AlwaysAVFC

34 minutes ago, Rds1983 said:

I've looked at 100s of dogs at a number of rescue centres but none in this country will deal with us as we have a young child and they see it as too much of a risk. 

I've spoken to some overseas and they might but that's raised other queries. 

How old is your child?

We got ours from Birmingham dogs home May last year. Them, Blue Cross, Dogs trust, RSPCA will have dogs for young children as will others. Although if it's anything like when we were looking, you have to be frequently searching, to get in there first when one comes up as there arent many. I had all searches saved and was on my phone a lot going through the sites. An unhealthy amount of time, but had to do it to stand a chance.

We were also pretty open to what dog we wanted. We didn't want anything too small or like a Lurcher/greyhound. Some big dogs I think are an automatic no for young children.

What are you looking to get ideally?

4 hours ago, Genie said:

I did wonder this a little while ago, will people who took the plunge and fixed be able to access the new cap price? Or will they be punished for being proactive?

Ideally this government will state that nobody pays over x amount, regardless of contract… but then, it’s this government.

I went with the British Gas fix in June/Jul. While there were exit fees for a different supplier it is possible to move to another British gas tariff without charge. So I'm presuming you can change to the standard variable. Although I didn't look further into it. So hopefully if it turns out to not be a good move on the fix I can move back to variable and the only damage will be the 3 months paying the currently higher than variable fix. 

Who knows whether it will go like that, if that ends up being the situation. 

On 02/09/2022 at 18:36, bickster said:

Unless you know he was checking if he needed to throw him out of the window

Putin hated Gorbachev as did most Russians thats why he isn't getting a state funeral. In their eyes he gave away the empire

Typing this without catching up, but I understand why Russa might feel the hate for Gorbachev, but was it not what happened to USSR/Russia that helped a lot of the oligarchs become what they are?

Encona is my go to hot sauce. I prefer the one with Papaya in it to the original but they don't stock it in the supermarkets near me, so only get it when I end up in one further afield and remember to look.

In terms of hot food, I've always had a high tolerance to it and love hot Curries. I can still handle the heat but it does have more of an impact next day than it used to.

7 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

This is just bonkers. Predicted to hit £5400 in January and £6600 in April. It also needs to be remembered these are just averages. Bigger households will be using more/paying more and those on pre payment meters get charged more. 

It is disgusting that we have a non functioning government doing f all. The stress this more be causing a lot of people must be unreal. 

 

Was it the April one, they were actually predicting a slight drop only a month or 2 ago? Unless something is done, little chance of that staying at that figure as well

16 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

As a side to that ice cream / vanilla / cream soda one... Does anyone know of some actual alcoholic root beer? 

I love root beer 

Had a feeling I'd seen some

It was a few years ago now when I lived that way but didnt try it. Might be a tricky one to get hold of though.

Just to add to the good news

10 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

Where from?  It's my brothers birthday so he'll be getting one if I can find it

I got it in Morrisons, Newquay while down here. I think @Xela often gets his beers in Morrisons too? So I'd definitely try there first. My local one isn't that big and has a very small selection. Newquay had about 4 times more 'craft' beers.

7 hours ago, Xela said:

Finally got around to this. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! Nice... I wouldn't have too many of them, but a decent 7/10 WB (maybe)

The one I had was 4.5%. I've seen the same can at 5.0%, and 5.7% ,as well looking at pics on the net. The 5.7% was fairly golden in colour, but the 4.5% is a lot more redder. They must have tweaked the recipe over the last couple of years. 

I actually had one the other day too. Very fruity which isn't really my thing a lot of the time. It was OK, took me quite a while to drink it though. Probably wouldn't buy it again.

I drove down to Cornwall Sunday morning. It was a nice drive and early enough to avoid much traffic and other issues.

It was quite pleasant most of the time. We weren't in a rush so with a heavy car I kept it at 70 to keep fuel cost down, which is easy to do when it's quiet. 

