Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

PasturesNew

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

This holiday was really to tie up some loose ends and revisit old haunts. After 6 and a half years .... So we decided to spend some of it on a short break in a hotel they used to visit often for Christmas and New Year. .... where we went and had lunch in the shop that used to be my Grandfather's back when I was a child.

Sounds like a BRILLIANT use of time. It must be good to revisit old times etc like that.... glad you managed to do it.

6.5 years is a LOOOOOOONG time!!

PasturesNew

Just started on More4 (freeview channel 14), Location x3. It's revisiting the couple who won the lottery (£1.8 mill) in Boston Spa.

Interesting as they won the money, used Lx3 to find them a house .... and Roger/Lara have since split up. The revisit programme shows you a lot of the original/finding episode, then the revisit.

Spending £650k in December 2005.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2299107/Rogers-wife-blames-blowing-1-8m-Lottery-win-leaving-just-7-So-whats-got-say.html

CKhalvashi

Spirit wrote: »

:j:j:j

I have had the insurance renewal quote in for my car. I was expecting a large hike due to my recent bump. Felt sure I was about to discover that protected no claims was a meaningless marketing line. Very pleasantly surprised...£270. 2 yr old BMW with three named drivers incl european cover and relacment courtesy car (which I now know will be basic).

Just done OH's, and we're looking sub-£500 for a '63' plate Skoda Yeti with the 170ps engine, so costs seem to be going down generally at the moment. This is for 30k miles, business use + £1m public liability cover.

Miroslav

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Nope, forgot to take our kindles so just sat there going slowly mad. They didn't even have any magazines to read. Usually you can count on there being a 6 month old copy of OK or something like that. The most excitement was going out to the car after 2 hours and buying another 2 hours of parking...

Last time there was a TV in the waiting room which was actually worse as it was on sky news which played the same 10 minute piece about the fruitless search for debris from the missing plane over and over again. I was lucky to not go postal.

Oh dear.

When I go, I must remember some reading material.

CKhalvashi wrote: »

That's not bad value, actually.

My DD's are older than that now, but my sister has younger children, and I know reads the DM (but isn't a supporter of UKIP), so she's probably buying them.

Yes, it is good.

I'm off work now for 8 days, so will have to go in tomorrow and Saturday to get the final two parts.

lostinrates wrote: »

I had an appointment pencilled in for first week of June, ( that's not long right?) with new New consultant. He's had the letter from last new guy and says I must not wait till then, so I am going in on Wednesday for next prodding and 'look at the rare woman' session.

I feel better that its being rushed, weirdly, because that means me feeling a bit odd is not so 'odd' .

The unusal thing is I am not in much pain at all ATM. . So if I have this thing maybe its trumped the other thing, that would make me just 'rare' not 'freakish' so that would be better as there is a much clearer treatment protocol.

Glad it's been brought forward.

Good luck

Miroslav

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Hugs and vibes to anyone who needs them, and welcome Miroslav too.

Nice to meet you :wave:

Cracking armchairs. I'd like some of them!

PasturesNew wrote: »

Just started on More4 (freeview channel 14), Location x3. It's revisiting the couple who won the lottery (£1.8 mill) in Boston Spa.

Interesting as they won the money, used Lx3 to find them a house .... and Roger/Lara have since split up. The revisit programme shows you a lot of the original/finding episode, then the revisit.

Spending £650k in December 2005.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2299107/Rogers-wife-blames-blowing-1-8m-Lottery-win-leaving-just-7-So-whats-got-say.html

She looks a bit like Pete Burns :rotfl:

LydiaJ

Spirit wrote: »

What is a statutory bereavement bit (I guess this is something no one knows about unless they are directly affected or a personal injury lawyer)

If a married person dies in an accident for which somebody else is liable, then whoever's liable has to pay the widow(er) a statutory "bereavement award" of £11,800. You can claim more than that in compensation only if you can prove that you were dependent on the dead person for money or "services", and then what you can claim depends what they were providing you with.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm guessing standard widow's pension and associated (aka complex) benefits, applicable by death and age and date.

