WCMUT....what cheered me up today

The price I've paid for my car insurance this time..... £156 fully comp for my 2009 Volvo C30 and I'll get £45 cashback as I do my insurance through topcashback.co.uk - effectively I'm paying £111 this year.

Have been with RAC Insurance for the last 12 months... paid £170 last year but they quoted £191 this time around...

Since I retired I no longer need to have coverage for "commute to and from a place of work" and my annual mileage has dropped, both of these factors have had a very good effect on the quotes I get....
 
TheFiend said:
The price I've paid for my car insurance this time..... £156 fully comp for my 2009 Volvo C30 and I'll get £45 cashback as I do my insurance through topcashback.co.uk - effectively I'm paying £111 this year.

Have been with RAC Insurance for the last 12 months... paid £170 last year but they quoted £191 this time around...

Since I retired I no longer need to have coverage for "commute to and from a place of work" and my annual mileage has dropped, both of these factors have had a very good effect on the quotes I get....
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My last premium was about £700, so I think I'm going to have to quote your post in the WAMT thread :D
 
I just thought I'd report on good experiences with far eastern on line buying.

Mrs WW wanted some camping gear which we couldn't find in the UK but it was for sale on Temu. I was reluctant but as she wanted the stuff I gave them a go and there were no problems. The kit was incredibly cheap, seems to be of the same quality you'd get in the UK, if you could find it, and it arrived quickly, not as fast as Amazon next day but as fast a ebay. Recently I wanted something and found it on Aliexpress and I was hesitant but I thought I'd give them a go and ordered a number of things. One thing which I really liked was that once stuff in in your basket you can search for identical or similar items and see if they're for sale cheaper from another seller. This is a really nice feature. All items arrived quickly but Chinese QC reared its head and two items were faulty but the return process was much easier and painless than with either Amazon or ebay in the UK. Aliexpress monitor the return process and if the seller is a bit slow to issue a refund they issue it and by "a bit slow" I mean a day or so delay and Aliexpress take over the process.

I suppose I'd still much rather use Amazon and perhaps ebay in that order but for anything which is relatively cheap (I'm not going to buy a new TV from Aliexpress) or difficult to find in the UK or is significantly cheaper than in the UK I will now be happier to use Temu and AliExpress. Tax is paid when importing stuff from Aliexpress so there's nothing dodgy on that side of things but I can't remember what happened with Temu as that's a while ago now. One thing which should have been obvious but had to dawn on me is that this cheaper stuff from Temu and Aliexpress is very often the exact same thing which is on Amazon and ebay but cheaper. As always, buyer beware but I've honestly had more hassle with ebay and even Amazon than I've had with Temu and Aliexpress.
 
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gman said:
My last premium was about £700, so I think I'm going to have to quote your post in the WAMT thread :D
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Phoned up RAC insurance to tell them I was declining renewing with them, so of course they tried re-quoting but they still couldn't beat the price I have paid with Aviva this time around...
 
Not strictly today but every day for a couple of weeks since ongoing issues were sorted.

Mrs WW went to Thailand to look after her mam for 6 months and due to circumstances this drifted into 9 months but she'll be back on Tuesday. I've developed some bad habits such as eating what I want when I want and those will have to stop but I'll still just about and on balance... be happy to see her back :D
 
Since it's Burns Night, we found a pair of Haggises in Sainsburys (one proper and one veggie!) Delicious, although not quite as good as proper ones. Neeps and tatties with them, of course and the casings were cut with a black blade (although it's not a real sgian-dubh.)
 
Just back from playing a Burns night gig with the Ceilidh band. Great bunch of guests this year, everyone participating and very appreciative, lots of dancing, and all done with a really good attitude.
 
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Driving along the M3 this morning at a steady 80, I saw something ahead of me a few hundred yards away. I thought that does not look modern and then milliseconds later it clicked - An Austin Maxi! I haven't see a Maxi for years on the road. We owned two in the family (1977-1982) before we went full Saab. We thought the Maxi was great, seeing one put a smile on my face for sure.
 
