Lazero

I've got car hire excess insurance. Had it since February and thankfully had no cause to use it, so I can't comment on the ease of claims etc. But their customer service has otherwise been very good (getting documents out, recently informing me of change to terms). I use these guys: http://www.insurance4carhire.com/ I mainly use it for Zipcar, but they do also cover more traditional car hire. On a recent thread about Zip cars, some other companies were mentioned: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,1664751,1665516#msg-1665516 Well worth doing - Avis were ripping me off with insurance, when I supposedly had a good discount through work! From now on I will turn down any and all insurance/ excess upgrades.

At Denmark Hill for 0830 this morning, in time for a train that usually gets to Blackfriars around 0850. Didn't get in until nearly 10am thanks to a succession of signalling/ broken-down train/ no-one-seems-to-know problems and then immense congestion from our line and the Sutton loop. Fun times. This isn't typical, however. Most days I'm dealing with a predictable 5-10 minute delay.

I went through the process of getting quotes just over a year ago - I never actually got installation because I wouldn't have gotten permission from my managing agent for the outside unit. I went to 4 different companies, but only got consistent replies (and eventually quotes) from 3 of them (the first 3 links below). ACS came to my flat to make an assessment for the quote and were very helpful - I would have ended up going for them. Not sure how their prices will compare to your existing quote. http://www.allcomfortsolutions.com/ http://www.iceservicesuk.com/ http://coolelectrics.com/ http://www.pdmaircon.co.uk/

The 1 year is actually between the date you established PR (I know this isn't the correct wording) and the date of application for citizenship. So if I submit evidence for PR based on Jan 2011-2016, and I get my card back by Jan 2017, I'd be able to apply for citizenship straight away. They record the date separately on the system. The question comes up periodically in this thread and the answer given is consistent. So choose your 5-year evidence period accordingly, if you want to apply more quickly.

It's not perfect - but Citymapper beats TFL in my experience: https://citymapper.com/directions?departure_time=2016-07-08T16%3A30%3A00.000Z&endcoord=51.47004%2C-0.06941&endname=Peckham+Rye&startcoord=51.51351%2C-0.127179&startname=WC2H Appears that northern line to overground (off at Clapham North walk to Clapham High street) is an option, as is getting to Victoria and taking a train. 90 minutes seems extreme, even taking the slow-ish 176 from Leicester Square to Goose Green never usually takes me more than 60-70 minutes.

I've been combing through this particular thread on immigration boards (assuming you are doing the EEA application): http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-route-applications/application-for-pr-or-pr-card-form-eea-pr-uptodate-t183537.html Many of my questions have already been asked, and answered, but it does take a while to go through.

I would definitely recommend applying for a card certifying permanent residence - as mentioned in DaveR's post. You can find the form and guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-a-document-certifying-permanent-residence-or-permanent-residence-card-form-eea-pr It's very long, and it's a pain to get all the paperwork together (and to work out every single day you're out of the UK), but it seems to be the closest thing you can get to reassurance about your status. I believe it is similar to indefinite leave to remain (ILR), so they shouldn't be able to just retract it later. You must have this card if you want to apply for full citizenship (though you may be OK just with PR - no one knows for sure!). If you haven't been here 5 years then I'm not sure what you can do. And as midivydale says - the bigger worry for me is my parents. Both me and my sister have lived here for a very long time, they were going to join us post-referendum if the vote had gone the other way. Now I'm not sure they'll ever be able to join us.

Also http://www.immigrationboards.com/eea-route-applications/application-for-pr-or-pr-card-form-eea-pr-uptodate-t183537.html Here you can pose questions and get (informal) help. If you want professional legal help, it can get quite expensive, particularly as the fee for PR is relatively low.

Agree that the hit they are taking won't directly decrease their asking prices. They will simply build less (for now) and sit on the land they already own, therefore re=balancing supply for the market. Their asking prices are much more driven by the market more generally (I often found they tried to charge a slight premium to equivalent properties locally). I've looked at new builds a fair bit, and my parents almost went for a new build last year. The company behind it makes a big difference. You have to go out and look at their work in person. I found huge variances in quality (fixtures, size of rooms, how solid walls and floors are). Some were awful, and some were consistently great (Telford, the Berkeley Group, Taylor Wimpey had some good ones). This is obviously reflected in prices. For your other questions - you still need to know the local market (including non new builds) as that's the only way you'll really know if their asking prices are crazy. They don't lose value immediately after you own it, assuming the original price was commensurate with local stock. There can be some benefits if you buy off plan, like choosing the kitchen or colours or floors, but agree that you need to be able to picture your unit well as show homes can be idealised. In the end I didn't buy a new build, but only because I was selling so I couldn't afford to put up with an estimated completion date 12-24 months from putting down a deposit! The range was too wide, but it sounds like this isn't an issue for you. If you find a good company, and a good area, it can be a great buy. For places outside of London - look carefully at the local area and whether infrastructure is there. My parents looked at a development they liked, but it was a company building an entire community from scratch (literally nothing for miles around, the developer was planning to build a supermarket, school and so forth). They weren't comfortable with this - what if it didn't all work straight away? If it's just a few new houses within an existing community I personally think that's better.

