Doc Holliday

Decided in the end to log it with the police but with no further action to be taken. PCSO was very helpful and said to contact them directly if anything happens in future. I think the fact they were seen coming to us, well, Mrs H as I was at work, has had the desired effect or so it seems. I've seen a number of them when out the front and not one of them has the guts to look me in the eye. Just speaks volumes about their character. Thanks for all the replies guys.

Reporting a neighbour for playing loud music is termed 'subjective', which would depend on whether you are the kind of person who is not bothered by it or if you like peace and quiet. Also, I don't think it is possible to report anonymously as they would be inundated with calls most of which would be unfounded I dare say. I believe councils require you to keep a diary over a month or so before they will consider acting.. Disputes will usually be regarded as over boundaries/land/buildings, etc. I did a bit of research which turned that info up but it was more to do with other kinds of things regarding our neighbours. The OH was given some verbal abuse by the stupid cow who lives a couple of doors down because she was cleaning up out the front. Some things were said to her which revealed some of the gossip that is obviously passed amongst them. The fact is they don't like it as we don't have any of them round and we aren't round to theirs. We don't want them knowing our business and that's just how we like it. It really is juvenile/play ground stuff which you think adults would be above but then I have to say I'm not wholly surprised. People will form their own opinions regardless but at least this way we have the knowledge that they are wrong.

Can anyone in the know confirm or dispell the following for me please. I can't remember for the life of me where I heard it (although I'm fairly sure it was on a TV programme) but reporting neighbours to the authorities (one assumes council or police) for whatever reason (or it may be a specific reason such as noise/anti-social behaviour) not only affects the value of your property but you are also legally obliged to disclose this when selling your property. Thank you.

Fire engine went past me on Saturday and definitely not as loud as ambulance sirens. With reference to getting out of the way, I remember this was covered in old Jezza Vine's show some time back as some people received a fine for going in to the bus lane to make way for the emergency vehicle(s). The upshot was that drivers should stay put and let the emergency vehicles go around them. Personally, I make a judgement call as to whether it best serves the approaching emergency vehicle as to whether I pull over or stay put.

For some time now I have found ambulance sirens to be at a level which hurts my ears and have had to cover them whenever I hear an ambulance coming. Arriving at the office this morning, one came screaming past and, as I had both hands full, was unable to get inside or cover my ears. I don't mind saying that I found it unbearable, to the point where I had to turn my head and cuss as it passed. Since then, a number of police vehicles and ambulances have passed and there is most definitely a very discernible difference in loudness between the 2 (no fire engines have passed as yet). Has anyone else noticed this and does it hurt/affect your hearing? I appreciate that they are doing an invaluable service but if the police vehicles can have theirs at a tolerable level then why can't the ambulances also? For the record, I do have quite sensitive hearing and even ultrasound equipment needs to be on its lowest setting whenever I see my sports therapist.

Hi all. Just a quick one. I had a company contact me back in Augist regarding my Google adwords campaigns. Long story short, they said they would get me to the top of the search results within 24 hours. On the 4th day (which happened to be a Monday) I still wasn't even on the first page so contacted the bank to get a claw back. They did this but it has come to light that the company has T's & C's that said I had to notify then in writing. I thought we had 30 days in which we could return or get refunded any monies paid if we weren't happy with the product or service supplied. Can anyone expand on this please. Many thanks.

I've seen it every time I've been down that way. Last week I was down near Cuckmere Valley and it came flying out from the estuary banking to the East. Its5belly was outer most to me and was one of the most beautiful sights I think I've seen. It also flew over today when I was just outside Hadlow in Kent. Think it was heading back to Biggin Hill. My only guess is it is doing Spitfire Flights. If you've got a spare £3500 you can go for a 30 minute ride in one. I looked at getting one for Mrs H the other year but couldn't justify the cost. Now if it was for myself... 😄

As per the title. Also, would like to know if the units that don't need the external fan unit/chiller are worth a carrot as these are what Im considering over the ones which have the external unit. Thanks in advance. Doc

