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GeorgeVilla82

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Everything posted by GeorgeVilla82

  1. Yes, we do. Really recommend it - easy to set up an account, and the chat feature works well if you do need to speak to someone
  2. I'd agree with all of this. I've got 2 aged 4 and under, and to be honest, a 2.5 hour flight vs a 4 hour flight isn't going to make that much of a difference - iPad, stickers, snacks are key to getting through the flight. Mine have now done 15-20 flights, and the worst bit is getting through security. All pretty straightforward once that's done, and if you're taking a buggy, try to get hold of one that you can put in the overhead locker (BabyZen Yoyo for example), which makes life a lot easier at the other end. Kids splash pool is pretty essential so that they can occupy themselves whilst you watch, without the fear they're going to drown. Also agree re: indoor soft play for when it gets a bit too hot, or just a change of scenery. And absolutely on the money for all inclusive - we're doing that in May (albeit long haul, so my flight advice is going to be tested to the extreme!), but it takes out all the stress of demands for ice cream, snacks, water etc. If your son is anything like mine, he won't go into a kids club by himself so there's no real benefit in that until they're older. Greece also a good shout, as well as Menorca - both very family friendly. Sounds old fashioned, but might be good to use a travel agent who is experienced in kid friendly holidays. We do it with ours now for holidays where we're not decided on exactly where we want to go. It doesn't tend to be more expensive, and they sort out all the admin, requesting a cot/ potty/ highchair etc for the room. We use someone at Travel Counsellors https://www.travelcounsellors.co.uk/rebecca.berzins/
  3. A friend of mine is very good friends with his personal assistant (who I suspect may have made this complaint, given the stories I heard from my friend). He sounds like an absolute nightmare to work for - expected her to be available 24/7, told her what to wear, made inappropriate comments about her figure. Allegedly...
  4. Will obviously depend what car you choose (if you get a choice when taking a company car), but the tax savings will be substantial over taking the car allowance as cash
  5. I've just ordered a company car under my new job, and the tax you pay on an EV is so much less than an ICE car. I would have been taxed at the marginal rate for the full monthly benefit value for an ICE car, but it's a fraction of that for the EV. Obviously might not work if you don't have easy access to a charging point, but definitely worth looking into
  6. I’m a bit reluctant to post this because it’s such a tricky area and well-intentioned words can get misconstrued. However, as someone earlier up the thread said, there aren’t any women’s views on here at the moment. For context, I’m a 40 year old woman, married with 2 children, lived in Birmingham until my late 20s then moved to London for work. Like most of my 30/40 something friends, I don’t have any problem at all with trans women who just want to get on living their lives without discrimination or hassle. Most women live their lives wanting the same thing and the thing we have in common is usually (not always) the discrimination and hassle comes from men. So we get it. However, a lot of women (again, I can only speak for me and people I know - but I suspect our experience is common) have spent a fair part of our lives being wary - again, usually but not always - of men. From being followed home, having unsolicited comments made about how you look, having someone get far too close and in your personal space - all relatively frequent occurrences when younger, and usually the perpetrator was a man. I’m lucky to have not experienced any serious sexual assault (minor, yes, but serious, no) but I can imagine how traumatised this can make people feel. It brings about a general wariness of being around men in vulnerable situations, particularly given the relative difference in size and strength. So I have sympathy with the desire for spaces where cis women (I don’t really like that term) are vulnerable - respite centres, domestic violence refuges, prisons - to be female sex only for the welfare and mental health of those women. To be clear, that’s not to say that trans women can’t be in