So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[GHT]

like that penmanship.

Very kind of you, thank you. When I read your education path I thought, "lucky fellow," but being of humble stock public school would never be my path. Not that I am jealous, perish the thought. The UK gave everyone with the will and attitude to improve themselves. My grammar school grounded me in Latin, and the cursive script that you complimented, and a host of academic subjects.

Oxbridge was never my goal, but University of London did me proud and although I never managed to pull on an England shirt, I did quite well on the Rugby field.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

My landline telephone service is now supplied by a division of the fuel conglomerate Shell Oil, actually they are known as Shell Energy, the latter sounding far more removed from fossil fuel.

Shell Energy Retail, the division responsible for all things telephone and internet are about as inept as it's possible to be. Since taking over they have persisted with their policy of payment by direct debit from all their account holders.

We, who refuse to tolerate giving access to our bank accounts, are harangued with the utmost vigour. For example, my last correspondence from them came with a harsh warning about my late payment. Not only was it not late but their warning letter was dated two weeks before it reached me.

This month's bill has arrived, dated ten days ago, checking down the list of methods of payment, I see that the good old way of paying by cheque is still available. Cheque payment has to be, in this instant electronic age, the slowest, time consuming and hopefully, most annoying method of payment there is. Alibi me, the cheque is in the post.

View attachment 622300

It looks like you laid in a new supply of stamps. No backstock of QEIIs?

 

[GHT]

It looks like you laid in a new supply of stamps. No backstock of QEIIs?

Indeed, and the bank notes depicting the king are getting more and more prolific.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I refuse to do automatic payments for the simple reason that the odds are in favor of the automatic payment date falling on a date when I don't have sufficient money in my bank account. I won't do business with anyone who doesn't accept checks.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
It’s truly all for the convenience of the company. I reluctantly agreed to automatic debit on the cable/internet bill because it saves me 10 bucks a month. It also saves me having to call in the payment on their automated system, which itself saves me maybe five minutes a month. To the provider’s credit, though, they do have retail stores where I can talk to an actual human. It’s a couple miles from here, and covering that distance takes less time than getting a living, breathing human on the phone.

As to vendors not taking checks …

For payments to utility companies and the like, which have real recourse should a check bounce, your position is reasonable. However, in this age of debit cards, it’s unreasonable to expect a small business to accept payment by check. If there’s money in the account, a debit card transaction goes through instantly and the payee has his or her money. But if a check doesn’t clear, that businessperson is kinda SOL.

I have childhood memories of the adults fretting over getting their paychecks into the bank before the checks they wrote landed there. I assume such was common among others living hand-to-mouth, as most of my people did back then.

These days it’s not unusual for a vendor to respond to a request to accept a check with a comment such as, “No thanks, I still have a drawer full of ’em left over from last year.”

 

[tonyb]

But what you really gotta steer clear of are the “free trial” offers. If you provide a card number to access that “free trial,” good luck getting that automatic debit to stop once the ”free” period had elapsed.

That’s often what happens with magazine subscriptions, too. They automatically renew, and cancelling them can be a royal PITA.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Very kind of you, thank you. When I read your education path I thought, "lucky fellow," but being of humble stock public school would never be my path. The UK gave everyone with the will and attitude to improve themselves. My grammar school grounded me in Latin, and the cursive script that you complimented, and a host of academic subjects.

Spitalfields, Eastie lad mate. Reader. Almost became a Jeb but for tarts.
Took maths path Trinity at Cambridge and read law but didn't sit solicitors. Opted paras
instead. Me old man had a hitch with the Lancasters in Korea. Afterwards did LSE and City.
Books and brains enough to find a way out.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Indeed, and the bank notes depicting the king are getting more and more prolific.

Are all the police helmet badges being updated with the new Royal Cypher or will they be replaced as they are worn out?

 

[tonyb]

Marked down from seven grand!

Better jump on this!

 

[tonyb]

Better save those instructions …

 

[GHT]

Are all the police helmet badges being updated with the new Royal Cypher or will they be replaced as they are worn out?

Police must keep Queen Elizabeth's cypher until their uniform is deemed to be worn out.
‘No-cost’ approach means that the new uniform with King Charles’ emblem was not used by officers on duty for the Coronation
Officers that policed the Coronation, did so with Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal cypher still on their uniforms,

 

[GHT]

Spitalfields, Eastie lad mate. Reader. Almost became a Jeb but for tarts.
Took maths path Trinity at Cambridge and read law but didn't sit solicitors. Opted paras
instead. Me old man had a hitch with the Lancasters in Korea. Afterwards did LSE and City.
Books and brains enough to find a way out.

Jeb? As in bell end? Hilarious! Books and brains, enough to find a way out, I love it.
Ilford lad myself, Bethnal Green and Forest Gate were the aspiring rungs. Got to Ilford and then joined Hays in the days when Sir Ronnie Frost was head honcho.

Hays can trace its ancestry back to the 17th century and the wharves and warehouses on the banks of the Thames which once bustled with commercial activity but which are now home to penthouse apartments. It was re-invented in its modern form nearly 40 years ago by Ronnie Frost.
Frost went on to become Hays' chief executive and then chairman, leading it into the FTSE 100.

Hays came up with a distribution system known as hub & spoke, it was very successful. For what it's worth, I ran the hub in Rugby, Warwickshire. Eventually Hays sold off everything apart from its staff recruitment business and returned the proceeds to shareholders. The break-up valued the group at up to £1.5bn and released £600m in cash for investors.

I didn't get squillions but I am comfortable and with a Hays pension. It paid for the type of house here in The New Forest that previously, I could only dream of, thank you very much.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I'm wondering, why Seersucker bedclothing is a rare thing, these days.

A possible explanation would be, that the production lines from the 90s are worn out and they don't invest in new ones.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Aaaah, temps going down!

 

[tonyb]

A person might think that the hoses and such on a vacuum cleaner marketed as the “Pet Hair Eraser” wouldn’t so easily get clogged with pet hair.

I paid something like 300 bucks for this thing — a canister type, so that I can vacuum under beds and other heavy furniture. I spent at least an hour today taking it apart and clearing the clogs. It involved a sewer snake at one point.

 

[tonyb]

Advertisements for thoroughly used motor vehicles with wording such as “ran fine when we parked it” or “all it needs is a battery.”

 

[LizzieMaine]

Advertisements for thoroughly used motor vehicles with wording such as “ran fine when we parked it” or “all it needs is a battery.”

The New England equivalent of this is "Good sticker, will run."

 

[Trenchfriend]

Is fashion-industry stupid?? Why, they are still making the mirror-inverted buttons on female jackets?

2024 !!

 

[tonyb]

The New England equivalent of this is "Good sticker, will run."

My question — the obvious question — when I read “will run” or “only needs a battery,“ is, “well, then, why don’t you spend a few bucks or expend a little effort yourself to make it run?” Adding, “you’d stand to sell it for a higher price that way.”

Don’t expect an honest answer to such a question.