Morning all. Wasn't sure whether this is the right place for this but I'm sure the mods will relocate it if not. Mrs H & I spend a fair bit on burd feed and feeders over the course of the year and we have had some beautiful species visit our garden including a female Kestrel the other weekend after one of the House Sparrows. My own personal favourites are the Goldfinches but they have been scarce of late. We were also very lucky to have a pair of Blue Tits nesting in our neighbour's ground floor eaves and we would watch their coming and going. The thing is, these lesser species now seem nowhere to be seen and I'm fairly sure it is down to some of the bully bird species like Starlings and Feral Pigeons. The Starlings flock en masse when I fill up the 3 suet feeders and cleat the border of mealworms I scatter for the foraging breeds like Blackbird, Thrush & Robin. This morning I counted at least 18 Feral Pigeons in, on or around the ground feeder. It was only about 8 months ago we would get a few and I wasn't keen in them then but Mrs H said she likes them as they pick up all the spilled seed from the feeders. They do but they also pig all the seed put out for ground feeding species. I have thought maybe changing the types of feeder but after doing a quick search found results from another forum from 2010. I use the Gardman feeders for suet and mixed seed that have the twist 'D' ring/perches as they are relatively easy to clean. I also have a couple of tall feeders which I use solely for sunflower hearts that unscrew easily, again for ease of maintenance. The latter tend to be the ones the Goldfinches prefer but because of the high number of Starlings, it tends to stay full and eventually have to throw the sunflower hearts away. I know the Starlings and Ferals are opportunists but I want to discourage them and try to coax back the lesser species. Sensible replies please people. I am looking to discourage nuisance species. I can't shoot the ferals as we are on an estate and I think hanging out the bedroom window with my S410 may cause an eyebrow or three to be raised. Thanks, Doc.

As the title says. Looking to go with one of these automatic switching companies but I just want to cut through the chaff and so turn to the wheat of the great PW collective. I did look at Utilities Warehouse the other week and wasn't overly impressed. Not sure bout We Flip or U-Flip of whatever they're called (the TV ad with the Chameleon) as it seems they are tied to some of the main players. Any advice gratefully received.

Thank you for the replies, Gents. The situation started off with them phoning me and telling me they were my electricity supplier. I told them that they weren't as I hadn't appointed/instructed them as such. On their insistence I asked them to see a copy of the contract which bore my signature, to which they have never done, and have asked for this whenever they called. I told them that without that then they won't get a penny out of me. Any letter that came through from them was addressed to me personally and not my limited company. Again, I had informed them of this error but they said that was the information as supplied by the landlord (whom I know personally) and so told them they need to speak with him. Having managed to pick the key safe (YouTube really does have its uses) after purchasing and promptly bastardising a feeler gauge, I am now back in residence. They did make a bit of a mess as they seem to have just chucked stuff out of the way to get to the meter, which they decided not to disconnect. The figure they are now asking for I imagine reflects this visit and yes, I think it is a complete Mickey take, although in the box it says it is just for the amount of electricity used. They also say that they will return to change the locks (which they already done) and to avoid forced entry I should call them today. It just seems like a complete balls up.

Evening Gents, I have an issue with a national company who supply electricity to my business premises. It's nothing grand, just a small commercial premises. I took tunbridge with them when, on moving in some while back, they phoned me to say they were now supplying me with electricity. Naturally I asked them to show me a copy of the signed agreement whereby I gave them permission to act as my supplier. They said it was forwarded to them by my landlord. I told them that that was an issue between my landlord and them and thanked them for their interest but no thanks. This has been going on for a while and, to cut a long story short, I arrived at my office today to find the lock had been changed with a combination key safe affixws and sticker attached to the door window telling me to call them. My first reaction was to try and pick the key safe which, after watching a couple of videos on YouTube and a couple of hours persisted, decided to give up and seek the knowledge of the great PE Collective. Can anyone advise me as to where I stand legally with this bunch of charlatans where no agreement from my side giving them authority to act as my supplier. My initial reaction is to let/take it to court but not so sure this will e in my favour. Thanks, as always Doc