a similarly vulnerable position themselves, of course they can and frequently are, but I’m not sure that the rights of cis women should be overridden in those circumstances. Trans women should have their own protected spaces where they can feel safe, but not at the expense of cis women. It would be great if everyone could feel safe - it shouldn’t be one vs the other. I also want to make absolutely clear that I hate the way that some on the extreme feminist side seem to infer that trans women are a risk to women - that’s obviously rubbish. Predatory men are a risk to women. I think one of the reasons that some women feel so aggrieved by this is that some of the most vocal opponents to the feminists’ views are from men. Being aggressively shouted down by a man who has no skin in the game (sorry, probably a bad choice of words!) is a prime example of the misogyny that women have experienced since time immortal. So it feels that women’s rights are again taking a back seat to the preferences of men (not trans women, men). I probably won’t post again on this as I’m not really interested in getting into a heated debate about it all. I’m a relatively educated person, I’ve read a lot on this, talked to a wide group of friends and tend to be fairly liberal in my views. But it can get very toxic and I have no interest in getting into an internet spat. But I hope my views have been interesting to those who wanted to hear from a woman (and not holding myself as being representative of anyone else).
  7. I don’t work for a large retailer any more (I’m now at a luxury brand - different challenges!) but it depends. When I was at the UK’s largest electrical retailer, they had a whole team of paralegals set up to deal with customer small claims. The large department store chain I then worked at had a different approach - pay it if it was a small amount and seemed within the bounds of reasonableness.
  8. My interpretation (which may be wrong!) of @Anthony's posts is that the retailer accepted that the laptop had an inherent fault by undertaking the first repair free of charge - once a product is past the first 6 months from purchase, it's for the consumer to demonstrate that there was an inherent fault at purchase which has now become apparent. So I assumed that they agreed that the product was faulty for the purposes of the Consumer Rights Act. Once that's been established, the CRA is pretty clear that the retailer has one opportunity to repair or replace the product. If that fails, then the consumer is entitled to a refund - full if within 6 months of purchase, and partial to recognise usage if longer than 6 months. This article also explains it well https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/consumer-rights-act-aKJYx8n5KiSl Having worked for two very large nationwide electricals retailers, I can safely say that you can threaten to sue them but it probably won't change much in dealing with the Customer Services team (who are your best bet - once it gets to Legal, it will get very slow and unlikely to reach a sensible settlement). I would put a formal complaint in writing (by email and letter) setting out the chronology and the law I quoted above - happy to review it if you PM me - and also perhaps write to one of the press consumer champions (The Sunday Times A Question of Money, for example). Anyway, no one really wants to hear lawyers debate consumer rights law (even I get bored of it TBH!) so happy to chat via PM if easier.
  9. I'm a lawyer and have worked in-house for retailers for 13 years. This section of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 should help you: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/24/enacted What it essentially says is that a consumer has a final right to reject faulty goods purchased more than 6 months ago (where there was an inherent fault), the retailer/ manufacturer has already repaired or replaced the item, and the fault persists. You would be entitled to a refund, less a deduction to recognise the use you've had of the item before the fault became apparent. I would ask them to replace it (as the repair has not rectified the fault), failing which you exercise your final right to reject under s.24 Consumer Rights Act 2015 and require a proportionate refund of the price paid. This article provides a decent summary: https://www.ouryclark.com/resource-library/quick-guides/commercial/consumer-rights-act.html
  10. GeorgeVilla82

