uk_jash

I just came across the amazon/alexa link that was highlighted here earlier. Amazon review of HPC I had to laugh at the little campaign by the piggies, they've been posting 1 star derogatory reviews again! I tried clicking on a few of these reviewers, they have only reviewed 2 sites - and guess what the other one was

Oh how we have all mocked the chav's! But now they are getting the last laugh, think how much those rings have gone up in value over the last year!

That site is a great idea! If I had just bought a house I could equip it completely with the stuff off there, for free! OK, some of it may be junk - but it would do until I could get my own stuff and then put the original stuff back in the free2collect network. I love it!

That sound's true, I can think of a couple of things that still come in tins (some mints etc) but the quality just isn't the same. I do wonder if we will end up going backwards, once the plastic has run out returning to all the old ways of packaging. I'm alos thinking of buying up some old landfill sites so that in 30 years time I can mine the plastic out of them :-p

By the way, are there any 'oldies' on the board who remember the really cool packaging of yester-year?? I used to have a lovely little Oxo tin, the size of three Oxo cubes! I used to use it to store my *special* tobacco I'm guessing at the time these tins were cheap to produce, and they are totally recylable, would they be un-economic in todays world of throw away packaging? My mum/grandma used to have loads of these old tins full of all sorts of junk (buttons etc) so they never went to waste

About 10-15 years ago my JVC stereo (A MIDI HiFi which was top stuff back then) broke down. I took it back to the place I bought it from to see if they could fix it. The shop was an old hardware store that also sold some white goods and some TV's/stereos etc. At the time (I *think* because of some price fixing) the stereo was exactly the same price in Curry's Dixon's etc and this local shop so I bought it from them. They said they'd have a look at it, had it for a few days and I popped in a couple of times to find a couple of old boy's testing the circuit board's and investigating the problem. Eventually they called me to say they'd fixed it, I went in to pick it up and they chraged me 50p for the capacitor and "just give us a tenner for the labour"! I love that shop (it's still going strong, despite the competition from the likes of Curry's/Dixon's). If I'd bought it from one of them it would have been written off, or at best the entire circuit board would have been replaced with one flown in from China!

I've been thinking about this recently and I would not be surprised if this seasons sales figures were actually pretty good I think the slowdown in consumer spending, and the realisation by individuals as to the extent of thier own personal debt, began around the middle of this year. I think many people began to cut back around that time, and tried to pay off some of their credit cards ..... After all, we know that many people in this country have gotten used to living beyond their means by using their credit card each month, the various headlines and data this year has made many wake up to just how much debt they have! *If* (as I am guessing) they have spent the last 6 months reducing their debt a little bit, it wouldn't surprise me if they justify splashing out a Christmas time becasue they have 'been good' for several months now. I've done this myself is this past, spent most of the year living very frugally to pay off a loan or debt, and then 'rewarded' myself by treating myself at Christmas time

Hi Folks, After reading this topic, I've just posted this thread on the off topic board, for those of you who cannot fit yourselves into any conventional political category. It links to a webpage that tries to present a new(ish) way of categorising political views - The Political Compass Quote: The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left' , established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. For example, who are the 'conservatives' in today's Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher ? Check it out some time

I'm one of the 'drained brains' :-D I came out to Malaysia about 2 years ago. House prices were the main reason for my move, I'm 33 and really would have needed to settle down in the UK and "buy a house" I didn't think it was a good time to buy (and didn't fancy just renting) so decided to come out here for a few years instead. I also fancied a few years in the sun, and thought I'd regret it later in life if i didn't do it. I'm an academic (cancer research scientist), in the UK I would be one of many, but out here I'm probably the national expert (Good tip for you, if you want to progress in your career, but are naturally lazy and unambitious like me - just move to somewhere where the goalposts are lowered!). Out here I do a lot of teaching and get asked to talk at all sorts of national events. Again - back home I would be a nobody comapared to all the other cancer scientists. I get paid realtively little in UK sterling equivalent (600 quid per month!). But out here I live in a condo with its own pool and gym, I get all my laundry done, I have a maid to clean and I eat out every night.....so the comments about "relative salary" are correct, my standard of life is so much better than it would be back home. I'll stay here a couple more years, and if prices in the UK have dropped by 15%-20%+ percent I'll come back....if not I'm hapy here in the sun (or maybe canada next..??!). PS I'm writing this by the pool, taking advantage of my new wifi broadband!

