vwkittie

I'm enjoying it so far. I can't remember the film version much, I know the film trilogy wasn't finished. I have read the books but it was a long time ago, can anyone comment on how similar the series/film is? Why did you like the film but not the TV series?

I'd forgotten about this but we had similar in our old house, took the poor electrician about 4 hours to put one hole through the front wall of the house!

You can get wax sticks that you apply to the plate warm which remove any residue. Use a cotton bud to clear out the jets. It works incredibly well but makes a really horrible vapour so only do it near a wide open window!

What evidence do you have that 18-24 year olds can't wash up or change a light bulb?? Even if someone had never done either before, unless they have some mental difficulty they'd figure it out in about 5 mins the first time it's required.

I make mince pies, they're a million times better than the shop bought ones. Home made mince meat is so much more flavoursome and not as sickly, well worth the effort!

Could you leave a note there in case they come back again maybe?

Really, what's going on, could you tell? I still can't seem to see any planning applications for it

Nope, I pay zero attention to it!

We had our old house rewired (150 yr old cottage with a 1980's extension, 3 bed) completely rewired recently. Total cost, it's hard to say exactly as we opted to have our overhead incoming supply moved which was expensive, around £500ish just for that. We also had a lot of associated re-plastering done as the old stuff was a mess after chopping out, patching up wasn't viable so pretty much the whole house got re-skimmed, that cost a couple of grand. The re-wire itself I think was around 4-5 grand which included running in quite a bit of new stuff, outside lighting and re-doing the garage. It was extremely difficult to find an electrician willing to do the job, which was very difficult and dirty. Getting through massively thick stone walls is no fun at all! An old 16 room place? I shudder to think of paying for and taking that work on!!! Good luck!!

We got an air bnb place when we were 'in between' houses, that worked well for anyone in a similar situation.

The parents were half siblings themselves, and the poor children didn't even know he was their dad apparently. A disaster from the start, very sad.

Yes you won't be able to take the hire car on the ring itself. Even taking your own car over to Germany, you must check your insurance as most have a specific clause that excludes ring use. Many people risk it or just don't realise, however if you have an accident and hit the barriers (or someone's prized Porsche!) it could cost you an absolute fortune to put right! Although we've visited the ring a couple of times we haven't taken our own car round. I was lucky enough to get a ride round with a friend in a megane RS which was really fun. You can book a trip around in the ring taxi or there's specific ring car rental to have a go around in a GTI or whatever. I seem to remember there's even a ring school where you can get proper training etc, I'd love to do that one day!

I think the work is to try to help prevent flooding before the next lot of heavy rains, so I guess it's pretty important it's done as soon as possible.

Ooh lovely I am very envious! We've done two driving holidays through Germany taking our own car, and visited by plane once too. We love it there! I too think your itinerary is full on. We did from the Euro tunnel down to the Austrian border at the Zugspitze and back in two weeks and it was a lot (although brilliant) Driving in Germany is absolutely fine, just check on the local laws as to what to carry with you, speed limits etc. Stay out of people's way on the Autobahn, people do not lane hog over there. Public transport is good so in my experience you can easily leave your car at your hotel whilst you do local visits around cities, which means you don't need to worry too much about getting a very central hotel, which often don't have good parking. You usually need to buy a pass from a ticket machine at the platform/station, they don't have conductors like we have here. Most people visiting the Nurburgring stay in and around Adenau which is a lovely little town with some nice restaurants (try the comfy corner and Pinocchio's pizzeria ). I'd advise you to plan which days of the week you go there carefully as not all of the attractions are open every day. The museum is worth a visit as is the little Nurburg castle (great view from the top) and of course Youtube Corner (this is labelled on google maps)! If you are interested in cars/motorsport I'd highly recommend a visit to Stuttgart to the Mercedes museum - it's a really cracking visit. Oh and if you like steaks try the Blockhouse, it's a chain with places around Germany and it's super yummy.

