50+ and proud of it.

Gad, don't ya lurv the Internet? Last Friday, my 10 year old video recorder went T/U and the head failed (I think, never mind, any excuse). Now, I'm off to see Mom in Wolverhampton over the weekend and will therefore miss Doctor Who - and we can't have that can we? So armed with some money left over from the Aunt's Inheritance I trot off to my local Currys Electrical store to see what they've got. After much avoidance of "The Vamp" (different story and will be told sometime) I get someone who actually knows what they're on about and I eventually buy a "LiteON LVW-1106HC+" DVD recorder. "Hi I want to buy a DVD recorder please" "Which one?" "I was looking at the cheaper end of the market, what's wrong with, say, this Goodmans?" "They're crap mate" So I choose the silver fronted (on-offer-for-£20-less-that-the-black-one) LiteON. I get it home and find the box contains the black fronted one - result

Well, my eldest son finally got of his a*** and went knocking doors on the local industrial estate to see of anyone had a job. And, amazingly enough, he got one. Ok, it's "pressing a button on a machine", but it's work with some prospects - he can go out with a fitter later. Which just goes to show that there's no excuse for able-bodied people not to try. He's only been at work for a day so far so we'll see how long before the bubble bursts and he jacks it all in "coz i'm bored". However, so far, I'm quite proud of him - but don't tell him I said that will you?

...or even "The Green Machine". Well, after having it stuck on my driveway since last October, I got it MOT'd this morning having put on a new exhaust and two tyres. So, quite pleased. I'll post a picture later when I can get one sorted. Considering my son paid £17 for it (actually it was £20 really) it's quite a nice motor. "How much for the GT mate?" "100 quid" (long haggle ensues, including "Are you kidding, it's Lime Green", "Actually it's Kawasaki Bike Green") "Oh, alright 20 quid then" (lots of cleaning out and removing extraneous wiring later) "Oh, look here's 3 quid under the seats". "Oh good(!), that'll pay for the new exhaust and tyres then."

Nows here's an interesting little link:- http://www.oft.gov.uk/Business/Legal/Estate/default.htm which is the Plain English version of the Estate Agents Act 1979. And, here's the first sentence:- The Estate Agents Act 1979 regulates your work as an estate agent. Its purpose is to make sure that you act in the best interests of your clients, and that both buyers and sellers are treated honestly, fairly and promptly. Interesting.

Now call me cynical if you want, but I think I've just fallen foul of the "Estate Agent Scam". Briefly it's like this:- You ask them to put the house on the market and they say it's (e.g.) 2% of the price. They say the house is worth (an inflated) £250k and therefore their fee is £5k. So you agree for them to sell it 'cos that's a lot more than you expected the house is worth. You sign an agreement which says "I agree to pay you £5,000 on sale". Now, a small time later, they say "Oh, it's not had any interest, how about reducing the price to a more realistic £200k?" - but, and here's the catch, there's no mention about reducing the fee because you signed an agreement for a fixed £5,000 not 2% of the selling price . I've checked with them and this is the case it's a fixed fee based on the original asking price which they put on in the first place. In my case, this was not made clear and we spoke about percentages

After a hard day at the office, my son came home moaning that he "carnt git a job". He has 7 GCE's (or "O" Levels as we used to know them as). Not surprisngly, in this economic climate, no one wants a sulky 19 year old with no qualifications. So the warning, from someone who's been there, is:- 'For Heaven's sake, listen to your parents and stay on at school and get the best grades you can' But you knew that didn't you? Seen on the back of a white van:- "Hire a teenager while they still know everything"

Now call me naive or something, but when someone says that they will do something, I generally expect them to do it. The agents with whom I have the bungalow for sale with said they would contact me every 14 days to tell me how things are going. They of course, haven't. So here's the advice for what it's worth. You have to keep on at them, not vice-versa. Logically, if you're paying them to do a job for you so you would expect that they did it. Hey-ho. The excuse given was "It's nearly Summer and we're getting very busy." So, what decision did they make to not do my job and do someone elses instead? I've added the picture of the bungalow by linking to their website. Let's pinch their bandwidth...

Having failed to give away the table to charity last week, I suggested that I should put it on eBay for a start of £2 and promised to throw it away if no one bought it. I also put a "Buy-It-Now" of £10 on for fun. Guess what? Postage is a bit hard for a table + 4 chairs so I said I'd deliver locally if required. The very nice lady who bought it asked me to deliver and I said I'd do it for £6. Driving down I felt guilty and was going to ask for a fiver. "Thanks very much, here's £10 for delivery" "I haven't got any change" "No, I was going to give you that anyway"