Search found 1712 matches

by AlanD
26 Dec 2023, 4:20pm
Forum: Stolen, Lost, Found, etc.
Topic: Suspicious bicycle sale on Facebook Marketplace
Replies: 2
Views: 1987

Re: Suspicious bicycle sale on Facebook Marketplace

Looks like the listing has been removed. Someone probably bought it.
by AlanD
26 Dec 2023, 3:45pm
Forum: Stolen, Lost, Found, etc.
Topic: Suspicious bicycle sale on Facebook Marketplace
Replies: 2
Views: 1987

Suspicious bicycle sale on Facebook Marketplace

I just found this on Facebook Marketplace:
Carrera Bike £25. must be sold today.
Ridiculous low price. Time pressure. Seller declines to answer questions about the bike.
Looks suspicious to me?

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... c8a9be3dc1
by AlanD
19 Dec 2022, 6:12am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: We are experiencing high levels of calls at this time…
Replies: 18
Views: 1586

Re: We are experiencing high levels of calls at this time…

Sorry, I omitted to say that this was a water leak, not gas.
As it was, I waited an hour and a half, +/- a few mins. Very nice lady answered. I explained the situation, keeping it upbeat. Added that water was exiting the property and freezing on the surface of a public accessway, where it was a slip hazard. I learnt long ago to keep it nice and try to get the other persons support. I think that she was just only happy not to have someone screaming down the phone. Man from DynoRod was booked for the next day. The problem may be complex to fix and will have to wait for parts, but triage is in place and damage minimal.
However, my original point remains. We have gone through several chrisis events recently , of the sort that will visit each of us from time to time and in each, the only point of contact has been a telephone number. It just seems that I spend my life hanging on a telephone.
by AlanD
16 Dec 2022, 4:39pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: We are experiencing high levels of calls at this time…
Replies: 18
Views: 1586

Re: We are experiencing high levels of calls at this time…

I'm pulling my hair out right now!
I have service cover with British Gas. I also have a leak right now.
The BG website has given me a booking for the 4th Jan, the first that is available. I'm currently sitting on the phone, nearly an hour now, trying to get through to them. Really frustrating!
by AlanD
14 Dec 2022, 8:15pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: We are experiencing high levels of calls at this time…
Replies: 18
Views: 1586

Re: We are experiencing high levels of calls at this time…

Thank you, I shall consider my options.
by AlanD
14 Dec 2022, 12:11pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Heat in the home
Replies: 2297
Views: 134361

Re: Heat in the home

Earlier this year, I 'recycled' some polystyrene sheeting by gluing it onto the thin layer that already faced the loft trap, making it quite thick.

Last winter, I put to work some leftover silvered insulation sheeting, by placing it behind all the radiators. Also bought a few shelves and fixed them over radiators that are under windows, to direct the hot air into the room. Each evening when I draw the curtains, I make sure to tuck the bottom of the curtains in, so that the hot air rising does not go behind them.

This week, I realised that the inside door between our lounge and front porch (single glazed) was acting as a cold-sink because the porch is cold. So I visited a certain popular DIY store and came home with a sheet of 4mm acrylic sheeting and a roll of rubber draught excluder.
The sheet is now secured to the outside of this door, with the draught excluder strip forming a seal between it and the door. Just waiting to see what difference my secondary glazing makes.
by AlanD
14 Dec 2022, 11:48am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: We are experiencing high levels of calls at this time…
Replies: 18
Views: 1586

We are experiencing high levels of calls at this time…

I am going to be retiring shortly and I have just realised what it is that I am going to miss the most.
My work laptop! Or more specifically, the Teams application which is installed on it. It’s just ideal to make telephone calls.

We all still need to make a telephone call. I’m talking about non-social calls here: To shops, agencies, government departments, insurance companies, your Doctors surgery, etc. etc.
All because:
• The website does not tell us what we need to know.
• The on-line contact form is just not geared-up for anything other than placing an order.
• My urgent question is complex and requires real-time contact with a human voice.
• The ‘Chat-Bot’ is limited and I have yet to find a way to say “I need to speak to a real human” that gets past the endless merry-go-round of “I do not understand your question, please rephrase”.
• Or, there is only a telephone number given.

So here I am, having to listen to awful music and those lovely warm words, “Your call is important to us…”
Is it taking longer to answer those calls?
Is “You are 28th in a queue” to be expected as the norm?

I’m getting old and time is the most precious resource that I have. It would probably be quicker to contact these organisations by post during a postal strike! Perhaps it would be cheaper to get my jet pack out and fly there to see them personally!

I have just realised that I am wrapping a question up in grumpy rant, but in doing so, I hope to convey a correct understanding of context and so solicit the correct answer to my question.


The landline is on a free weekends tariff; besides the battery in the phone would probably go flat waiting for someone to answer.
The mobile has a PAYG SIM in it, so every minute costs.
I have also just found out that Microsoft Teams, which is what I use to make calls from my work laptop, requires Microsoft 365, which I refused to install on my computer because of the high monthly charge, opting for the free LibreOffice instead.

As we all no doubt realise, ringing an organisation will mean waiting for a long, long time. Is there a way to continue to ‘enjoy’ free calls after my work laptop is gone? How do you manage the cost of these essential calls, whilst enduring the long wait to be 1st in the queue?

