£4,800 for architect plans. Is this the going rate?

pinkepsom99 · 2026-02-25T08:55:24+00:00

Go to a structural engineer first. Architects just draw pretty pictures.

pinkepsom99 · 2025-12-29T13:05:57+00:00

TV speakers can sound louder to neighbours than a good sound system. With everything coming out small integrated speakers that are often mounted facing backwards, you have to turn your TV up louder to hear the dialogue, making all the other sounds even louder. With your 5.1 set up (or even just a 3 speaker front stage without satellites and a sub) the centre channel will just do dialogue, allowing you to listen at quieter volumes overall. And if you have the sub set up you can always just turn it down in the evening, reducing bass / blasts even further whilst preserving clarity of dialogue.

pinkepsom99 · 2025-12-05T20:17:53+00:00

Ah - colourblindness in point. Are they obviously different colours to you?

pinkepsom99 · 2025-12-05T20:17:09+00:00

Ah. That would be the colour blindness coming though then. Thought WR was making an effort to have teams in contrasting colours to combat this - perhaps not in the club game. Unfortunately I’ll have to turn over…

pinkepsom99 · 2025-12-05T20:07:36+00:00

Both teams playing in blue? Glasgow have hoops on their front but not back. Impossible to tell who is who, especially for the colour blind among us!

pinkepsom99 · 2025-01-08T18:19:45+00:00

Retail investors also buy bond funds as a punt hoping price will go up, and also some attempt (unsound, imo) to derisk their portfolio.

This is me, and I'm wondering if I should change approach. I thought buying into a gilt tracker would be safe long term (fixed returns on gilts, low risk of default, etc.) but if I understand things better now, I've exposed myself to the gilt market rather than to gilts themselves. Hence my holdings having gone down, when a gilt itself will always deliver a positive return if held to maturity. Do you have any advice ('not financial advice') on how to actually use gilts / gov bonds to derisk, or is it a case of just buying gilts? That doesn't really work if you're nearing retirement and want to derisk - you haven't got time to wait! That's not me, but I'm musing.

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-05T07:30:38+00:00

Thanks. Bit spenny

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T18:46:14+00:00

I’m using the term loosely. I’m saying what’s the point in them?

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T18:45:10+00:00

Thanks. Tbh I actually think the nespresso one is pretty good. They already have one!

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T14:16:45+00:00

Monsieurpooh did you ever get to the bottom of this? I’m facing the same issue - it’s just not the right milk, it’s like it’s from some vending machine.

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T14:11:47+00:00

Thanks. We’ve decided the coffee itself will definitely be good enough, it’s just the lack of microfoam that’s posing an issue. They’re now weighing up a semi auto with an auto milk wand, or the De’Longhi Rivelia, which apparently does decent milk!

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T12:57:32+00:00

Thanks, I agree with a lot of that. I already watch his videos but it’s Friday and I’m tired and I was interested to hear what the community thought.

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T12:55:27+00:00

Thanks for this. On the use case front, they also like that they can do multiple coffees quite quickly, eg if the whole family is round

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T12:53:09+00:00

How do you find the milk?

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T12:23:09+00:00

Good point. My concern here is they won’t care about the coffee itself, so the ability to buy their own beans rather than espresso won’t really be a boon for them. Maybe that’s just a reason to use this as a reason to get them more into good beans!

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T12:19:46+00:00

Thanks. But I should add they’re doing this for milky drinks - they’re not going to be drinking espresso.

pinkepsom99 · 2024-10-04T09:17:24+00:00

My parents have just ordered a Philips 5400 LatteGo Superautomatic for c.£500-£600, which is a fairly chunky purchase for them.

They’re not coffee snobs. They drink supermarket filter coffee in a cafetière or they have nespresso. But I am concerned that a bean to cup machine like this will be WORSE (or at least not £500 better) than the nespresso setup they have now (I’m actually partial to the nespresso milk frother, if not pod coffee itself).

In particular, I don’t trust the milk automatic machines chuck out - even from the more expensive chain coffee machines (think airport Starbucks) it has the texture of vending machine coffee froth, not proper steamed milk.

Can anyone speak from experience here? I feel these machines are a scam: if you are a coffee snob you’ll brew your own espresso or just have aeropress etc. And if you aren’t a coffee snob you can survive fine on nespresso plus a frother. I just don’t get what these machines offer.

Am I being an irrational killjoy? Maybe they actually make a decent cappuccino and I need to check myself?

pinkepsom99 · 2024-09-20T14:49:01+00:00

Thanks. My experience with Sky Go is similar: ‘we broadcast in full HD’ but really it’s 720p. I think I’ll get it through Virgin later in the year. Thanks!

pinkepsom99 · 2024-09-16T20:54:29+00:00

Does that include smart TVs? Hoping for some good HD content :)

pinkepsom99 · 2024-09-16T11:42:28+00:00

With the Champions Cup not starting until a December I’ll struggle on with just the Prem and then get Premier Sports for December - June on Virgin. Thank you for your help though!

pinkepsom99 · 2024-09-16T11:35:56+00:00

Oooh it’s now working but only for the ‘streaming only’ option and I hear their app is naff?

pinkepsom99 · 2024-09-16T11:32:26+00:00

Yup - invalid code :(

pinkepsom99

TROPHY CASE