While driving on the inside lane, no-one In the middle, there was a car behind me in the outside lane for a couple of miles. I had to over take a lorry, which happened to be at the time the car was finally passing me. As it passed it then cut across me into the inside and also slowing down. Completely baffled me and pissed me off.  

I've seen people cut across middle lane drivers or realise they need to get off but this was neither.

Then had a middle lane driver on her phone (hands free) changing speed from 65-90 and a truck over taking me, slowing down then getting annoyed that I over took it again, when I was in cruise control and didn't change my speed once.

For a journey to Cornwall in August it was easy and uneventful apart from a flurry of 15mins.

Disney+ has getting a lot of customers at the moment but they can't be making much money? I had it 3 months for free, now a couple of months into 12months free and also given another 3 months free which I don't need as have the 12. For those that haven't got free deals, i think there's currently a way to get a year for less than £20.

Sure some people will stay on but a hell of a lot will get rid once the deals dry up.

21 minutes ago, Xela said:

You can't babysit everyone though. You have to allow people to take responsibility for their own actions sometimes. 

No and people bring it on themselves. Through many things in life and work, my motto is 'people are stupid' and i'll try and consider what stupid things people will do, and how they might not listen or read properly. 

My wife works for a housing association, specifically shared ownership and the amount of people that will get into arrears, have their head in the sand and will still prioritise holidays. You've still got to enjoy yourself but spending a few grand on a holiday when you owe a few grand is crazy when you can lose a house that you part own.

It seems a bit ridiculous anyway, but when people are seriously struggling with money the chances that any of that money being used for its intended purpose are slim and that's not even the ones that will use it frivolously.

We will see what other suppliers do but I would presume the idea of the help going direct to the suppliers was to avoid this situation?

1 hour ago, Genie said:

Just had this email from British gas, I assumed the money would sit in my energy account but it’s actually refunded to my bank.

 

That interesting, not had an email yet.

Its quite a big concern though. Some people can't look after their money and will spend it. I know people who used the payment for those eligible as low earners to put towards a holiday and other stuff. Its like universal credit payments for rent, this should go straight to the housing associations (it can do but not compulsory) people will use it for how they see fit, and sometimes this is not the best use and just causes bigger problems further down the line.

We were offered a fix in June. I looked at the advice then and I think it was consider a fix if it's less than 45/50% increase. I think ours was a 35-40%increase so took it. The advice now is anything less than a 95% increase!  taking into account further rises. That is crazy!

On 06/08/2022 at 00:01, Davkaus said:

My group of friends just got kicked out of a pub on a Friday night in a city centre because I accidentally dropped a pint

I've probably mentioned this at some point before but I went to Germany v England in Berlin. We were in a full, noisy bar with not many English on match day. My mate dropped a Stein and the whole place went quiet and everyone turned round and looked at us. 

We didn't get thrown out though.

Did get a 24 hour exclusion order from Berlin City centre on our way back to the hotel though that night, but that's a different story and would love to have seen our journey from the last bar to the hotel. It would be comedy gold.

10 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Having not lived in Brum for fifty years, I always have to remind myself that a Brummie roundabout is an 'island'. 

It had actually started to come out of my vocabulary, after living away from the Birmingham for a lot of the last 15 years. Having returned nearly 2 years ago, it's become normal saying it again.

22 minutes ago, bickster said:

Didn't know where to put this...

 

I went to Thorpe Park a few years ago. I stopped in a hotel in Ascot the night before. The drive to Thorpe Park had 3 cars at separate Islands on the journey that appeared to not know what you're supposed to do at an Island and looked like they had literally gone straight on at the Island. Not quite at that speed though. 

I really don't think it's the players that are the issue, not sure if it's the coaching or the system but it's clearly not working. Not getting carried away and hopefully he turns it around, but it's clearly not working at the moment or for a while. Can he turn it around persisting with the system or will he change?

Personally the focus should be on the midfield. It doesn’t work defensively or attacking. We don't keep the ball very well and create very little.

