What are you all up to
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“Another day older and deeper in debt”.
As a sort of treat I had a ride out - but down to Preston for my husband to have a final check up and tests before his Hip Op in January. His walking has deteriorated this past fortnight and the nurse told hm off for “wall walking” and told him to use a stick. So we’ll be rummaging in the Hall Pantry tonight and finding one the right size I hope.
We’re not mingling, so no meal out, but maybe nip into town to pick up a Takeaway. And I’ll choose one of my “saved for best” Gins to go with it.
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Do you owe your soul to the company store?, those words brought back memories-my father had that playing all the time back in the day👍🏻
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Dry here this morning but heavy rain this afternoon, managed a walk before it started though.
Not much else done today other than housework and making soup.
Had our boiler breakdown cover renewal for next year, its gone up more than £100. They want £480 for next year. This covers 1 service plus breakdown cover.
After discussing with our heating firm who installed the system, we have decided not to renew.
Our heating firm charge £80 for a service + vat and parts, £60 for the first hour and £45 for following hours in the event of a call out. I don't think we can justify the cost being asked by the boiler cover people anymore. How does this compare to what others are paying.
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Our boiler service is with BG and we pay £208 annually but we have a £60 excess for any call outs/work during the year. It does include an annual service. The thing we do like with BG is that (so far!) we have always been able to get them out within a really short time if we have a problem. Another company we tried for a short time had a pretty useless chap try to assess an issue we had, and we had to wait 7/8 days!!! We also had difficulty in getting them to do the annual service, so we changed back to BG.
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We have never had a boiler cover plan, though various unknown foreigners keep calling us up to renew!
We replaced our 34 year old Potterton boiler in May. It had never had anything go wrong, nothing at all, and was never serviced. We worked on the basis of " if it ain't broke, don't fix it ". Our boiler man said.....they don't make them like this any more, leave it alone........so we did. Only replaced it now to get a more efficient boiler, due to huge increase in gas prices.
New boiler is doing OK, certainly more efficient. It is a Viessmann, with a 12 year warranty, so now we will have to have it serviced annually.
We have a second similar but much smaller, Potterton boiler in the granny flat, it has been similarly good, but did need a new sensor of some sort many years back. And more recently, a new pump.......which was not actually part of the boiler. We are thinking to replace it next summer.
As we have 2 systems in the house, we should never be without CH and HW, so happy to wait a few days for our man to come out, not that we have ever had to, he is a good friend.
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We pay BG £23 pm including a yearly service. BG were able to remotely read problems with the new boiler although we're not on Hive and later declined the £4 pm for them to tell us what we already knew. It's been a bit of a wobbly set up over the last three years so they have refunded us if servicing is late. BG are only just sorting out their new web site, it's been in quite a journey (to use the latest jargon....
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Wow, I’m surprised you say you never had your gas boiler serviced KjellNN. I always thought an important part of the reason for servicing is to make sure that all is safe and carbon monoxide in the exhaust is within safe limits and not leaking into the house.
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Mixed weather here today, some sun, but mainly dull and wet off and on.
Down at DD's before 9 as she was going on a "Mummy and Callum " day, so we were looking after Nathan, who was still asleep when we arrived. A good 13 hours and 10 minutes uninterrupted sleep, but not a record as he has done over 14 hours.
Mummy and Callum went to "Flip Out"......a trampolining and soft play place on the south side of town......DD was an avid trampolining enthusiast when she was younger , and Callum loves it. They were there for 3 hours, she had to persuade Callum to leave to get lunch!
Afterwards they went to East Kilbride for lunch, some shopping, and to deliver a hamper she had made for one of her "team members" who has been off work for 18 months, first looking after his wife, then recovering from her death on 24/12/ 2021.
It is a very sad story. He has been very badly affected by it all, as you would expect, and is struggling with the idea of going back to work. He is only in his early 50s, has 2 daughters, 16 and 18, and strangely our son knows him from way back in the 90s when they then worked for the same company.
I cannot imagine how he must feel, DD is tasked, as team leader, with trying to welcome him back to work in January, it will not be easy.
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Fine sunny day with a slight breeze, but even better all round than yesterday. We did a couple of walks along the Selby Canal from the Brayton Bridge car park, one of them along part of the Trans Pennine Trail, with a final visit before Xmas to both Lidl and Aldi inbetween.
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I know that one too Robsail.
I have a Bluetooth speaker and use bbc sounds on my tablet. Ramblings, open country, living world, natural histories and listen to the hundreds of episodes, they usually run from one to the next without issue. No big Ben, no news, nothing I start to listen to and need to stay awake for. Heard them hundreds of times. Works for me most of the time.
I believe you could do similar with Alexa type speakers, but I like to see my subscribed and choose. Otherwise I might have to strain to recall something gentle to listen to, thus defeating the object,
I expect the dark hours can be very hard for you. Know you're not alone 💝
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I have had some more success in selling a few things via the facebook page DD set up, but still nowhere near needing to report earnings to HMRC.
Now wondering where I can try selling things next year. OH says I still need to empty at least one cupboard!
Huge pile of mail today, presume they have been saving it up. Several Christmas cards, one bearing the bad news, from his widow, that an old friend has died. Only 2-3 years older than me. And my former work colleague in Wales is not in good shape either.
We have a "day off" tomorrow, need to deliver local Christmas cards and do shopping for what we are to take over to DS for Christmas lunch.
