Taipan wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2024 1:50 pm
Today is a day of mixed emotions. My daughter and her other half just completed on their new house and my son just had his offer on a flat accepted. Super happy for them all and proud of them too, but the prices are phone numbers and I feel sad they've had to take on that level of debt just to get on the housing ladder. I guess it'll even out by the time they get to my age, but fook me that's a chunk of change for a few square meters of England!
Agree, it's crap for current generation to get on the ladder.
Both my step-kids have decent trust funds to help them, my lad doesn't unfortunately so I'm planning that any inheritance I get will go straight to my lad or possibly towards purchase of a flat.
Ever since Baby D was born we've been putting a chunk away every month with a general view to it being for her first house. Maybe.
I figure that I'm lucky with how house prices ans interest have fallen for me. She might not be, so I'm 'deferring' some of the benefits of my luck towards her.
Assembled some 'garage' shelving. Got a reduction for buying 3 (cunning 's give the 1 price Inc. VAT and the 3 price exc VAT). Used a £10 voucher too. Saved £40.
TBH I wish I'd spent more and bought Dexion. If I factor in my time and effort at just living wage it would probably have been cheaper! (The result would have been better too but hey ho, all they have to do is stop stuff doing the gravity thing and keep it organised better than it was).
2 were for the cabin but all 3 will end up in the garage - they not very aesthetically pleasing - and I'll build what I want out of wood like I did before, only taller/more shelves).
Doubt is not a pleasant condition.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
Rode up to the Col du Petit St Bernard today for the first time ever. Freaking awesome! A little challenging as in some places there were still high 'walls' of snow either side of the narrow road; sharing with pedestrians, cyclists, bikers and cars on a curvy road that is only wide enough for two big cars!!! Very interesting! LOL But that was only for a few bends, mostly there was enough visibility to ride comfortably, although I wasn't riding anywhere near as fast as some of the tourists!! LOL
This is a really shit video of the view on the way down. There's a parapente/paragliding competition this week but if you put the video onto big screen, the detail is completely lost!! Same for the birds of prey - I know they are there, but the video doesn't show them
Probably not the last ski of the season for some, but -
And I'm pretty sure this guy climbed up to find a ski he lost - since there is a third ski on his back!! LOL
The view from my coffee stop this morning - the Italian side of the Col du Petit St Bernard -
A little bit back into France, looking back up the road!
Looking down,
Not sure what the monument is, but from the road it looks like there's a teeny tiny jail under it!!
Parked by the biggest wall of snow I could find en route!!
Stopped on the way down because there was a MASSIVE bird of prey flying around - there were a few other bikes and cars stopped too! Sadly I couldn't get a photo of it but it turns out there were about half a dozen or more!! LOL Freaking awesome. Also saw that the parapente competition had started!! This pic isn't 'too' bad!
The view down from that spot - the town you can sort of see is Bourg St Maurice
Stopped again partway down to take this shot, looking along the valley towards (I think) Val d'Isere/Tignes -
A mate back in the UK says this is the best shot, just the road down from the last pic!!
Not a long ride, but worth every second! (Apart from the tourists when I was riding down - I've worked really hard to ride on MY side of the white line, it was interesting to have to move right over on a 'wiggly' road cos some people coming up cut the corner!! On one of the hairpins I had to actually stop and wait while three bikers took the hairpin on the wrong side of the road!! )
Last edited by Noggin on Wed Jun 05, 2024 3:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Life is for living. Buy the shoes. Eat the cake. Ride the bikes. Just, ride the bikes!!
gremlin wrote: ↑Fri May 31, 2024 2:35 pm
Had two calls with BT re my ongoing issues with their Broadband.
First call, lady tells me it's all the devices I have on the wifi network. I explain that the PC is using a CAT6 cable into the hub, and that runs slow, so it can't be the wifi. She struggles with this for a bit before agreeing. I offer to send screengrabs of speed tests. She insists the only one they accept is their own, and that it looks fine now. I remind her that this is an intermittent fault. After telling me there was nothing she could I asked to speak to her line manager whenavailable.
Second call from the manager. I start by telling her that at 12.20 I have a screengrab of the BT. Wholesale speed test showing I have c. 3mbps download speed and another one 10 minutes later showing 35mbps. 'Really?' she says, 'That's odd. I think we need to get an engineer to your property'. Finally, the scales have fallen from BT's eyes.
Bearing in mind this has been going on for some months, with umpteen phone calls, a 'Tech Guru' home visit, an upgrade to the service, plus a new hub...there was no record of any issues relating to my account.
This morning the Openreach bloke turns up. Plugs into the hub, taps away and tells me I have 32mbps download speed. I show his a screen grab this morning, from the BT site, showing I had 4mbps.
'That ain't right' he says, 'never seen that'.