There is enough from the players to know they can do it. A very limited show but on occasion our play can be quick and dynamic.

2 hours ago, villa4europe said:

And here was me thinking my wife's 20 minute c section dragged on

I needed the toilet as we were told it was our turn. I went down to where I had to put on gown and shoes. They told me someone would show me to the toilet. A good while later someone came in and I thought at last! Only for us to be shown into the theatre. That 20 minutes or so lasted forever! It was still a good while after that I managed to go. At least I had a distraction.

Just now, sidcow said:

Oh, and I don't get taking your shirt off when you've scored a goal. When did that first happen and why has it taken off? 

Shows a disrespect to the shirt for me, especially when they chuck it on the ground. 

The one in the final annoyed me as she scored, went to take it off then waited as she wasn't sure it was given, then took it off. Probably one for the other thread as it shouldn't annoy me and I guess its probably best to be sure before you go off celebrating but taking off shirt seems like it should be an instinct thing. Unless you have a message underneath then it's obviously premeditated.

5 hours ago, sidcow said:

Took out a 5 year fixed rate 2 years ago so still have 3 years left at 1.69%.

Just made sense as the rate was never going to go down much more and was always likely to rise eventually. Have to say I wasn't expecting the rate to rise so quickly, was more insurance just in case at a rate I was happy to budget with long term. 

Now I'm thinking phew. 

Same here. Moved in our first house Feb 21. Originally our mortgage advisor recommended a 2 year fix (maybe 3, cant remember) when it came arranging the mortgage they had withdrawn that deal. So we took a 5 year one instead. I thought the same as you, the 5 made sense. Even more so now.

3 hours ago, Wainy316 said:

Has anyone used their event ticket to use free transport?  How does that work?

Thinking of driving to Cov station tomorrow and getting the train which apparently is in the free transport area.

I did a few train journeys on Monday. Only time I showed my phone was at the gates at New St a few times. They didn't really look, you could probably get away with free travel for 2 weeks with 1 event ticket.

3 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Sorry to bring football into OT, but I Don't Get all these posters saying how they're excited and looking forward to the new season. 

I'm full of dread, foreboding and pessimism, as always. 

I actually am this season. Not so much with regards to an optimistic view on how Villa might do, just that I think there seems a lot more competitiveness for the top 10 or 12. Rather than there being a top 6-8 then not much between the rest. It's still likely to be a top 2 of Man City and Liverpool but think the usual ones behind them will have to work harder to keep there places. Not because Villa or anyone else is immediate direct competition but if points get spread out a bit, it could get interesting.

Would have preferred him to go abroad but I don't think that would have happened until next year, so probably a blessing Chelsea came in for him and £20m is a great bit of business considering the situation.

I'm not really surprised but don't really agree with the comments that he's shit and good riddance. The reality is he has bags of potential and he showed this in a few of his substitute appearances. His start towards the end of the season was a bit of a non event but probably because of the situation , many seem to think that game represents his talent and future. 

It's football, there is more chance of him not living up to his expectation but his potential is very clearly there.

I also disagree with Villa not doing what they can to keep him. Possibly giving him a bit of discredit but I wouldn't be surprised if we mainly signed Caleb for the benefit of him staying. He was linked with other clubs when he signed his contract in 2020. Villa need to offer new contracts as soon as they think they have have achieved some of their potential and still believe I'm them, but I don't think we were slow out the block on a new contract. It's just clear, whether it was agent, family or himself, he saw his future elsewhere for whatever reason.

That was easy enough to change direct debit. They did say that would put us with about £280 debit on the account after 12 months. With my calcualtion that won't be the case but that would be swallowed up with the £400 assistance with some extra going forward. 

I may have even overestimated how much we should pay especially if there is any further assistance arranged but also don't want to be left with a bill to pay. So will see in 6 months time. So going from £130 to £240 a month instead of £300. Hardly great but a bit better.