Can anyone give me any advice on how we can deal with our neighbours. In our part of the road there are 5 houses (3 terraced and 2 semi's). The main instigator is the old girl (in her 70's) who lives in the terraced closest to us. I'm not entirely sure what her problem is as she doesn't talk to us. In the past, she went through phases of talking and then not talking to the point where I just couldn't be bothered. She now seems to have the ear of everyone else, or has had for some time, and everyone blanks us, which is fine as we keep ourselves to ourselves, but just for the record we did try to be neighbourly with folk, trying to help out where possible and saying hello and the likes. I know she's spreading gossip but I just can't find out the finer details as now other 'neighbours' (ones from over the back) also blank us. What has prompted this post now was something that happened yesterday. Mrs H had a visit from the RSPCA. Someone had reported us for trying to poison cats in the road. The fact of the matter is that we put out some raw Huss for the foxes. There are three of them that live over the way and they regularly do the rounds. We bought the Huss from a shop down on the South Coast and it wasn't very nice and so, over the past few weeks, had put it out on a strip of grass opposite from the house as we retired for the night so there was no chance of someone's dog picking it up (we are generally the last to bed up our way) but Sunday morning I got up and saw it hadn't been taken. Between me getting up, emptying my bladder and going out to clear it up (about 0730) it had gone and thought maybe the fox had finally been, as we see them sometimes. I'm not overly bothered by the gossip and backstabbing as we don't have anything to do with them and think it all childish but Mrs H is getting miffed by it all. I said I would look in to it and so turn to you guys.

Just wondered if there is any recourse to charge a business for not cancelling a pre-booked appointment in good time? The background - I booked my van in for a service a couple of weeks back to be done today. Arrived punctually at 0900 as asked only to be told it's nit happening. The reason - the technician who was booked to do it lefr on Saturday and took all his tools with him and the one on duty didn't have the tools to do it. Now, I'm a fairly easy going bloke in general but if they knew on Saturday that the person booked in to do work was leaving thrn why the hell couldn't they have called me at any point until close of business yesterday ti let me know rather than let me turn up and then tell me? It would have allowed me to bring work forward and it wouldn't have been an issue for me apart from a small ball ache in getting it booked in elsewhere. As I am not able to do that now I have lost a day's inxome and intend to send them an invoice for it. To my mind, it is no dufferent to a business having a cancellation fee for when clients don't show or cancel at the last moment.

What is it about taking a woman along? As if it wouldn't be hard enough trying to survive but you'd actually want someone pulling your best efforts to pieces to boot? Sorry guys, but remembering what May West said, "Show me a man who's not interested in sex and I'll show you a man who's just had some", I think I'll be quite happy going solo, in more ways that one. It's interesting to see that no-one has listed a water purification kit. I'd definitely have one of those. You can go longer without food than you can water and sod having dysentery for a laugh. Paracord,.for convenience. Decent quality Multi-tool with sharpener. Nordic style field Axe with sharpener. Stainless steel pot (double up as a makeshift spade/shovel).

I'm going to narrow this down to your choice of 5. Guns or weaponry other than knives are not allowed. What would be your choice of 5? Just out of curiosity 😁

I think one the main issues is that the admission of the false emissions affects the resale value of the vehicle.

Is anyone pursuing a claim against VW for the emmissions do-dah? A client asked me if I was claiming and I told them I wasn't, due to not really having looked in to it. He told me I most likely did qualify and he checked for me as we spoke. Turns out he was right. Further investigation turned up the usual plethora of law firms offering their services if you signed up with them. The only thing was they offered different sums. One was suggesting a figure of £2500 whilst another was saying £8500. The latter is not chicken feed and could probably go towards my PPL.

Interesting replies from the experienced pilots. Thank you.

During my recent annual break I decided to have a go at conquering a long standing issue I've had with flying. I'm not scared of flying, per se, but more a fer of something going wrong during the flight. Daft, I know, but hey-ho! I know flying is statistically safer than driving and I have no real reason for this anxiety other than it's a frame of mind I seem to have created without due cause. That aside, I decided to grab it by the balls and tackle it head on and went up in a 4 seater Piper Archer II with Mrs H under the most excellent wing (no pun intended) of our pilot, Malcolm. Malcolm is a member of Lydd Aero Club and we had called in the previous month to look in to having a flight experience. Malcolm detailed about how he usually conducts a flight for nervous/anxious fliers and he instilled a great deal of confidence in me, to the point where I felt totally comfortable going up with him. Now, it's important to say that he is not an instructor but is a pilot of a experience. Once up in the air he offered me the controls (after once refusing his offer) and we did a few manoeuvres so I got a better idea of how the plane responds to which actions and controls are applied. He was very patient and extremely accommodating and, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. I will be looking to have a few flights with Malcolm so I can get a better understanding of what goes on. I have also looked in to taking it further with the possibility of going for either LAPL(A) or PPL(M) (Flights with Rosie offer this in an Ikarus C42 which is classed as an Ultralight Aircraft but has the look and feel of a Cessna or Piper type aircraft). I know the LAPL(A) is a stripped down version of the PPL(A) but I am unsure whether the PPL(M) is an even more stripped version of the LAPL(A) or whether it is a good alternative with the possibility of maybe upgrading should one be so inclined?

