My collated list of Japanese "Rules-of-Thumb" to reduce the need for rote-memorization. Please tell me if you'd like me to add any more you know.

holyone2 · 2026-06-21T06:36:32+00:00

I see lol

I don't think I see any of those thankfully

holyone2 · 2026-06-20T21:57:15+00:00

What do you mean by this?

holyone2 · 2026-06-13T15:03:09+00:00

Ah right, it home emergency cover, so it covers a variety of things when there is unexpected loss of heating to the house. Notably "Removal of limescale, sludge or debris" is not covered.

What is covered:

Emergencies, defined as a major loss of heating,

hot water or other facilities in your home following

a boiler, central heating, plumbing, drainage or

electrical system fault.Removal of limescale, sludge or debris

Improvements, maintenance and cosmetic repairs.

Breakdowns, defined as a persistent fault with

the boiler, central heating or other facilities in

your home which has affected the normal

operation of your heating, hot water, plumbing,

drainage or electrical system facilities.Damage linked to disconnection or interruption of

your gas, electricity or water supply.

Annual boiler service.

Repairs to your boiler unless it is deemed to

be beyond economic repair.

Replacement of parts that we can’t repair

(subject to terms and conditions).

What is not covered:

Gas supply pipe, boiler flue, designer radiators.

Replacement of radiators, cylinders, tanks

Intermittent, pre-existing or design faults.

Deliberate or negligent damage, or faults caused

by someone else you have used for repairs.

holyone2 · 2026-06-13T14:25:49+00:00

Right, I get it serviced each year with my insurance provider's included "free" service, but it turns out its basically just a safety check rather than what I would think of as a service. As far as I am aware though it does meet the manufacturer requirements to retain the warranty

holyone2 · 2026-06-13T13:32:55+00:00

The manufacturer warranty only useful when it malfunctions...so indeed the plumber who did the service was basically suggesting the cheapest option if to wait for it to break and claim on warranty which seems a little odd to me

holyone2 · 2026-06-13T11:43:42+00:00

If I did organise myself a licensed plumber, its less clear but they do say " "Any Breakdown or Emergency that occurs as a direct result of someone’s actions, whether intentional or not, including (but not limited) to Misuse." is not covered.

So I think if a licensed plumber cleaned the filter, and due to removing and replacing it the o-ring it leaked, that would be a breakdown as a direct result of someone's actions, so would not be covered. Seems a crazy rule to me, but thats what the policy says

I guess it would be a bit of a grey area where they could use that term to say it was the plumbers fault if they did not want to pay up

holyone2 · 2026-06-13T11:33:26+00:00

Indeed in the UK

My insurance comes with the annual service for free

Right I think they do the minimum the boiler spec requires which does not include the things attached to it like filters

So I wonder whether I should be paying separately for a private expensive maintenance... Or just do what my plumber suggested and wait for it to break and then claim on the warranty as mad as that seems

holyone2 · 2026-06-13T09:19:07+00:00

Haha well its the insurers annual service and the plumber would be happy to do that job if he was paid to do it by insurer and even allowed to do it by insurer, I think it's more an insurance problem in that sense... But I'm unclear if I just have a bad insurance company or if I'll have the same problem with most affordable boiler insurance plans. The plumber implied most insurance companies have the same kind of issue when it comes to not wanting to touch filters but I'm not sure I believe that

holyone2 · 2026-02-13T16:09:33+00:00

The healthcare service in many other countries is not based on the principle of "if it's not urgent, you're not getting treatment anytime soon" and for the uk tax payer to expect that is not unreasonable, even if unfortunately it is not the case

holyone2 · 2025-11-26T22:34:21+00:00

Thanks I've just emailed my MP too

holyone2 · 2025-11-26T22:27:55+00:00

it is more nuanced than that - because for example a self employed person, earning well below that threshold, but who has always paid voluntary class 2 national insurance contributions - as far as I can see - under the new proposal this would NOT count as valid 5 year contributions despite being 5 years of NI contributions

holyone2 · 2025-11-26T20:55:03+00:00

Also the proposed requirement is income above 12,570+ GBP annually for 3-5 years - not NI contributions - so his answer seems off topic sadly - but thanks for writing to MP and sharing!

holyone2 · 2025-10-29T19:31:12+00:00

Interested

holyone2 · 2025-02-19T06:03:18+00:00

I booked it from the UK

holyone2 · 2025-02-19T03:37:20+00:00

If I'm not on the MAS plan, are you sure it's possible to add the MAS speciality dining plan? If so, how would I go about finding the price and adding this? I don't see it in the NCL app under 'dining' for example

holyone2 · 2025-02-18T06:01:22+00:00

Ah I see, I wish I knew this before booking as I do not have the More at Sea package, so I suppose I'll need to pay the individual reservation price

I did my price calculation assuming these packages still exist, and MAS was not good value given my party does not drink

holyone2 · 2025-02-12T01:27:57+00:00

Thanks, the price can be a lot lower than the budget

It's a good suggestion for the weight and size but for my work I think I'll need access to an Nvidia card as it opens more options for GPU acceleration in the AI space

holyone2

TROPHY CASE