AlwaysAVFC

It wasn't a short cut as it was a fraction longer but I used to live not too far from Leigh Delamere services on M4. Coming off at the services saved me a couple of times due to crashes and nipping off before getting caught up, and once when junction 17 was unexpectedly closed. It's a long way to 16 and back so was very grateful to get off before the junction.

I think they are quite active dogs and need lots of stimulation. You would need to make sure the garden is secure too as they are known to escape. They're always following their nose so it's probably out of curiosity of a scent or boredom but they can dig under fences.

So we met her yesterday, said we'd happily have her in our home. Paid a small deposit and later arranged to collect her on Saturday. Today I get a call to say that some previous owners have tried to claim her back. That may not of stopped the rehoming but they said that she bit their child. So now they won't re-home to us. I suspect it was the previous owners saying it to stop the rehoming but that now means she can't go to us and I don't know their policy but maybe not them either. I've got 2 very disappointed girls now, 3 including the wife. Not a lot we can do, back to the obsessive searches of rescue centres.

As a postie its without doubt that its the smaller ones that make all the noise when I'm coming towards the door. Whether its the breeds or the typical owners of these dogs that don't tend to train them. Like you say, there is not much about at the moment certainly for ones suitable for young kids. We haven't been choosy at all, we just wanted something Staffy upwards in size and not a greyhound or Lurcher. I also ideally wanted a Boxer but the chances of one becoming available were slim. I don't think there is a specific boxer rescue in the Midlands and the couple of other breed specific rescues I spoke to weren't taking any registrations due to demand. Since we moved into our house in Feb. We've gone for every dog suitable for kids we've seen. A couple of Shar pei crosses, a Staffy, a Chow Chow, a Shepherd crossed with something which was massive and only 6 months. This Staffy cross is the first chance we've got to meet one. Although its probably not a bad thing that we didn't get the Chow Chow as they would have been pretty demanding on the grooming and a large amount of dog hair about. They are expecting a flurry of dogs to re-home over the coming months but I imagine all these are going to have separation anxiety. So not straight forward unless you are always home and can help increase the time alone the dog has.

Yeah Its definitely something he needed to work on, more how clever he is in those situations when to do it and how to use his physicality. He used to get frustrated (as well as us) but he just never got anything, there were times he was fouled and got nothing, when he put a bit more in himself he got penalised. Then there were times he tried to buy the free kick and still not given.

My Mrs worked for Blue Cross for a number of years, so it's the only way we would go.

Possibly close to getting a rescue dog. We've wanted one a while but as we were planning on moving we held off. It's so hard to rescue a dog at the moment. Demand is still high, particularly ones that are suitable to be rehomed with children. I've been checking the sites regularly to try and get in first. Finally today had the call, to arrange to visit a 6 year old Staffy cross on Sunday, so fingers crossed she likes us.

I think the ESL plan will be to provide their own subscription service anyway. They are out to get as much money as possible and they will look to exceed traditional TV deals. They will want all advertising revenue to themselves as well as the subscriptions.

Twice for me. Once on an average speed check on the M5, which I did a speed awareness course for, 56 in a 50 i think. It was foggy and completely forgot about the restrictions coming from M6. Suddenly remembered and I must of slowed down just in time as was probably doing 70+ at the start of the the zone. The other was in Florida, just getting used to the Mustang we had. There was a speed trap and a police car burst out of hiding and pulled me over.

Decided to try and empty my pond and see where I went from there. The pond is beyond saving so now in the process of taking it out. So after thinking i'll keep it simple for now, I've got a big pile of large rocks and a now smelly pond which is emptying very slowly. I've just done 3 trips to the tip to take some paving slabs from around the pond plus some rubble and soon to have a big hole in the garden, and not sure what the plan for it is yet. In addition to this, the patio beyond the pond is raised (5 bricks high) and some of it has displaced, so will need to get on to YouTube for some bricklaying lessons. The joys of home ownership Oh and also trying to re-home the resident frogs. Every time I think I have them all, some more appear.

After hearing 'North of Watford Gap' for years I always presumed it was near Watford (just outside London). If I ever went to London it was either on the train or m40 way. I was surprised at where it was when driving past it.

My Mrs started her role in August so only went into the office to collect her IT equipment. All interviews beforehand and any training was done on Microsoft teams. They are planning on continuing homeworking after and have asked people to apply if that's what they want to do. She has been approved but is still waiting on the revised contract. I think there has been a bit of a pause as they then decided they wanted staff in 3 times a week. With the plan for the work from home contract to say that commuting into work from home will be paid they have realised the cost of this, and have also recruited from a bit further afield so I think they are working out what they really want as contracts were meant to be out before April.