So investigating he goes, to the box in the street, to the garage where the cable comes in. After half an hour, he comes in triumphantly, holding a piece of knackered wire and plastic. Explains that he's replaced it and it should be resolved.
Half an hour after he's gone, the broadband slows to glacial pace again. FFS.
I get onto to BT again, get put through to the broadband people and get talking to Peter, crackin' Geordie lad. I explain the issue.
'I reckon I know what that is', he tells me, 'You don't have fibre to your house, do you?'
'Nope'
'Well your hub is configured for fibre, not copper. That's why you're having issues. I'll change it now'.
I'm really hoping Peter has worked a bit of magic, but if he has, it makes you wonder why none of the other BT people picked this up....
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2024 2:56 pm
Ever since Baby D was born we've been putting a chunk away every month with a general view to it being for her first house. Maybe.
I figure that I'm lucky with how house prices ans interest have fallen for me. She might not be, so I'm 'deferring' some of the benefits of my luck towards her.
A few months ago I gave my kids a 20% deposit each on a quarter of a million pound house (you do the maths) and I've offered to help pay their mortgages until they're a bit older and doing better. Without that sort of help how many kids can drop a £50k deposit down and pay mortgage payments of over two grand a month?
How does a young person leave school, get an average job and save fifty grand? Then pay £2,000+ a month?
There is zero chance, it's fantasy money.
gremlin wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 2:48 pm makes you wonder why none of the other BT people picked this up....
When they put fibre to our cabinet our speed didn't change at all. It took goodness knows how many calls to them, with them all saying it was switched over and nothing was wrong, before they finally sent an engineer out.
He went and took a look at the cabinet, and we hadn't been physically switched over
Plus he found something broken along the line and fixed that, which meant we got an extra bit of speed back that we should have had all along.
gremlin wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 3:23 pm
Broadband has just slowed again.
0.73mbps download.
FFS.
Being a London geezer, what's your 5G speed like via mobile? Perhaps give BT a kick in the spuds and get a 5G modem from Three or whoever your provider is.
I can get circa 1Gbps over 5G with Three in Colchester, OK the ping is a little slower but transfer is lightning. We had FTTP installed at home however, as our village has shocking BT connection and even worse mobile comms.
We got a free 5G router from BT to cover us while our broadband was down (someone snapped the fibre optic at the cabinet end while installing other stuff )
They're way better than your phone IME. I was expecting basically mobile internet, but on a PC, but no - loads faster.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 3:38 pm
We got a free 5G router from BT to cover us while our broadband was down (someone snapped the fibre optic at the cabinet end while installing other stuff )
They're way better than your phone IME. I was expecting basically mobile internet, but on a PC, but no - loads faster.
Latest from BT advisor: you got too much shite.
Long version: we have 10 Sonos speakers, three or four phones, a lap top, Sky, telly and probably a few more bit than I can remember (network map to follow from BT). I've got copper wire from the street and no sign of fibre in the immediate future. His advice: disconnect some stuff coz what you're getting ain't gonna get any better.
I did ask about the 5G as back up, but the problem is, they don't see it as a fail: 36mbps coming in, so nothing is going to kick in. but that 36mbps ain't enough to go around with all the speakers and shit.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 3:38 pm
We got a free 5G router from BT to cover us while our broadband was down (someone snapped the fibre optic at the cabinet end while installing other stuff )
They're way better than your phone IME. I was expecting basically mobile internet, but on a PC, but no - loads faster.
Yep. we get up to 80Mbps on 4G (I think it averages at about 50). It helps that I've added a decent aerial to the router (It's a TP-Link), and that we have line of site to an EE mast!
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 3:38 pm
We got a free 5G router from BT to cover us while our broadband was down (someone snapped the fibre optic at the cabinet end while installing other stuff )
They're way better than your phone IME. I was expecting basically mobile internet, but on a PC, but no - loads faster.
Latest from BT advisor: you got too much shite.
Long version: we have 10 Sonos speakers, three or four phones, a lap top, Sky, telly and probably a few more bit than I can remember (network map to follow from BT). I've got copper wire from the street and no sign of fibre in the immediate future. His advice: disconnect some stuff coz what you're getting ain't gonna get any better.
I did ask about the 5G as back up, but the problem is, they don't see it as a fail: 36mbps coming in, so nothing is going to kick in. but that 36mbps ain't enough to go around with all the speakers and shit.
Solution...well, there ain't one, he reckons.
10 Sonos-s?? blimey - that'll probably be a lot of traffic back and forth.
BT are utterly crap though and really do not want to be helpful.
The failover thing is also true - as long as the device is seeing "some" connectivity between itself and the ISP, then it won't failover to the 4G alternative connection. They only failover at a broken connection over the wires.
's give the 1 price Inc. VAT and the 3 price exc VAT). Used a £10 voucher too. Saved £40.
- and I'll build what I want out of wood like I did before, only taller/more shelves).
)
