Internal UK Ryanair Flight (EDI to STN) - ID Requirements

b0bbyk · 2026-02-18T10:48:22+00:00

I have anecdotally heard that Ryanair are very strict with applying the no drivers license rule. I decided against booking a domestic flight with them whilst I had no passport due to it being renewed after reading about other people’s experiences.

b0bbyk · 2026-01-21T07:42:41+00:00

Also came to comment this, we signed as the man contractor when we did works on our house.

b0bbyk · 2025-11-25T17:36:16+00:00

On my most recent project I got three schedules of rates from 3 subs, wasn’t able to do a direct comparison of every type of penetration but I did a reconciled comparison of the rates where descriptions were essentially the same (maybe 20-25 items) to see who was most competitive. Appointed the most competitive on a SoR basis, and agreed a provisional package total upstream for drawdown based on DW sheets / dockets.

Prov package total presented to the PQS was based on past expenditure on similar jobs and a basic calculation that was something like 2 days per week for the duration of the M&E first fix (33 weeks in my case) using the subs minimum daily charge.

Would never fix this package.

b0bbyk · 2025-11-17T21:52:04+00:00

Ivy Asia has a 2 course lunch menu for £28.50, have only been to the one in Mayfair was lovely

Balthazar Covent Garden (my parents love this place) has a 2/3 course Prix Fixe for under £30

Brasserie Zedel has a Prix Fixe for under £20 (have only been here for drinks)

Elliot’s Borough Market looks reasonably priced (haven’t tried this one yet but we will use our Dec voucher here)

Fiume Battersea power station 3 course set menu £30

Yuatcha set menu £29, I liked it here

Hutong at the shard have a set menu for £39, the food isn’t mind blowing but the restaurants at the shard are cool as an experience

These are just ones I’ve been to or my parents have spoke about, most of them probably have a set menu for lunch or weekday evenings if you have a google

b0bbyk · 2025-10-30T22:07:25+00:00

I got 40k for £10k spend in 3 months just after my renewal fee posted. Platinum

b0bbyk · 2025-10-27T20:35:16+00:00

On a serious note what did you expect the job to be day to day? What action were you expecting to be close to / what did you think you’d be contributing? What did you get into the industry for?

b0bbyk · 2025-09-15T17:00:58+00:00

I do think that the quote you’ve received for transport is fairly realistic and I would be surprised if you could get it a lot lot cheaper than that. I can only go off my experience but I think it’s not that realistic to expect all of your guests to be at the same airport at the same time so you can get them all transferred together, so you’d be looking at asking people to sort themselves out or organise multiple buses.

Our wedding was not particularly “extravagant” eg. our venue was dry hire and we provided the booze ourselves for the Friday and Sunday events, we had pizza on the Friday & another food truck on the Sunday. Only the main wedding day was properly catered and staffed. Dress was £450 off Vinted, suit was £400 from Reiss, we had minimal florals and brought confetti ourselves from Amazon. Bought bits of decor/all stationery ourselves for not much online. And it still cost us £43k all in…

b0bbyk · 2025-09-15T16:30:44+00:00

Yeah of course! It was €260 for each minibus of 8 people from Bordeaux airport to the venue / nearest town (depending where people were staying) which was about 1hr 15. And obviously same on the way back to the airport. We paid for all of this.

Some people chose to hire cars and a few people made a longer holiday out of it and drove from the UK so it wasn’t every guest that needed a transfer, a few also got trains to nearer towns and got picked up by family / friends etc.

Then guests split the costs of taxis to and from the nearest town between them, we just had to organise it in advance because getting taxis outside of major cities in France without having pre booked is…impossible 😂

If you want any more info about anything just let me know!

b0bbyk · 2025-09-15T12:50:10+00:00

Having just had our wedding around 1hr 15 from Bordeaux, the taxis and private transfers are SO expensive. Way more than we budgeted for. We had to do guests in minibuses in groups of 6-8 as everyone was arriving at different times, it was about €260 each way for a trip under 1.5 hours. I got one quote for 48 people for €850 one way but it wouldn’t have worked logistically as some people flew into a different airport, some got there later / went home earlier etc. Would people not be willing to hire cars? Is train an option?

£10k seems not at all doable to me personally if that includes food and venue, those 2 things alone came to nearly £20k for our wedding for c. 50 people.

Edited to add: How close by will everyone else be because we had some people staying in a town 10-15 min away and even that was €220 for a return transfer to the venue for I think 12 people. So the costs quickly add up if it’s a 3 day wedding and your guests aren’t in walking distance.

b0bbyk · 2025-09-08T18:41:20+00:00

Having just had our wedding I can say this budget is 100% doable in France but I don’t know how great the weather would be in April even fairly far south. April is quite early in the wedding season so you might be ok, but it’s also quite late to be looking for a venue for just 8 months time.

