What are you doing today?

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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Grandad »

Ruby Slippers wrote: I hate Christmas!
We are not keen on it either RS. Up to about 20 years ago before I retired we used to invite all the near neighbours around for a drink in the morning. A big houseful that used to set the tone for the day. WE would have all the family, the grandkids were small and it was an exciting time for them. These days it is just too much stress to cater for all 14 of my own family and so we chose which of the three to spend our day with.
The grandchildren, except Louis, are all grown up and in relationships and three are living with their partners. Even if they go to the parents with the girl/boyfriend, by afternoon they drift off to some other house, usually the partners family.
Louis is the only one that we now buy traditional presents for and even he is becoming difficult. They have so much through the year that there is little left at Christmas that he has not got.
So this year like last year and the year before, the parents will receive seasonal token gifts, the grandkids some cash because they will use that however they chose, and Louis a few surprises and that's about it.

Roll on 2018....


:gg:
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Mad Dilys »

Today I brought my Kalanchoes in from the garden, we had a frost the night before last. They are still blooming bless them, even though they have been on their sides for a couple of weeks as there's been so much rain. I've never had any plant I think that has so thrived on abuse. :up

All except two cost £1.50 each from Tesco the other two cost £2.50 from the Garden Centre and were bigger at first, now there's no difference. That's what I call value for money. ;)
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Horus »

Thats seems good value for money MD :up we have had a couple of frosty nights and I can see the Nasturtiums slowly wilting each day.
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

@MD - I've never had much with Kalanchoes over the years and so probably haven't purchased one now in 3 or so decades. I've never had them re-flower either. You must definitely be doing something really right for them to have flowered for so long. Lots of people in my office used to have them but again I've never known one to re-flower. Will have to give them a go.

On another note the floor layer fellow showed up with two helpers and then started both bedrooms at the same time. They're really looking quite spectacular. Am personally so happy all the old grey carpet is gone. Given the extra helpers they're due to be finished well before schedule. Was initially going to be a two day job but now it'll all be done in one :)

It was actually really good commercial (like in an office) grade carpet. Probably could have walked on it for the next 20 yrs and it wouldn't show wear but OMG it was dull and ugly. My biggest dilemma in replacing it was to find hardwood that matched the wood already in the house. I finally did although it took getting it shipped across Canada but it is really worth it and wood is so much easier to keep clean too.
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Horus »

The room you showed us last time looked really great, lets hope this job is as good :up
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

They're DONE! The two bedrooms and they're looking as nice flooring-wise as the other room. Everybody is packed up, done and gone and all is looking really GOOD. Soooooo much nicer than that commercial grey carpet :(

Colour-wise the grey didn't go with anything. All the colours I tend to like are earth-tone (browns, yellows, oranges, greens) and grey just never went. Plus it was a real tight weave. Granted it never showed dirt - weave was so tight not a speck would have ever worked its way down but it matched nothing. The colour is now "Brazillian cherry" with lots of browns, yellows, oranges and even a bit of red in the wood.

Wood - the BEST dust buster!
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Horus »

And warmer looking :up
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Grandad »

Went to a local mobility scooter showroom this morning. Had fun trying out a few used ones they have in stock. Although I have no intention of buying one before my next eye appointment I must say they were a pleasure to ride and, with my walking difficulties, they solve that problem. So I will decide after Christmas but at least I have now tried some and it was fun :up :lol:
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

So far this morning I've been putting every back in place to where it was now the floors are done. Definitely looks MUCH brighter and having all brown tones is wonderful. I'm still using the Roombas and while they're ok on carpets the drag of going on a carpet slows them down so now I'm expecting them to be able to give even more time to sweeping up the big dust - meaning I get to vacuum less! :mrgreen:

Am also waiting for the daughter to come over with granddaughter. They just found out this morning that she will have surgery again on both ears Jan 4th so I'll plan to have the boys during that time. ;) :)

Other than that it is raining super hard. HUGE drops just splatting down everywhere and not looking nice outside at all so probably won't go anywhere today but I will finish putting everything back and getting the place back to how it should be!
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Horus »

I have been pottering about and installing cameras on my van, so far so good, but more work to do yet although I am not rushing the job. ;)
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Horus »

An interesting shopping day today, amongst other shops I usually visit my local Tesco.
I know quite a few of the ladies who work there and often chat with various ones on the checkout and for example if I know its their birthday I drop them off a card, they usually remember mine as well. Today when I entered the store I was approached by a supervisor who asked if I would like to try out their new customer self scanning system to which I replied “providing it is not intended to take someone’s job away, then yes”. So basically the first time you use the system you scan your Tesco ‘points’ card and enter your post code on a screen, you only do this the first time of using the system, after that you just waft your club card under the reader each time you visit. Alongside of this screen is a large rack of hand held scanners and one of them will flash to indicate that it is the one you should pick up.

After that you just walk around the store and as you put something in your bags in the trolley you hold a button down to scan the bar code on the product or on the shelf below the product. As you do so the item name and price comes up on the scanner screen much like a till receipt along with a running total so you can see exactly how much an item has cost and how much you are spending. Now as you guys have probably figured out by now I was in my element with this technology and really gave it a good testing out much to the surprise of the younger in store customer service helpers who saw this old guy using it better than they could.

Most items are simply scanned from the packaging and any error in reading the code or otherwise immediately brings up an advice screen telling you what to do next. Loose items like say Vine Tomatoes are selected as usual and you put then on a ‘customer scale’ to weigh them which is multi-purpose and you can select the item via a series of icons or by just entering a letter (say T for tomatoes) and it will display a touch screen of all the items as icons and you just touch the appropriate one. After that it asks you to confirm (all touch screen) the item you chose and the price displayed and then it prints out a sticky bar code label that you stick on the bag and then scan, very simple and straight forward.

