LeBoing

Thanks for your PMs everybody! Apologies for the delayed response - I've been in the middle of nowhere this weekend and not had great phone signal! I'll pin the hubby-to-be down to have a look at your websites and reply to you all ASAP! Thanks again! Em ? xxx

Hi, We're getting married on 23 May next year and I still have quite a lot left to sort out - I have been looking at photographers, cakes and transport in the past few weeks but so far have found it all pretty overwhelming! We are trying to sell and buy a house and I'm moving jobs too in the next couple of weeks, so apologies for the mass amount of questions but I feel like i'm running out of time! We are having a pretty relaxed wedding and don't have a mega budget - we are having a church for the wedding itself and a very laid back reception in the city centre. I am hoping I can get some recommendations on here. A few more details (in case it helps!) Photographer - we are only wanting a photographer for the church, and possibly the first hour of the reception (I dont want getting ready pics or night-do pics) The church is in S6 and the reception is in the city centre - so approx 3 hours work on the day (obviously I know there is a lot more work done afterwards - I'm not saying it's only 3 hours work!) I think from the pics I've seen I generally like the more relaxed style of photography rather than very formal group pics. Cake - Will be for approx 60 people. Any recommendations would be great! Transport - I think we will want a couple of cars to get us (bride and bridesmaids, groom and best man) to the church but I fancy a vintage bus from the church to the reception for all the guests and us too (approx 7.5 miles). If anyone has a recommendation or can tell me an idea of the price they paid, that would be fab! Mega grateful for any help or advice anyone can give me xxx

Hi, Has anyone on here been to a wedding reception, or even a large private party at the Wig and Pen in recent years? All the reviews i have read about it seem to be before the Milestone took it over. Grateful for any more recent reviews! Thanks

I'm posting on my iphone

Same here in Wisewood :-(

Hello! Does anyone know the Christmas Opening Hours for collecting post at the Delivery Office on Capel Street near Hillsborough? My card doesn't have the extended times on but I'm sure they open later on the run up to Christmas. Cheers!

I totally agree, we just completed on a house with Coates and couldn't recommend them enough! Very reasonably priced too, almost halved the quote we got from the Estate Agent's preferred solicitor

Thanks all, you have been a great help! Will have a ring round tomorrow and see if I can get one booked Agent Orange - soz, didn't log on again till now or I would have bobbed over to see you :-(

Thanks for the responses, I will have a ring round tonight. I'm hoping to be reasonably close to Sheffield so that some of my friends can get there by bus or train so the Bakewell one might be best for that *crosses fingers*

Hello :-) I'm wanting to go camping for my birthday but am having trouble finding anywhere that will take a large group (even ones that say they will take a large group on their sites!! ) We are not a large rowdy group, just a few friends and family members and are happy to comply with any early quiet curfews as we will have little uns with us too! We just want to go somewhere pretty to have a walk, some nice food and a drink :-) Anybody out there got any suggestions? Any help is appreciated :-)

Jack n Coke or a lovely pint of Moonshine :-)

You can't get it. You have to hit targets weekly and you have to have a good attendance record or you go on to performance management and if you don't improve, you are dismissed - exactly the same as in the private sector.

No, our disk drives are removed and USBs disconnected, there is limited internet access with all inappropriate sites (i.e most sites that aren't work related) blocked. Dunno what department you are working for but they obviously aren't as strict as mine! After 7 years of being in the civil service I can say they have had their moneys worth and more out of me and my colleagues.

Playing computer games on government systems is impossible to my knowledge, virtually every non-work related site is blocked and everything you do is very closely monitored. Plus the targets are so high that there is no time to do that kind of thing even if you were inclined to. I'd love to know where people get these 'facts' from!

Some departments of the Civil Service make money, some departments are self funding and also pay for other departments so that the public purse doesn't have to pay for it. So there is a loss of income there. Not all work can easily sit there for 2 days, some of it is highly urgent, it has an impact!

Yep, especially since we are supposed to be trying to cut fuel emissions and reduce congestion by enouraging the use of public transport. Councils should insist on a certain level of cleanliness on the busses.

