Blu-ray DVD wireless help required please.

[Radio Fixer]

Very sad and I feel sorry for them. How easy we had it with jobs to walk into and go from one to the other if we wanted.

Gary

[pwdrive]

Yes, stuff that for a game of marbles, how soul destroying, I think we had the best of it.

Regarding the Boscastle shower, I remember that day well, I heard the initial reports on the local radio with some disbelief, the weather where we were was ok, it was only when I saw the report on TV that the scale of the event sunk in.

Lawrence.

[Radio Fixer]

BTW Colin your experience with the Virgin modem / router lines up with what I have read. The router I bought, TP- Link, same as your plugs has 3 aerial stubs and reaches to every room.

And If I were you I wouldn't bother with Skype. You have a similar Virgin bundle as me and all UK calls are included at no extra cost. If you phone a mobile or international there is a charge but form the sound of your life style you wont be doing that.

Gary

[Radio Fixer]

I only went to Boscastle once about 20 years ago Lawrence. It was the last day after a weeks windsurfing with a Guru on Crowdy reservoir (do you know it). It blew with wind and rained every single day apart from the Sat when we were coming home. But as it was sunny we went for a walk around the village first. Pretty place with the river running down through the town and flower beds alongside it.

I had a great week, wind every day but it was pretty miserable for my wife. She went shopping etc but mainly sat in the car and read apart from lunch time when we got together in the centre. Fortunately, I had booked us in to a great hotel with lovely food so at night time it was some recompense for her.

Gary

[AlanBeckett]

I had booked us in to a great hotel with lovely food so at night time it was some recompense for her.

What about the Beer?

Alan

[pwdrive]

Gary, I have heard of Crowdy but never been there, only been to Boscastle a few times, mainly when I was exploring old mine workings along the north coast many moons ago.

Lawrence.

[Yorkie]

As regards the high vis jacket brigade in supermarkets all I can say is that not that long ago I was one of them complete with muddy boots and drenched in sweat working hard to feed my family, if that upset someone sipping their coffee in their ivory world then so be it.

Lawrence.

I don't get upset by guys in hi-vis jackets and wellies Lawrence - I spent the first ten years of my working life 'on the tools' scrambling up roofs and inside them, under floors, working on sites etc.

The point I was trying to make, but not very well it seems, is that the original concept of Waitrose's free cup of coffee was (I assume), for customers who shop there, but once word got around that all you need for a free coffee (every day) is a 'MyWaitrose Card' - you don't need to shop there, that was it - open house, come one, come all. I think it's reasonable to assume that four or five guys in hi-vis jackets and wellies sat round a table in the cafe aren't doing their weekly shop - they're using it as a site cabin. Likewise, shoppers loaded down with shopping from Iceland, Lidl and Aldi are, I think, unlikely to be pushing a trolley around the aisles in Waitrose. When I went into Waitrose last week, it seems like the 'mumsnet' set have now cottoned onto it, so there are pushchairs and high chairs too.

No worries - they didn't turn the café into a drop in centre - Waitrose did, and they're stuck with it, but they're not catering for their core customers. If these 'new wave' non-customers want to queue for 20 minutes or more for a free coffee then struggle to find somewhere to sit then fine - it's not a problem to me - I don't use the café any more, but many customers still do - for the time being, at least. I used to go in for a bit of peace and quiet but it's no hardship to just sit in the car for half an hour instead - a haven of tranquillity by comparison. (An ivory tower even!)

It's no loss to Waitrose - we still shop there.

Maybe the volume of people taking advantage of the freebie coffee/tea differs at different times of the day - we only go at 3.30pm on Tues after a keep-fit session at the nearby leisure centre.

Not whinging - just waffling. The lack of a (paid for) cup of coffee hasn't left a gap in my life, and I don't want a free one - leastways, not in these circumstances.

[pwdrive]

No worries, it was hi viz jackets and riff raff that sparked me off, if Waitrose started losing customers because of their cafe policy then I guess they will change it, we used to go into Tescos cafe if we were working nearby, never been in a Waitrose store, it's the Co-op or Tescos for us depending on what the tourist traffic is like as they are the most convenient for us.

Lawrence.

[AlanBeckett]

I have heard of Crowdy

I thought it was Porridge

Alan

[Yorkie]

I said pension "etc" David, that would include doctor/NHS, bus passes, winter fuel allowance and any other stuff I might have missed...
Lawrence.

Senior Rail Card - 30% off tickets, concessionary theatre and cinema tickets, cheaper specs, cheaper haircuts...the list goes on.

Then there's my 'free' TV licence to look forward to from June Lawrence - assuming the 'grim reaper' doesn't catch up with me before then

But there is a downside to all these so-called 'pensioner perks' - they do serve to remind us of the passage of time, and I'm already past the qualifying age as a 'coffin dodger'.

As Omar Khyyam spookily put it some 900 years ago:

'Tis all a chequer board of nights and days,
Where destiny with men for pieces plays,
Hither and thither, moves and mates, and slays...
Then one by one back in the closet lays'

He was clever - it did for him as it will for us.

I've fair put the wind up myself now - I'll be hiding under the blanket tonight!