What are you all up to
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WAiting in for Boiler service man to arrive.
Washing machines holiday is over. Amazing how much washing accumulates in just a few days. We have food in the freezer for tonight so food shopping can wait until tomorrow.
Have to go over to look after a neighbours dog later on as one of them rushed to hospital this morning.
Whatever you are up to today I hope it goes well.
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After a couple of nice days today its dull and overcast, it did rain last night/early morning so no frost to get up to today.
Yesterday we went out for lunch with our west coast friends, we meet up at a nice restaurant in Stirling. After the meal they have a very nice lounge that you can have coffees/teas and linger to chat. Some 5 hours after arriving we finally left the building
we did have many coffees.
Today I got a letter from my dentist. Denplan is going up again, by almost £8 a month. so what was I thought an ok price for my plan is now expensive.
I have phoned around a few dentists to gauge things. One practice was happy to put me on the waiting list for NHS (my own practice won't do this) another practice is happy for me to go to them as a Denplan patient. First appointment is £75 for a check to see what level you will be assessed at, plus £13 charge for xrays if my practice won't release my last ones.
Then going by what level of cover I have at the moment their charge per month would actually be higher than I am currently paying
looks like I will be staying with my current one.I did ask what the private charges are, Dental check with dentist currently £70, hygienist £65. On my plan I get 2 x dental checks, 2 x hygienist checks a year + any fillings xrays, crowns etc. for (new price of £33.42) per month, though I would have to pay dental mechanic for those.
So there is a another choice, I can lower the level of plan I am on by £13 a month which would cover check ups and hygienist at the level I currently have (that would be £20pm).
Or I could go private which is cheaper than the plan on a yearly basis as long as I don't need any other treatment. I have a couple of weeks to think about it. I haven't had any dental work carried out in the last 15 years so Dentist has been making a far bit of dosh out of me over that time, he tells me I'm not in need of any work so it does make me wonder. How does that compare to others who are with Denplan.
OH out collecting caravan wheels as they are being fitted with new tyres. The van isn't 5 years old yet but the tyres are 6 years old. Also need to top up with Adblue, have not done this before, no warning yet for it to be done but we are due to go on a 4000+ mls trip so think it should be done.
So far today its been expensive, think I should go back to bed and start again
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Well it’s been a bit of a week! We rushed off to Plymouth on Friday in heavy rain, flooded country roads. After one deep flood the car started making funny noises, which worried me but it did stop after a while. Collected a very poorly granddaughter, her friends, all catching trains home for Easter, had waited with her until we got there and had packed for her. A strange variety of clothes and no socks, but very kind of them.
A&E Saturday morning, where we saw a truly lovely Dr, who knew all about POTs, that is very rare, he said he’d done a lot of reading up. He was very interested in her condition and they had a long discussion. By his absolute tenacity and refusing to get off the phone he managed to get her an emergency neurology appointment for tomorrow. It is now thought that she may have developed epilepsy as well. Back home for a couple of hours, just enough time to eat, thank goodness. Then, sadly 2 more seizures in a row, so 999 call and blue lighted back to hospital. I waited with her and she was discharged at 1am. A lovely nurse did make me a cup of tea.
So this week we have been in, taking it very easy and, as advised, being with her at all times. All her friends have been face timing her to cheer her. Our son and family have long standing plans to visit us for Easter and arrive tomorrow so her cousins will cheer her as well. We have managed some laughs. She has to attend the Hot Neurology Clinic. I keep getting the name mixed up, she corrects me and said,’ Get it right Nan cos if you go in tomorrow and ask for the Hot Neurologist I’ll shrink with embarrassment. 😁
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Hope you all have a peaceful Easter Debsc, doesn't it make a difference when you meet a medic who takes a special interest! OH has a benign postural positional vertigo problem (bppv) only spotted properly by an out of hours walk in medic. All OK at the moment. Do hope your granddaughter feels a bit better soon and enjoys having family company.
TammyG I pay just over £40 for a private plan set up by our dentist. He stopped doing Denplan but it's not cheaper although the benefits are the same when away from home etc. Trouble is we're paying double that amount for two of us. I think it has been "even stevens" over the last year with a lot of work done. I think Covid played a part in that too with only brief check ups. We keep saying we'll stop and just pay up front but probably it's much the same in the end.
