What's made your day today?

[David L]

The BBC's culture editor, Katie Razall, used the term "piece of piss" just now on 5 Live. Made me smile.

I find her quite irritating on Radio 4 - she can't help herself interjecting with cringeworthy attempts at bon mots when speaking to guests much, much brainier than she is. 

Annoyingly smug when she presents Newsnight and spends most of her time trying to trip up anyone speaking on behalf of the right. Probably the most blatantly biased presenter they have IMHO.

[Matt2112]

Today is 9 years to the day since my "Cryptogenic cerebrovascular accident", so everything made my day today. 

However, the village Christmas Tree lights were switched on tonight, followed by a stage school performance and songs in which my young 'un featured, so that was a special treat. 

[Slim]

A heating engineer has fixed our gas boiler. It was tripping the RCD. We've been surviving on fan heaters for a few days. Fortunately we have an electric immersion heater so we didn't have to go without hot water.

[David L]

A heating engineer has fixed our gas boiler. It was tripping the RCD. We've been surviving on fan heaters for a few days. Fortunately we have an electric immersion heater so we didn't have to go without hot water.

That's a great bonus of having a hot water storage cylinder that many don't consider when they opt for a combi boiler, often just to gain a little more storage space.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Being told this morning that my increasingly worsening neck and head muscle pain of the past two to three weeks is not the giant cell arteritis which I had feared, but rather muscle spasms which can be treated with painkillers and physiotherapy.

[Slim]

Only six months 'til Christmas.😀

I better not show the wife this post, she'll have me beheaded and then hanged. Hates Xmas.

I think the other way round would be more practical. Less than two weeks now!

[Nick]

Still Decoration free here.

[Slim]

I've developed an interest in British county boundaries, from planning bike routes into different counties. There are, broadly speaking, two sets - the ceremonial (modern day) boundaries, and the "historic" boundaries.

There's a nice facility here which shows both sets.

However I've been doing some reading today and it seems that this isn't the whole picture - some of the counties had "exclaves", detached parts surrounded by other counties. And it turns out that the village where I live in NW Leicestershire was, before 1849, a tiny disconnected exclave of Derbyshire, surrounded by Leicestershire.

Derbyshire's exclaves were given to Leicestershire in return for some of Leicestershire's land near the border, which was then annexed by Derbyshire.

More info here  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_county_exclaves_in_England_and_Wales_1844%E2%80%931974



Historic Derbyshire shown in light blue, with exclaves to the south and east.

Online zoomable map showing the historic counties and boundaries with exclaves here:

https://wikishire.co.uk/map

[Fishy]

Prince Andrew.. what a complete fuckwit he is..

[David L]

Prince Andrew.. what a complete fuckwit he is..

And what of that ginger bint that continues to worship the ground he walks on?

[Matt2112]

Disestablish the whole wretched lot of them.  Before or after the same is done to the scandal-riddled CofE, I'm not that fussed.

[Slim]

I've been trying to sort out my pension from my last employer for a few months. It's been surprisingly tortuous, involving frustrating telephone calls with long queues, getting cut off for no reason, filling out forms online and completeting and posting some paper forms as well, just for good measure.

Unfortunately I've had to deal with three different companies. The pension fund holder doesn't actually do annuities, so I've had to purchase one from a separate company. But I had to use an intermediary company to do this, because the annuity company doesn't deal with the public directly.

Anyway I had thought that this long process was nearing a conclusion. The fund holder confirmed they would transfer the funds, minus a tax free lump sum which I've requested, which they will pay directly to me.

Then I get an email from the intermediary company, the annuity arranger, saying that the annuity company received funds, but they were £6100 short of the agreed figure. This was yesterday.

Naturally I feared the worst. Had my pension fund nosedived suddenly? Had I been robbed; had someone made an unauthorised withdrawal somehow? I fired off a couple of concerned emails yesterday.

This morning I received an email from the pension fund holder saying that they had transferred the agreed sum, which they quoted, yesterday. They gave me the payment reference. I still don't understand how the annuity company can have received a smaller sum. I could understand it if it hadn't shown up in their account at all yet. But at least I do have an explicit acknowledgement of the sum that's supposed to have been transferred. I'll be a lot happier when it's done and dusted, all the same.

[David L]

I've been trying to sort out my pension from my last employer for a few months. It's been surprisingly tortuous, involving frustrating telephone calls with long queues, getting cut off for no reason, filling out forms online and completeting and posting some paper forms as well, just for good measure.

Unfortunately I've had to deal with three different companies. The pension fund holder doesn't actually do annuities, so I've had to purchase one from a separate company. But I had to use an intermediary company to do this, because the annuity company doesn't deal with the public directly.

Anyway I had thought that this long process was nearing a conclusion. The fund holder confirmed they would transfer the funds, minus a tax free lump sum which I've requested, which they will pay directly to me.

Then I get an email from the intermediary company, the annuity arranger, saying that the annuity company received funds, but they were £6100 short of the agreed figure. This was yesterday.

Naturally I feared the worst. Had my pension fund nosedived suddenly? Had I been robbed; had someone made an unauthorised withdrawal somehow? I fired off a couple of concerned emails yesterday.

This morning I received an email from the pension fund holder saying that they had transferred the agreed sum, which they quoted, yesterday. They gave me the payment reference. I still don't understand how the annuity company can have received a smaller sum. I could understand it if it hadn't shown up in their account at all yet. But at least I do have an explicit acknowledgement of the sum that's supposed to have been transferred. I'll be a lot happier when it's done and dusted, all the same.

Rather fortunate to be buying an annuity at this time. £100k gets a 65-year-old an annuity of around £7,300 per year at the moment - thousands more than a few years ago 

[Matt2112]

Was out walking the dog tonight under a totally cloudless sky and, as I stood in the local park marvelling at Orion, a beautifully bright meteor streaked just past his shoulder (i.e. Betelgeuse). Probably a Geminid.

[pxr5]

Brilliant and no charges against any police:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c627e37v21eo