I spent all day at work yesterday playing on this The coverage of the US cities is awsome, I happily occupied myself by flying around and spotting all the US sports stadiums (sad I know!). The grand canyon is pretty cool as well, you can even move through the canyon itself by playing with the tilt. Anyone know if they plan to increase the high res coverage of the UK? There are already some areas (quiet a strange selection!) but not yet my neck of the woods.. . PS I used to use an open source program called NASA World Wind essentially the same thing but a lot bulkier and less efficient than the google one (and with out the option to locate pubs etc )

I must say I have seen a lot more adverts for Australian property in the local papers recently, and I'm currently in Malaysia! I've been here in Penang about 14 months, but over the last 6 months or so I've noticed loads of adverts for Melbourne, Sydney etc (mostly 2 bed appartments). Even though we are about 4000 miles away The adds always seem the same,"ideal investment opportunity", "guaranteed rental income" (must be some scheme), close to local university etc. It does sound to me like the developers are desperately widening thier catchment area in an attempt to shift some of their units!

Another point that many BTL'ers in University towns have failed to realise is that there is a major shift in the student populations going on at the minute, primarily due to the major costs now involved in a University education. Far more students are now choosing to go to there local universities where they can continue to live at home with parents during their education. This way, they can massively reduce the costs involved - and the debt at the end. (I really feel sorry for them because one of the best things about University for me was living away form home!). I have some experience of this as I used to work at Hull University a couple of years ago. They realised that they have a problem there due to the relatively small catchment area for potential local students (places like Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford etc have a much larger population within commuting distance). The second university In Hull (Humberside University - old Poly) closed down a couple of years ago and relocated to Lincoln, mainly due to the reduced demand they foresaw in the future (The city is not really big enough to accomodate two Uni's - especially as they were right next door to each other!). In my day (early 90's) I would think that the number of students at my Uni who were local and lived with there folks was around 2-3% (I only met one guy in three years). In the future I think they will become the majority, a big shock to all those who bought up BTL's expecting a never ending supply of student grants!

Well I just clicked your link and the first story's title is "Estate agent 'driven to suicide' by poor market" Independent 02:57 http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/84269555?-11530 I guess this poor sod didn't share your bullish view of the news!

I think it will be on sometime between 7:00 and 8:00am Friday morning Malaysian time (GMT+8hours). They have been doing a series all week around this time on the debt problems etc. Just short (ten minutes or so) reports on the morning show with Kristie Lu Stout. I'll try and get up on time tomorrow! I've really missed most of them so I don't know who the reporter is!

Hi folks, I just wondered if there are any others out here in south east asia who might catch this program tomorrow. All week CNN have been running features on the global debt problems and tomorrow they are doing a (prob short) special on the end of the UK housing boom. Hopefully I'll be around to watch it and let you know the international perspective. Thought it may interest some of you as recently the international media has begun to pick up on the problems facing the UK's market (until now I got all my news off here and TMF). The other day they were dealing with the consumer debt problem in the UK. btw, they quoted a figure for the number of people in the UK who are using credit cards every month just to meet their monthly expenditures. Does anyone know what this percentage is roughly? I'm thought they said 20% (but I had just come up from the pool and still had water in the ears!). Surely that can't be right!?! Cheers

And your neighbour's home! Imagine living next door and watching all that tat going up!

Why can't these guys just say a FALL!?

So far the auction has one bid at the starting price of £920,000 The bidders has an ebay rating of 9!! (very low). I checked his previous auctions and he bought 2 rugs and an answering machine, now he's gone straight for almost £1 million worth of property!

