Gardian

UaG ".......... Must admit that I’m rather with Menthe over that one. For me, it Was a bit of forwards slugfest. Anyway, each to his own. Really did enjoy Australia’ humiliation though

Thank you Dave. Yes, it explains it, but we’ve been unable to open (for example) an ISA or other savings a/c since we first arrived here 18 yrs ago. Oh well, fingers crossed that Lloyds remain unmoved by any of this. Not overly confident!

Can someone explain to me why Barclays is doing this? I mean, most of these accounts will be effort-free for the bank. Quite reasonable balances, no need for ‘tiresome’ management of delinquent accounts.

Hopefully much better stuff tomorrow

Re Dupont ......... indeed, Menthe. As regards this afternoon’s match ......... well, best forgotten IMO. If you’d never watched rugby before, you wouldn’t bother again after that!

No, but it won’t be us or Wales!

There are at least two ghastly major tragedies quite close to all of us in Morocco and Libya. There’s economic crises afflicting most countries worldwide. There’s political unrest in the UK, to the extent that Macron is welcoming Starmer for a ‘chat’. And instead ............. what are we getting, wall-to-wall ? Russell bloody Brand. I rest my case.

Oh, and I’m going to be thoroughly sick of Edith Piaf by the end of this !

Well, we’re halfway through the group stage and it seems to be mapping out as to which teams will come through. The only group with question marks seems to be ‘C’, where any one of Australia, Fiji or Wales could fail to make it. You’d say Australia wouldn’t you, but anything could happen. Fiji were good yesterday, weren’t they? Always good to see a hissed-off Aussie ! We (England) weren’t great, but good enough and improving. For me, the really impressive side has been the Springboks. I know that Romania didn’t present much serious opposition, but SA looked very powerful and exciting in attack. They’ll be a handful for anybody.

Yes Dave. It’s all down to whether its his residence principale and he’ll be able to demonstrate that. This bloke and his father seemed all along to be ‘developers’ and quite probably have several projects on the go at any one time. Nothing wrong with any of that, but you’d need to be fully aware of all the taxation implications. Thanks for the information.

So if he was to sell, the tax would be ........? And within a certain period of time, rather than after (say) a year or so?

WB .......... the property was placed with a local estate agent on completion, and there have been a number of viewings, but as far as we know, no serious interest. Cajal .......... yes, under any other circumstances, that would be the obvious answer. However, we were all rather alienated from the start of the build by a rather stroppy and threatening lawyer’s letter telling us all not to impede access for contractors’ vehicles. Hardly designed to win friends and influence people! A knock on the door and a quiet chat would have been more effective. Anyway, we’ve never had occasion to speak.

A new house has been built adjoining our property. It’s not a problem btw - single storey, quite nice. The owner (and builder) seems to spend roughly 50% of his time there and the rest ........elsewhere. Any ideas as to why? Taxation?

Re the RWC, I’d normally be looking forward to this enormously, but for some reason I’m not. It just seems like the wrong time of the year for it, which is a daft reason. Anyway, my mood will hopefully improve as it gets underway. My opinion, fwiw, is that England will be lucky to make it out of the group stage. Yes, I’m a killjoy, but far too many of the players are ‘yesterday’s men’. Ireland are a really good side, but ultimate success will depend heavily on Sexton’s fitness which is far from certain. The All Blacks are obvious front-runners, but seem to be in that ‘lull’ that every top team gets - this may not be their year. I’d love France to win it and for obvious reasons you’d expect them to be there or thereabouts. The loss of N’tamack through injury is serious. The dark horses for me are South Africa. Not the most attractive team to watch, but hard to beat.

Oh dear, yet another more than strange rant from ‘we-all- know-who’. This is the bloke who needs help, rather than the folk he’s going on about. He can’t see it though. Watch the next umpteen posts - denial, you’re all mad, I’m right, insults directed at me, etc, etc.

Well, it seems to have settled down now, without me me doing anything.

Just the last few days. Everything is all over the place! It can’t just be me, surely?

I think thar all the replies to this thread mirror our experience. For us, multi-boosters, still caught it, not a problem. What seems clear (and which many of the ‘experts) have been saying, is that it depends which particular strain you happen to get and how you as an individual happen to be affected..

When I surfaced yesterday morning, Mrs G said to me “You need to go out on to the pool terrace - there’s an owl out there.” I went out there, and she not being completely daft, was right ! Somehow, it had got one of it’s feet trapped in a broken slab. Some blood around, but superficial I think, and more a case of fatigue. I gently moved the slab back: loads of wing flapping. I reckon a good 1m wingspan at least. It didn’t seem to want to move, so I left the bird to it’s own devices and quite honestly, I thought that it might die on the spot. Happily wrong. Ten minutes later, it was gone. Really hope that it’s OK, but we’ll never know.

Ladies & Gentlemen .......... The thing to always remember with Ken is that he always has to have ‘the last word’. It’s more than tiresome and as long as he continues to frequent this Forum, we may sadly have to live with it. More than a few have already been driven away by him. I’ve been trying to imagine a worse surprise attendee at dinner with friends.

I had already made my declaration, but when I got to the very end of my tax declaration, it ‘invites’ you to declare your property situation. You simply have to click on the button.

Twenty or more years ago, I had a very ‘spooky’ experience. Went up on a Sunday evening to the Company training centre which was based in S Yorkshire in the middle of knowhere. I was able to stay over, simply because it made the drive up on the Monday less arduous. It was an old ‘country house’ - quite a big place, but I didn't realise until I got there that I was the only person in residence. I also knew that it was said that it was once a vicarage and that the vicar had done some foul deeds to a young lady on whatever occasion decades ago! Anyway ........... the place was very, very spooky that evening. All that I can say is that I was glad to get to bed and go to sleep. Nonsense? Of course. Did I feel spooked? Yes.

Anyway ........... setting aside the asylum processing system. What did everybody think about the the whole Coronation thing? My (very personal) view: The Abbey service was too long (by 20 mins or so) and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon was unmemorable The military turnout was exemplary - nothing to add to that Shame about the weather, particularly for the people & the flypast The Concert was really good in parts - Lionel Ritchie & Take That in particular. BBC coverage excellent

I have to admit that I watched most of it. IMO, the Abbey service did go on for quite a long time, but that’s just my impatience probably. The thing that I really admired about the whole thing was the sheer organisational brilliance of the day. Now, of course they didn’t start with a ‘blank canvas’ on the day of the late Queen’s death - many of the plans would already have been laid down. However, just consider all the details that had to be fine-tuned, from when attendees at the Abbey needed to turn up, to vehicle availability, to ‘what do we do when this or that goes wrong?’. There will have been hiccups today, but none were immediately obvious.

Indeed.