TheFiend said:
Phoned up RAC insurance to tell them I was declining renewing with them, so of course they tried re-quoting but they still couldn't beat the price I have paid with Aviva this time around...
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My good lady's insurance was due next month, so did the usual Compare the whatnot and it came up around £30 cheaper. Long story short, after a phone call, her current insurer came back cheaper, with extra freebies too.
 
Pixbarmy said:
My good lady's insurance was due next month, so did the usual Compare the whatnot and it came up around £30 cheaper. Long story short, after a phone call, her current insurer came back cheaper, with extra freebies too.
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With me I chose the Aviva quote because they threw in freebies on their quote but also because they even offered a lower excess on the policy. I'd actually already arranged cover with Aviva before phoning the RAC as I knew they wouldn't beat the price I paid.
 
Bumping into a mate we haven't seen for 30+ years!
 
Today my wife went into a jewellery shop so I took the opportunity to sit on one of two benches close by and look out over the harbour. Experience tells me it's better on my finances not to go in those shops with her. I not only abhor smoking but the drifting smoke affects my breathing even though I have no respiratory problems. If I had my way I'd close down every tobacco processing company in the country and attempt to prosecute the owners for manslaughter .

A man cane along and sat on the other bench,rolled up a cigarette and then started looking for his lighter. It wasn't in his pockets,he emptied his man-bag onto the bench and it wasn't there. Great. Ten minutes later my wife returned and I left the down-hearted smoker sitting there staring at the ground with the unlit roll-up hanging out of his mouth. What joy...:)
 
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I signed up for a digital subscription to the Daily Telegraph newspaper. Free for one month then £1.00 for the following 2 months, then £14.99 a month!
So I decided to cancel, as I went through the cancellation process it got progressively cheaper until it was £00.50 per month! a saving of £173.88, over 1 year, bargain :)
 
A call from my Brother to tell me his grandson has been selected to play for England U16 next month. 3 games in Spain against Columbia, Denmark & France. My brother played professional football in the early 70's, his son could have gone full time with Luton but decided on a "proper job", this is his daughter's boy who is at Crystal Palace Academy. Made his debut for CP U18's last week and got on the scoresheet. So pleased for him.
 
Mrs Nod passing her Motorcycle Theory Driving Test with flying colours.
 
Quite often there are spelling mistakes on the dining room menu board here in the hotel. There's a very good selection and for this evening the main course is described as 'Roast Prok'. I'm sure it will be lovely..

The funniest dish I saw described on a menu board was in Majorca years ago. It was on an A board outside the restaurant.

'Sir Loin Steer with chipred popatoes' Us English fell about laughing but four Germans who read their translation,that was similarly mangled, did not see the funny side and described the staff as..Blöder Hund'. Literally....Stupid/dumb dog..:D
 
JohnC6 said:
Quite often there are spelling mistakes on the dining room menu board here in the hotel. There's a very good selection and for this evening the main course is described as 'Roast Prok'. I'm sure it will be lovely..

The funniest dish I saw described on a menu board was in Majorca years ago. It was on an A board outside the restaurant.

'Sir Loin Steer with chipred popatoes' Us English fell about laughing but four Germans who read their translation,that was similarly mangled, did not see the funny side and described the staff as..Blöder Hund'. Literally....Stupid/dumb dog..:D
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Can't beat a nice bit of prok.
 
Cockney said:
Can't beat a nice bit of prok.
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I once stayed in an English hotel that was afflicted with a practical joking "poltergeist",

The evening menu, on one occasion, featured "chish and fips". Oddly enough, the only people who reacted to it were myself and a colleague who was also staying. Perhaps it was our lack of that famous "English reserve" - myself being Scottish and my dinner partner being Welsh.

