ketteringram

Chelsea 🤔

2 hours ago, Bob The Badger said:

We have Apple TV free again for 3 months.

Other than Slow Horses (we've seenthe  first two seasons and may watch the third if I give in to Mrs Badger) and Severance, any suggestions?

Is the second season of The Morning Show any good? We enjoyed the first.

And what about the Idris Elba thing?

Loved the first season of The Morning show. Even though I wasn't expecting to. 

Bailed out after about three episodes of season two. 

9 hours ago, Day said:

Following you on Instagram, I find it hard to believe you work full time on top of the social life and travelling you do!

Always a hotel, festival, gig or something going on, can’t see you being a feet up and slippers on kinda guy that’s for sure.

Indeed. Not sure how @admira fits work in. He's like the polar opposite to me. Don't collect anything. Don't do holidays. Zero social life. No desire to change any of those 😀

22 minutes ago, Scott129 said:

I'm 31 so can't offer any insight into retirement, but I do have a question about pensions (if I may hijack this thread).

The typical advice is to take the age at which you started putting into a pension, halve it as a percentage, and save that much of your pay each month.

So, for example, if you start at 30, you save 15% every pay check up until retirement age. And that should be enough to live comfortably upon retirement.

Does that stack up with what people have done? I'm not going to ask people the size of their pension pot, but it would be interesting to hear perhaps what's needed as a multiplier/percentage of their salary.

Also, any other financial advice for retirement?

I'd say that's a reasonable starting point, but wouldn't just leave it at 15%. If possible, I'd increase it each year, or at least if you get a pay rise. 

1 hour ago, admira said:

3 more days for me and then I'm done; giving it all up at 58 so a fair few years early.

Any tips and advice from those that have done it? I've worked full time since I was 16 so I know it's going to be life changing but unsure what to expect!

Good luck and well done. Do you have any kind of plan? It's always said that you should retire into something, rather than just retiring from something. Obviously the something could be anything. Travel, holidays, voluntary work, hobbies etc. You have , hopefully, a very long retirement ahead of you!

I'm terrible for this. Will turn 65 this year, and thinking of stopping at Christmas, as it seems a natural break . Or possibly carry on til the end of the tax year, and finish March 2025. 

 I won't be stopping though, because there's loads of things I want to do. More a case of I've just had enough of work. Like you, been full time since aged 16. 

I have no interest in doing the vast majority of what a lot of retired people seem to want to do. But I'm going to have to find something, and some kind of structure to stick to. 

On 08/04/2024 at 08:33, B4’s Sister said:

Not yet, but I will definitely read more. My book club are discussing Queen of Dirt Island in our April meeting. I loved how each chapter felt like a short story. It was a clever way of writing with the chapters being so short. 

Hope the discussion went well , If it's actually happened yet!

I finished The Spinning Heart, though nearly bailed out a couple of times. It's a short book though, so decided to stick with it. Didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as Queen of Dirt Island. Think I'm probably unlikely to read any more Donal Ryan now. 

Have now started The Boatman by Billy O'Callaghan (short stories)

35 minutes ago, Ram-Alf said:

British 👍

Found it, Collision on ITV...2009 

Yeah, that seems like the 1990s to me too 😀

1 hour ago, Ram-Alf said:

I wonder if anyone can remember a 6 series drama programme in the 90s(I think)where it started with a woman having a car crash, It told her story, Following on from the car crash the story followed someone who was impacted from the crash, Their story impacted someone else and so on and so on for the 6 series, It was a fascinating watch, It showed how something so innocuous has such a devasting impact of peoples lives by one small incident at the start. 

But the ending was quite amazing(I know what happened at the end) can anyone remember this series?

Was it American, or British? Or maybe somewhere else?

51 minutes ago, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

137 left

I have no idea why I am so interested. 

Soon be at the stage where you buy a few more yourself, just to see the number go down!

18 hours ago, Bob The Badger said:

I'm disgruntled with a small d but I'm not Disgruntled with a capital D. 

I'm a bit disgruntled with Ripley after an episode and a half. I hope someone can drag it out of its own a******* sooner rather than later. 

That's a shame. You and I in the past have enjoyed the same shows. Well, apart from the comedy you watch 😀

Only the other day I added it to the watchlist. Didn't really know anything about it, but it did seem to be my sort of show.

10 minutes ago, B4’s Sister said:

One of the few authors I’ve liked almost everything by is Sarah Waters. I’ve now read everything by her apart from The Night Watch. I’ve been saving it knowing, there is nothing else by her at the moment. 
 

@ketteringram I loved The Light Between Oceans too. Hated The Midnight Library. I’ve sworn to never to read another book by Matt Haig 😆

Not sure if you've read it, but The Lighthouse Sisters by Gill Thompson is excellent. Well, for me anyway. 

Set in Jersey during WW2. 

I've read all of her books, and though they can get a bit samey, I've enjoyed all of them, but if you're only going to read one, make it The Lighthouse Sisters. 

One thing I find frustrating. I find a book I really like, so immediately search out other books by the same author. When that works , all good. 

When it doesn't, not so good. 

I really enjoyed The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Immediately tried another couple by him. Didn't get anywhere close to half way through them. Couldn't believe it was the same writer. 

Likewise, The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Brilliant. So tried The Humans. Couldn't get on with it at all. Again, found it hard to believe it was the same writer. 