If rescues 'charged' less how would they keep running? They need the money to continue to look after the dogs in their care and rescue more dogs. Dogs being bought or rescued from abroad is a whole other problem - these practices are putting our country at risk of diseases, not to mention the moral question of whether we should be importing animals when there are tens of thousands already in this country (not carrying foreign diseases!) waiting for homes. The adoption fees at Rain Rescue (as an example) are in the region of £150-£200. If you can afford to buy dog food, insurance etc on a monthly basis you could easily put that amount aside for a few months to save up the fee before adopting. If you're trying to say that there's no way someone who can genuinely afford a dog couldn't possibly save up £150.... well, pull the other one. More likely some people want everything instantly with no planning or care.

If it's a first time purchase with no chain to worry about (from your child's perspective), honestly I'd walk away or at least give the current owners a time in which to sort it out or you'll walk. A friend of ours was recently buying his first house and had some similar issues to you describe, old house with a new block of flats built nearby without access etc being sorted properly, it was a problem that dragged on and on until he gave up and walked away from it, there was no resolution is sight. On our last purchase we had all sorts of problems with the vendors. Gave them 20 minutes to complete or we would have walked (and we really would have as well it wasn't an idle threat). Funnily enough they got their affairs in order and completed within 20 minutes.

Don't ask me - I don't actually know!!!

I actually didn't think our funeral bill was out of the way, and the firm we went with were so, so good with us. My partner's dad had next to no assets and no will or anything, and we had no savings, so paying was a struggle but they were totally understanding of this and never once pressured us to pay up whilst we were sorting out the financial side of things, which wasn't at all easy (or quick!). We used TW Birks at Deepcar if anyone needs a recommendation.

When my partner's dad passed away I seem to remember we spent somewhere in the region of £3-4k ish on the funeral as a whole (cremation at Grenoside), about 3 years ago now.

This isn't really the case any more, there are quite a few options and they can use electric up to pretty decent speeds nowadays. Obviously doesn't last as long but still.

How do they manage with regards to people who don't have a parking space (and thus nowhere to put a charger) at home? Or those who live in a block of flats and don't have the ability to put a charger in, even if they do have a space for the car? We'll definitely be going down the plug-in hybrid route for our next car but we're lucky enough to have space to sort out our own charger at home, it'd be a bit different if we couldn't. My dad got a Kia Niro plug-in hybrid several months ago and loves it, does all his general drives on electric but still has the petrol for occasional longer journeys.

I'm sure they will but people should just grow a spine and say no if they don't want to do something! We have a family tradition of putting shoes out on New Year's Eve so that Mother New Year will come and fill them with sweets for New Year's Day. I've never heard of anyone else who does this or have any clue where it came from, but perhaps I should sell the idea to big business so they can sell personalised decorative shoes filled with perfumes

I like the idea, as far as I understand it the box is supposed to have things like new pyjamas, things to make a nice hot choc, new story book etc - things for xmas eve bedtime basically, nothing extravagant/expensive. You can also put in 'reindeer food' (which you can make yourself for pennies) for kids to put outside (birds will eat it!). My sister does them, the other year we all got new PJs and put them on to watch a film with hot chocs (boozy for the adults!) before the kids went to bed, it was nice! Like anything you can be as simple or as over the top as you like, or just not do it at all.

I heard that old stone builds should use lime mortar to prevent damp problems? I know of one person who had their regular pointing all removed and replaced with traditional lime and it cured the damp inside the house by allowing it to breathe (or something like that). Don't know if this is true however, be good if someone could comment.

There's Wadsley Park Village which is a relatively new estate right in Middlewood (a couple of mins walk from Middlewood tram stop). It's got a mix of houses and flats with rental opportunities and is a pretty nice estate. I rented a flat there for a while when I first moved to Sheffield myself and found it very convenient and pleasant. I haven't moved very far from there actually as I really like the NW area of sheffield. Leisure wise from that area it's easy to get to Stocksbridge either by driving or on the Stocksbridge Supertram link bus where there are shopping and dining opportunities as Fox Valley. There are also multiple gyms and a lovely swimming pool at the community run Stocksbridge Leisure Centre. It's also really easy to get in to town on the tram where there's obviously shopping, eating out, a cinema etc. If you stay on the tram you can get round to Valley Centertainment where there's cinema, bowling, indoor mini golf, restaurants. After that you get to Meadowhall which is a big shopping centre. Also easy to drive to these places from Middlewood if you prefer. There's load of countryside accessible from Middlewood with lots of great walks to do as well. Good luck with your move!