Comhrá - the general chat thread

[JaneJeffer]

Hi Craicnetters!

I was looking for the other thread and see it's fallen way down the list so I decided to make a new one for all our daily musings ☘️

The bottle machines are really easy to use so long as the bottle has the R symbol on it @LifeInAHamsterWheel * *

Im surprised I don't need an app to recycle bottles!

😂 I know what you mean, everything seems to require an app these days. QR codes are the bane of my existence 😵

I am rendered helpless by qr codes. I want travel agents to sell plane tickets. Banks should have cashiers and cash. I do cash things in the credit union because they have humans. Ordering a repeat prescription on app taks about an hour. Parking at the railway station needs a degree in computer science.

Hear hear on QR codes. I avoid them as much as possible.

Safe travels @eggandonion I'm an outlier on MN I actually like Ryanair! Never had a problem with them. I adore toblerone, DH was away recently and brought me back a bag of mini milka bars - they've languished in the fridge ever since as I'm not keen, toblerone would have lasted a night!

Bloody QR codes and Apps and Cookies they can all feck off. Even the school have an app you have to use for bloody everything, why can't I just send a note in if they've been out sick?!

London was very very wet today. It was a home from home...I think Ireland had better weather.

I think so @eggandonion I hope you had a good day regardless

Can I join you?

@eggandonion I agree re apps and technology. Its constant. Its something that stresses me out, i have so many different payment platform accounts now for different school stuff and activities. It's a relief when DDs irish dancing class requires cash in a labelled envelope. I also randomly pay in cash in shops that I like in the hope that it might influence a decision to go cash free.

@Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong of course you can join us!
I went to London with a debit card a credit card a revolut card and revolut app. None would tap...aib cards are unpredictable. I had to buy physical tickets for the underground which I actually prefer. Although they are dearer. They have kindly staff at the machines for old gimmers like me.
I have an aer lingus app. My boarding card was on it for outward journey. Not for returning. It wouldn't let me log in and didn't recognise my email address. The one I used on buying tickes and checking in. I had downloaded it and also printed it out.
The security thing in Heathrow wouldn't scan phones. I swanned through with the printed one.
And had to buy a wine on the plane with a card that wouldn't tap.
Cash is king.

Well summer was lovely...I don't know if today was autumn or winter.

Wasn't it so cold yesterday? Wet and windy- was tempted to light the stove!

You really wouldn't know what to be wearing this past week!

Yesterday was an abomination!
I felt sorry for the Holy Communion kids it was such a washout.

I'm reminded of the old saying "Don't cast a clout til May be out"

Don't put the winter woolies away til the month of May is over.

We lit the stove last night and put the heating on for a while, it was cold - a damp cold.

It's dry and sunny now.

I missed a train at 6am one morning
because I couldn’t park without an APCOA account and the phone signal wasn’t strong enough to download the app. Ended up driving to Dublin.

Questioning the wholescale adoption of mobile tech as the basis for banking, retail/card-based payment and just about everything is often dismissed as a load of dinosaurs not able to keep up with the shiny new tech. They're a nuisance, but hey chill - they'll die out soon. Sorry Gran not you of course
But there is a serious technology-based argument to be made about total dependence on mobile comms/wi-fi/etc - it's like putting all your eggs in one basket. Something fails, everything fails. You lose your internet connection, and you're in trouble. Your keyless car fob fails, or someone hacks into it.
You lose your mobile phone and your cards and nobody accepts cash. There's a power failure and you haven't had a chance to recharge your phone so you can't dial 999. A huge solar flare destroys communication satellite and blows up the power infrastructure.
There's not much resilience in the tech landscape the big companies have shaped for us, on the basis that it's progress, so get on board or get called a Luddite. Or a dinosaur. or An Old Person.

Fastforward to the future, as in: the 21st century is ancient history. There are all these funny little squares with black and white bits, but the data they refer to was wiped out when a solar flare/war/some unknown cataclysm destroyed all the electronically-held data, so they are unreadable.

Fortunately, the Book of Kells and bits of the National Library survived so they know that there was a more resilient and easily-interpreted data-storage technology thousands of years earlier which bizarrely they completely abandoned at some point..

Dd1...hse employee when they were hacked. Had to change all passwords etc.
Dd2... abroad when the banking systems crashed but she was able to use revolut for some reason.
Dd2 ... company she works for has lost millions in a fraud.
Me...has an envelope of cash for paying my staff. Ie coalman hedgecutting man raffle tickets etc.

Has anyone living in ROI now worked in UK and managed to get the YK pension buy-back plan? Not sure what it's called. DH & I worked in UK for 8 years so would be eligible. Apparently it's a brilliant deal. I think we might have slept in on this though I hear there's a huge backlog I'm not sure we'd get it done on time but we're going to look into it this weekend and get the ball rolling.

Here's a link explaining it

I have bought years...I grew up in the North and lived there again after being in England. The Uk paid contributions when I was at school and university too.
The downside is of course less Irish contributions!
And I have to stay alive to get it!

Hi @LifeInAHamsterWheel , I've tried to start the UK pension process. Got a forecast from Dept of Work and Pensions - I've over 10 years, but they didn't tell me what years I could buy back. I filled in CF83 form and sent off. Need to see if it's Class 2 or Class 3 contributions to buy back gaps, as there's a big difference in the cost. Not sure I really understand the process, but hopefully I'm in the system as there's big backlogs.

The downside is of course less Irish contributions! that's not my understanding @eggandonion although maybe there's some rule because of NI? But I was living and working in England and apparently it doesn't affect Irish pension at all?

There is a company that are offering the service, getting good reviews (it was featured on Newstalk last year) there's a fee obviously, I think it's €500 (per person so for us it would be €1k) but I'm starting to wonder that it might be worth it. Seems to be a difficult process to work through. And of course the closure deadline is looming so it would be good to just give it to someone who knows exactly what to do.

@eggandonion sorry I know what you meant now! We're not too bad as we were only away for that one stint and overall I think we'll still have enough contributions here. Still, every little helps doesn't it?!

We used usp to help us... he is in the Midlands. It is fiddly.

Our pensions are messy because dh was working on UK contracts for a few years and there are gaps there.
Then we moved to RoI in our mid thirties. So began again!
But definitely begin the uk process. It is very slow. If you know your national insurance numbers that is a good help. Also they still use the April tax years I think so depending on what month you started you might have an extra year!

I can't get excited about the upcoming elections here or Uk...or even Usa.