Soapy FFC

Probably no queues as people are dumping their stuff in lay-bys now.

I thought a wham bar was 10p, or am I showing my age?

Looking at the video, it would appear that the extension in front of the gate is a bigger obstruction to vehicles getting in/out of the property than the bins are.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/dec/10/wes-streeting-nhs-uses-winter-crisis-excuse-more-money-labour I always think it's funny when politicians talk about money being tight whilst in exotic places.

I hope any training they get will include basic IT skills like using and backing up mobile phones. I'm sure most future employers will require skills like that.

I thought that MPs were meant to be the creme de la creme, so why do they need help?

My pet hate on the bypass are the people who stay in the outside lane when coming round to the motorway junction, then expect to be able to cut over at the last second to go down to the motorway.

I'm the same, I have a camera in the garden and it was bought to watch the wildlife. Any security benefit are purely coincidental.

It does my head in. I just hate it with a passion.

We just got a Tapo video doorbell. It's linked to a hub inside which has an SD card in it, and all video is recorded on that. You can access the video from anywhere via the app at no additional cost. We have other Tapo cameras and they all have SD cards in them to record the video. There are other makes, such as Eufy, that use local storage with no ongoing cost. Costco currently has one on offer if you are a member.

The Celebrations Whoop Whoop advert.

I've bought frozen ginger before that was ok. What I normally try to do with ginger is buy a large amount from the Chinese supermarket, blitz it in the food processor, then put it into ice cube trays and freeze it. It's then easy to use a cube at a time, but maybe I should give the easy stuff a try instead.

A question. I normally use fresh garlic and ginger but I see you've got the easy stuff. How good is it compared to fresh?

She used to have her own Saturday night variety program on BBC (I think) when I was a kid. I also tend to remember her being a guest in the Mike Yarwood show.

A friend who stays in Juniper Green heard it. They sent us this picture ETA: The Sun now has a report https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/11602718/explosion-edinburgh-baberton-mains-avenue/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/dec/01/sunak-parthenon-marbles-matter-of-law-denies-hissy-fit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67423745 Maybe Sunak could change the law to allow the Marbles to be sent back. if it's OK to try and rip up laws in order to send people to a foreign country (for which they have no connection), then it should be OK to try and rip up laws in order to send some statues to a foreign country (from where they originally came).

I've found the best way to eat banana is on toast with nutella. As long as you don't go overboard with the nutella it's fine, and it's now my supper snack of choice. I've been using the NHS weight loss app for 9 weeks now, and I've lost 11 lb / 5kg. So just over a pound a week, which I believe is a good rate for long term loss.

Got a glossy leaflet through the door this morning from Roz McCall MSP, purporting to be her 2023 annual report. Having read and reread it, there is no single mention of the party she is a member of. I had to google her name to see she is a Tory, but I fully suspected that by the lack of any party affiliation on the leaflet.

The RSPB forums have been getting swamped with spam the last couple of days.

The low level lights either end of the Queensferry Crossing.

That would be just plain silly, wouldn't it

Petroineos (Ineos & PetroChina) only have two refineries, Grangemouth and Lavera in France. Ineos only really got into refining when they bought the two refineries as part of the purchase of Innovene, the petrochemicals business that BP sold off. The two refineries at those sites were so integrated with the petrochemical parts that BP sold the whole lot rather than holding onto the refineries. Ineos have never really liked having refineries due to the costs involved in running them, hence why they went into partnership with PetroChina (who had deep pockets), so it's not really a surprise that they are now pulling the plug on Grangemouth. There is a part of me that thinks this may be part of a plan by Ineos to try and get funding from the governments, but I think that's just wishful thinking, but given how Ineos has conducted business in the past I wouldn't put it past them. However, given the state of refining in Europe, it was probably only time before at least one refinery closed, so it was just a big game of chicken to decide what refinery it would be. Once/if it closes, there will still be a terminal importing products and distributing them to the various markets. This type of thing has already happened with several UK refineries over the last 20 years or so. Elsewhere in the UK Inoes are a chemicals company, apart from the Forties pipeline that brings oil from the North Sea for processing before being exported to the various markets.

It's like shops, where they jack up prices a month or so before a sale, then cut the prices at the sale and say you're saving loads.

Lots of info on this page. https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/thermostats-and-heating-controls/ I don't think there is a simple straight answer

Rightly or wrongly, I've always interpreted "market value" as how much I would have been able to sell my car for, not how much it would be to replace it with a similar car. Semantics I know, but probably important given differences in selling and retail values. Maybe I've been too pessimistic in what insurance will pay.