The really boring and totally pointless snippets thread V

[Ex-Ascot]

One is now on a state pension from today. All of £165 a week. How could anyone in the UK live on that? Sunday lunch at our local pub must cost that much now. What is one supposed to do to eat for the rest of the week?

[larsssnowpharter]

I'm no expert but that £165 quid a week is only paid if you have made full contribution to the scheme.

There are plenty of people out there who have worked full, productive lives who, when they reach pension age just bloody struggle to exist.

Decking sad really.

[om15]

Ex A, there is more to it than that, you receive a hundred quid or two hundred quid, something like that, every winter to buy logs, and you get a quid off certain theatre productions.

The biggest con is private pension schemes, I paid in a vast fortune for a return of not very much, ditto with ISA investments, however many pensioners are paper millionaires because their shabby run down damp jerry built bungalow is worth 1.5 million.

My local pub does a substantial Sunday Roast for £11.95, so together with drinks a couple can enjoy luncheon for a little over ninety five quid. Plus tip.

[Karearea]

Beautiful photygrafts, ricardian (After the storm) and OFSO (Bay of Roses).

First Sunday in Advent today.

[Wodrick]

In contrast my sunset wasn't worth getting the camera out.

[OFSO]

You can't eat or drink sunsets. Pretty, but useless in practical terms.

In fact you can't eat or drink in a restaurant unless you have a Covid Passport, and you can't get one if you have private medical insurance.

Madness has taken over the world.

So I'll be starving to death, but watching pretty sunsets.

[1DC]

Lincolnshire is full of cockney millionaires who sold their terrace houses for more than a million and came up to the seaside and bought a detached bungalow for £200k. The garden centre cafes are full of them every lunchtime rabbiting on about how good it is darn sarf.

[Pontius Navigator]

1DC, snap, and then complain there are no jobs paying ££££££. What did they expect.
We are about 15 minutes from the station now and London about an hour away. House prices have increased accordingly.
A 19th C or earlier cottage with two walls on the edge of the road, ground floor below ground level and it's just a shell. £300,000.

[PHXPhlyer]

One is now on a state pension from today. All of £165 a week. How could anyone in the UK live on that? Sunday lunch at our local pub must cost that much now. What is one supposed to do to eat for the rest of the week?

Does the UK system kick in automatically?
In the US one can start collecting at 65 but less than full amount. I was going to be eligible for the full amount at 67 and younger folk eligibility for full amount is , I think, over 68 now.
One of my money people did the math and said it would take me till age 80 to break even over taking the lesser amount at 65.
Fortunately, I only lost out on six months worth.

PP

[Pontius Navigator]

You need to apply. You can defer your pension with a reasonable increase for each year deferred. Besides the increase you also avoid tax on the pension.
If you are earning enough to be in the 40% tax bracket you will forfeit 40 % of the increase.
OTOH you are betting that you will live long enough to recover the deferred amount.
TGG might confirm that if you are wealthy enough to defer your pension you will live long enough - statistically.
I commuted a part of my military pension and have now been drawing it for over 20 years. I think I lost that bet.

[Rwy in Sight]

Wodrick, I hope the SM feels better

I acquired a Xiaomi band 6 that I will test in the next few days. I am still wearing the 4 at the pool and while walking: I had a leisure swimming and it showed more meters/laps than I do the other days when I try to complete 1 km in less than 30 minutes. And the 4 every 15 days or so does not count meters at the pool.

[PHXPhlyer]

Xiaomi band 6 ordered.
I have a 4 but it doesn't do O2 perfusion.
Thanks RiS

PP

[OFSO]

I'm still on my 4. Battery life 20 days. We've got an O2 finger clip for those dying feelings. You can make a peak flow meter out of the cardboard tube from the centre of an expired toilet paper roll and an old ping-pong ball. Mark a scale with chalk on the kitchen floor. Check your blow daily.

[Rwy in Sight]

OFSO have you thought about updating to a Mi Watch Lite or Amazfit Bip U Black or a smart watch with a GPS? Also when you mention 20 days for the battery life do you recharge the battery at 20% or you discharge it all the way down to 5%? Mine doesn't go to 20 days before the 20% power charge is reached.

[jimtherev]

As Karearea remarks, today (well, in half an hour) Advent starts. For about the 4th or 5th year running I've been sending out ops-normal standard 'jokes' every morning of the season to 44 people. (In fact, starting with the first lockdown I sent 'em for 450 days without a break, but I'm cured now.)
At least half of the stuff I send out is courtesy of O-N or (occasionally) TOP.
Thanks to all whose stuff I steal, particularly Ricardian. Much obliged.

[PHXPhlyer]

I'm still on my 4. Battery life 20 days. We've got an O2 finger clip for those dying feelings. You can make a peak flow meter out of the cardboard tube from the centre of an expired toilet paper roll and an old ping-pong ball. Mark a scale with chalk on the kitchen floor. Check your blow daily.

With my luck, or lack thereof, I would either trip and fall, or pull a muscle, attempting to retrieve said ping pong ball.
I do, however, possess a proper spirometer. i just don't use it very often.

PP

[OFSO]

I recharge at around 20%, sometimes earlier depending on how much I need to record upcoming activities. I'm very happy with it so as long as it works I'll keep it. I am on my third or fourth strap: this one a nice brown leather strap, chrome holder and metal buckle.

[Ex-Ascot]

Morning folks. Re. pensions I had to apply. It was just a long phone call (Skype) with a very helpful lady. Chaps in the UK are now eligible at 66. As PN says you can delay it. I didn't have full NI payments as I started proper work (if you can call it that) at 23 and retired at 55. I am about £12 a week short. It is £3,000 to top it up. Couldn't be bothered.

Nice day but breezy again. Very bad day from cruise boats yesterday. End of the month the NRs are spending. Christmas will be terrible which is why we are going away. I complained to the Chief last week he couldn't give a stuff. We think that a government minister is involved in the operation.

[Woody]

Self isolating this morning, mainly due to the Brussels sprouts and broccoli at a Thanksgiving meal last night

[Pontius Navigator]

Coincidence, saw my first Brussels sprouts of the season on Thursday, standing proudly on their stalks at a roadside farm shop.

Love sprouts with bacon and cauliflower cheese. Mrs PN hates both but will serve sprouts with Christmas Dinner. I heard of one submariner, banned cauliflower on his boat, not a suitable food for officers.

I hate broccoli.