white, however it soon melted away.
A strange occurrence today. Tried to make a phone call, using our normal phone, and got a message saying "Insert a SIM card and try again" and "Not registered on network". The phone works fine on line but won't receive an incoming call or outgoing text either. Contacted 3 on line, who acknowledge that our account was up to date and they suggested taking out SIM, giving it a rub and reinsert, done but no joy!? The last time we received a text/call was on the 29th, but not had need to use it since. Will have to dash into the 3 shop in town early tomorrow to try and get it sorted before we move to the back of beyond for the next 10 days.
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We have a similar problem with Sky tv at home Nellie. Ironic in view of the limited viewing time spent on it. I often try taking the viewing card out and cleaning it. Surprising how often that works.
You are not exactly having a good time with electronics at the moment are you?
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Not much activity on this thread today. Everyone must be soooo busy.
Had an uneventful drive back home and arrived in time for lunch after stopping off to buy food for the weekend en route.
I'm glad we decided to drain the water in the caravan last weekend after finding out that our part of Wales had quite a frost these last 2 nights.
Time to get stuck into the chores that need doing around the house during the next few weeks, although we may steal a few nights away somewhere.
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Still much better than England Kj. My Dad needed home care for a while, just washing and dressing, we managed the rest, and it was very expensive. My Aunt was in a Home for 3 years at £550 a week, eventually I had to sell her house for her to pay her bill. £165 a week would have helped enormously.
Ive been suffering from a cough, sore throat and headache for a few days now. Today very under the weather, feel as though I have a very bad hangover ( I truly haven’t) Testing everyday but negative, I suppose there are still just other illnesses. OH is making dinner, it will just be something from the freezer with oven chips but I am grateful.
Another house to view tomorrow, it has now been mentioned that we might just give up if this one isn’t suitable. Last week we stopped bidding on one as the price got too much, but today we both said we wished we had gone just a little higher, I hate this new bidding up way of buying houses.
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We are away again for the weekend. Arrived here on site just after 3 roads were quite busy bu it is the beginning of the school holidays here. Sunny but very cold today but we did still cook on the Cadac just had to come inside to eat. Not much planned for tonight probably just sit in the van and have a few drinks. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow.
Hope everyone else has a nice weekend
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Away in the caravan this weekend,pitched up at lunchtime. Had some light snow this afternoon on a walk from the site.
May well have just found my perfect pub, Butty Bach beer and Rattler Cider 🍻 plus excellent fish and chips what more could a girl want???? 😍🤣
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After all the hype of energy prices going up on the 1st April I have been watching my smart meter display just to see what the impact was. I became increasingly puzzled as what we used and the amount we were charged was very little different to the day before. Decided to look at the octopus Energy website which said that higher prices don't come into effect until tomorrow!!!
David
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I think it is a case of "swings and roundabouts", the money used is the same, just used differently, water costs are higher, and lower temperatures most of the year mean heating costs more.
Care costs if you are self funding seem to be between £800 and £1000 per week here, students may not pay tuition fees, but also do not get as much towards living costs via student loans or bursaries, and tax rates are higher with higher rate tax kicking in at a lower income. Certainly our children are paying at least £2500+ per annum more tax than they would if in England.
Sunny here today, but bitterly cold. Having turned off the heating to the caravan, it was only 2.5 degrees in it this morning, and everything felt very cold and damp. Not ideal for DD and family going away in it tomorrow!
We put in a fan heater on 2 kw and turned the Alde on on gas, so it eventually reached 15 degrees out there. Fan heater still running on 1kw with thermostat turned down, will turn it off overnight.
Yesterday we brought home most of the food DD wanted to take, and today she brought some more, plus various bits and pieces, at lunch time after collecting Nathan from nursery. Callum is still off due to not being 100%.
The van is now mostly packed, beds made up, and our car too, so we should be ready to set off to St Andrew's around 09.30. DD has invested in a roof box, so they are packing all their clothes in that as the push chair, toys etc etc take up quite a bit of space in the car. Going home they will also have to take the various things of theirs we have loaded in the van, so could be a tight fit!
Have booked my booster vaccination for 1st May.
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Hope the holiday goes well for the family Kj, will they be able to borrow the car and tow the van at some point? Our daughter's partner asked recently if they could borrow our M/H.... that has raised a few thoughts and questions!!
We took advantage of some chilly sunshine today and went to NT Lytes Cary, unfortunately lots of "works" were going on there and not much was open in general so I had a quick stroll round the gardens and OH took the dog on one of the local walks. We went on to Langport after that as we needed a coffee to warm us up and then had stroll along the river Parrett, quite a few out doing similar.
All those away, enjoy your stays and all those at home enjoy the weekend too.
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brue I was just saying about Lytes Cary earlier to OH as I used to volunteer there in the gardens and really enjoyed it.
Well the snow has reached here today so snow sunshine and now really snowing and it is supposed to be Spring hope my plants cope ok. Was supposed to be doing a boot sale on Sunday in the Village with friends as they have more items than we have but they rang this morning to say too cold so will leave until later in the year and warmer, have got a few nights of frosts over the weekend so not much will be done outside and our friends who stayed last week will come down on Sunday just for 1 night in our caravan so beds already made from last week so they want to take bedding home and then hopefully on Monday I can get van cleaned and start putting things in ready for our trip the following week, have ironed a few lighter clothes this afternoon so have made a start.