Widow's pensions aren't statutory. You only get them if your late spouse was in a pension scheme. LNE was. I get a little from the C of E (because he only worked for them for 5 years) and rather more from the NHS (because although he also only worked for them for 5 years, he died in service, so there's extra for that). They aren't enough to live on, but they do mean that I can manage while only working part time. I also got a death in service lump sum from the NHS, and a lump sum from a life policy that I held on his life.

As far as benefits are concerned, you get a one-off £2,000 from the state for losing your spouse. Because I have kids I also get widowed parent's allowance, which is a state benefit that's based on the NI contributions that the dead person made. If the person had made max NI contributions then the widow(er) would get £111.20/week (taxable) for 2014-15. LNE had missed some years of paying NI, so I get a % of that. Because I'm not a higher rate tax-payer, I get child benefit. Because I'm a low earner working more than 16 hours/week, I also get child tax credit, although less than I used to because my pensions and WPA are included in the means testing, whereas the maintenance I used to get from LNE wasn't.

lostinrates wrote: »

I had an appointment pencilled in for first week of June, ( that's not long right?) with new New consultant. He's had the letter from last new guy and says I must not wait till then, so I am going in on Wednesday for next prodding and 'look at the rare woman' session.

I feel better that its being rushed, weirdly, because that means me feeling a bit odd is not so 'odd' .

The unusal thing is I am not in much pain at all ATM. . So if I have this thing maybe its trumped the other thing, that would make me just 'rare' not 'freakish' so that would be better as there is a much clearer treatment protocol.

I agree that it's positive that they're seeing you soon. Hope they're helpful to you.

Nikkster

zagubov wrote: »

I used to live somewhere Nikkster knows. The only landmark you could see was an R101 (airship) hangar. Did a book company take that over as a storage depot? I may have heard this wrong.

I used to go gliding in that area . No hills at all for miles and miles.

If I'm thinking of the right place, it was recently the talk of the town (if you believe the local rags) as One Direction (autocorrect suggested One Defecation :rotfl:) were filming there. Can't say I got too excited about it.

lostinrates

The leg of my chair which has been wobbly for two years finally fell off today, I guess this means I have been sitting too much.

I'm sitting on the chair perched over the leg. This feels safer than it probably is.

Spirit_2

LydiaJ wrote: »

If a married person dies in an accident for which somebody else is liable, then whoever's liable has to pay the widow(er) a statutory "bereavement award" of £11,800. You can claim more than that in compensation only if you can prove that you were dependent on the dead person for money or "services", and then what you can claim depends what they were providing you with.

Widow's pensions aren't statutory. You only get them if your late spouse was in a pension scheme. LNE was. I get a little from the C of E (because he only worked for them for 5 years) and rather more from the NHS (because although he also only worked for them for 5 years, he died in service, so there's extra for that). They aren't enough to live on, but they do mean that I can manage while only working part time. I also got a death in service lump sum from the NHS, and a lump sum from a life policy that I held on his life.

As far as benefits are concerned, you get a one-off £2,000 from the state for losing your spouse. Because I have kids I also get widowed parent's allowance, which is a state benefit that's based on the NI contributions that the dead person made. If the person had made max NI contributions then the widow(er) would get £111.20/week (taxable) for 2014-15. LNE had missed some years of paying NI, so I get a % of that. Because I'm not a higher rate tax-payer, I get child benefit. Because I'm a low earner working more than 16 hours/week, I also get child tax credit, although less than I used to because my pensions and WPA are included in the means testing, whereas the maintenance I used to get from LNE wasn't.

Bereavement award. Now I understand it, I am surprised it is so little.

Your income stream looks complicated to say the least. So long as it is 'enough' I suppose the sources are immaterial, except if the complexity involves a lot of administration and accounting to others about your 'means'.

Spirit_2

lostinrates wrote: »

The leg of my chair which has been wobbly for two years finally fell off today, I guess this means I have been sitting too much.

I'm sitting on the chair perched over the leg. This feels safer than it probably is.

Option appraisal:
Either throw the chair out
or
arrange a repair

Cost/benefit:

Replacement cost/cash flow vs how much you like it and opportunity cost

Risk assessment:
Yep. Plenty.

Not scolding but asking in context with your current situation, have you not got enough mobility/health & safety problems without looking for trouble?

I feel as exasperated as when I read of the school not looking after basics for Sue's sons .