Off Topic Things that aren't worth a new thread ...

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Oldsandy said:
A plumber instructor told me about when he moved into a posh-ish estate. He was next door to a vet. The first winter there the vet knocks on his door on a freezing night and pleads for help because his heating has packed up. The plumber puts a coat over his pyjamas and goes next door. He spends half an hour crawling around an arctic loft and gets the heating working. The vet asks how much does he owe and the plumber shrugs. Because they are neighbours it’s on the house. About 6 months later the plumbers old dog has a fit and is yelping and obviously in pain so he goes round to the vet and asks him if could put the dog to sleep. The vet obliges, commiserates and goes back home. 2 days later, the plumber finds a bill for veterinary services pushed through his letter box!
After that he charged full whack for everything he did - even for friends.
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Moral of the story, get stung once, never get stung twice. Mates rates are something I think that are becoming something of the past. It ends up mates rates for mates mates. I know people that's have scoffed and said "what, for a cake) at the price of a cake for a birthday,(a relation of mine used to make them)something that costs alot of skill and time to make, yet the same person wouldn't think twice at spending double the amount for a cake on alcohol to piss up the wall. Same as these that's claim to be skint, yet have the latest phones, drink, smoke and a sky dish slapped on the side of the house.
 
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Oldsandy said:
A plumber instructor told me about when he moved into a posh-ish estate. He was next door to a vet. The first winter there the vet knocks on his door on a freezing night and pleads for help because his heating has packed up. The plumber puts a coat over his pyjamas and goes next door. He spends half an hour crawling around an arctic loft and gets the heating working. The vet asks how much does he owe and the plumber shrugs. Because they are neighbours it’s on the house. About 6 months later the plumbers old dog has a fit and is yelping and obviously in pain so he goes round to the vet and asks him if could put the dog to sleep. The vet obliges, commiserates and goes back home. 2 days later, the plumber finds a bill for veterinary services pushed through his letter box!
After that he charged full whack for everything he did - even for friends.
Click to expand...

i fixed/sorted/upgraded peoples pc's for years, eventually decided to go get some qualifications and during my course i was told if i passed all tests (i did) then i could charge up to £40 an hour just for looking.

during my early years i always got asked what guarantee i would give for a pc build, i offered a full year of me going to their homes and sorting it there and then...at the time there were many horror stories of people having to return pc's/laptops to the likes of pc world and never seeing them again...most times i ended up going back for two or three years, one thing i never did was charge as i despised repair shops for what they charged for what in most cases was a 10 minute fix, if someone really took the p1ss and called me up constantly i would at least cover fuel costs or get a pouch of baccy for my troubles, one guy amazingly stopped calling me after i asked for money for replacing his cd rom drive after many visits to his house sorting other stuff for free.

i still hate to charge so basically do very little now but some people simply cannot do favours now, we used to all get together if one of the lads had a job, car to sort or garden etc and we all repaid the favour...lots got done and it cost us the bits only, even if a lad knew nowt about cars he would turn up just to pass tools around, a big help at the time.
 
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samwise_new said:
i fixed/sorted/upgraded peoples pc's for years, eventually decided to go get some qualifications and during my course i was told if i passed all tests (i did) then i could charge up to £40 an hour just for looking.

during my early years i always got asked what guarantee i would give for a pc build, i offered a full year of me going to their homes and sorting it there and then...at the time there were many horror stories of people having to return pc's/laptops to the likes of pc world and never seeing them again...most times i ended up going back for two or three years, one thing i never did was charge as i despised repair shops for what they charged for what in most cases was a 10 minute fix, if someone really took the p1ss and called me up constantly i would at least cover fuel costs or get a pouch of baccy for my troubles, one guy amazingly stopped calling me after i asked for money for replacing his cd rom drive after many visits to his house sorting other stuff for free.

i still hate to charge so basically do very little now but some people simply cannot do favours now, we used to all get together if one of the lads had a job, car to sort or garden etc and we all repaid the favour...lots got done and it cost us the bits only, even if a lad knew nowt about cars he would turn up just to pass tools around, a big help at the time.
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A good idea that samwise; sort of a friends community.
 
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A good few years ago, I reckon around 2002/3 I done a buffet (I'm a chef...so was the first one his wife asked!!) for a mates surprise 50th birthday in the Ox and Plough in Washington. Done it without hesitation, absolutely no question asked...they were both good friends of me and my wife.
It was only a small private party, I reckon catered for about 30, maybe 35. Personally spent somewhere between £50 to £60 on stuff, and made and decorated a birthday cake. All good stuff, and layed out in the pub, it looked great.
On the day, his wife came up to me at the bar and thanked me for everything...she was over the moon, and bought me a pint.
That was it...that's all I got, and was all i needed, just the thank you. I was made up.
A good few months later, I had a problem with the electrics in my house....they kept tripping. Phoned my sparky mate whose buffet I done, and he was straight down. He spent about 4 hours diagnosing and doing a bit of rewiring from the consumer unit to the shower.
Cost? "Nowt mate... I owe you one".
 
