Steven P

Your contract with the suppliers should specify a point of connection. Typically for domestic it will be the meter for gas and electric. If your water is metered to the property it will be the same else will typically be the stop valve - might be in the pavement outside. BT or telecoms will be the wall box. If it goes wrong their side they fix it, else you fix it. If you fiddle with the BT box on their side of the connection and it all goes wrong... and if they notice... you'll get billed for repairs. Likewise for electric, the big pull out fuse is theirs, you are not allowed to pull it unless in emergency (nominal charge for them to do that)... some electricians are also authorised to do that and put a new seal on after... not sure about gas but assume it will be similar. If you push the "that meter is mine" idea too hard, they will just disconnect their supplies to it or provide you with a new meter that they own.

It is wildly reported that Trump had watched "Escape From Alcatraz" the night before announcing he wanted to reopen Alcatraz (hmm, another of his 'Lets do this' and failed to stick to his word), now he wants an 'Alligator Alcatraz' - wonder if he's been watching Papillion in the last few weeks? However very much smoke and mirrors from his government, I missed the fanfare that his Big Beautiful Bill was only passed this week because his Vice President had a casting vote, else it was tied. Big Beautiful Bill... screws over the working man to fund his mates tax cuts, doesn't cut their debt (adds to it), doesn't protect things like their state healthcare... all of which Trump promised during his campaigning - tax cuts for all, lower debt levels, and looking out for the workers? Smoke and mirrors, the more you look at Trump the more you see 'emperor wearing new clothes' being manipulated behind the scenes by those who appear to be yes men telling him just what he wants to hear. Still, one day there will positive news that he has improved the lot of the workers.

UK has a stable birth rate, 1:1 kind of thing, so assuming we all have homes now none... however family sizes are getting smaller generally so need some houses for these smaller family units. Scotland I believe the birth rate means a shrinking population. However at the risk of exciting the easily excited, political policies of the last government to allow mass immigration since Brexit (the authorised ones, coming to steal our jobs) are the biggest pressure on housing we have just now (so authorised immigrants, coming to steal our jobs and our houses!)

I'll very rarely reply to his posts that I read. Never worth it, maybe those occasional replies are tedious, I'll take note.

Usual ugly as sin houses. Had this when the Irish bubble burst 20 years ago, blocks of flats (sorry, apartments - flats) bought off plan, deposits paid, house prices dipped, Irish money dipped and the owners walked loosing their deposits was cheaper than the loss of fulfilling their contracts and paying more than the flats were valued at. Might be similar, bought off plan by investors, house prices haven't risen as much as they want so they have walked or are not selling them on till the prices pick up 2nd thought, if they are valued at so many millions the developer can use them as deposits to borrow more money from the bank to fund the next development, without having to pay any sales tax they can borrow their full value

I find it helps enormously to just scroll past JohnsonD posts, entertaining as they are, tedious in their repetition.

If it is running, then - assuming you have done this anyway - flush the tank out, I'd also change the pickup filter, but if it is running now, after that I'd just give it a good run till it behaves. No spark arrestor on the exhaust? If there is might be work a clean too once it stops smoking as much.

I got our box moved (like the electricity meter, I think BT owns the wall box?) - it was on the wall by the stairs - every 3 weeks carrying something up or down we'd knock it off again. Couple of hundred ££ but far better now. Hard wired the router to the back of anything important - though the cable is 50m (was all work had at lockdown to make it all work at home) - and with that length of cable it is fast enough, so whatever you do should improve things.

Just to add to this, I am not sure if Trumpy is living in the past, some sort of dementia, his advisors are telling him straight lies because that is what he wants to hear, or is just an out and out liar, all 4 wouldn't surprise me - Petrol prices... UP.. though he believes otherwise Fact check: Trump lies again about gas prices, falsely claiming five states are at $1.99 UK.YAHOO.COM The president’s imaginary list keeps getting longer. -

Ahhh, distraction and avoid talking about what I posted about. Still if you want we can talk about penguins. What is concerning you about them?

Answer will be 'all of them'

Price of eggs... UP Price of minced beef... UP Price of Petrol... UP Unemployment... UP Inflation... DOWN... but UP compared to the rest of the world Dow Jones... overall DOWN Approval Rating... Down Protests on the streets... UP (No Kings at his birthday) Tariffs deals with every nation... DOWN (or really non-existent) Wars joined in.... UP Wars stopped... NONE are you sure?

Not at all Gareth, but when the leader of the largest economy in the world is failing the consequences to the rest of the world follows onwards. Well worth keeping an eye on what Trump is failing at to know where the future for us is going to be. A good example here is his Big Beautiful Bill is predicted to keep US inflation high... which then affects their exports with price rises... which means the US tat we buy goes up in price... costs us money.

I haven't seen anything ever where species of charcoal is a thing - might be worth having some experiments and seeing what works well. Supply issues though, if you are in a beech woodland than make charcoal out of beech, if your wood is willow then use willow. I had a go a few years ago when The Smaller Boy was into charcoal drawing, there is a difference in wood types and the end product - apple did OK, pines not so good (as pencils). (golden syrup tin, in the log burner type of quantity not large amounts for example for BBQs) For burning though, not sure it matters too much apart from perhaps pricing, sell a sack of more dense wood or the same volume of less dense wood... though back to my 2nd paragraph, all to do with what you have and pricing of that.

State of Trumpys economy: His 'lower the price of eggs from day 1' not doing so well - another election promise he isn't fulfilling Please, Please, Please Don't Show This Post About Trump's Economy To Your MAGA-Supporting Family (Unless You Want To Start A Fight) UK.YAHOO.COM I'm keeping track of Trump's economy right here. Every month. Enjoy!

Yes, drones and cyber tactics to take out the drones. Can get a lot of drones for the cost of a missile (thousands more) and the drone operators only have to be lucky once, the anti-drone systems have to be lucky every time for each of them. Ukraine showed before you only need 1 drone to take out a multi-million pound aircraft sitting a thousand miles from the front line.

Mark, you'll make me paranoid soon! However war has changed, how countries screw each other - gone are the days of massive weapons, drones and cyber attacks are the way forward I think.

Though 85 million or 4 billion, I reckon the tax payer does OK from the 'land they stole'

Speaking to the current audience - though I did consider that - this forum (or the current active members) don't come into the mum, aunt or grandma category... apologies of course if I have upset anyone with a generalisation!

Yup, you're not wrong.

Just been chatting to family... one more comment - it is Duke of Edinburgh Award expidition season... might be time to play the fussing dad / uncle / granddad card and insist they take a tick removal tool with them too if you have family doing that.

The children are innocent in this, as are most of their parents, neither asked or understood that the Hamas attack would happen. Actions have consequences, just waiting for you all to whinge about the influx of Palestinian refugees into the UK... consequences.

Slight off topic, the BP refinery in Grangemouth used to supply nearly all petrol in Scotland - from Asda to BP and everything in between. Came out the same nozzle at the pump there... but each company had their own proprietary additives and blend (blended as it was filling the tanker). Castrol might be the same with Stihl, out the same machine with the option to specify the exact blend and additives.

1200 deaths - killing just over 56,000 in revenge is well justified. Probably need to double that, 10:1 I reckon sounds about right? Even better than all the children who have lost parents are orphaned, and traumatised to hating Israel for ever - what a brilliant way to create a never ending war than creating the next generation of recruits to fight against.