Reply to: test please delete

[NickFitz]

Watched some more of the Gloucestershire police thing, though I've almost caught up with the broadcasting now

And I read some more of Burmese Days

I did think of watching a film, but I was feeling a bit tired for some reason - maybe just winding down after all the sorting out of stuff that's gone on over the last few days

Goodnight all

[xoggoth]

Walk with loony lady 3 bit of a disaster. Footpath I was planning to go down was a stream. Will have to plan a bit better next time. Loony lady 2 walk tomorrow off due to rain, Saturday looks better.

[NickFitz]

Tea: steak and Guinness pie with chips

The thunderstorm brought even more torrential rain, which exhibited the interesting characteristic that it would get even worse for a few minutes and then get even worse again, and continued doing that for about half an hour. It eventually eased off though. I think it's still raining a bit, and it seems it's likely to continue through the night

[NickFitz]

Thunderstorm!

[ladymuck]

Evening all

It's been a dull, wet day today. Rained all day off and on (mostly on). Currently 14 degrees and the high was 17. Barometer down to 988 mBar.

Today I did half a day of work, to complete the two days I can bill this week for this faff of a gig. I shouldn't complain, but I can, so I will.

I did intend to pop to the shops but the weather doesn't make me inclined to want to leave the flat, so I won't.

Lunch was a bacon bap.

[NickFitz]

Depending on the bank you are paying from, somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. But, for safety sake and to justify the fee (£25 from memory for a large transfer), they will say a day.

Congratulations!

Cheers!

It took a few minutes for the money to come through to my account yesterday, but my sister's (which left the account a few minutes before mine) didn't arrive until today! Very odd

Halifax use one account for paying off mortgages with the mortgage account number as the reference. I don't know how automated the process of allocating the funds to the mortgage account is, but their documentation assures me that they'll acknowledge payment within fifteen days

[WTFH]

Not sure how long it takes for the money to arrive with the Halifax and be allocated to the account; the bankers here said that I might have just missed the cut-off for today in which case it would go through tomorrow, so I added a day's interest just in case. That'll be refunded if it does, in fact, get there today, so I'm not bothered about it

Depending on the bank you are paying from, somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. But, for safety sake and to justify the fee (£25 from memory for a large transfer), they will say a day.

Congratulations!

[NickFitz]

Mortgage paid off!

I popped over to one of the few remaining neighbourhood branches, which is over in an area with a mainly Muslim population, some Sikhs and Hindus, and very, very few people who would tick "White British" on a form. There was a steady stream of people coming and going during the thirty minutes or so it took to work through all the security checks and so on, doing what looked like business banking for small shops and the like, which is presumably what keeps the branch alive when all the others have been closed. I lived in that area a number of times over the years, on three of the four sides of Spinney Hill Park, and it's nice to go back there; I have lots of happy memories associated with that bit of the city

The bankers were a bit flummoxed at the way funds had gone back and forth between there and the Halifax over the last twenty-four hours, so I explained how I'd been led astray by the deceptive content on the web site and how all the different transactions fitted together, which satisfied them that it wasn't some kind of weird money laundering scheme that didn't actually achieve anything

Not sure how long it takes for the money to arrive with the Halifax and be allocated to the account; the bankers here said that I might have just missed the cut-off for today in which case it would go through tomorrow, so I added a day's interest just in case. That'll be refunded if it does, in fact, get there today, so I'm not bothered about it

It was still quite pleasant on the way over but it had gone dark and was starting to rain heavily by the time I got out. It's eased off a little now, but I think that's probably the sunshine done for the day

[WTFH]

Afternoon all
30+C by the pool, which is “refreshing”, i.e. unheated. I am here exercising my RoS (right of sunshine)

[NickFitz]

Lunch: cocktail sausages and a bag of plain crisps

Still sunny spells here; some big lumpy clouds, but nothing that looks ominous at the moment

[NickFitz]

Banking done, such that I can pay the mortgage off when I get around to driving over to the nearest branch.

Yesterday, I'd transferred a load of money over to the Halifax as the relevant page on their website said I could pay the mortgage off from any Halifax account. Then I discovered that this isn't true, it can only be done from a current account, and I had a savings one. I could have faffed around opening a current account with them, I suppose, but who knows what that might involve? So I wanted to transfer the money back, but there's a daily transfer limit! I transferred as much as was allowed to get things started, then phoned them up to see what could be done.

A very nice lady with a Scouse accent told me they have a High Value Payments team that can do up to £100K/day, but you have to specifically ask to speak to them - they aren't mentioned anywhere on the website that I can find - so to call back today when they'd be available. So I just did that, and explained everything to another very helpful lady (Welsh accent) who sorted it out

She had to go through all the fraud stuff that I heard repeatedly yesterday, but halfway through she suddenly burst out laughing! She quickly apologised, and explained that she'd just noticed the reference I'd used for the payment last night: "FFS"

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Sunny start, though it seems from the watery evidence to have been a bit rainy overnight. Currently 13°C with an expected high of 16°, while the barometers have plummeted to 973/981mB. There's a 45% chance of rain in the next hour and then similar odds of more this afternoon and into the evening and overnight

Time to do some banking. The burden that is wealth!

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Thursday

Grey.

Dark.

Dank.

Dreary.

Dire.

Wet.

Sunless.

Chilly in here at 16.9 deg, 18 deg in the kitchen, 16 in the leanto.

981 mBar, 28.968 735.8 in Hg, 14.2282 Torr, psi, (down from 985 last night), 77% RH (Lidl electric).

Meanwhile on the 16th of November 2019 LM was doing her VAT return & some OU stuff: the Book was Opened, whereas NF had pressed a switch into use that he'd purchased some 3 years earlier, and I detailed all the stuff in here that's been bought & never used, the Lexmark printer from 2002 winning in those stakes.

Freecell score: 88%, running average: 77%.

Sun's out.

Walk (unabbreviated) walked in sunshine until the rain returned just as I got home.

Lunch: there was.

Entertainment: read book.

Freecell.

Tea: beans on toast etc.

Entertainment: PM. <click>

Read book. Read other book. Finished both books. Found new book. Finished new book.

Trucking Hell S8 E20: last in series.

Found another book.

Choice of watching "The Big Sleep (1946)" or Apocalypse Now (final cut).

Or neither.

[NickFitz]

Some rain here too, but not too bad. More due tomorrow though

Tonight's viewing was the Gloucestershire police thing :

And amidst all the other excitement, I'd completely forgotten about the new Apple Watch arriving this morning. This has now been unboxed and set up. My ECG is normal, apparently

Finally, some more of Burmese Days has been read

Early night now. Tomorrow, I pay off the mortgage, which will involve a trip to an actual bank branch

Goodnight all

[ladymuck]

Sausage, egg and chips for dinner.

Much rain this evening. Later than forecast, the afternoon being quite sunny for a brief time.

The recycling bin for the flat upstairs has gone missing. It was there on Monday but not returned when emptied on Tuesday morning. The lad who lives in that flat is quite confused.