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Snaggey said:
A good few rears ago, I reckon around 2002/3 I done a buffet (I'm a chef...so was the first one his wife asked!!) for a mates surprise 50th birthday in the Ox and Plough in Washington. Done it without hesitation, absolutely no question asked...they were both good friends of me and my wife.
It was only a small private party, I reckon catered for about 30, maybe 35. Personally spent somewhere between £50 to £60 on stuff, and made and decorated a birthday cake. All good stuff, and layed out in the pub, it looked great.
On the day, his wife came up to me at the bar and thanked me for everything...she was over the moon, and bought me a pint.
That was it...that's all I got, and was all i needed, just the thank you. I was made up.
A good few months later, I had a problem with the electrics in my house....they kept tripping. Phoned my sparky mate whose buffet I done, and he was straight down. He spent about 4 hours diagnosing and doing a bit of rewiring from the consumer unit to the shower.
Cost? "Nowt mate... I owe you one".
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as it should be, take the greed and 'must have' ideology away and humans can do pretty well for themselves...as a race we are forgetting how to help others out when they are in need.
 
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just reading the 'commercial flights' thread and the comments on facebook parts..

i wonder, once we wipe ourselves out, in thousands of years when the population grows and the new explorers/archeologists are earning their keep...if the only things they find are the memory banks of facebook so they base everything about us on them.

then i wonder if the ancient wall paintings and hieroglyphics are just the 'facebook' of the time and dont actually show life as it really was, just the 'selfie craze' of the era...'look at me, i fought a bison'...'me and the kids at the coast, fishing'...that type of thing.
 
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samwise_new said:
just reading the 'commercial flights' thread and the comments on facebook parts..

i wonder, once we wipe ourselves out, in thousands of years when the population grows and the new explorers/archeologists are earning their keep...if the only things they find are the memory banks of facebook so they base everything about us on them.

then i wonder if the ancient wall paintings and hieroglyphics are just the 'facebook' of the time and dont actually show life as it really was, just the 'selfie craze' of the era...'look at me, i fought a bison'...'me and the kids at the coast, fishing'...that type of thing.
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I’ve pondered the same scenario mate. Beings from another planet doing archeological digs on our dead planet Earth may ask the question: what was it that drove the entire world population insane? What made them deliberately destroy entire cities, wipe out civilisations, completely devastate the flora and fauna across the planet, poison their oceans and the very air they breathed? What was it that made them want to commit suicide on such a massive scale?
 
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Oldsandy said:
I’ve pondered the same scenario mate. Beings from another planet doing archeological digs on our dead planet Earth may ask the question: what was it that drove the entire world population insane? What made them deliberately destroy entire cities, wipe out civilisations, completely devastate the flora and fauna across the planet, poison their oceans and the very air they breathed? What was it that made them want to commit suicide on such a massive scale?
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There's quite a good book by a fella called Jared Diamond about how societies collapse. Its called Collapse: how societies choose to fail or survive.
 
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This creased me,
From Dean Saunders, on about Bale going to the mags.
The fans right now in Newcastle, because I’ve been there and I worked there – and I realise how much they love the club – right now they could sell 80,000 season tickets.”



Surprisingly, Championship club Cardiff City are currently favourites to complete a surprise move for Bale.
<laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh>
 
After a bit advice....

Let's say £25k left on a mortgage with 5 years left.
If £5k was paid off in a lump sum, taking it down to £20k.

Question.....
Keep current repayments the same but reduce the term?
Or
Reduce current repayments and keep term the same?
 
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That depends entirely on circumstances.

Example, and personally, if the current payments are comfortably affordable I'd leave things as they are and invest the fiver in an I.S.A. (a proper one, in the right funds of course) 'cos this is a blinking good time to invest, thanks to the Russian psycho :emoticon-0148-yes:

You didn't think of that, did you, whereas, as a Financial Advisor, it's one of the obvious options :angel:

p.s. either way, arrange a 5 year fixed rate for the rest of the term (with no added fees).
 
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Gordon Armstrong said:
That depends entirely on circumstances.

Example, and personally, if the current payments are comfortably affordable I'd leave things as they are and invest the fiver in an I.S.A. (a proper one, in the right funds of course) 'cos this is a blinking good time to invest, thanks to the Russian psycho :emoticon-0148-yes:

You didn't think of that, did you, whereas, as a Financial Advisor, it's one of the obvious options :angel:

p.s. either way, arrange a 5 year fixed rate for the rest of the term (with no added fees).
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Thanks for that, appreciated.
I'm in year 1 of a good fixed rate, so was thinking what I can overpay without penalties. The option to pay it all off is there, but would incur penalties.

I don't want the wife working for the next 5 year ( not sure she could tbh), so was looking to reduce outgoings so if she needed to, could at least reduce her days.
 
Lilly (my daughter) has a visit to what will, in September, be new school this morning. To say we are excited is an understatement.

It's taken since February and the involvement of my local councillor and constant badgering to get to this point, the Senco assigned to Lilly had been brilliant and I can't praise her enough for all the work she has done with her hands tied.
 
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