Grumpy rant finished, over to you.
by AlanD
12 Dec 2022, 6:55pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: HR Morris
Replies: 10
Views: 1530

Re: HR Morris

If I can find some cyclist figures, then I guess that my younger ‘self’ will have to visit the shop on my green Carlton Corsa.
by AlanD
11 Dec 2022, 8:59pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: HR Morris
Replies: 10
Views: 1530

Re: HR Morris

I just had to dig out this thread again, after all these years.
My other interest is model railways. Over the covid lockdown, I have been working on constructing a town scene, in which I wanted to put a terrace of shops. One had to be a bike shop and I immediately thought of HR Morris. Here’s the photograph that I found. Then a friend challenged me to model the bike and it’s owner. So I did! I did put out a question on the website where I found the photo, asking about colours, but got no reply, so I had to guess. So here is my tribute to HR Morris. It’s OO gauge by the way, that’s 4mm to the foot. The buildings are made from card and the window dressing is paper clips. Sorry about the aspect, my phone just wants to rotate it.
by AlanD
11 Dec 2022, 8:34pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: George V & VI post boxes
Replies: 40
Views: 7952

Re: George V & VI post boxes

This postbox was spotted in the ‘forbidden’ city of Famagusta, in the northern Turkish side of Cyprus. My Wife and I were there recently and took an excursion to the northern side. The history of the place is complex, and so very sad. I’ll let you search for details yourself. The place looked like it had been hit by a nuclear bomb and left for nature to take over. It’s existence is a stark foreboding of what is happening right now.
by AlanD
4 Dec 2022, 6:28pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Your help needed to find the rogue trader that tricked me.
Replies: 30
Views: 2646

Re: Your help needed to find the rogue trader that tricked me.

Thank you for your support.
Tom. Your link is the same as what I was sent on another forum that I subscribe to.
Reading it, events were similar to my own experience, so this could be the same person.
I have sent an update to the Police and I think I'll talk to the Bank again tomorrow.

If anyone else has any more information, then please don't hold back. I would be particularly interested in other offences and reports, current address, Car registration number.

Thank you
by AlanD
4 Dec 2022, 2:15pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Your help needed to find the rogue trader that tricked me.
Replies: 30
Views: 2646

Your help needed to find the rogue trader that tricked me.

I need eyes and ears on the ground to find and identify the rogue doorstep trader that had an early Christmas bonus at my expense.
It happened last Monday, he was passing as my Wife and I were struggling with trimming a bush. Him & his mate stopped to offer help.
We should have said 'No', I realise that we were well and truly had.

As the work started and the mess was all over the drive, he discovered extra work that needed doing, and so the walking up of the price began. The end result is that there are now some sad stumps where beautiful bushes used to be; my bank account is a lot lighter than is comfortable and we are left feeling, well, grief over their loss and completely untrusting of humanity. We now face each day frightened that the next person we come across is a crook.
I have since had conversations with 3 people, all professionals in this business, who each say that what I paid was excessive and I had been 'had'.

I have reported the matter to the Police, but we all know how overstretched they are, this will just slip between the cracks. It did not help that the PCSO who called round, thought that's what this should have cost.
My bank can't do anything, because a service was provided.
The phone number for Trading Standards is for the Citizens Advice Bureau. I was there told that to pursue a claim, I need his postal address, which I don't have.
No point asking his Bank for his address, because of GDPR.
Nothing useful found from an internet search on the names.


So I need your help to find this low-life scum, so that I can start to seek redress.
Please keep your eyes open for a Mr David T Boswell, 'David's Professional Tree Care' (no connection with a reputable tree surgeons of similar name).
I need his full postal address, I could also use the registration number of his big 4x4 car, which bears his name on the sides of the big open trailer that it pulls.
The sort code for his Bank account, points me to a Bank in Stratford-on-Avon, but then you don't have to live near your bank.

Thank you
by AlanD
23 Nov 2022, 5:42pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Orange one is back on Twitter
Replies: 10
Views: 814

Re: Orange one is back on Twitter

Psamathe wrote: 21 Nov 2022, 10:48am
Tangled Metal wrote: 20 Nov 2022, 12:59pm Good or bad? Discuss!
ps: the raising a subject without expressing a view with "discuss" - bit like being back at school and being assigned hom,ework by teacher. We are not school kids needing to be told what to talk about.

Ian
I find a statement followed by "discuss" to be aggressive.
by AlanD
23 Nov 2022, 5:35pm
Forum: On the road
Topic: Dangerous drivers and what to do about them.
Replies: 15
Views: 2110

Re: Dangerous drivers and what to do about them.

I am what you would call a 'Jumper'.
I 'Jump' into the offending vehicle.
Then I grab the driver, 'Jump' to a remote place in the Arctic (during our summer, I choose Antarctica), where I leave said driver.
I then 'Jump' back home and get on with my day.
Job done! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
by AlanD
13 Nov 2022, 5:17pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: UK Politics
Replies: 949
Views: 74410

Re: Britannia Un-Trussed - The Sunak Sojourn

I heard it in the news that the Chancellor is promising tax rises. Also heard something about 'the richest will have to pay the most'.
Galling though I feel about it, this is what I think will happen...
The wealthiest in this country will all say "No we will not pay any more tax" and they can do something about it.
They will leave this country in droves for places where they can keep all their money, in places where they and their wealth will make them very welcome. Places such as Monaco and Dubai.
Meaning that there will be less money coming into the Treasury coffers, not more. Resulting in the rest of us, who do not have such an option, being even worse off.

However I try to see it, I think we are all up S*** Street!