It's not the cost. I get a lot of books from charity shops. It's the disappointment of having enjoyed something so much, and then finding the next one so poor.

One of the most frustrating. One of my all time favourite books, is The Light Between the Oceans by E L Stedman. Now , that was written in 2012 I think. I read it about four years ago. Random charity shop purchase. Couldn't wait to read more by the same writer. Turns out, they never published anything before, or since, that book. 😞

On 08/03/2024 at 16:16, B4’s Sister said:

Report back when you’ve finished it @ketteringram 

Finished Queen of Dirt Island the other day. Unusual writing style, and I'm not keen on the way he does speech, but overall, I enjoyed it enough to try more. 

So have moved onto The Spinning Heart, which got delivered yesterday. Only a few pages in at this stage, but I think I'll enjoy this one more than Queen of Dirt Island. 

Did you get around to reading any of his other books?

Must be some on here with Wembley gig experience!

I'm assuming there's a strict cut off time. If there til the bitter end, is there still time to get back to that station at the end of Wembley (Olympic) way? 

I need to get back to Euston/ St Pancras area. I remember the chaos after the play off finals, as they hold everyone back to stop the station overcrowding. But at that time of day, it doesn't really matter, you just wait your turn. At night though, not sure when the trains stop. 

Anyone knows the highest number of pages for a match day thread so far this season?🤔

2 hours ago, LN747 said:

I can’t get to Portsmouth game now so wondering if there are any coaches etc so my son can still go ? 

Can he play up front? 

1 hour ago, B4’s Sister said:

You just need to set up your Amazon account on the Kindle and you will see your library. You just download the book you want to read as you would using the phone app. 

I'm still here 😀. I understand what you're saying. But......let's say I don't have a phone, tablet or pc. The only device I have is the kindle. Can I go online , browse books in the store, buy and download? Or does it always need another device to do that part?

20 minutes ago, B4’s Sister said:

You just need to set up your Amazon account on the Kindle and you will see your library. You just download the book you want to read as you would using the phone app. 

So I download straight to the kindle? Therefore, I must be able to browse books from the kindle. Or can I only view my library? 

1 minute ago, Wolfie said:

I use the Kindle app on my phone & iPad, though almost always use my ipad to read, in bed, with black screen and white text, to keep the light pollution down.

For some reason, you have to buy books through the Amazon website, via your browser (and then they automatically appear on the app, in the library section). You can't buy books from the Amazon app - I've never understood why this isn't possible.

I've used the kindle app on my phone. I'm wondering how you get them onto a kindle device.

12 hours ago, B4’s Sister said:

Surrounded by Idiots is only £1.99 on kindle on Tuesday 19 March daily deals

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Surrounded-Idiots-Behaviour-Understand-Understood-ebook/dp/B07K2NFXTD/ref=s9_acsd_al_ot_c2_x_4_t?_encoding=UTF8&pf_rd_m=A1F83G8C2ARO7P&pf_rd_s=mobile-hybrid-3&pf_rd_r=05ZZD3YBNWMKDF8X4X85&pf_rd_p=b3f2f431-b32e-4720-8822-cc0f694ddb64&pf_rd_t=&pf_rd_i=5400977031

Hopefully your post makes me think you use a Kindle! So I'd like to ask a question if I may. 

Does the Kindle connect to the internet directly, in order to download books? Or do you need to download to a pc and then transfer? 

Probably a dumb question, but I've never used one. Was thinking of maybe getting one, but I don't have a PC. 

27 minutes ago, B4’s Sister said:

@Crewton I’ve just finished The Queen of Dirt Island. I loved it. Even though every chapter is only three pages long, they all feel like short stories. The way each chapter works together to tell the whole story is lovely. It’s only taken a few days to read as I didn’t want to put it down. Will definitely read more Donal Ryan 

This is next on my to read list. Will probably be starting it tomorrow or Sunday. 

Finally finished Love/Hate last night. 

Long time since I've seen anything as good as that. Even though I really didn't like season 3. The rest of it was brilliant. 

As I've nothing in particular lined up, I may go straight back into a re watch. Really liked the way it wasn't afraid to twist and turn with what happens to the main characters, or what you think at the time are main characters. 

They nailed the ending too. So much happens in those last three episodes, as it builds to the final moments. 

Back to Love/Hate. I've just watched the last episode of S4, and the first one of S5. 

It's definitely getting better again, after the awful (to me) S3. 

That last one of S4, as a stand alone single episode, was absolutely brilliant. 

On 24/02/2024 at 11:47, Bob The Badger said:

He had the most amazing charismatic smile. He could switch from evil scumbag to lovely genuine guy in a second - it was really chilling. And I agree, I thought his character was the weak link in the first series, but he dominated it as it went on. Definitely better than Kin,which is a lot more polished, but I really like Kin too.

Re Kin....

I've finally finished the second season. Great ending. 

Left me puzzled though, about the delightful Mollie from the pharmacy storyline 🤔

4 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Interesting topic.

No particular order...

• The Prisoner
• The Twilight Zone
• Doctor Who
• M.A.S.H.
• The Sky At Night
• I, Claudius
• Minder
• Bergerac
• Tenko
• The World At War

Best one-off TV programme of all time bar none...

Threads.

They've only gone and bloody done it