WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Wendyf]

The lateral movement of the pacing looks so awkward and unnatural doesn't it? Too fast and dangerous for me!

[Stanley]

You'd have thought so if you had been on that horse I had! It turned out the livery stable where we hired the horses used a lot of retired pacers because they were so cheap.

[Tripps]

I used to go occasionally to the 'Trot' at Droylsden a long time ago, to see Fearless Betty run. It never really got to me, and the races seemed often to be like that slot machine at Blackpool where a horse came from the back to cruise past the others. The whole atmosphere was more 'flapping track' rather than Ascot. Some interesting afficionados though, and I know the difference between Trotting and Pacing, and losing the gait and having to be gathered up is called 'going off its legs' so nothing wasted then.

It's still big in France - they even have some races where the trotters are ridden by jockeys rather than pulling sulkies. Looks weird to me.

see Le trot

Try this link Ridden trot

[Wendyf]

I think these were all pacers, though not all of them were wearing the hopples (which seems to be a nicer word for hobbles. )

[Stanley]

Am I right in thinking pacers have both legs on one side going forward and backward on the same 'step'?

[Wendyf]

That's right Stanley, lateral pairs instead of diagonal pairs of legs as in a normal trot. This is one of my friend Margaret's photos from Kilnsey which shows the movement and the hopples which would appear to discourage normal trotting.

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[Stanley]

That's the gait that was so uncomfortable if you are on the horses back and yes the harness on their legs is to remind them to pace.

[plaques]

Amazon getting up my back. Most people will have from time to time bought something from Amazon. For the occasional purchase I've been happy to pay the extra postal charge. Things are now changing, the last two purchases had no choice and were Prime only. No options offered and no direct indication that you were possibly entering a £7.99 per month agreement which was buried in the small print weasel words along side the Prime (tick)'
An E-mail later told me I could cancel within 7 days. I can do without this sort of imposed purchase agreement.

[Big Kev]

My youngest offspring has a prime account, any Amazon purchases I make are via him. I don't order enough, or watch 'prime' TV, to be paying £7.99 a month.

[Tizer]

As Tripps would say, spooky! I've been avoiding Amazon as much as possible but two days ago I wanted to buy online some cold white LED bulbs of a particular spec but they were difficult to find (most bulbs sold are warm white). I could buy a pack of 6 from Amazon for less than the price of two from B&Q. In the end I bought the 6-pack, sold direct by Amazon. Mrs Tiz saw what I was doing and asked me to put a wall pin board from Wonderwall on the order. Both were on Free Delivery. I started the buy process and carefully avoided any elephant traps. But when I got to the payment point it said I was signing up to Amazon. I backtracked and found the only way to avoid that was to pay £5.99 for delivery. I still had to work my way around the Prime traps but finally managed to make the purchase. It also didn't give me the opportunity to review my purchase items, just suddenly came up with a window saying my order was successfully placed. When I then moved to another page a warning came up saying there was a problem with my order. Went to the account page and it said the direct Amazon purchase was in process; the Wonderwall one said `Problem with order'. I sent a message to them with a screenshot and they said, No problem they'd received the order and were processing it. Both orders are now on their way.

We've vowed never to deal with Amazon ourselves again and instead use this strategy. I have a young relative living nearby who is on Amazon Prime and does a lot of ordering for her parents and sister. We'll ask her when we want something and send the money to her bank account. She can order it on Prime and we'll collect it from her when its delivered.

[Big Kev]

We've vowed never to deal with Amazon ourselves again and instead use this strategy. I have a young relative living nearby who is on Amazon Prime and does a lot of ordering for her parents and sister. We'll ask her when we want something and send the money to her bank account. She can order it on Prime and we'll collect it from her when its delivered.

My offspring sends any of my orders direct to my address, it's a bit of a ride out to Harrogate to collect from him and wipes out the postage saving

[Tripps]

Spooky indeed. I've fallen yesterday for what used to be called 'inertia selling' twice in two days. I'm surprised and disappointed in myself.

Seems that after a special introductory offer, I told Evernote to pillage my bank account on an annual basis for ever, and I've got free midweek deliveries from Morrisons for another year. I've reverted to the free version of Evernote, but not until August 2022, and the Morrisons thing isn't too bad a deal, though I doubt I'll get the full value from it.

I fell for the Amazon Prime dishonesty a long time ago. I got out of it at no cost, and now I totally avoid them, in a spirit of revenge, ever since. It can be done.

I'll survive. . . .

[chinatyke]

Can you reject deliveries free of charge? We can here, and they are returned to the sender and we don't pay the costs. If the item is on free delivery you will get a full refund. You can inspect and reject parcels by saying "I don't like it, send it back." Just thinking: If you can do this you could really annoy Amazon!

