Check In and Chat - January 2015

Well as we start the New Year - thought we'd better have a January Check In and Chat !

Hope everyone had a great New Years Eve ........ have you been to any New Year Sales yet ?

Following on with the December Check in and Chat ....... glad Andy and family enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy !
Just wondered if Zand may be buying a copy?

We enjoyed Jools Holland last night, switched over to BBC to watch the fireworks - thought they were great.

My thoughts and best wishes go to all members and readers, especially if you have loved ones, or friends who have not been well over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Here's to a Happy and Healthy 2015 and onwards and upwards with our Forum.

Anyway enough from me at the moment ..... over to you.

All the best Jan

Just spotted we've gone over the 9000 posts / messages on the Forum - I think this one will be 9003 !

Did anyone see Jenson Button got married - pictures look good. I hope he has a good 2015 Formula 1 season - be interesting to see how he and Alonso do.

All the best Jan

>.>.>.>.>.

The trouble with Christmas and New Year is that you can have trouble keeping track of what day of the week it is

Anyone else have this problem ?

All the best Jan

Jan1 wrote:>.>.>.>.>.

The trouble with Christmas and New Year is that you can have trouble keeping track of what day of the week it is

Anyone else have this problem ?

All the best Jan

Hi Jan

I have the same problem and being ill for the last 2 weeks has made it worse as I've not really left the house much at all-kinda feels more like a Monday today rather than a Saturday.

Easy for me to keep track of the days as I count the minutes until I have to go back to work, yuk!

Andy12345 wrote:Easy for me to keep track of the days as I count the minutes until I have to go back to work, yuk!

Shouldn't you be saying Hooray  

OK I'm off  

Enjoy the rest of the holidays .....

All the best Jan

Well where has everyone gone to ?

Perhaps they've gone to the New Year Sales

Stop by and say hello sometime .......

Anyway is it Wallander on BBC 4 tonight - if it is I'll be watching  

All the best Jan

I signed up for a month free trial to Netflix for Christmas so I've watch a lot of films

But Guardians of the Galaxy will take some beating

Wallander I've never seen but should look it up as I've seen so many say it's good


Auto correct didn't like walls dear (wallander)

Wrong Wallander - has to be Krister Henriksson for me!

Just popping in to say Hello and a (late) Happy New Year to you all. Went down with the flu just before Christmas and only now just starting to feel more normal.
I have just typed out a request for some help, touched a button somewhere and it all disappeared!  Will try it again later - must be my sausage fingers

Petrol / Fuel Prices are in the news again. When I last put some un-leaded in the tank it was at £1-09, reading this article it's going to be cheaper still. Can't be bad. Just wondered what you may be paying?

"All four of the big supermarkets are cutting fuel prices again.

Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's are reducing their petrol and diesel by 2p a litre from today, while Tesco's similar 2p-a-litre cut has already taken effect.

The reductions mean Asda customers will pay no more than 105.7p a litre for petrol, with diesel being 112.7p a litre.

This is Asda's 14th fuel cut since the end of September, with 21p a litre coming off its petrol price in total and 17p a litre off its diesel.

For Morrisons and Sainsbury's it is the seventh cut since the beginning of December.

The RAC has predicted that petrol could dip as low as £1 per litre, although the AA is more sceptical.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said the latest cuts would further lower the average price of petrol, which is now cheaper than it has been for around five years.

He added: "The cuts are bringing us ever closer to the £1-per-litre average for petrol. Of course it would also be an extremely welcome move for motorists and businesses alike."

AA president Edmund King said: "Further drops in the pump price are extremely welcome. However, small rural towns are again being left behind by the price falls in the more competitive areas."

"This continues to feather the fall in the national average. We would love to see £1 per litre and we may possibly see it in many parts of the UK but it is unlikely that the average price will drop as quickly to the £1 level - partly because 70% of the price is tax.

"There is still a price lottery out there so we advise drivers to shop around." "

Link to rest of article is here :http://money.aol.co.uk/2015/01/06/big-supermarkets-reduce-fuel-again/

Wouldn't it be great to see further reductions and followed through to all, even the price of our foods being driven / flown to our supermarkets! What has been your best price so far?

All the best Jan

Well I commented on the price of petrol earlier and now it's the price of essentials! I quote what these are ........ prices of "essentials" such as fruit and vegetables, cereal, nappies, toilet rolls, milk, meat, eggs and fish. These words taken from an AOL article see link below.

Asda are leading the way but obviously the other big supermarkets will follow. We only have so much money to spend on food  and "essentials". I will certainly be looking out for any bargains in the LCHF food area, hopefully we may end up with a few pennies or pounds to spare. Of course there are still things like electric / gas bills to pay but to coin a phrase every little helps (Gosh did I really say that    LOL )

Link to article here http://money.aol.co.uk/2015/01/06/asda-backs-essentials-price-cuts/

All the best Jan

Well after a few days away, I'm back and just catching up with things. As well as housework, shopping, washing, ironing, reading, life in general ...... and watching the news on TV, I wouldn't say 2015 has had the most auspicious start.