There's one big difference between Oyster and contactless for capping - with contactless there is a Monday-Sunday cap in addition to the daily cap. So you will never pay more than a weekly travel card. With Oyster you will need to pre-buy a weekly travel card or else you can pay more than contactless across a week. It can be confusing but they try to explain it on TFL: https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless/what-is-capping#on-this-page-3 It may not be useful for everyone (e.g. if you know you always need a weekly travel card). I try to cycle in as much as possible but the Mon-Sun cap is great for weeks the bike doesn't get as much use as it should.

Try catching the trains that terminate at Blackfriars (e.g. 0813 Southeastern coming from Orpington) rather than one of the Thameslink trains that go on to Luton/ Bedford. There are only 2 of them (so times may not work), but I usually find them to be more punctual, and I even sometimes get a seat on the 0832! The Thameslinks sometimes sit outside Blackfriars while Sutton loop trains go by, whereas the Southeastern trains go to their own platform. Because they stop at fewer stations, and because they don't go through to Farringdon/ Kings Cross, they also seem to be less full. Looks like the statistics back up the punctuality: http://www.recenttraintimes.co.uk/Home/Search?Op=Srch&Fr=Denmark+Hill+%28DMK%29&To=London+Blackfriars+%28BFR%29&TimTyp=D&TimDay=6a&Days=Wk&TimPer=4w&dtFr=09%2F05%2F2016&dtTo=06%2F06%2F2016&ShwTim=AvAr&TOC=All&ArrSta=5&MetAvg=Mea&MetSpr=RT&MxScDu=&MxSvAg=10&MnScCt=2&MxArCl=5

Cedges Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > That's interesting - I didn't know that was a > thing - who do you insure through? I went with these guys: http://www.insurance4carhire.com/ I think there were 2-3 others I found, but can't recall who they were. It worked out better for me to do an annual one as I do 1 or 2 longer (1 week) rentals via Avis a year, and this pays for itself before I even get to Zipcar usage. I called them before I signed up to explicitly check that it covered all of my likely usage and they do. There were a couple of exclusions but they didn't apply to me. I believe one was vans (so even Zipvans), and the other was a type of car rental I'd never used before - something more like the sharing of private vehicles I think.

I've joined fairly recently, though I was a member of theirs back when the company was called Streetcar. There's often a deal available if you search around on voucher websites or somewhere like money saving expert. I got 1 year membership for ?30 and a credit equivalent to 3 hours of driving, which seems a common deal. I was also worried about the ?750 excess, particularly as I've read online about people being charged even when the damage was done outside of their rental period (e.g. someone keying the car overnight). You can reduce the excess, but I think their charges are a rip-off - ?70/ year for a ?250 excess or ?100 for ?0 excess. You can get specialist car hire excess insurance for about ?40/ year - and that covers me for Zipcar (the full ?750) as well as Avis, Hertz etc. in the UK and Europe.

I live in Altima - there was a letter that was put out some months ago yet it didn't stop this latest occurrence. I feel that the limitation of these types of letters is that the only people who take notice are those who are already conscientious. People vacating properties may not care. Doing something with the area would hopefully help. One day the costs of all these ad hoc disposals might well add up to the cost of some CCTV! There's also a lot of dumping of inappropriate items inside the gate in the main rubbish area. This isn't as obvious or as visually offensive, but it still sits there for ages taking up space in the bin area. This is clearly by residents, but outside by the electricity sub-station it could be anyone pulling up in a car and dumping this stuff.

Philippine Airlines are fine - certainly not as good as Cathay or Singapore but fine for long haul flights. There can be differences between routes. London-Manila is fairly high profile/ prestigious so they put some effort into it. Manila - Hong Kong may not be as nice, but that flight isn't particularly long. Punctuality and customer service are both in line with most airlines. But for me one of the most important things on that length of flights is the entertainment system. The best SQ and Cathay routes have on demand movies and TV shows. Helps to pass the time. I believe PAL only has shared overhead screens. All depends on the price difference of course! I would definitely consider them (unlike some of the non-flag carriers from Indonesia or China, or most of the US airlines!).