Actually, it was very nice. ;)
 
Bit annoyed at first but mistakes happen.
Ordered a tripod from UK shop Thursday with RM 24hr tracked delivery, tracking was fine then had an email saying RM had delivered parcel. Checked front door and side of house and no sign of parcel. Knew postman would be coming past house again so waited for him- thinking scam or theft at this point, whilst waiting looked at tracking and had option to click link and see photo of delivery. Delivery photo showed small padded envelope in letter box :jawdrop: .
Checked envelope and it was RM 24hr tracked with name of company I bought tripod from on envelope, had a 58mm filter in. Scam?
Phoned them up and response was" Hmm I will call you back soon"
Had a call back and another customer of theirs had been in big trouble with his wife for ordering another tripod without mentioning to her:), had apology and told to keep the 58mm as compensation and would get the tripod asap. All good in end
 
Im changing my car. I had to change my old car's registration plate to the original. I went online to my insurers website to advise them expecting an administration charge but no it was free. This morning I advised them of my new car details by the same method. The car is an updated version of my existing car so I was amazed to be presented with a cheaper quotation plus a refund of £3.33 for the remaining 2 months of the policy. Happy Days.
 
Rang my insurer to accept a renewal quote, whilst on the phone I asked them to change my email contact address.

£68.20!! Admin fee of £15.00 included. To change 4 letters of my email.

Needless to say I cancelled the insurance and refused the renewal quote.
 
Norkie said:
Rang my insurer to accept a renewal quote, whilst on the phone I asked them to change my email contact address.

£68.20!! Admin fee of £15.00 included. To change 4 letters of my email.

Needless to say I cancelled the insurance and refused the renewal quote.
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Unbelievable, last year my partner decided to put me on her insurance despite the fact I can hardly get into her 2 seat convertible….she got a £50 refund.
 
My other half found a petrol lawnmower for free on facebook a few weeks ago
thought it was too good to be true but it turned out to be not too bad just had been neglected and not running
After a bit of messing about and cleaning out the carb got it running quite well this morning, tried it out does a pretty decent cut
Means that I won’t have to mess about with electric cables and extension leads anymore :)
 
A Buzzard circling low (to start with!) over the g*lf club roof. Must have been creating a good thermal because he/she didn't stay low for long!!!
 
Possibly - we were sitting outside!!!
 
This really did cheer me up today..and my neighbours..

A couple of houses behind us and to the right..not directly behind us, have 40m-high Eucalyptus trees in their back gardens, At the bottom of their garden where the trees are, is a brick wall and on the other side is a narrow public walkway which belongs to the council. These trees shed bark and leaves onto the pathway and people actually have to cut low-hanging branches that dangle over this walkway. The council have to clear the path. Recently, the council has been doing some clearing and,obviously, the foreman has reported these trees as causing a problem. Why only now, I have no idea. I did ask an Environment chap if there were any regulations re the height of tress in peoples' gardens and no, there isn't. There's an identical tree three door down from this one..same height. We are now getting much more light in our kitchens and back gardens. We can see so much more of the sky,too. It blocked the light from the setting sun. I asked the men doing the job if they would be taking the other tree down and they said ,yes. Brilliant. Obviously the council has ordered the householders to have their trees taken down. Most of the branches leaned cover public footpath and adjacent land.

I've posted some photos in "General"..Men and women at Work....I've also sent the photos to the man who went up the tree with a chain saw.

I think many people must have problems with neighbours' trees getting out of hand.
 
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welshwizard645 said:
Driving along the M3 this morning at a steady 80, I saw something ahead of me a few hundred yards away. I thought that does not look modern and then milliseconds later it clicked - An Austin Maxi! I haven't see a Maxi for years on the road. We owned two in the family (1977-1982) before we went full Saab. We thought the Maxi was great, seeing one put a smile on my face for sure.
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On this site, you can find out how many cars of each model are still running in the UK.

How Many Left?

How Many Left. See how many cars of any make and model are left on Britain's roads.
www.howmanyleft.co.uk www.howmanyleft.co.uk
 
andya700 said:
On this site, you can find out how many cars of each model are still running in the UK.
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As of last year, that site indicates that there were 77 Wolseley 18/85s still on the road.