    Watches

    Bought the watch yesterday, gave it to him last night and he loves it, which is a relief! Thanks again for all your advice
  11. GeorgeVilla82

    Watches

    Thanks again for all your advice. I’m going to go into the shop to see it when I’m back at work in London in the new year, but think I might go for this one - they’ve reserved no.40 out of the 50 produced for me as it’s for my husband’s belated 40th birthday (a gimmick probably, but thought it was a nice touch). https://www.seikoboutique.co.uk/product/the-new-bond-street-grand-seiko-light-shadow-spring-drive-sbgy029/ Right, back to trying to stop my children fighting each other over their new toys
  12. GeorgeVilla82

    Watches

    Thank you all so much - brilliant suggestions, which I really appreciate. I’ll definitely take a look at the Grand Seiko, sounds like it might be a really good option. Merry Christmas all! Will let you know what I end up going with in the new year
  13. GeorgeVilla82

    Watches

    I'm a total novice when it comes to watches but considering buying a decent one for my husband for an upcoming big birthday, and would love your advice. He's not that bothered about brands or anything particularly flashy (he doesn't wear an expensive watch at the moment) and prefers a leather strap rather than metal, with a classic style face in a paler colour rather than dark. I know he likes some of the more classic IWC styles, for example. My budget is up to about £8k, and happy to buy pre-owned if it can be authenticated and comes with papers etc. Do you have any suggestions of brands/ models that might fit the brief and not be a totally stupid purchase in the longer term? Sorry, appreciate that I'm basically asking for a personal shopping service but it's so daunting and as it's a really big purchase, I'd love some objective advice.
  14. Oh wow, that brings back memories. Used to be a cafe in the 90s (the Victorian, I think?) where I used to go for breakfast on Saturdays with my family before heading over to Rackhams
  15. That's the date my Mum was born in Birmingham. Do you mind me asking where you found it?
  16. We were exactly the same with our second. Had to push the GP to get Omeprazole, and it definitely helped but didn't solve them problem entirely. It was awful - projectile vomiting after every single feed, refusing to feed, tongue tie... Unfortunately, it only completely went at about 9/10 months when she was eating proper textured foods. I know that doesn't help when you're in the middle of it, but keep going - it will get better.
  17. Yep, me. I work in-house for a British retailer, and during the various lockdowns, they got rid of my office to make more space for hot desks and breakout areas (totally understandably). I'm so much more productive when I'm at home, and although it's good to be there in person for important meetings, I don't go in more than once a week now. We actually moved out of London during the third lockdown, as both my husband and I can WFH a lot more.
  18. I’ve moved to Bath from London in the last year, and it’s a really beautiful city which photographs very well. Lots of quiet back streets with Georgian buildings and then the main attractions such as the Roman Baths and the Royal Crescent
  19. I had two kids within 18 months after a good few years of trying, and whilst the first was easy as a newborn, our daughter was so tricky - really bad reflux and tongue tie. We got the tongue tie snipped (privately as the NHS wouldn't do it because she was bottle fed, even though it was causing her all sorts of problems) and then she went onto Omeprazole, which was a game changer. Still a bit sicky, but able to keep down most of her feeds and was generally a much happier baby. We weaned her off it at about 18 weeks and she's been great since. Also second the Sleepyhead recommendation (now called DockATot I think). Technically they're not recommended for sleeping due to the risk of SIDS, but we used one for both of ours until they showed signs of attempting to roll and it was brilliant. Like swaddling, just made them feel more secure and less likely to thrash about. Also second the Tommee Tippee perfect prep machine - would be totally lost without ours. Bottles done in 2 mins. Reflux babies are f***ing hard. I genuinely think it was the toughest 4 months of my life when our daughter was a newborn. But stick with it, it will get better and try to ignore social media posts from others who appear to be finding it all easy. One influencer who had 2 kids under 2 like me posted regularly about her perfect life with the newborn and a toddler, when I knew for a fact that she had a nanny and a night nurse...
  20. I very rarely post on VT, much more of a lurker, but I just wanted to respond to this. Nothing personal against you @tinker, but this approach is one of the problems with women's concerns being taken seriously by men. I'm a 30-something woman, and happen to live 2 streets down from where Sarah Everard was last seen alive. Although what happened to her is incredibly rare, it highlighted the fears that most women live with every day. Every time we walk somewhere at night, or unknown, or quiet, we make a risk assessment on what we would do if we were attacked (most likely by a man). We make this risk assessment because it's happened, or has nearly happened, to most of us. My friends and I have been followed on numerous occasions, groped in bars, made to feel very uncomfortable on public transport with lewd comments, been grabbed or even assaulted. There might occasionally be violence involved but the majority of the time, it's "just" sexual. These events aren't rare - they're experienced every day by a lot of women. That's why we carry our keys between our fingers when we walk home so that we have something to use in defence, why we tell each other to text when we get home safely, why we pretend to be on the phone when we walk past groups of drunk men to try to not get noticed. I'm not saying that men don't sometimes have the same fears, or that this happens to all women. But it's so much more prevalent for us that it's a part of life - just normal behaviour - when it really shouldn't be. And telling people not to surrender to fear negates the genuine concerns that women have, so they stop raising them and the behaviour is normalised. I know opinions will differ on this, and I don't propose to get into a heated debate on it, but just wanted to post my view.
  21. Some of you may remember I posted on here a few years ago when my long term relationship broke down after I caught my (now ex-) boyfriend cheating on me. Well, 2 years ago I met someone else whilst still feeling a little fragile, but stuck with it as we got on really well. And this weekend we just got engaged! Thanks again VT - you lot were brilliant when times were pretty crappy, so I thought I ought to share the good news!
  22. Christmas Day 2014, about 8pm. News had broken that CityLink had been put into administration and I had a fairly long call from our Ops Director on it. Pretty sure I didn't give my best legal advice that day, given that I started on the bucks fizz at 11am...
  23. Haha, I wouldn't expect anything less in your destination reports Tony! Have passed them on to my other half as useful info :-)
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