Yeah it is really expensive. I used to moan that my megarider on Stagecoach was £18.50 a week but that did get me 22 miles of travel a day whereas the First weekly ticket for me would be a similar price and would get me just shy of 6 miles a day! Plus my Stagecoach ticket would be valid on the trams. For a single to my old house (11 miles out) with Stagecoach - £2.80, for a single to my current hous (2.8 miles out) £1.95....hmmmmm.

I travel on First busses twice a day and I would say 99% are miserable. I used to live in Derbyshire and Travel to Sheffield on the Stagecoach Mansfield 53 and even though it was a REALLY long journey, a REALLY crowded bus (quite often with idiots on), all of the bus drivers (bar one) were incredibly friendly and helpful. My fella was talking about this the other day too - he moved here from Doncaster a few years ago and remembers being shocked at how much mardier the bus drivers were here. I'm not sure why that is though, I assume there's a reason!

I am currently writing a job application and it asks for employment history. I have had my current job for seven years and a part time job for a year ish before that while my son was tiny. Before that were scattered part time jobs and summer jobs whilst at college and uni. How much of this should I include? I don't see what the relevence is of the part time jobs I had at uni but don't want to omit anything incase it's perceived as lying! What's the norm for this?

I work full time and after I pay all my bills etc I have very little left to spend as I choose thanks to high taxes to pay for those who DON'T work's freedom of choice. While a lot of ideas seem harsh and quite 'police state' I would like something to be done about the fact that the people I know that are on benefits can afford better clothes, have better stuff, can afford to run cars and can fund a better social life than I can. I don't think the credit card is a bad idea, it could be linked to biometrics to protect against a black market. However I'm not sure I would like it to be implemented - it is a big invasion of privacy and might breach Article 8. Maybe the cards could be introduced after an initial 8 weeks on normal benefits (during which time most people who want to work would have started applying for jobs and might even have one). Still on the fence on this one.

I have considerably less money now I have moved in with my fella, although that is mainly down to moving from a council house to a privately rented property and losing almost all my tax credits as his wage is now taken into account. On the other hand, my standard of living has probably improved and I don't have to rely on any benefits now *dances* I think it depends on the persons situation. Had I been single and childless I think I would be better off living with my partner, the £25ish council tax saving from living alone doesn't make up for the money that is jointly saved on food bills and utility bills.

Cheers for that, a voucher isn't a bad idea actually, then he can put towards it for a game

Hello, My son has been invited to his best friend's birthday party next week and am totally stumped for present ideas! The little boy will be 9. All they seem to be interested in is computer games - which are too expensive. Any ideas what I should get him - and how much is the norm to spend? Thanks in advance for any help!

If the hypothetical situation did happen (and it wouldn't suddenly happen as that would cost the country a huuuge amount of money in implimentation and the cost of defending the decision in court when everyone on benefits gets themselves representation and challenges the decision under every human right they associate it with) it would have to be a phased out process where gradually benefits were lowered and finally stopped. The government would then have a crisis situation where they would have to increase spending elsewhere (e.g. social services as people's children would have to be taken into care if the parents can't afford to feed and house them - unless of course we are counting that as a benefit too?) in which case the gov't would be responsible for the poverty and deaths of millions of children. The gov't would also have to increase spending on Police to deal with the increase in crime and would have to invest in more prisons to contain all the criminals and pay for the upkeep of all the new prisoners (at a cost of about £1k per week I think it is per criminal - considerably more than a giro anyway). I'm sure there would be some people who currently languish on benefits that would go out and get a job, as there are people who would not steal from others. There would also be a LARGE amount of people who were genuine people calling on benefits during a low patch in life who would be in serious trouble through no fault of their own (these would also include the 'recently made redundant due to no more benefits' staff of Job Centre Plus and DWP). I think you would find that we would probably be even further in debt than we are now.

It's a toughie though, especially if this is a new venture, some people may have joined as an opportunity to explore as much as anything else :-) Good that you got a couple of PMs though :-)