I'm pretty sure mine wasn't one of them, although it was a very nice car for the 3 years or so that I ran it.
 
Back in 2001 I bought a Nikon Coolscan to "digitize my neg and slide collection" which of course never happened, and then digital took over, but I did occasinally have use for it. Last year I was asked to scan some negatives of a Uni friend who had passed away and at that moment the scanner decided to die of aged electrical component failure, a pop and a blue flash!!

I have just got it back after being repaired and serviced and spent the afternoon scanning some very old negatives and slides, and remembering how at one point people said that digital would never supercede film for resolution - being reminded what film resolution was like back then is a bit eye opening.

I've also had fun looking at the cars in some of these images - like this one from 1989 2025-03-07-0027-1500-2.jpg

D
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
As of last year, that site indicates that there were 77 Wolseley 18/85s still on the road.

I'm pretty sure mine wasn't one of them, although it was a very nice car for the 3 years or so that I ran it.
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If it DOES still exist, it should show up as either taxed (at zero rate) or SORN on the VED checking site, if you can remember the reg number.
 
If anything gives me a laugh and is worth posting I put it here in WCMUT. I posted about the 'Flu I'm suffering which has given me a very sore throat so my voice is quite badly affected. Earlier this evening I put my face close to Alexa and said.."Alexa, LBC Radio" Alexa responded, also in a whisper, saying.."Playing LBC Radio .You don't need to whisper ? :D
 
When my cold/cough was at its worst I could managed 2 or 3 hoarse words before my voice rose five or six octaves and failed, we dreaded the phone ringing.
 
Got a call from my car insurance Co, they need my bank details to refund my policy excess now that third parties company has paid up, and my ncb is safe. They did mention repair cost, it was at least 4 times I would have expected if I had got it done myself, no wonder car insurance costs are outrageous.
Also instructions to ignore letter sent 4 days earlier, too late court form signed and back in the post.
 
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mj4456 said:
Got a call from my car insurance Co, they need my bank details to refund my policy excess now that third parties company has paid up, and my ncb is safe. They did mention repair cost, it was at least 4 times I would have expected if I had got it done myself, no wonder car insurance costs are outrageous.
Also instructions to ignore letter sent 4 days earlier, too late court form signed and back in the post.
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My BIL has a car repair workshop. He said that during COVID lockdown he would estimate a car accident repair, the add £500.00 to it. The insurers never questioned it.
 
I've transfered all my music from my iMac to my iPad so I can listen to it when we go on holiday..especially during flights. I had to get a short Apple cable with the 3.5mm jack-socket on one end and a USB-C connector at the other to fit my iPad...£8.50. Next job was to research over-ear wired headphones. I wanted a decent pair so I initially looked at Sennheiser and Bose but names I'd never heard of were listed in reviews such as. "Top five over-ear headphones 2025". "2025 Top ten " "Best Over Ear headphones One Stand-Out Winner." .etc..It was bewildering. Two days ago I'd been looking at the Bose QuietComfort SC wired ,Noise Cancellation headphones at £319.

This morning, I just happen to mention to my wife about them and unbeknown to me she Googled them to look at reviews then came to me with her iPad and told me that they were on offer in the Bose Spring sale at £189. Even the model replacing them ..the QuietComfort Ultra (wireless,though) is on offerr -22% off at £349 from £449. I'd read quite a few reviews on the QuietComfort SC wired..but this one impressed me . I bought them earlier through Amazon. I've posted this in case anyone is also wanting a set of similar headphones.

www.ottorinobruni.com

Bose QuietComfort SC Review: The Ideal Headphones for Coding and Meetings - Ottorino Bruni

Looking for the ultimate headphones for work, coding, and daily meetings? Read our review of the Bose QuietComfort SC headphones: outstanding noise cancellation, all-day comfort, stable Bluetooth connectivity, and long-lasting battery life
www.ottorinobruni.com www.ottorinobruni.com
 
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