Just had my last round of radiation treatment for Prostate cancer, very happy.
        
A salutary tale to all men over the age of 40, get your PSA test done annually. It's silent but deadly if you don't catch it early enough.

Glad to hear that Graham and good luck for the future.  . As I have often mentioned on the forum, please gentlemen, have your PSA levels checked regularly - it is just a simple blood test.

  
just checked my bank statement on line, and I have received my christmas box from the govt 

£10, same as it has been since first introduced in the 1970s.

with the millions they waste on a daily basis, would it be too much to expect it to go up occasionally 

when first introduced, my late father in law could treat himself to a bottle and a pack of cigs, now I can probably get a few packets of sweets.

wonder if anything else has stayed the same for around 50 years 

MP's expenses 
MP's allowances 

somehow I think not likely.

rather than tax what is left of my brain trying to decide how to spend this 'windfall' I think I may donate it to a worthy cause.

merry christmas all.

Yep,thanks for the Christmas present, Mr Mrs Miss Ms government. 

Quote from: Browning 9mm on December 04, 2023, 08:34:14 AMrather than tax what is left of my brain trying to decide how to spend this 'windfall' I think I may donate it to a worthy cause.

merry christmas all.

What about the Forum Coffers as a worthy cause 

Regards

Neal.

sorry, already gone to the RAF benevolent fund.
maybe next year.

Quote from: Browning 9mm on December 05, 2023, 01:27:46 PMsorry, already gone to the RAF benevolent fund.
maybe next year.

And in my opinion just as good a cause.

Regards

(ex)JT Mansell 041

This is a shout-out to forum member Ozymandias - Last week, I bought a couple of locos which have been refurbished/restored; they arrived at the weekend (nice and quick), and to say I'm blown away by the quality of the paintwork & lettering would be an understatement. They're fantastic!

So, thank you Ozy! I just wish I could have stretched the budget to the Coronation loco.... but that went for "real" money!



Now... to persuade the mrs to increase the model railway budget so I can buy some more...

As I have mentioned in previous posts, when the house and car insurances come up for renewal at this time of year, I always get a few comparison quotes and then ring the current insurance companies. At the begining of December, I rang the house insurance company and said I would like a €40/50 reduction - they knocked me €54 off. I received the car insurance renewal a couple of weeks ago so did my usual trawl of other insurance companies - what an eye opener, one company was quoting more than double my renewal quote  . The best I could find was one about €40 cheaper, but the cover was not as good as I currently have. So I have just made a telephone call to the current company, (Aviva via 'An Post') and got a €25 reduction.  . The moral of the story is never accept and always query a renewal quote.

Quote from: dannyboy on December 28, 2023, 12:41:44 PMThe moral of the story is never accept and always query a renewal quote.

The moral to my version of the story is leave your current insurer anyway even if you have to pay a few quid more. Fed up with current insurers suddenly being able to reduce your renewal if you threaten to go elsewhere.
What they are saying is "we quoted you a higher renewal to try our luck and see if we could rip you off but now you've called our bluff we will let you have the genuine renewal price". Just plain daylight, legal robbery. Give your existing customer your best price in the first place, don't extract the urine and waste everyone's time.

I fully understand what you are saying @thebrighton but I am not prepared to give more money to another company just to make a point. My view is that all insurance companies are as bad as each other. If I was prepared to spend a few extra quid, (Euro), with another company, just so I could say "up yours" to the current company, I could end up in an upward spiral, constantly spending more each year. I would rather spend a few minutes on line and then make a telephone call to get a bit of a reduction - the money is better in my pocket! Obviously, if a current company will not play ball, that necessitates a rethink, but very rarely do I not get a reduction when I ask for one. 

Agree with @dannyboy but I also understand the thinking of @thebrighton. ALL insurance companies do this and the new company which you're happy to pay a little more than your current company will do the same in 12 months time, overcharge. There's absolutely no incentive to stay loyal and I will always go with the cheapest, or even slightly more with the current insurer if it's for the same cover. It is rare you will get exactly the same cover and benefits anyway if you start looking at voluntary and involuntary excesses, replacement vehicles etc etc

FINALLY finished my first loop for my first layout ever. It took for freaking ageeeeeeeeeeeeees. I was using flex track for every thing. First i had to learn about easments and stuff, then figure out how do draw a loop with easments etc. The amount of times i had to pull off completely dried flex track and re connect/lay it was rediuclous. First issue was i didn't notice at first but some of the tracks were not completely leveled with each other. Other thing is when i filed the ends, i never did a "sqaure" off filing to the very edges, i only did it completely flat, so i was having all these rough bits at the very end of each joint which i didn't notice untill much later. Then another time i was not happy with the centering of one of my curves on the trackbed so re did that. Hardest part of this was the very very last bit of track, cos it was very short  and hard to bend and the hardest thing about it is im not using any solder at all on any of these tracks, so tryiing to get that short peice of track to be bent slightly and also have the very start of it compeltely straight was very difficult and had to re do it like twice. Soldering frog wires to the turn outs was bit strange also since it was my fisrt time soldering but the wires were solid when i pulled on them so hopefullly they are connected right.


Thank you to every one here and especially ntpntpntp!! for answering a million questions via PM.

Well done for persevering and getting an oval sorted out.
Have you run any trains yet?

I am glad that you are seeing progress @Grassyfield , if you have Percy Vere on your side, you will always get there.