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Oh boy DEBSC that does indeed constitute a heck of a week. As long as your Granddaughters sense of humour doesn't desert her she'll be in a lot better place than some people whose conditions are not as serious but they think they are. Good luck to the pair of you.
TG, we reduced our Denplan to the £22 pm x 2 and keeping our fingers crossed.
Our neighbour is still in the ambulance apparently but is being partially treated in the there. What a mess the country is in. Looks like we'll be taking the dog for a walk just now as I need to take <iL to doctors for some basic tests later on.
Rained all day here.
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Thanks brue,WN and Debsc, just trying to do a reality check.
I'm seriously considering going private. I've had no 'treatment' in over 15 years. Dentist claims no work needed at each and every appointment so why the ever increasing charges.
If I went private I would have just 1 check up a year and the 2 hygienist appointments. This would come to £210 for the year, if I had 2 x check ups and 2 x hygienist it would be £270.
With the new fees I will be paying £401 per year. If I was having lots of fillings etc. it would be worth it but I'm not, so my thoughts are go private save £200 into savings account and if I do need something doing then the money will be there to pay for it, if no treatment required then I've got some pocket money
I seem to remember DK saying that he and his OH have done something similar.OH now back with the new tyres and he is fitting them to the caravan.
Still dull and chilly outside but at least its dry. Oh and I've had a little windfall on the premium bonds
Sorry Debsc, meant to say that must be very upsetting for you and your Gdaughter, hope the follow up appointment brings some more information and help/relief for her. We've still not heard anything more about our Gdaughter, still waiting on MRI appointment.
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Dentists and dentistry seem a popular topic of conversation! Can I pose a question? Do people think it essential to have check-ups twice a year and do they think they really need to see a hygienist also twice a year? We decided some time ago that we would only have annual appointments. Margaret won't have the hygienist anyway as she finds it too painful. It's funny in a way that since only seeing the dentist once a year we have never had any comeback that we should do it more often and I have not been told, or recommended, that I need to see the hygienist. As TG mentioned we have a separate savings account for all things medical, well at least teeth and eyes. If we need new glasses or any dental treatment we pay half and the rest comes out of the savings account, it seems to work quite well. Margaret has some upcoming dental treatment which will probably cost £400 plus but the type of work is unlikely to be covered under any of the Plans so we will stick with our method for the time being.
David
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DK My hygienist is the person I trust most, more so than my dentists, past and present, and she informs me that it is essential for the health of my teeth as I have a tendency to garner plaque, in spite of regular cleaning and using mouthwash etc. Mrs WN doesn't have the same problem but is happy to have 2 visits per year.
I also have to say that the hygienist is the most gentlest of operators. I'm fortunate that she has been looking after my teeth for the last 25 years at least. The main reason we persist with having to travel to Chester for treatment.
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I have to have 3 hygienist visits a year as I have receding gums and gum disease. My teeth it seems are fine. David if it helps, I also have a real problem at the hygienist visit, so very painful I dread it, ours is very good, I won’t see anyone else. She injects my gums all around with anaesthetic and then it is bearable. Difficult for a bit after though with a full numb mouth but well worth it. Maybe something like this would help Margaret.
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We've been Denplan, or whatever its now called, for more years than I care to remember! We travel back to Chelmsford to see the dentist we've been with since he qualified almost 35 years ago. We get discount as 3 family members use the same practice. Guess who picks up the DD? Not sure on each individual cost but about £24 each. We currently visit 4 times a year - our dentist cleans our teeth, not a hygienist, and I am very happy with that as I have very sensitive teeth and seem to be a world champion at creating plaque! He puts the removal tool on its lowest setting and I can tolerate it.
This topic is interesting as I've considered/considering going more local. But as Tammygirl says we have to pay for assessment with new practice but didn't ask the cost. It involves giving one months notice to our existing practice, probably not knowing new charges following the initial examination. Discount would be reduced, as son wants to stay put, and reading new T&C's we are likely to be much out of pocket as we only pay lab fees if necessary - everything else comes from our monthly fee (accept fuel but we do fit in visits to friends and family). I fear being greatly out of pocket if we swapped practices. I had thought paying privately might be the way forward - but then you have to find one!
