OldBoyScout

No it's after 6 glasses, 1 + 2 + 3!

Found this gem on Google while looking for something else: What do Brits call a garage? In England it's a Garage, in Scotland its a “car Hoose” in Wales it called a “sheep shed with an up and over door” and in Northern Ireland it's a “Wee cold place to keep kids bikes and other stuff”

Same with "kerb" (oddly not recognized by the spell checker on this site) and "curb".

We had a 17 year old Jack Russell Border cross, now sadly passed away, who seemed to be getting side effects from the Metacam painkiller prescribed by the vet. He was fine on regular over the counter Paracetamol, one quarter tablet per day.

Probably not as much as you think. They are probably paying a lot more for their supplies compared with what the online vendors are paying. If this was not the case it would make better financial sense for them to cut their margin rather than missing out on the sales completely. In my experience the vets readily tell us their clients that that they can't compete on price with the online vendors, and the difference is great enough for them to be able to make a modest profit issuing written prescriptions for online use.

To be honest I was a bit sceptical when I ordered it, but decided to give it a try, as the ingredients seemed to make sense and I really wanted it to work. I am just staggered to find out that the price that I paid was so massively over-inflated. The customs charge alone was three time what I could have bought the same product for on Amazon.

Just found out I have been massively overcharged for a prostate supplement that I bought online last March after viewing a very persuasive video on the Net. I paid 318 USD for 7 dropper bottles plus a further £63.66 in customs and handling charges. I just saw the exact same product for sale on Amazon, namely Prostadine, at a total price of £21.29 for a pack of 4 plus a pack of 3. After trying the product for almost 7 months I also feel that the claims that they made for it are greatly over-exaggerated.

I first heard about this on Channel 5 Jeremy Vine a couple of days ago. Shocked that something that will affect most people in the UK in just 2 years time, perhaps seriously, has not been more widely publicized. It seems that Openreach are planning to replace the old copper wire phone network with fiber broadband and are intending to cease all landlines in 2025. It seems that many people who are aware of this have serious concerns about equipment and services that they depend on, as traditional phones, alarms, answerphones etc will not work on the digital network without adaptation. There are concerns about reliability, costs and how people will cope if they are not good with technology.

VEHICLE TAX SCAM Went online to pay vehicle tax and got scammed. Should have known better, but thought I was OK as I had entered the web address from the normal reminder that came in the post. Instead of the official site I got directed to a scam site that looked very much the same after clicking on a link at the top of the search results. My PC always used to go directly to the web addresses that I entered but no longer does this. Maybe I can fix this in the browser settings. The site that I got taken to was vehicleenquiry.uk. On further investigation it seems that they may be allowed to continue operating as they are technically just within the letter of the law despite being deliberately deceptive and misleading. They don't tax the vehicle, but they charge an initial fee of 50p and set up a monthly subscription of £5.95. I believe I have cancelled the subscription by emailing them but may not be able to recover the 50p without going through a dispute procedure with the bank. After calling the bank's fraud department I get the impression that in the eyes of the banks these alleged scammers are treated just like any other client who uses their online payment facilities. In my opinion the banks seem happy to profit from questionable operations of this type and continue to support them. I decided it was wise to accept the inconvenience of cancelling and replacing my card, but pursuing the 50p will not be worth the bother.

I went to a lot of gigs in the 70s including Al Stewart, John Martyn, Stealers Wheel - all hugely talented in their own ways. I saw Al Stewart a few times and always enjoyed it, John Martyn likewise. I have also followed Fairport Convention from the early 70s when they released their History album with the family tree on the cover, with the most recent time that I saw them being in early 2019 at the Union Chapel in Islington. Shortly before that I went to see the Albion Christmas Band, a Fairport offshoot, at Cecil Sharp House in Camden, and am looking forward to seeing them again at the same venue next month.

Mr car insurance is coming up for renewal soon and the current provider Marshmallow has made it very difficult to cancel auto renewal. It can only be done via so called live chat, and they are saying that the normal reply time is a few hours. The new price is £444.15 up from £285.91 last year.

No, I don't have one for HSBC. I only have a credit card from them, no other bank account, but I do have a similar device for Barclays.

HSBC upgraded their logon for digital banking. It's been a while since I logged on and the security routine has changed. Apparently I need to upgrade the secure key, but I am confused as to whether this is the same thing as the password, and if not then which is which. I am trying to reset it but it needs my date of birth, and it seems that I can only enter this by swiping back through 70 years of the calendar month by month. That's over 840 swipes. I have needed to repeat this and my patience is getting exhausted.

There is a subtle difference between automatic and semi-automatic which I needed to look up. Seems that semi-automatic includes an option to change gears manually, so I would infer that most cars we call automatics are actually semi. Obviously an error message referring to Position P is not applicable to a manual car.

Yes I only get the message while driving. Seems to be at random, but think it may be when it gets jolted. Doesn't happen very often and there are no ill effects in my case after years of seeing it. The car is long out of warranty and this is easy to live with, so I have never bothered getting it fixed.