Stay safe folks.
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We are not sure about them borrowing the whole outfit brue, it is a big van for a "beginner". At the least they should go on a towing course first to gain confidence.
DD has previously asked if they might be allowed to borrow our car if they go on a non-caravanning holiday, as they seem to need a lot of stuff with them, but she has meantime invested in a roof box.
She is quite keen for them to eventually get their own van of a more suitable layout, but they would also need a new car first, and at present all spare cash is being spent first on the house and now on the garden.
With the price of caravans now, and fuel, I am not so sure that a van of their own is such a good idea, but the layout that would suit them (fixed bunks and front double that would need to be made up every night) is not one that would suit us, so sharing a newer van (ours is now 14 years old) is probably not going to work.
We have several times looked at MHs, which we thought they might find easier to handle, but that idea has not found favour so far. And of course the cost is a lot more.
Our son and his wife are also interested in MH holidays, and they could easily afford to buy one, so we shall see.
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anyone else away?. (modified post)
Us, of course,
but obviously not a lot as we are the only unit on this CL. Glad to hear that you got home ok after an enjoyable few days. Hope those that are away have a good time, without any problems, electronic or otherwise.Job sorted, WN. I was at the shop before it open at 9:00, and after explaining the situation the young lady assistant decided that it was easiest to replace the SIM. Restated the phone and within a minute or so it was up and running again.? She had no idea why it had suddenly stopped but perhaps a tiny bit of dust has got in onto the SIM and that was the cause. All good now, although our ring tone has changed!!
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Well the snow has arrived after having nothing over the winter a light covering although now melting did manage a few photos and looks like a sharp frost tonight and tomorrow night but it gets better next week and could have 23C next weekend although it looks like some rain about, sun trying to come out 1.5C up the top of our weather station but there is a strong wind from the north brr.
Glad you got your phone sorted NTH and enjoy the rest of your holiday.
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Glad you got your phone fixed Nellie, it's a necessary thing these days!
RedKite, you'd probably see changes at Lytes Cary, the NT have pared back on a lot of their gardening plans. I have a friend who volunteers at Tintinhull and that has changed a good deal too, I get the low down on what's happening and where. Tintinhull no longer has a tea room and I think many visitors will miss that. They certainly missed out yesterday at Lytes Cary but at least the tea room opened up just as we were leaving.
Quite a frost here overnight, not good for all the seedlings in the greenhouse but they seemed to have survived. More worrying to get air frosts on the fruit trees. The Blackthorn and plum type blossoms are in full swing, hope they keep going, another heavy frost tonight I think?!
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Had the official switching on of the garden water feature today, by the granddaughters!. Popped out to Aldi this afternoon and spent longer trying to get out of the car park than we did in the shop. I've made a mental note never again to go shopping on a Saturday.... it was a nightmare!!
David
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All 4 season in 1 day. Snow, frost, rain, and sun
Windows in and the inside frames all finished, just the outside to be finished off on Monday. Looking good so far.
OHs Mum passed away early on Friday morning. She is in a better place now at 92 she has had a good life.
Our youngest son and his wife are the latest to succumb to Covid. They are surprised they have lasted this long. DIL is a dental nurse so daily contact with lots of people, + 2 teenagers at school but our son is still working from home. Both OK but DIL has more symptoms and feeling a bit worse than son.
Starting to get things sorted out for our weeks trip away, still haven't found the oven shelf 😒 where can it be.
Those away have a good time.
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So sorry to hear the news of your OH's mum TG. I hope he managed to see her. How lovely that she was in the familiar surroundings of her nursing home. 92 is a good age. When my MIL was at the end of her life aged 93 we had a long discussion with the nursing home staff and her GP and everyone was happy for her to be nursed in the home which was such a good decision. I hope your son's family make a swift recovery from covid.
I had to make a trip to our GP surgery mid week as my UTI was still playing up. Hopefully I am on the mend now. We had our spring boosters on Thursday morning so hopefully we are better protected. I have done a couple of tests this week after being at the funeral a week ago and also being at the Urgent Care centre at the weekend. Still negative so far. I noticed that Aldi are now selling the tests.
I hope you are having a good few days away Helen and that you are keeping warm.
Like TG we have had all 4 seasons in a day today. Rain, hail, a bit of snow but quite a lot of spring sunshine. Still very cold though.
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Tammy, so sorry to hear the news. Sometimes it's just time to go. Condolences to you both and to your relatives.
I remember finding a Christmas present for Mrs.WN in mid summer one year, 18 months after the Christmas it was intended for. She was tickled pink. The shelf will turn up one day.
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Quite a bit of catching up after last weeks jaunt away.
Mrs.WN is our tech wizard, a sort of granny equivalent of the 18 y.o. nephew, but the printer wouldn't connect to the Mac Book yesterday when we returned and reconnected the lead, (we took the MacBook away with us). She spent 2 hours yesterday afternoon trying all sorts, even taking it off the system and trying to reload it but...nada. Tried again for 2 hours this morning...nada. So I said "show me". She did. "Why not try the option of the printer in French" I said and yep... we now have a French printer. Magnifique, as one prints in France... Why it gave us that option neither of us know and to be fair to OH it was the first time it actually had.
It will still print as normal and would actually connect wireless.
She's too miffed at the printer to be mad at me.
She can keep the job though.Oh the exciting times we have here..
Hope the UTI clears up soon Millie
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