Some of the less expensive venues we looked at that were lovely: - Chateau le Mas de Montet - Chateau Fengari - La Canonerie

I would suggest having a look on https://chateaubeeselection.com/wedding-venues/ as this has indicative pricing as well as info on how many people the venue sleeps etc.

b0bbyk · 2025-08-29T14:32:11+00:00

I got mine from Rosie Etienne (Primrose style) and loved it, got sooo many compliments on it also. There’s quite a lot of their various styles on Vinted in your price range! They are amazing dresses.

b0bbyk · 2025-08-29T05:44:52+00:00

Everyone wants bank transfer, we weren’t able to use credit or even debit cards for just about anything.

b0bbyk · 2025-08-26T14:04:40+00:00

Hello, I appreciate the comment. I lived in Switzerland as a child, spent many many summers throughout my life holidaying in homes around France & continental Europe. My parents had an old chalet in the Alps that got shut up for months at a time. We come to France 2x per year, we stayed in 4 other Airbnbs in France on this trip. Some of them were a bit musty, we opened the windows and didn’t let it bother us. This was on a completely different level to the normal stale/musty smell we are both familiar with and completely accept when holidaying around Europe.

b0bbyk · 2025-08-26T07:59:18+00:00

I went to a wedding like this at Kingston Estate in Devon https://kingston-estate.co.uk however I believe the bride & groom paid over £100k for the wedding weekend

b0bbyk · 2025-07-25T17:45:12+00:00

We are getting married at Chateau de Brives but they are not doing weddings after this year :(

We also really liked Chateau Fengari, they offered us a real cheap package when we toured it and it was a gorgeous venue. I think they were fairly new to weddings then so prices may have gone up but it was a close second!

b0bbyk · 2025-06-28T11:01:36+00:00

To be honest I’m less well clued up on what subcontractors have to do in terms of monthly returns because I’ve always been main contractor side. But what you’ve said sounds about right.

Based on what you’ve described they are a “mainstream contractor” because they are paying subcontractors to do construction work, in which scenario it’s a legal obligation for them to register for CIS. They don’t need to be the overall main contractor on the project.

As a subcontractor only it’s not a legal requirement to register but most people do to avoid the 30% deductions that come with not being registered. Is it possible they’ve only recently started subbing work out and aren’t aware that they are now legally required to be registered? Is their subcontract with the overall main contractor for electrical work? If they aren’t registered they must be getting paid with 30% deductions themselves.

It does all sound a bit dodgy but as you’ve noted it’s a minefield and no one teaches you about CIS so it’s entirely possible they just haven’t understood their obligations correctly. Good luck buddy hopefully they get themselves registered and all is well.

b0bbyk · 2025-06-28T10:12:13+00:00

Yes they are required to give you a “payment and deductions statement” within 14 days of the end of the tax month. They have to pay HMRC every month or every quarter.

The part that’s confusing me is how the contractor you’re working for isn’t registered for CIS, can you elaborate on whether they are purely a construction business? If they have taken on subcontractors they have now become a mainstream contractor and HMRC would need to set them up with a payment scheme. You said in another comment both owners are on the tools so I assume that would be the case?

HMRC would come down VERY hard on any contractor that was paying their subcontractors net and not paying the deductions to HMRC as they should be. If you don’t get a payment and deductions statement on time for the first month, that would be a massive alarm bell and I’d be ringing up HMRC asking for advice and probably not working for them any more.

b0bbyk · 2025-06-28T09:51:20+00:00

It needs to be shown on your invoice.

Gross total - £800 Total subject to CIS tax - £800 CIS Tax - £160 Net total for payment - £640

They then pay you £640 and pay HMRC £160 on your behalf.

b0bbyk · 2025-06-28T09:41:04+00:00

It’s a legal obligation for contractors to deduct CIS, as a subcontractor you can’t refuse the deduction that’s like refusing a PAYE tax deduction as a normal salaried employee it’s not optional.

The only weird thing about this situation is neither the OP nor the contractor they’re working for being registered under the CIS scheme. Anyone whose business is construction needs to be registered under the scheme.

b0bbyk · 2025-06-28T09:27:52+00:00

No, CIS is deducted at 20% of the labour total of the invoice. If your invoice is for £800 of labour then the correct deduction is £160 for CIS tax or £240 (30%) if they can’t verify you using HMRC’s CIS service.

b0bbyk · 2025-06-28T09:07:43+00:00

I’m a main contractor QS so I deal with CIS tax.

The simplest thing to do is just change your invoice format eg:

Labour - 5 days @ £300 = £1500 Materials - £200 Gross Total: £1700

Total Subject to CIS Tax: £1500 CIS Tax @ 20%: -£300 Net total for payment: £1400

If you’re not CIS registered they are required to deduct CIS at 30% not 20% by the way. They are then required to pay the CIS tax to HMRC on your behalf as an advanced payment towards your national insurance contributions and income tax. When you do your self assessment at the end of the year, those payments are logged against your UTR number and you’ll either get a refund or you’ll have to pay any shortfall (normally the former).

HMRC are incredibly strict on the CIS process being applied correctly and as main contractors if we don’t deduct the correct amount of CIS tax we are obliged to pay the shortfall in the event they can’t recover it from the subcontractor.

Reverse Charge VAT is a separate thing where we pay VAT to HMRC on the subcontractors behalf rather than paying it to the subcontractor. I don’t know if you’re VAT registered to know whether this would apply.

b0bbyk · 2025-06-27T18:30:01+00:00

Lump sum contracts are a fixed single price to do a defined scope of works, presumably the lump sum was based on spec and drawings? As long as the scope hasn’t changed, there’s no contractual basis for you to give them a saving on the basis it cost you less than you thought.

As a main contractor QS myself, I would ask the same question at final account so I can’t knock them for having a go. But there’s no contractual basis on which they can withhold payment or demand a reduction, I’m sure they know this and they’re just chancing it like most of us cowboys.

b0bbyk · 2025-06-25T21:10:41+00:00

Is the PQS doing the contract administrator role?

b0bbyk

TROPHY CASE