A (personal) Christmas message, greeting and review

[whole diary]

[GBM]

To One and All.  Thank you for entertaining and enlightening me over the years.
My wife has often remarked on the amount of time I spend on here.
Wouldn't have it any other way!

Thank you.
A very Happy Christmas and New Year to you all.
Cheers ((Pouring himself yet another pre-Christmas beverage))

[stuving]

Every thread needs some drift - even this one!

Merry Christmas, grahame, may your train be always on time, and may you never lose your loose change down the side of the seat (if you can get one)!

Some years ago, I was on a late evening (9-ish) train home from Waterloo, and the bloke on the seat opposite was having a series of long phone calls to what turned out to be SWT^▸ (South West Trains) control. Each time he had to tell his story from the start, so I got to hear it too. He'd dropped his credit card down the back of his seat (why he had it out was not clear, as I understood he was going home from Waterloo). This seat was on top an equipment box, rather than just empty space, and he and the guard couldn't get it apart. So he'd been given this phone number to call, and eventually promised a fitter to join the train to help him recover the card. By the time I saw him he'd been out to Reading, back to London, and the fitter was due to be waiting at Staines on the way out. But wasn't there, so he was going to have to go back in towards London again, and he'd been promised that at Staines ...

On the thoroughly pessimistic principle of not wishing for too much from the future, lest the Fickle Fairy of Fate come round and smack you on the head with her (rather solid) wand, my I wish to Graham and everyone else for the coming year is for not too much of that kind of malarkey.

[grahame]

... may I wish to Graham and everyone else for the coming year is for not too much of that kind of malarkey.

Thank you ... we thrive on some of the malarkey, though I would agree not that kind.  Watch out for interesting goings on in February, April, May, 2 in July ... and others later in the year.

[CyclingSid]

Thank you all for keeping the show on the road. Seasons greetings to all.

[TaplowGreen]

Merry Xmas all - here's to a 2019 where GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) give its customers a service somewhat closer to what they pay for and deserve!

[rogerpatenall]

Thanks for keeping the show on the road, and a very happy Christmas and blessed new year to all your family.

Thanks for the advent quiz - a lot of work for you, I am sure, but I am enjoying it - even if I am never up in time to claim those that i know.

[GBM]

Thanks for keeping the show on the road, and a very happy Christmas and blessed new year to all your family.

Thanks for the advent quiz - a lot of work for you, I am sure, but I am enjoying it - even if I am never up in time to claim those that i know.

Way ahead of me there, the few I've been sure of were all wrong 

[Dispatch Box]

What a day, one more to Christmas, went to get petrol and then to Sainsburys, crikey it was bedlam, had a job to get into the carpark, then the place was rammed, all the food was flying off the shelves, Then the wait at the checkout, took 10 minutes.

[Timmer]

What a day, one more to Christmas, went to get petrol and then to Sainsburys, crikey it was bedlam, had a job to get into the carpark, then the place was rammed, all the food was flying off the shelves, Then the wait at the checkout, took 10 minutes.

Anyone would think the shops will be closed for more than one day never to reopen the way some people carry on buying way more food than they actually need with half of it ending up in the bin. Yet every year the same thing happens. Still, good for the credit card companies.

[Dispatch Box]

What a day, one more to Christmas, went to get petrol and then to Sainsburys, crikey it was bedlam, had a job to get into the carpark, then the place was rammed, all the food was flying off the shelves, Then the wait at the checkout, took 10 minutes.

Anyone would think the shops will be closed for more than one day never to reopen the way some people carry on buying way more food than they actually need with half of it ending up in the bin. Yet every year the same thing happens. Still, good for the credit card companies.

Yeah! Good for the credit card companies, I never buy food using a credit card, They are for emergencies, say the fridge breaks or an unusually high gas bill arrives. The reason you,d be paying for food too long, plus interest. My food bill a week is about 45 pounds, and I stick to it now. I have done this for 5 years and have savings of about eight thousand pounds, I am now thinking of getting a new bike next year.

I noticed in Sainsburys the items people had in their trolleys, why would you need 5 loaves of bread, 4 bags of sugar, 2 160 Tetley tea bags. They were a couple with two under 10 kids. They had enough to run a starbucks for a few days, ridiculous.

I paid off my credit cards through the year and capital one and marbles was closed.