Grey here, dried washing outside earlier but it's raining now. Given myself a restful day.
Milliehull thanks for the Waitrose tip - I did get my bearings as I used the roundabout to return down the entry road. Didn't occur to me to use their carpark 😂.
DEBSC and Tammygirl I hope your granddaughters get the care they need.
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It was a fairly pleasant morning so I washed our bedding and got it dry on the line and also did a bit of gardening after a visit to the chiropodist (I lead a very exciting life!) It then turned very grey this afternoon and is now raining but the washing was dry enough to iron so I got that out of the way. I have spent the rest of the afternoon trying to sort out what we want to take for our few days away in the Dales next week - will it rain/be cold/be warm and sunny who knows?!
We are having a nice start to Easter tomorrow as we are having afternoon tea at The George in Stamford. A Christmas present from our N.Ireland family. I am hoping that I might have time for a bit of shopping in Stamford before the tea but OH doesn't know that yet
TG and DEBSC so sorry to hear about the troubles with your grand-daughters. I hope they both get the treatment/tests they need soon and that it helps.
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Same from me as well TG and Debsc, worrying for you.
What a contrast we have had today weather wise. Cold and very wet after two lovely days of warm sunshine. We decided just to head off for a drive out in Jeep, headed off out towards Langsett Reservoir via Woodhead Road, stopped off to give the pooch a stroll, then onwards towards Holmfirth. There’s a very interesting Cafe and Classic Car restoration place called The Carding Shed, very nice Cafe. Nice late lunch, then home via Holme Moss summit, beacon was up there somewhere, but lost in the mist🤣, scenic drive back via the Snake Pass, open now but still has landslide damage, so one way traffic at certain spots.
Cafe is nice, bike is same one I had in my 20’s, some classics in for restoration, and a lovely motorbike, no idea what it is, if anyone else has an idea?
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The bike is a Kawasaki Vulcan I think ttda. It's not in standard form looking at the back end. They used to have lots of cooling problems back in the day hence the huge radiator.
All these posts with lovely photos and all places I've never been (that's not hard really). Quite inspiring as we sit making plans for the future. Keep them coming folks
Hopefully the weather will hold today so I can get on the tools, it's easy to fall behind when you're on your own with 11 acres but hey I'm using the wifi from the new BT hotspot which was installed yesterday, it's not bad overall and it reaches 75% of the site which is an improvement on the last one.
Have a good day folks, work calls
JK
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My 1st impressions was a drifter. I bow to your superior knowledge👍🏻😊
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Had the oven cleaning man come yesterday, always does an excellent job. Given that he is based in Norfolk I do wonder how economic it is for him to travel so far for what he charges. He did say that does try and coordinate several customers in the same area to save on fuel costs.
Whilst he was cleaning the oven I was in the garage sorting through a pile of camping related bits and pieces which are no longer required. The hope is the sell most of them but a couple of items I looked at and thought no way anyone would buy those so it looks as I will be organising a trip to the dump! Despite having worked in retailing all my working life I am not a natural seller of bits! Last year when I changed the motorhome wheels to alloys I had a set of four rims and four wheel trims. The wheel trims sold fairly easily but no luck at all with the rims so they went to a local scrap merchant and I think I got £10 for the lot!
David
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Apologies on a previous post, I mentioned bppv and used an incorrect word, not that it makes anyone the wiser!
A good trip out TDA, OH has been restoring a motorbike of sorts in the garage, it took me a year before I even noticed it amongst all the other accumulated stuff!
Hope your sales plans work out DK.
Waiting for visiting dogs, a few hours only I hope.
Hope the Easter break goes well on the site JK.
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Thanks for the motorbike spotting, it had nothing on it as identification, lovely looking bike. It was in the cafe it’s self, on display. Thankfully, my OH has resisted getting a motorbike, he has stuck to cars. It’s bad enough with the cycles.