I know the estate agent we bought through, don't allow bids without viewings, I'm not sure where things stand legally in not doing that. However they do do viewings before the house goes live on the market. My brother works for them so we viewed a few properties before it was on the market including the one we bought. I know they do it for others to, I'm not sure what criteria they use for doing it, presuming it's when they have a potential buyer that it ticks all the boxes for. As I buyer I felt it was a bit of a minefield as you obviously couldn't offer below asking price as they would just list it. We bid for the first house and needed one quick as we were relocating and starting new jobs so bid a bit more than what it was worth but not stretching us. However they got a bit greedy and thought they could get more whether that was from us or someone else. So they went to market and it flopped, I'm not sure if it's sold now or they took it off but it dropped £10k in asking price. Again the house we bought we agreed a fee just before it went to market(others and seen it to) the advert still went up on Rightmove but had sale agreed when it did.

A baseball cap tends to be my hat of choice. Wear one most of the time at work as I'm a bald (formerly ginger) postie, so have to wear it to stop being burnt to a crisp. Although I'll keep taking it off to try and stop tan/burn lines. I also wear it when it's colder too as I find a beanie too warm. If I wear a hat out of work it tends to be a baseball cap, I've tried a few different styles but never really felt comfortable in them.

That would be quite cool but navigating Caen hill locks (I think that's where the earlier pic was of) would be far from it.

This evening I've been drinking some Brew dog Hoppy Xmas as it was £2.50 for 4 cans in Morrisons. I don't even remember seeing it in there at Christmas. Nice and cheap though for an run of the mill 6% IPA

Our original plan was to get rid of it and then we thought just that. A great bit of nature to experience. There was a big frog orgy in there the other week (didn't put it like that to the girls) and expecting lots of little frogs in the coming weeks. There is still a foot or so of water in it, so it's still a danger as it is. So probably need to make a decision sooner rather than later, so if we keep it we can put a bit of protection in.

Possibly my first time posting in this thread but now being in my first house for 6 weeks and the warmer weather on its way, I've started on the garden. My idea of gardening has been mowing the lawn when necessary but now it's mine I feel a bit more responsibility. The garden looked ok when we viewed it but needs more work than we thought. Focusing on being fairly low maintenance and cheap for now. Just spent £1k on new fencing that we knew needed replacing down the line but turned into a priority when we moved in. Actually quite pleased with what we've done so far, after a bit of tidying up. The big issue for us though is, there is a pond. It's been neglected for a while and need to decide what we do. Since before we moved in we've changed our mind so much from filling it in, to sorting it out. There's no particular easy option, filling it in will be cheaper but I'm guessing a lot of hard work. Sorting it out, the lining needs some repairing and I'm aware of at least one hole. The pump etc will most likely need replacing also. I doubt we will get fish, just a bit of a water feature but we have a 3 year old too. Further down the line there might be some plants and vegetables just trying into get it a bit aesthetic and somewhere to relax and have a barbecue, for now.

Got to be the worst game of the season, not just for us but the league full stop. Too easy to call out players individually, the main issue is we aren't playing as a team very well.

I think other night was a bad day at the office for him as well as a few others. He’s had a great season and very much improved. Personally though, I don’t think he is good enough for England. At a push there might be a case if Grealish is playing on the left, then that partnership is very familiar with each other and there are advantages to that. I’d love him to prove me wrong though.

I’m coming to the end of my PCP, I was always with the intention of trading in but it’s come at the time of having just moved into a new house. So have been a bit wary of trying to take out new finance having just got a mortgage and a couple of other hard searches on my credit report, plus working out how much we have to spend on a new car once our bills settle down. So have managed to get a 0% on purchase deal on my current credit card, so will make the final payment on that. That will give us a bit of time for things to settle down and can decide whether to then trade it in for something else. Anyway, my point being that the flexibility of PCP has worked really well for us, allowing us to change our plans. So may well do the same again. It will probably depend whether the Mrs is going to continue working from home, which looks quite likely at the moment, as that will affect mileage massively.

No idea why, but had Shed 7 Going for gold in my head as I got ready this morning. So I've put the best of on, and cooking breakfast while pretending to be 15 again. Much to the annoyance of the rest of the house.

So she has now had a letter to say she shouldn't shield and shouldn't of had the invite for the vaccination either (which she's had) although they are honouring the offer even for ones booked in but haven't received it yet.

Ok, I've not read the letter myself (or saw your post). Without obviously reading it properly she was basically doing her own informed choice anyway to a certain extent. She doesn't have continued diabetes it was just during pregnancy, that and the fact she has spent a year living life as normally as covid allows for a year. Yes it does seem that the layout of the letter should be better. As I'm sure there will be people that get worried it start shielding if they don't necessarily need to.

My wife got the call last week to have her vaccination (today). She questioned her eligibility as she is 33. It was because she had gestational diabetes, while pregnant and they strongly recommend she did it now rather than wait. Which is fine and makes sense, they are doing some of the most vaccinations in the country here so getting well through the priority list. Today however she also got a letter to tell her to shield. Just seems strange nearly a year after people started shielding, they have now decided she should shield, even allowing for the fact we moved and changed doctors 6 months ago.