Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

vivatifosi

I hope you feel better soon michaels. Are you at work or home?

ivyleaf

Ouch michaels, hope it eases soonest

ETA Sue, if he wants to look at Greenwich, just to warn you that when I went to an open day there some tears ago the students leading the tours went at top speed and I couldn't keep up. I also couldn't imagine them realising that some people might need to use a lift rather than stairs!

SingleSue

vivatifosi wrote: »

Sue, is he doing Business Studies? What unis is he looking at?

Games art design..despite having the equivalent to 4 GCSEs (1 x A*, 1 x A, 2 x in business studies, he actually cannot stand the subject and finds it boring.

He initially wanted to do more on the programming side but has since realised that he is more suited to the concept planning and design side.

Universities currently in the running are NUA (Norwich), Lincoln, Worcester, UCA (Farnham), Sheffield Hallam and Greenwich.

He didn't like my suggestion of Essex as it is too close....and others were discounted because of the programmes/games engines they use as part of the course.

SingleSue

ivyleaf wrote: »

Ouch michaels, hope it eases soonest

ETA Sue, if he wants to look at Greenwich, just to warn you that when I went to an open day there some tears ago the students leading the tours went at top speed and I couldn't keep up. I also couldn't imagine them realising that some people might need to use a lift rather than stairs!

Oh I know that one so well, should have heard the humphs when we went on the interview/audition days for Josh as we were holding everything up.

Only went on one open day for Josh and that was an applicant open day at the same uni James goes to, so he was our personal guide and we avoided the complaints from other parents.

silvercar

michaels wrote: »

I hate migraines

React early is my method. Don't wait to see if it develops.

One of the TV doctors once said a strong cup of coffee at first niggle often works. Works for me half the time. Otherwise I take one of the fast acting ibuprofen formulations. Has to be fast acting before the migraine takes hold.

Hope you feel better soon.

michaels

silvercar wrote: »

React early is my method. Don't wait to see if it develops.

One of the TV doctors once said a strong cup of coffee at first niggle often works. Works for me half the time. Otherwise I take one of the fast acting ibuprofen formulations. Has to be fast acting before the migraine takes hold.

Hope you feel better soon.

^This

I am more and more discovering this is what works, once you let it get started it seems to have to run its course. I did think I had discovered that drinking diet coke when I spotted it coming on was the answer but this didn't work for me on Sunday evening and I was off work in the end yesterday because I could not focus on anything at all and today I am back at work but have that funny numb feeling in my head/neck where the pain was. I am always torn between not wanting to get dependent on pain killers and not wanting to be incapacitated by the headaches.

Dentist Thursday to talk about why I often seem to wake up with stiff/clicking jaw, hopefully this might help with the headaches although there doesn't seem to be correlation between jaw clicking days and headache days....

michaels

Lloyds are halving their current account interest rate which will cost us £200pa. They are also looking at possibly ending the monthly fivers on halifax current accounts costing us another £420pa.

From the 1st November Santander 1-2-3 becomes 1-2-1.5% costing us £900pa. Our other cash savings are now getting 2/2.25% compared to 3% a year ago costing us more than 2k pa - all changes since this time last year. Meanwhile our mortgage is fixed for another 2 years so a real income loss of best part of 4k pa or more than 10% of our annual spend.

It is just depressing

silvercar

michaels wrote: »

Lloyds are halving their current account interest rate which will cost us £200pa. They are also looking at possibly ending the monthly fivers on halifax current accounts costing us another £420pa.

From the 1st November Santander 1-2-3 becomes 1-2-1.5% costing us £900pa. Our other cash savings are now getting 2/2.25% compared to 3% a year ago costing us more than 2k pa - all changes since this time last year. Meanwhile our mortgage is fixed for another 2 years so a real income loss of best part of 4k pa or more than 10% of our annual spend.

It is just depressing

Can you dump the fix on the mortgage?

michaels

silvercar wrote: »

Can you dump the fix on the mortgage?

Sadly not - 3 years ago it seemed like a fee free 2.49% 5 year fix was the lowest it would ever go and that rates were confidently expected to rise within a couple of years so with no plans to move, the 5% erp fixed for the whole 5 year fixed period didn't seem a problem(this week of course HSBC have a 5 year fix at 1.84%)

After about 2 years rates started falling rather than rising but at each moment the saving from remortgaging of about 3% has always been less than the ERP. Until last year when savings rates started falling again it didn't mater so much as we were earning more on the equivalent savings than the mortgage was costing us.

What will be annoying is if when we come to remortgage time in 2 years rates are much higher and we have missed out on another super-cheap fix.

On the first £400 per month of over-payments we get a rebate of 1% so I will start doing that although that will mean less capital being available should a good deal on a BTL come available again.

silvercar

michaels, now would be a good time to hit gumtree or wherever to get your laural trimmed.