Just had a discussion with a colleague regarding the title. Can anyone shed light on this as to whether there is any truth in it and if it would actually stand up in a court of law.

Your best bet is to get an online quote from a company called Boxt. No one can touch them on their prices. I spoke to one of the guv'nors a few months back after a client got a quote from them, me and another company. It was for a commercial boiler and the prices were £4500.00 including VAT, £6500.00 plus VAT and £14,000.00 plus VAT respectively. My client still went with me after I knocked off £500 as he knows my work, and I was still making ok out of it. They guarantee the prices they give online and I wanted to know how they could do it so cheap and he told me they were out to corner the market in replacement boilers. I don't really have a problem with that as I can do other aspects of heating & plumbing, more on the technical side of things, which I prefer. He said they use guys from up North and pay them £400 for a regular boiler swap of £800 for a conventional to combi conversion, and they get that regardless of how long the job takes. They are in partnership with Bosch so tend to use Worcester boilers (apparently) and includes filter, flushing, signing off, etc. I thought about getting them in to do any replacements for me directly but they don't want to get involved with that. I don't know what their backup service is like and it was that which concerned my client as to how long he'd have to wait for them to turn up if it went AWOL.

The vertical one is shown from both my house and from the rear of the house with the aerials. Unfortunately, this is the best shot I can get of either. The other one runs at diagonal and is inclined. The guy who lives there thinks he's a bit of a 'Secret Squirrel' type and, before retiring, was apparently known to boast that in the event of WW3 breaking out a helicopter would land in the road to collect him. Mrs H was concerned that he may be listening in on those around him, mainly her I think, but I'm sure this isn't the case as I think he'd have some compassion or empathy for me for some of the stuff she talks to me about but he walks passed without so much as nod or a wink or a 'Kiss my backside!".

As per the title. I'm hoping someone will be able to shed some light on what these kind of aerials would be used for. There are 2 kinds here. One is fairly straight up (photographed from the rear also) and the other is at a diagonal angle. I thought there was another, like a cone shape with an antenna from memory but I think it may have been upgraded recently for the diagonal one. Hopefully the photos give enough info. If not then please PM me. aWill explain more later. Thanks in advance.

Mods, I know this is about a dog but it's more.to do with the owners that's why this is in Off Topic and not Dogs. Next door have a West Highland terrier. You can count up on one hand the amount of times it goes out of the house but the issue is it doesn't stop barking when they leave it, and this dog can bark for hours. Unfortunately we don't get on with them, not through lack of trying but some people just aren't worth the emotional investment. I have seriously thought about reporting the dog to the RSPCA as it has a skin complaint that doesn't seem to be getting treatment but that's a seperate issue. I have already put a relatively polite note through the door on Christmas day last year as it was barking all afternoon and in to the evening. They didn't acknowledge it but things did seem to improve for a while but this summer it has got to the point where I could quite easily blow my top over it. Naturally, I'd like to try and be the better person but I'd like the PW Collective's advice on what would genuinely be the best next step. I did say to Mrs H that maybe another note saying that the dog clearly has seperation issues and it is not fair to leave it so long or for us to endure its incessant barking and that if they didn't address it then we'd have no option but to report it, adding that perhaps if they gave it a good walk and maybe one of those toys that dispenses treats to keep it occupied may help but she thinks I'm being provocative. I'd rather not be confrontational as things can get said in the heat of the moment and we have to live next door to each other. We don't even acknowledge each other since he came knocking at 10pm one night asking me to move my van as I was parked too close to his wife's car (wouldn't have been a problem if they park on their drive instead of the road). Needless to say I asked if he was taking the rise and he and his Missus stood out there trying to bawl me out but that's another story. Answers on a postcard please.