However, on a positive note, a plus for me was the chance to once again spend a few days with family, which of course meant the grandchildren, they bring a smile to anyone's face. It was also great to have the opportunity to breathe in some fresh sea air etc. Thursday afternoon in Milford-on-Sea the cliff top was bracing and the sea below sparkling in the winter sunshine. It had been stormy previously but all of a sudden the weather cleared and it was beautiful ...guess I was very lucky with my timing.

Anyway a few forum posts to say hello, a bit of shopping and I believe later tonight there is a new BBC4 detective programme 'Spiral'. Watched the first few series and they were good ..... yes it's subtitled but I don't mind.

Hope you all have a good Saturday  

All the best Jan

Hi Jan, it's good to have you back How's your Dad? Arsenal didn't do much to make him happy over the New Year did they?

Thanks for the tip about 'Spiral'. I'm getting back into watching TV again now. And now you've reminded me of all the housework that needs doing I'll say "Goodbye" and try to achieve something today.

zand wrote:Hi Jan, it's good to have you back How's your Dad? Arsenal didn't do much to make him happy over the New Year did they?

Thanks for the tip about 'Spiral'.  I'm getting back into watching TV again now.  And now you've reminded me of all the housework that needs doing I'll say "Goodbye" and try to achieve something today.  

Thanks Zand .... my dad isn't too bad and he's certainly happier to see a win from Arsenal - lets hope the early months of 2015 see a good match run.

Thought Spiral was very good. I saw this write up about it which explains things quite well I thought. " Spiral’s biggest triumph is in mixing the high-octane thrills of a strong police procedural – foot chases, murders and shock twists – with the sophisticated, State of Play-style dissection of endemic corruption: patronage, cover-ups and career-long vendettas. "

Looking forward to next Saturdays two episodes

All the best Jan

SPORT CHAT  ........

Good result for Arsenal yesterday and how about Federer winning his 1000th match !

Anyone like watching tennis?

All the best Jan

Yes Jan great result for Arsenal.....above Spurs in the table again, much better.

zand wrote:Yes Jan great result for Arsenal.....above Spurs in the table again, much better.  

You can imagine my Dad was very pleased with the Arsenal result.

We also have some Southampton supporters in the family and they had a good result didn't they........

All the best Jan

Jan1 wrote:

zand wrote:Yes Jan great result for Arsenal.....above Spurs in the table again, much better.  

You can imagine my Dad was very pleased with the Arsenal result.

We also have some Southampton supporters in the family and they had a good result didn't they........

All the best Jan

Yes Jan. I hope they please your Dad this weekend too (though I doubt it)

Southampton are doing extremely well this season.

The great British weather  As I sit here typing the wind is howling outside, the weathermen were right in their forecast.

Haven't come across any 'Thundersnow' though have you?

Yes, it's a new one on me, one of our sons was on the 'phone earlier asking - and I'd not heard of it, but according to this article 'Thundersnow' has been reported in parts of Cornwall, South Wales, Tayside and Teeside and more than 100 schools and nurseries were closed on Wednesday after snow and wintry weather swept the region. If you should want to learn more here is the article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/01/14/thundersnow-uk-weather-snow_n_6469588.html

Keep warm, keep safe everybody.

What's the weather doing in your part of the world?

All the best Jan

I'm doing the so called typically British thing - and talking about the weather

What a night last night the weather man was right "Leon Brown, meteorologist at The Weather Channel, says we could expect more snow next week, and temperatures are likely to be below average for the rest of the month.

He told Aol Travel: "The deep cyclone developing in the mid-Atlantic will cross the North West of Scotland late on Wednesday night to Thursday. The strongest winds over southern Britain will be on Wednesday evening with widespread south west gales and severe gales around coasts. There will be gusts of 50mph to 65mph inland and 70mph to 90mph around coasts and over hills and mountains in West England and Wales.

The other feature will be heavy rain with 20mm to 40mm over West Wales, Cumbria and South and West Scotland so local flooding likely. Not a good night to be out on the roads, and weather will deteriorate very quickly from the west on Wednesday evening."

Certainly was heavy rain and strong gusts of wind where I was ....... not good for travel if anyone was trying to work the night-shift.

Much calmer as I look out of the window now.

Jan's weather check over  

What's it been like where you are  

All the best Jan

I know the general election is months away but thought this may liven things up ?

"Comedian Al Murray will stand in his guise as The Pub Landlord against UKIP leader Nigel Farage at the general election.

Mr Murray, whose character is based around a love for all things British, has formed the Free United Kingdom Party.

He confirmed he would stand for election in Thanet South, in Kent.

He said: "It seems to me that the UK is ready for a bloke waving a pint around, offering common sense solutions.""

Whatever next !?

Read more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-30819779

Don't worry by the 8th May 2015 it will all be over ...... but who will be inside No. 10  

Off to serve up our lovely dinner of  ......... white fish, Mediterranean vegetables and buttery mashed swede  

All the best Jan

My guess is Al Murray will be very popular amongst the voters. I like one part of his "manifesto", he will immediately make £1 worth £1.10 lol !

Brilliant piece of satire - check out the acronym of Al Murray's party's name.