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Talking of dentists and Denplan. We had Denplan with our previous dentist when we lived in Bedford; as there was a dentist in the village here we expected to transfer for a similar level of cover when we moved here. We went along, after paying the consultation fee, and he wanted to charge about twice the fee we had previously paid for the same cover - that didn’t go down well so we decided to cancel Denplan. Fortunately we found a new NHS practice in the next village and, apart from having no ‘chair-side’ manner, she has always been fine. We don’t get a hygienist but the dentist does a ultrasonic type clean twice a year with checkups. We are just sitting and recovering after having our son’s dog for two days. They all arrived on Monday, then left to go to Manchester on Tuesday for our grandson’s birthday treat to visit Old Trafford, and then tickets for the match on Wednesday night, they got back here about 12.30am last night. The dog was good though, just energetic. We took him to Fraisthorpe beach yesterday, in the drizzle, and he had a brilliant time chasing balls until we got fed-up with throwing them!!! They have all just left after a full brunch/breakfast so all quiet again here. Now to get on with some jobs.
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Hi ALL, Sorry to say that i shall not be renewing my membership & the end of the month. First began in the early 80s,but now enough is enough !! I feel that other associations offer that which i need at the moment ,without the increases in fee's ,glamping investments, magazine production ,advertising, rallies etc etc .
Many thanks to ALL that have been there in the background/help etc.
" CARRY on CAMPING "
Regards ,Pete / Triky .
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JK wrote... but hey I'm using the wifi from the new BT hotspot which was installed yesterday, it's not bad overall and it reaches 75% of the site which is an improvement on the last one.
As our BT hub only reaches 75% of the bungalow I think that's par for the course. It's strange that I can get an EE and Smarty signal to use as a hotspot in the bedroom but can't get BT from the Hub.
We're dog sitting again Brue. Neighbour kept in overnight.
Had to stock up with food before Easter so forced into Tesco.
Had a good result - I bought some Specialised Tea, Three Ginger as you ask, for OH on t'internet as H&B were offering Buy One, Get 1 Half Price. As the price for a packet of 20 had jumped from £2.50 to £4.00 I decided to get 10 of them, making average price £3.00. However they had a 1 day offer of extra 20% off, so £2.40. Great. Ordered it but they only took 20% off, so I complained saying the Half price should be deducted. Anyway they eventually relented and reimbursed me. 1 week later they write to me saying that as my order hadn't been collected from the shop, as requested, they were reimbursing my total bill.
I wrote back saying I had collected them and had received my reimbursement so no need to give me extra credit. They've just written back saying "Our fault, just keep the money". I wasnt particularly after charity but as OH will eventually have to replace these in something like 3 months we know where to buy them.
See Honesty does sometime pay.3 -
A return to non-member status, eh Triky. The only difference is these days you need to be approved and Ro can sort that out when the time comes.👍🏻
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Kind regards from us as well Triky. Take care and enjoy your breaks👍
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Miserable wet day yesterday.
Picked up prescriptions for our trip, quick shops in Tesco and Waitrose, then home for lunch. Later took Smart down to DD's house in case they need to use it.
Lovely day today, quick trip to Guide Hall to turn off heating for the holiday period, then into Lidl for milk and cornflakes. OH also wanted a couple of Middle of Lidl items, but they had not got them in. Parts of the place looked low on stock in general.
The solar diverter I fitted to use the excess power from the roof to heat our water seems to be working well, OH also managed to run the dishwasher, then the WM and dryer "free", and wash the pots etc so the HW could be reheated afterwards.
Now need to pack stuff for our trip. Looks like it should be good weather for the rest of the weekend.
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"The solar diverter I fitted to use the excess power from the roof to heat our water seems to be working well, OH also managed to run the dishwasher, then the WM and dryer "free", and wash the pots etc so the HW could be reheated afterwards."
not done anything as technical as this we heat water from natural gas and we are on a very cheap tariff just now, however, solar panels are clocking up 15 - 20 kw per day which is good for this time of year, but did have a disaster, almost 10 years to the day the invertor stopped working, was guaranteed for 5 and people that installed the system said 10 years life expectancy, new invertor fitted including VAT was £1k, however, the new one has 10 year guarantee and life expectancy of 20 years. Considering the invertor is only a glorified transformer and is solid state, would have expected them to last forever
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Summer has arrived on the Solent
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Another good day today, some sunshine and clouds, this was taken this morning before breakfast on a walk up the 'east ridge' of Latrigg looking towards Blencathra. If you look half way up and a quarter of the way in from the right you'll see a white building that's been our home for the week but home tomorrow
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