[plaques]

Just done battle with ebay, £X post free>> buy now >>> continue with> Facebook, Google, etc. ( we may share your information with....) No I just want to pay. Came out of page to try again. Sign in as guest, ( but I've signed in on ebay) .. fill in address etc. (why if I'm already signed in?).. did it just the same. ... Pay by... select choice, Radio button. Pay Pal.... sign in to Pay Pal. initial pay options are concerned with their own credit card. .. scroll down further,,,, Thank God ... pay now. Is it me???

[chinatyke]

There is a big company here called T-Mall/Taobao, it sells everything online like Amazon etc. They started up a sister-site called Baopals which translates most of the Chinese Taobao pages into English, enough for even Dumbo's like me to be able to follow and get what I want, although it sometimes involves a bit of trawling through many pages, but there is instant help available in English. Transfer in whatever amount you want and use that to pay for your purchases. One click, dead easy. Refunds, earnings, commission etc goes into this wallet. Just as easy to withdraw money from the wallet, or top up your credit. Great for regular users like me. I realise I'm prepaying by putting money into the wallet, but it is no different from keeping money in a bank.
Is there an option like this on Amazon/E Bay etc?

I can make and complete a purchase in 3 clicks. Why do other sites make life difficult?

[Stanley]

Amazon have to be watched. They only got me once with the Prime trap but I cancelled immediately. However, I think a couple of 'free delivery' have actually been charged as Premium delivery. Probably some other trap I missed. It's simple dishonesty and I don't know why it has quietly become an allowable business practice.

[chinatyke]

There is a big company here called T-Mall/Taobao, it sells everything online like Amazon etc. They started up a sister-site called Baopals which translates most of the Chinese Taobao pages into English, enough for even Dumbo's like me to be able to follow and get what I want, although it sometimes involves a bit of trawling through many pages, but there is instant help available in English. Transfer in whatever amount you want and use that to pay for your purchases. One click, dead easy. Refunds, earnings, commission etc goes into this wallet. Just as easy to withdraw money from the wallet, or top up your credit. Great for regular users like me. I realise I'm prepaying by putting money into the wallet, but it is no different from keeping money in a bank.
Is there an option like this on Amazon/E Bay etc?

I can make and complete a purchase in 3 clicks. Why do other sites make life difficult?

Somehow I deleted part of a sentence!

It should have read: Baopals have a facility called <your wallet> where you can transfer in whatever amount....

[Tizer]

Tripps, Plaques, Stanley - you can have the advantage of Amazon's low prices, massive selection of goods and free rapid delivery without any of the stress and angst by doing what Kev and I do and have described above. Like Kev I have agreed with one of my relatives that she'll buy for me using her Prime account and have the goods sent directly to my address - Prime members are allowed to have multiple addresses for delivery. I could offer to share her Prime subs costs but she's not bothered, she loves all the other things that Prime gives you access to (which is a lot!). For all I know she might get something similar to extra Tesco points because Amazon love Prime members using the multiple addresses because that means more sales, more profits. Don't let Amazon block you out, play their game and win!

[Wendyf]

We have Prime membership which works well for us as Col orders loads of stuff! There are constant money off vouchers, free books for my Kindle and the next day delivery service 7 days a week is excellent.

[Big Kev]

I mentioned a while ago that a part of my granddaughter clock had broken, yesterday I found someone who made me a new part. I'm chuffed to bits

I had time this morning to fit the new part, we have a fully functional clock again. Hurrah!

[Stanley]

I note that Brazil, the biggest beef exporter in the world, has suspended exports to China because BSE has been detected in some cattle. This has happened before and resulted in a two week ban but markets like the EU might regard it more seriously.
Mad Cow Disease, BSE, crippled UK beef exports for many years even though the cause was found and eliminated. In the UK it was the incorporation of dried offal from diseased sheep suffering from 'Scrapie' in cattle food as a protein source. The use of this and other ingredients like hoof and horn, dried blood and even chicken litter from sheds used for rearing chicken for human consumption was prohibited.

[Stanley]

The consequences of the shortage of LGV drivers seems to be building and many commentators are saying that Xmas is going to be badly affected. I see that the government departments involved have refused to budge on visas for EU drivers saying that the extensive preparations made in the run up to Brexit will kick in and save the day. Right......

[Tizer]

When the 1st October deadline comes for the NI Protocol there'll be more trouble - it's already brewing as you can see if you do a google search.

[PanBiker]

Apparently some of the larger logistics / haulage firms are offering to pay the £3 - 5K training fees required now for new recruit HGV drivers.

[Big Kev]

That's gone up a bit, it was £1000 when I did my LGV C+E in 1995. I believe it's changed regarding having to pass a test for a rigid LGV before being able to train for an artic.
If the bottom dropped out of the IT sector I could always take the medical to reinstate the category on my licence, and then get the CPC qualification to allow me to drive an artic again. I could do a 60 to 70 hour week, hardly be at home and put up with all the idiots currently on the roads. Or perhaps not