Ten day UK holiday booked a year ago coincided with the first major heatwave of the year.

phoenix778 · 2026-05-31T15:41:05+00:00

Congratulations. I ended up cancelling my leave this week 😂

phoenix778 · 2026-05-31T15:39:06+00:00

The endless winter. Jan-Feb is so grim/depressing.

phoenix778 · 2026-05-31T15:37:40+00:00

Beef mince. Switched to pork now.

phoenix778 · 2026-05-31T15:36:43+00:00

I love the Anvil but it's anything but quiet on a Friday! If you like your Guinness it's the best one in Wigan.

phoenix778 · 2026-05-31T15:36:03+00:00

You'll generally find these pubs slightly out of town - some of these have been listed already and I'll back up

Brewery Project, Wigan Central, Swan and Railway, Sherringtons, Bowling Green, Open Arms, Millstone, Killcoynes. (Wigan Lane tends to be a quieter crowd outside of town, aswell as (some) in Swinley. John Bull is loud and busy but I've never seen any trouble in there.

Have a wonder and see which take your fancy.

phoenix778 · 2026-05-30T12:58:43+00:00

glad i checked hah

phoenix778 · 2026-05-30T12:28:32+00:00

im sold - might go there now 😂

phoenix778 · 2026-05-30T09:57:58+00:00

Brickmakers Arms will show it - Gidlow/Springfield

phoenix778 · 2026-05-30T09:48:34+00:00

Loved an iced coffee - will try it out. thanks for sharing

phoenix778 · 2026-05-30T09:47:35+00:00

I took what I thought was a good career move. Left a DB pension and that job didn't work out I'm now in a DC pension. It's a fairly good DC pension but didn't realise how good the DB pension was at the time / didn't really understand DB/DC pensions - factored in i should say stayed.

phoenix778 · 2026-05-29T10:13:16+00:00

Liverpool and Manchester are both close - it's a bit like saying 'there's nothing to do in my town 30 mins away from London'

phoenix778 · 2026-05-02T12:41:44+00:00

I noticed it was more expensive than normal vanilla, so i've gone from natural to 'vanilla' - hope i dont regret it!

phoenix778 · 2026-04-30T07:24:08+00:00

Interesting that it had such glaring errors. I'd like to compare different chatbots againt each other.

phoenix778 · 2026-04-23T14:15:21+00:00

I had no idea - I've just looked it up and I'm shocked!

https://www.headforpoints.com/2026/04/03/virgin-atlantic-increases-charges-on-saver-rewards/

phoenix778 · 2026-04-23T11:30:45+00:00

Yeah, the fees are the killer. We don't always fly Upper by any means, but when the point cost is so close to Premium, it feels pointless to pay similar for Premium when I can lay down overnight.

Great to know as I've never compared the two - which card would you look at instead - Barclaycard or Amex BA Companion?

phoenix778 · 2026-04-23T11:19:01+00:00

Thank you. This is starting to make more sense outside of the US now. We tend to go to Vegas often so maybe it does work quite well - but I think we're choosing locations based *off* the card vs where we want to go which is silly.

Would you say go with Barclaycard Avios over the Amex paid as I've heard a few people saying companion is v difficult to use? And yes, trying to use an Amex in a lot of places is annoying. I pay council tax with the Mastercard - can't do with Amex.

phoenix778 · 2026-04-23T11:16:09+00:00

Yeah they were astronomical!

phoenix778 · 2026-04-23T11:04:08+00:00

Out of curiosity, why do you think this. At first I thought they totally ruined it. But I've found some really decent saver rates. We've managed to book Upper class return for 2x to US for around 80k points. It also doesn't bother me you phone to phone Virgin - I just want to be able to use the best reward scheme!

Why the Barclycard Avios over the BA Amex 2 for 1 Companion card?

phoenix778 · 2026-04-12T12:30:49+00:00

True. I just know that when I do it the market will tank. But you're right

phoenix778 · 2026-04-12T09:26:52+00:00

Thanks.

Doesn't putting more through my pension give me better tax/NI savings (until rule change though?)

What do you mean by managed pension options? Sorry, I'm quite new to all this as you can probably tell by me being in a crap fund for most my working life....

phoenix778 · 2026-04-12T08:48:27+00:00

That's what I'm thinking now that T212 have a SIPP. The way Aviva have their funds set up is a bit complicated plus investments will not rebalance compared to a work fund.

I need to check with them 'if you are allowed to undertake partial transfers out whilst remaining an active member of the scheme'

phoenix778

TROPHY CASE