House prices coming down AND Jennifer Aniston back on the dating scene!! It must be Christmas!

Having read a lot of the posts about impending economic problems I cannot help but start to think that maybe Bruno is onto something! But thinking about all this brought me back to an old question I have never received a satisfactory answer for. Namely: “Why is gold valuable?†I understand how the wealth of many (western) countries is based significantly around the gold reserves they hold (Fort Knox, Bank of England etc), and I understand how our paper money is simply an IOU for our share of this gold (“I promise to pay the bearer on demand†etc – although this seems not to be the case in the US which is another topic completely!). I also understand the brilliance of Goldfinger’s attempt to steal the value of the gold held at Fort Knox without actually having to take the gold (the rarity of gold would have resulted in his own gold doubling in value, if it wasn’t for Mr Bond). But none of this tells me why gold is actually valuable (even the rarity of it, white dog poo is very rare nowadays in the UK but this doesn’t make it valuable!). I can understand how gold was valuable in the dark ages/middle ages. When most of the peasants only owned things which were green/brown/grey, the site of a person decked out in golden crowns/breast plates/bracelets etc would have been an awe inspiring site and would have invoked a feeling of inferiority and a respect for the power and “wealth†of the wearer. However, nowadays, while I cannot deny the sophistication of a fist full of sovereign rings, it doesn’t make me feel any respect/devotion to the owner. I have never worn jewellery and I never will. So back to my question, what is the intrinsic practical value of gold that makes it valuable? I am hoping that I am missing something here, and that gold does have some practical uses that dictate its value. I’m thinking perhaps in the electronics industry (have you seen the price of gold plated speaker cables!). Obviously oil (another traded commodity) has a simple practical worth that determines its value. If we do have an economic Armageddon which sends us back to the Middle Ages, a barrel of oil would be very useful to me to heat my family, run my machinery etc. A bar of gold would have as much use as a shiny doorstop. Sorry to go on, but if someone (and I’m hoping DrBubb is out there) could tell me the practical worth of gold it would put my mind at rest. I cannot believe our entire western (global?) economy is based on the “bling†factor of gold Thanks

£30,000 per calendar month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's correct, you immigrate TO a country and Emigrate FROM a country Of course once you become an immigrant you are automatically held responsible for all crime, drugs, prostitution and 'teken our jobs', just like the Daily Mail says

OK, I've never taken an economics class in my life but I was interested in the Nationwide house price graph that was discussed yesterday and thought it would be interesting to extend the trend line. I realise that just because house prices have risen in the past is no reason for them to carry on rising etc etc, so bear in mind I am assuming here that in the long term, property remains a good investment and the trend of house price rises will continue as it has done since 1957. I'm not including anything fancy like changing demographics, population birth rates, terrorist attacks (how do you plot those in excel??). My opinion is that houses are vastly overpriced at the moment, but in the long term I do believe they will rise, with booms and busts along the way. Have a look at the attached chart, I have included both unadjusted house prices and prices adjusted for inflation. I have extended the trend lines by 25 years (ie, if I was daft enough to buy a house today, what would this trend tell me about my house value the day I paid off the mortgage?). All data is from the Nationwide. I would love to know if this is a valid prediction or just amature boll*cks! NB. The Nationwides trend is a little different to mine, I used the default excel polynomial trend, I don't know what algorithm they used. If you look closely, the Nationwide trend curves a little more than mine so it would end up higher at the 25 year point. PS I realise that using graphs to predict the future is frowned upon by Economists, but I just bought a dodgy copy of Office XP for 70p from the local market here and wanted to try it out

Well that one worked!

I know I'm a long way away in Malaysia, but I am really struggling to get onto HPC now! I'm trying to post a new topic on the main forum (with a nice little graph I drew :-) ) but I keep getting a blank screen, this is really just a test to see if I can start any new posts! I believe it's a good thing that the site is slowing/crashing - I'm usre it's due to demand