To be honest I could not fault the system, items that were say two for a certain price would get added together and the discount displayed and the total corrected to reflect the discount. I even tried a couple of ‘reduced price’ sticker labels and they again worked perfectly. If you want to replace an item back on the shelf, simply press the ‘remove’ button and scan it again and it gets removed from your scanner, really simple. The scanner screen can be scrolled through just like looking at a till receipt, so it can be useful in remembering what you have bought or even forgotten to buy. Of course the main benefit is that you can pack your bags as you go along and more importantly you do not have to empty your trolley, put everything on the conveyor and then repack your bags after paying for your shopping.

Paying was easy enough and I even had some Tesco loyalty vouchers and voucher for a £1 off to deduct and that was as simple as passing them over a flat scanner which deducted it from a large screen version of my hand scanner so you could see it had been deducted. They still need an assistant on the checkout to remove security tags from spirits etc. or to add on any items that you had a problem with scanning yourself. I was not surprised when as I plugged in my scanner that it uploaded a message saying something like “you have been selected for a random trolley check” “sorry for any delay” This meant that the assistant scanned a few items (about 6 at random) although I am guessing that every new user will get such a ‘random’ check just to see that (A) the system is working and (B) you are not thieving anything. Again I would guess that steadily you will build up some sort of honesty/security rating linked to your Tesco Customer Card that makes those checks less likely the more you use it. Overall it was quite painless and I did enjoy the experience and not humping shopping in and out of a trolley was a big bonus, I shall definitely use it again next week. :up
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Mad Dilys »

I'm sure I could C*** it up so have never bothered wherever they are, WH Smith even have them now. I like shop assistants and I like them to know they are appreciated. Those who work in the Co-Op next door are exceptional, pity their produce isn't the same. ;)

Edit: I spelled the starred word above and it appeared in full - yet look what happens if I write Spotted **** - bizarre. :lol:
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Horus »

You still have the shop assistant at the tills so you can just go through them as normal, it just avoids all the packing and re-packing again especially with a big shop. :up
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Grandad »

Bl**dy liberty :xx Next thing they will expect us to go to the farm to cut our own greens and dig our own potatoes :xx




Joking H, only joking. I have not yet seen that system but it does sound smart. I have heard of one where the trolleys have a scanner attached. If self check out is available in a store I always opt to use it particularly if there are queues at the checkouts. I find the downside with them is that the scale will not detect very light weight objects and you need to call an assistant to clear the machine. Your Tesco system overcomes that problem. :up
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Horus »

I think its great as I hate all the hassle of pulling stuff out of your trolley all over a conveyor belt, then nipping around the other side to put it all back in your bags again and of course it is usually handed back in reverse order so your bread rolls get squashed :vs This way if they want to check anything they can, all you need to do is pay the girl on the till and any small issues can be dealt with by her if they arise. There will no doubt be some glitches, for example I pointed out to them that some fruit on sale is still in a suppliers box that also has a factory bar code on the side and therefore easily confused with the product and price code. Having said that this code does not scan and an error message comes up instead, but to some 'older' people it may confuse them, I have offered (for a fee) to walk around the store demonstrating to people how to use it . :lol: :lol:
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Mad Dilys »

Ah, but because I am "A Little Old Lady" I get my bags filled for me and make sure everything is packed correctly. :up

Admission - actually I'm a pretty big old lady, both in height and girth. I think I intimidate them. :oops:
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Horus »

:lol: :lol: @MD
To be fair they always offer to pack your bags at our Tesco, I think its company policy, its all this putting it in your bags in the trolley and then putting it all on the belt again that does my head in, this system is much better. Put what you want and how you want it in your bags, go to checkout, hand them the scanner, chat about the weather, pay your bill, go home, simples. ;)
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Sounds like a new up and coming that will soon make its way into all our stores. I think this is another step in the direction of getting rid of stores in that the next step is for us to walk about the store, scan what we want and then only get to pick it up at the end.........and.....silly me I just love picking out the item I want even from a whole rack of same same items!!

In most of the grocery stores I go to in the USA they still have bag boys (or girls) who put your items into a purchased grocery bag for 5 pennies or your own bag. Here in Canada we get to unload, watch the checker scan our stuff and then pack our own bags but we can purchase a bag for 4 cents which 'rounds up to a nickle anyway cause we don't have pennies anymore.

The store I like to go to a locally owned and fair sized grocery store still has the checker scanning and packing our groceries AND giving me a free plastic bag too (which I recycle by way of putting my garbage into it).

I like what you're experience was H but am wondering thought if that is just a step in the direction of us not being able to pick out our own stuff.
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by Horus »

I like what you're experience was H but am wondering thought if that is just a step in the direction of us not being able to pick out our own stuff.
Far from it LLL, you just wander along the isles selecting things you want in the same way as before, pick up a melon check it over and decide if you want to scan it and put it in your trolley or just put it down and move on same as before. :up
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Re: What are you doing today?

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I read an article about stores in ?Japan or ?China and they're walking about clicking on what they want off the shelf barcode and then picking up their order at checkout. They don't get to actually pick which one they want off the shelf.

To me if I'm picking up a tin of corn I'm picking up a tin of corn and I really don't care which one BUT if I'm picking out a lettuce or an apple or particularly any of the more tropical fruits that our locals don't even know the name of I want to be able to select which one I want.
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