Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

PasturesNew

I never look at/notice avatars

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

Is it really that cold there? I've just had a simple throw over me for the past month, often kicking it half off .... and often not even turning the heating on. Right now I turned the boiler off 5 minutes after it auto-started at 5am and I'm here with a window open and the patio doors open 2"

Confirms what I always suspected, PN is hot in bed

silvercar

sss555s wrote: »

Puzzle Retreat was the game...

I did the first set (tutorial) and thought this would be a great game for the summer holiday flight. I may just get stuck in anyway.

Silvercar could be the dark horse with this one..

Still regretting candy crush - now on level 223.

silvercar

michaels wrote:

Yep same employer, 17 years for my sins, they treat me very fairly but after they went through a bad patch 2 years ago they are not in a position to turn down any work and thus in the past they have rotated staff but now they just try and give the customer what they want which is always continuity of staff - annoying though as I know they have been using contract staff to do work in St Albans that I could have been doing.

I thought you didn't work one year, in an effort to maximise tax credits etc? Maybe an honest conversation is needed. Would it be possible to work 2 days a week from St Albans?

silvercar

zagubov wrote: »

Welcome back sss555s!:beer:

Can I push auctionsniper to help win the parts. A mate once said it saved his marriage as he had to keep on getting up inthe small hours to bid on parts in the states.

Ebay isn't always cheaper, try 7dayshop.com, ebuyer, amazon.

michaels

silvercar wrote: »

I thought you didn't work one year, in an effort to maximise tax credits etc? Maybe an honest conversation is needed. Would it be possible to work 2 days a week from St Albans?

I worked 2 days a week one year, mostly in St Albans while the house was being extended. It was ideal in all respects except for paying off the mortgage.

This new tax year I am planning to work full time but salary sacrifice everything above minimum wage into my pension, gives up 20k of disposable (my planned mortgage repayment) for a 70k pension boost. This puts back my mortgage free date by a year but has got to be worth it and it can only be done this year as Universal Credit is likely to rule it out in future.

The commute is not so bad at about an hour door to door but somehow those 10 hours a week just wear you down, especially when the trains are broken for a few days in a row and the time goes up.

Generali

My next holiday report.

We're on the way home so having driven up the Pacific Highway I thought it might be fun to drive back along the New England Highway. The PH runs alongside the coast whereas the NE Highway runs about 30-50kms inland. I've never used it before.

It starts off nicely enough. You turn inland a little and start going through some nice communities. They're really just the very outmost 'burbs of Brissie but not bad for all that.

Then you drive for about 80kms across a big plain and the mountains come into sight. Mrs Generali and the Generalissimos fell asleep and then I got to the mountains. That was amazing. About 30kms of winding, very technical driving in my big Toyota Aurion (like a Camry but with a 3l V6 engine). The scenery was beautiful, rather like a sub-tropical Exmoor.

After that we drove through the Northern Rivers district. That was about 250kms through amazing cattle pasture where some of the best beef in Aus is produced. We stopped at a little general store and I got chatting to some bikies who were on their way to Nimbin, cannabis capital of NSW and probably Aus.

The next part of the drive was 100kms or so along straight fast roads through gum tree forest with the odd cattle station (farm). Someone had set fire to a part of the forest so we called 000 for the firies (firemen) to put it out before we got another bush fire.

Finally we dropped back on to the PH at Grafton, an unremarkable country town famous for oyster production and drove the last 100kms to Coffs Harbour.

My son was rather put out that we 'only' did half the journey today and are going the rest of the way to Sydney tomorrow. He's becoming a proper Aussie. I was very happy to stop driving though.

We had a terrible steak dinner after the drive and now the Test match is over for the day I'm off to the pub for a well earned cold beer or 2. I'd best not over indulge as we've got the same again to drive tomorrow.

GDB2222

lostinrates wrote: »

GDB,

Is dw happy for you to go or does this too meet with resistance? Presuming all is ok I would go. It looks a lot cleaner and less.....bright, than similar retreats in Glastonbury!

That is such a good question, LIR! DW's initial position was that she wouldn't come, but I could go on my own if I wanted to. So, I booked it and told her the dates.

"You'll be going away for a week without me!" So, not exactly whole-hearted support.

Nikkster

PasturesNew wrote: »

Is it really that cold there? I've just had a simple throw over me for the past month, often kicking it half off .... and often not even turning the heating on. Right now I turned the boiler off 5 minutes after it auto-started at 5am and I'm here with a window open and the patio doors open 2"

No, not really (though it has been chilly). Although my bedroom is a small room with a sloping ceiling - so a high proportion of the surfaces are external. I can't sleep if I have cold feet, and I like to be cosy. Was a bit warm this morning though, so I think its getting close to the time to go back to just the one duvet

silvercar

GDB2222 wrote: »

That is such a good question, LIR! DW's initial position was that she wouldn't come, but I could go on my own if I wanted to. So, I booked it and told her the dates.

"You'll be going away for a week without me!" So, not exactly whole-hearted support.

A whole week :eek: That is "eek" in terms of how long I could spend in one of those places as well as contemplating being away for a week. If this is the first time at a retreat, I would think a week is a long time.