From being in the shops yesterday, it looked like there had been a "raid", hope they will have new stock. We just need salad bits, and cream, so nothing too onerous. Might buy a couple of the 19p veggies, things that will keep for a few days.
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I'm about to vanish into the seasonal lists of sprouts and parsnips, so hope you all have a peaceful Christmas. Special thoughts to all who've had changes to their lives, I hope the New Year brings good things. X
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Well we find ourselves ready for Christmas with a few days in hand, I think once again we've overstocked the 'Christmas cupboard' I'm not sure why four bags of roasted peanuts are needed or a box of mince pies each day till new year but that always happens.
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We also use BG and pay about the same, it seems to go up depending on age of boiler and what warranty a new boiler comes with! I appreciate we have probably paid a lot of money over the years for which we have had little return but peace of mind tends to make that easier to accept? We have not had the best of luck with local heating engineers. We have the Hive system but don't pay a monthly fee although I see I can upgrade! I am not sure what the paid package gives you extra? I have the App on my phone and it does quite a few things like controlling the heating and changing the scheduling of when the heating comes on. I have also discovered that it will show you a graph of when the boiler is on and how many hours it has been on in any 24 hour period. Maybe a bit geeky but I quite like it! During the very recent cold snap it was surprising how long the boiler was on for and a minor downward adjustment of the temperature made a surprising difference.
Not sure about not having regular servicing as I reckon that could be very risky.
David
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Mastercard😬😳
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We have BG at the moment and being absolutely terrible with anything like this we have electrics, radiators and drains covered too. Are we overpaying? Probably but at least we're covered, we have only called them out a few times and it's always been prompt. A good few years ago we had two electrical problems which they found and repaired, one very easily as it was the garage door rubbing against an electrical cable, the other was a cable being pinched under the stair, that one was easily found but the work involved in lifting the stairs took a whole day but it was all covered.
The last time for the boiler earlier this year was when it had finally gone, they patched it up but it was temporary solution so a new boiler was fitted just before the new kitchen was done. Because the boiler was new it would of course be under the manufacturer's warranty but we found out that while this was true they would only come on weekdays and not on BHs so BG agreed a reduction in the cover if we stayed with them.
It's worth pointing that when the renewal comes around we always get a quote from another company which is always lower and use that to stay with BG.
Likewise I'm not sure about not having it serviced yearly. Gas leaks have been known to happen.
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Daily physio visits have now stopped but exercises continuing. I think they are going to arrange for more physio work at local community hospital.
Had a trip out to the library this morning. Quite touched by getting a few hugs from the staff. They must be short of customers.😂 Anyway left with 4 books to read.
Awaiting another visit from BT this afternoon. Our service for boiler etc is with BG. We normally do as CS does and get a reduction but unfortunately this year I was in hospital at renewal time and they renewed at higher price. We feel it's a necessity bearing in mind we have an elderly vulnerable person in the house, ( plus MiL.🤣).
I echo Brue's sentiments and hope the festive season is trouble free for everyone.
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Best wishes to all, at home and away, from us here in Yorkshire👍🎅
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Just got the frozen crown turkey out of the chest freezer to check how long it would need to defrost in the fridge, it doesn’t need to come out until tomorrow. So put everything back and it wouldn’t all go in! Everything out 3 times before I could finally close the lid. How does that happen. It’s like when I sort out a cupboard, throw stuff out and then can’t get the rest back in.
OH gone on a mercy dash. We were busy making up spare beds for the family for Christmas when Daughter phoned, she lives 18 miles out, she had to pick up a food order from supermarket in our town. Our granddaughter has gone out for the day with friends with her Mums car keys in her pocket, and daughter can’t find the spares. So OH gone to pick it all up from shop and take it over, 36 mile round trip! Kids, (grown ups now with their own kids) do we ever stop stepping in.
Wishing everyone a lovely Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.
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Thanks to those who have given info on the boiler plans. I was surprised at the prices quoted, the reviews Ive been reading quote around the £500 mark.
I'm not sure we could use BG as ours is an LPG boiler, I have however been reading some very bad reports about BG and not sure I would want to move to them.
Our policy is with Domestic and General but it's through Worcester Bosch. If it was under £300 I would renew but £500 I think is pushing it. I will give them a call after the holidays and see if there is any wiggle room. If not I'll go with our local heating people who installed it, they have always been very good and fair.
Lovely sunny but chilly day today, much prefer it to the rain of yesterday. Would be good to have a sunny day without the freezing cold though.
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A slight change of plan for us. We were supposed to be at Sandringham for Christmas from today, but I haven't been feeling too good recently - desperately tired and short of breath all the time. We've been debating for the last week whether or not to cancel and things came to a head yesterday when I admitted, it wasn't sensible to do that reasonably long haul down to Norfolk - so we cancelled. I felt a bit guilty about cancelling at such short notice but it's the first time we've done so. It's been booked since February - pre deposits - so no financial penalty but I expect I'll get the email reprimand after Christmas! Apart from lockdown, this will be the first Christmas at home since 2014 - so a bit of a novelty
I suppose I'd better start to think about seeing our GP - but not until after Christmas - not sure which year I will get an appointment, though
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Best wishes R&R, if you are not well, best to stay home. I hope you pick up soon, Sandringham will still be there when you feel better👍
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Not wishing to be the bearer of bad tidings, R&R, but have you done a Covid test? There’s a lot of it around as I know to my cost and while my symptoms are mild, OH is suffering as you are. 🙄
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Sad to hear that from both of you and hoping you all recover quickly.
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