[Western Pathfinder]

People buying everything on the shelves just because it's Christmas is nothing new
However this year I can't help thinking that a lot of them are practicing for brexit!!..

[Dispatch Box]

People buying everything on the shelves just because it's Christmas is nothing new
However this year I can't help thinking that a lot of them are practicing for brexit!!..

Cannot see what difference that makes, anyway a lot of it will go off by that time. Also seem to have a lot more money this year and especially when you see the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) 1 News about the numbers still lining up outside foodbanks.

[Celestial]

What a day, one more to Christmas, went to get petrol and then to Sainsburys, crikey it was bedlam, had a job to get into the carpark, then the place was rammed, all the food was flying off the shelves, Then the wait at the checkout, took 10 minutes.

Anyone would think the shops will be closed for more than one day never to reopen the way some people carry on buying way more food than they actually need with half of it ending up in the bin. Yet every year the same thing happens. Still, good for the credit card companies.

Yeah! Good for the credit card companies, I never buy food using a credit card, They are for emergencies, say the fridge breaks or an unusually high gas bill arrives. The reason you,d be paying for food too long, plus interest. My food bill a week is about 45 pounds, and I stick to it now. I have done this for 5 years and have savings of about eight thousand pounds, I am now thinking of getting a new bike next year.

I paid off my credit cards through the year and capital one and marbles don't send me statements at the moment.

That's very sensible, and while I know a lot of people will say they can't afford not to borrow on credit cards, I do wonder how much of it is "nice to have" spending, rather than "need to have".

Of course, you can put all your day to day spending on a credit card and pay it off in full each month, rather than pay it directly from your bank account. My card gives me 1/2% off all my spend - I expect there are better offers available, but at least I feel I am getting some benefit from using the card.

[Dispatch Box]

What a day, one more to Christmas, went to get petrol and then to Sainsburys, crikey it was bedlam, had a job to get into the carpark, then the place was rammed, all the food was flying off the shelves, Then the wait at the checkout, took 10 minutes.

Anyone would think the shops will be closed for more than one day never to reopen the way some people carry on buying way more food than they actually need with half of it ending up in the bin. Yet every year the same thing happens. Still, good for the credit card companies.

Yeah! Good for the credit card companies, I never buy food using a credit card, They are for emergencies, say the fridge breaks or an unusually high gas bill arrives. The reason you,d be paying for food too long, plus interest. My food bill a week is about 45 pounds, and I stick to it now. I have done this for 5 years and have savings of about eight thousand pounds, I am now thinking of getting a new bike next year.

I paid off my credit cards through the year and capital one and marbles don't send me statements at the moment.

That's very sensible, and while I know a lot of people will say they can't afford not to borrow on credit cards, I do wonder how much of it is "nice to have" spending, rather than "need to have".

Of course, you can put all your day to day spending on a credit card and pay it off in full each month, rather than pay it directly from your bank account. My card gives me 1/2% off all my spend - I expect there are better offers available, but at least I feel I am getting some benefit from using the card.

Your lucky, I didn't get that with the two cards I had, And now have shut them down, They had expensive APR rates, about 39.4%. I have never been offered anything like that, the limits were only 200 pounds so were pretty useless anyway. The marbles one is crap, I had a 300 pound limit on that one,then it was increased to 500, then two months later they sent me a letter saying they were putting up the interest to 49.6% APR so I agreed to pay it off at the old rate then they closed it. Dirty thing to do really.

[TonyK]

Yeah! Good for the credit card companies, I never buy food using a credit card, They are for emergencies, say the fridge breaks or an unusually high gas bill arrives. The reason you,d be paying for food too long, plus interest. My food bill a week is about 45 pounds, and I stick to it now. I have done this for 5 years and have savings of about eight thousand pounds, I am now thinking of getting a new bike next year.

That's very sensible, and while I know a lot of people will say they can't afford not to borrow on credit cards, I do wonder how much of it is "nice to have" spending, rather than "need to have".

Of course, you can put all your day to day spending on a credit card and pay it off in full each month, rather than pay it directly from your bank account. My card gives me 1/2% off all my spend - I expect there are better offers available, but at least I feel I am getting some benefit from using the card.

As do I. One gives me 0.5% cashback, the other 1% in supermarkets and 3% on fuel and train tickets. I rack up a pretty tidy bill over the month, and pay it all off - haven't paid any interest in years. Credit cards are a wonderful servant, but a cruel master.