Did you watch Talking Dead afterwards? They're intentionally leaving that one hanging until series 7, even most of the cast don't know who it is (it might be that the writers haven't yet decided?). But they did say that there were some vague clues in the dialogue. I'm thinking it wasn't Rick or Carl seeing as Negan talked about feeding the "boy's" other eye to his father if anyone makes a fuss. My guess is Abraham - he just talked about being ready to have a child, how he and Sasha are in such a good place now. He also had that touching goodbye moment with Eugene, seems like he's set up to suddenly be ripped away from the group. Daryl or Glenn seem to be the most popular theories.

I was reading the other day how the car insurance industry as a whole generally makes a loss, and has done over a 30-year period. Even when they turn a profit (2013 & 2014) it is really slender. If you have an FT subscription you can see the article here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/3aeb5112-eb8f-11e5-bb79-2303682345c8.html#axzz43cwU63k0 It's thanks to intense competition that they don't shoot up even further. I wonder how much money we could all save if senseless acts of vandalism were reduced. The cost of 1 minute's damage is crazy.

As with most things like this, it's human time that is most expensive, particularly when it is engaged ad hoc (rather than all in one, efficient block of time). So I suspect that painting everything, using a blanket set of rules, works out the cheapest per metre of painting needed. Of course doing nothing is the cheapest but clearly not good enough for many junctions! I like the idea of looking to local residents - perhaps there can be some sort of "crowd sourcing" stage that takes place first. You nominate and vote on junctions, maybe even suggest distances. Then at the very end the experts can be brought in to review and give the necessary orders? They probably wouldn't be keen on this level of work... and I can't imagine this consultation would be cheap to set up/ run. Heart108 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 1 - I can't see the purpose of making a blanket > policy to paint yellow lines. Why incur the > expense painting all junctions? Surely there > could be a decision for expert traffic engineers > with input from local residents paying attention > to the junctions that really matter. > > 2 - What does it cost to paint 10k of lines?

Agree on Uber being amazing and some of the "issues" using black cabs over the years whilst living south of the river. I think there'll still be a place for black cabs, though. They are the only ones who can use bus lanes so are quicker for getting around central London. If work is paying and I'm staying in zone 1 then I'd happily take a black cab. The Uber drivers I speak to mostly seem to make a full-time living from it, though they have complained about rates per mile going down as Uber continues to wage its market share war. A few seem to drive part-time for Uber, and at other times will do private work (e.g. airport transfers for a local minicab company). I agree with LondonMix that Uber have grown the market. If anything I think they've helped to take cars off the road. Several of my friends have given up their cars recently, and cited Uber and Zipcar as the main reasons they feel they can do so.

In my last flat (in a block, not a conversion) I had a water meter successfully installed in the cupboard out in the hall. Not sure of the technicalities of supply, but it was straightforward for Thames Water to do. My bills went down more than 30% instantly and stayed that low for the next few years, until I moved. They divided the bill evenly before that - so single residents were subsidising couples. Over time quite a few other residents got meters and the bills for the higher water users eventually started to become more realistic.

Sadly can't do this week, thanks to work. The next two are also already out, but I'll target 10th March (and then hope to improve my attendance rate). That's certainly no indictment of my first session as I really enjoyed it, despite my losing streak. I should have reacquired my Colt Express and Camel Up by then.

But how do the numbers compare to other consultations? I know it isn't the same thing, but I've always been involved in residents' associations in blocks of flats where I've lived. It always struck me how few people actually engage with the process or care enough to even comment - even when it directly affects your daily life. So how many responses could you really expect? You can't force everyone to respond, and I don't want the council wasting a lot of money on advertising/ promotion if it doesn't yield that many more responses. Seems to me they've taken quite a few steps to get the word out.

I can't remember where I came across this company, it was either on the EDF or via the consumer magazine Which? http://www.ecocom.org.uk/index.htm Looks like they have drop off points nearby. I haven't actually used them yet, but am planning to when I can get around to copying the files I need from my old laptop. Not sure about the shredding.

I hope this isn't true, but how much could we influence a listed, profit-making organisation in their decision making? They only have to answer to shareholders now.

A few weeks late to the party, but I'd love to join in this week. It looks like I can make it - is it still 8pm? What have you been doing so far, just bringing along a selection of games each and then voting on which one to play? I've got some standard games like Monopoly, and also have Carcassonne(more complex end of the spectrum) and the Game of life (wonderfully simple & American 60s game) to throw into the mix. I do love a good board game!