Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

silvercar

BT are also going to increase prices again by dropping the paperless billing discount for those who don't pay annually. For some reason they also give me free evening calls as well as weekend for the £120pa and with free caller display this actually make sit cheaper than the 'best-buy' deals with primus especially as free off peak also includes 0845/0870 and they don't block over ride operators for daytime calls although generally I use my mobile for daytime calls anyway.

I went for the Anytime calls precisely because I am often phoning 0845/0870 calls during the day.

My doctor's surgery has one of those annoying 0844 numbers, but just seen a note in the waiting room that 0844.... can't be dialled from abroad so use 0870.....(different end bit) instead. So that is now within the Anytime calls.

silvercar

Do any NP know anything about buying mattresses? They seem to have different names in each store for the same brand and product so it is impossible to do price comparisons. Some are 'half price' but seem to be similar prices to others with equivalent sounding features that are full price. I want a matress for the spare room that won't be used that often but will hopefully have any visitiors thinking this is comfortable rather than 'next time we book a hotel' - obviously I'd rather spend between 1 and 2 hundred rather than 1000...

As a spare room mattress, anything relatively (but not overly) firm should be fine for short visits. For longer visits, people generally have personal preferences so its impossible for you to choose. I find visitors are generally more moany about the size of the bed than the matress.

Generali

michaels wrote: »

Do any NP know anything about buying mattresses? They seem to have different names in each store for the same brand and product so it is impossible to do price comparisons. Some are 'half price' but seem to be similar prices to others with equivalent sounding features that are full price. I want a matress for the spare room that won't be used that often but will hopefully have any visitiors thinking this is comfortable rather than 'next time we book a hotel' - obviously I'd rather spend between 1 and 2 hundred rather than 1000...

My experience is that generally if you spend more on a mattress it will last longer. Clearly that's unlikely to be a problem in an irregularly used spare room.

I'd use the 'dinner test'. If I'm cooking for someone then I don't really know what they like so I cook as well as I can to my taste. If you test out a few mattresses and buy the comfiest then you should be fine.

Get bedside lights. For some reason, people never put bedside lights in their spare room. I find it really annoying as I like to read before I go to sleep.

Doozergirl

I've got about an hour and a half to work out how to tie a bow tie. I have a feeling we're going to be late. Youtube is not really helping.

He won't even let me practice it on him, which I think is defeating the object as if doing it on yourself is the opposite of doing it on you OH.

He wants to lie down and eat garibaldi biscuits. If I don't sort this, it's going to be me that's embarassed more than him!

All the rugby boys have proper ones. All the bank managers at the bank I worked for have cheats ones. I even had to do one of those for one of them after he'd arrived...

I met a guy at a wedding who had a cheat's one for earlier and a real one in his pocket to hang round his neck later. I think he's got it right!

Doozergirl

michaels wrote:

Do any NP know anything about buying mattresses? They seem to have different names in each store for the same brand and product so it is impossible to do price comparisons. Some are 'half price' but seem to be similar prices to others with equivalent sounding features that are full price. I want a matress for the spare room that won't be used that often but will hopefully have any visitiors thinking this is comfortable rather than 'next time we book a hotel' - obviously I'd rather spend between 1 and 2 hundred rather than 1000...

I really like Ikea mattresses. We had one for five years and I loved it. Then we bought an expensive one and I wish we hadn't. We've been sleeping on a foam Ikea one recently, dirt cheap and we both really like it, enough that we're going to buy one and ditch the expensive one.

Some of the mattresses in Ikea are more different to normal ones than others. DS's mattress is Ikea on a normal base and it's only 5cm longer than normal. I just wedge it in, it's fine, it goes in.

Doozergirl

On my leg! Am I posh now?

GDB2222

Doozergirl wrote: »

On my leg! Am I posh now?

Umm, nice! (I'm talking about the bow tie - well, mainly about the bow tie.)

sss555s

Doozergirl wrote: »

On my leg! Am I posh now?

Ooo err, what bow tie? :A

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

Do any NP know anything about buying mattresses? They seem to have different names in each store for the same brand and product so it is impossible to do price comparisons. Some are 'half price' but seem to be similar prices to others with equivalent sounding features that are full price. I want a matress for the spare room that won't be used that often but will hopefully have any visitiors thinking this is comfortable rather than 'next time we book a hotel' - obviously I'd rather spend between 1 and 2 hundred rather than 1000...

There used to be a bed specialist who answered questions on the DIY board. Not sure if he's still there, but it may be worth doing a search. Was it Tim? Something like that.

We have two memory foam mattresses now and I'd never go back to a normal one. One of them was really expensive (Kaymed), the other is part of a far cheaper divan set (Airsprung). Both are equally comfortable, though you've only got to look at the Airsprung to see it won't last as long. It's in the spare room though so that doesn't matter too much.

I definitely agree re the size though. If we were starting over, I'd have bought bigger, but this one (including the frame) cost nearly £2k and I'll be laying in it till I'm about 80 to get my money's worth!

JonnyBravo

Doozergirl wrote: »

I've got about an hour and a half to work out how to tie a bow tie. I have a feeling we're going to be late. Youtube is not really helping.

He won't even let me practice it on him, which I think is defeating the object as if doing it on yourself is the opposite of doing it on you OH.

He wants to lie down and eat garibaldi biscuits. If I don't sort this, it's going to be me that's embarassed more than him!

All the rugby boys have proper ones. All the bank managers at the bank I worked for have cheats ones. I even had to do one of those for one of them after he'd arrived...

I met a guy at a wedding who had a cheat's one for earlier and a real one in his pocket to hang round his neck later. I think he's got it right!

I learnt shortly after Uni and am pleased I did. They're tricky things and can still take me a couple of goes to get right. (I only wear one once or twice a year I guess.)
Yeah we have one at our co. who cheats with fake ("pre-tied" if you're sensitive) then a real one for later.
Fake are easy to spot though, the knots are impossibly small and the ties perfectly symmetrical. A proper tie will appear a little "uneven".