Amen. I don't usually get in a checkout line behind any woman on her own because they seem incapable of packing with any speed at all. Plus they all seem to want to start a conversation with the checkout person (if it's another woman). And then its "Now I have a 3p off voucher that I think is still OK, I'll just get it." Cue 10 minutes of rooting around in handbag/purse, etc.

I had a grim experience in Tesco this evening just like this.

It's why I generally end up using unmanned checkouts, although I loath them on principle. Genuinely, if you want grocery shopping to be a leisure activity that's absolutely fine, but can you just do it somewhere other than right in front of me?

Also : people who stop for a chat because they happen to have walked through the supermarket doors at the same time as someone they know. These people should be put through the meat slicer.

'Prime Minister's Christmas Message'? And one from Corbyn too? What? Since when is this a thing? Sod off will you, we hear enough of your blather the rest of the year.

Heads up, people... it seems that my Groupon account has been hacked, as someone tried to make multiple purchases, (a little of £300 in 3 purchases) so it might be worth changing your password, if you have a Groupon account.

I only know about this because my bank phoned me to check, and they have now killed my card, and are sending this through to their fraud division.

I tried the forgotten password option, as I couldn't login, but have not yet received an email, so I sent them the following...

If you have a Groupon account, it might be worth trying to login and then change your password.

==============================================================
Hi,

I received a phone call from my bank this evening, advising that they were several suspicious payments on my account, to Groupon.

I have not purchased anything from Groupon in over a year, so they have suspended my debit card, the details of which were used to make the payments, and I am in the process of trying to login to Groupon, but it appears that my password has been changed.

I have clicked the forgotten password link, and entered my email address, but have not yet received an email. Please can this be investigated as a matter of urgency, as I am now concerned that someone has my login details, and do not want any more rogue purchases.

Thanks in advance,

John Vella.
==============================================================

nothing worse than scum family members calling me selfish etc etc for not participating in christmas or gifting anything to anyone I cringe at the amount of brainwashed weak minded idiots that feel they are obligated to spend money on gifts on xmas which should be banned

Can't spend what you haven't got.
It's sad that some people forget that and take out loans they can afford for Christmas.
People shouldn't expect to get anything.

I admit I don't understand that - when I was young there was a time my parents were quite hard up - we were sat down and told and what it meant. While we always had food, heating (the house was heated by a large fire - no central heating) etc we understood that for Christmas we would not be getting much in the way of presents

For some reason (some) families seem to think that they must buy everything that their kids want

Agree with the presents/expenditure thing. As kids, we didn't get toys/games unless birthday or christmas. Even then, we'd typically get one "main" present each and sometimes (mainly Christmas) get smaller ones eg a toy car or something similarly simple.

I got a bit frustrated about this over christmas. I admit it seems rather ungrateful but I was sat there thinking 'people have spent money they would have a better use for buying me a present I don't need and, frankly, don't really want and will probably go ina drawer never to be seen again.' That was true of every present I got apart from one which was a nice bottle of red wine . I do appreciate people making the gesture and going to the effort, but it all seems so superfluous in general.

I can understand presents with children - if 'we re going to do the whole Father Christmas thing, might as well do it properly. But why do adults feel the need to buy presents for other adults?

Next year I think I'm going to get on a plane to somewhere else - I dunno, New York maybe - and tell everyone they have no need to buy me a present because I'm already aware of their good wishes for me, thank you , a card will do fine. Either spend the money buying themselves something they need - which will make me happy anyway - or give it to a good cause. It all seems like it's a zero sum game we all get stressed out about, so why bother?

Which is why we have long agreed to buy/contribute towards what someone would actually like or want eg sister wanted some sort of uv nail painting thing and some sort of beauty make up. Nail thing was about £20 so I bought her that. Beauty make up thing was £60 so mum and other sister split the cost and paid for it. The idea is that we give what somebody would like but probably wouldn't spend money on to treat.

I've long felt that the importance of Christmas (apart from the religious element) is spending time with family and it's often when we see relatives that we might not have seen or been in contact with since the previous Christmas.

We only give presents in the immediate family.

I got a shirt for the office, always useful, a tea caddy full of tea and a mug for the office. All things I could use.

It was the same for the girls, the got things they had been asking for and total cost was reasonable.

Only my wife got a "big" present, although nothing on Christmas day. She got a new car, winter tyres and first service as a combined birthday/Christmas present.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-38568000

What sort of a...

Shouldn't be that hard to find him with that much information.

Gah!! Why is it so hard to find a place to rent because you've got pets?!?!?!?

I've already discounted a good 30+ places based on the ad saying 'no pets' but called about 20 others which either don't say, or say 'pets considered' but what they actually mean is '1 pet considered' 'cos when I ring them they say that we have too many pets!!

We have 4 adult cats who are all outside cats, we have 2 fish tanks and 1 snake who lives in a vivarium. We've already said we're willing to move without the chooks and ducks if it's required because we have a place that will take them. We want to add 2 adult rescue dogs when we've moved and the Mister is working from home.

All of the houses we're looking at are way out in the countryside, they are all unfurnished so it's only our furniture at risk, we've offered pet deposits and/or a contract to clean the carpets when we leave (which we have with our current place) and they are all still saying no!!

I'm pretty brassed off about the entire thing, it's not PC to say no children, but IME children do far more damage to properties than our furry kids ever will! Our cats are all litter trained and are outside when we're not home, and the dogs won't be left alone at home for any length of time, that's specifically why we've waited to get any!!

I've got another 3 places to ring tomorrow, but I'm starting to get really down about the whole business. Loads of them have said 1 cat or 1 dog or even 1 of each would be fine, but once you've got 1 cat, 3 more make no difference at all except to the feeding and the number of litter boxes you have, none of which will affect our landlord!!

Have you tried sites that are specifically designed for people with pets? Just found this:

http://www.letswithpets.org.uk/