What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[SB1500]

The new phone - Pixel 8 - is sim free so I bought a cheap Labara sim, which is paid monthly via my Paypal. We did this earlier with a Smarty sim for Mrs J's newly aquired iphone and it's worked well. Decided on a different supplier for mine because we might get cover on one where the other may not be getting signal? For instance when we are in "the wilds" in Devon or maybe up north of the Scottish central belt. I believe Lebara piggy back on Vodafone (get me, sounds like I know what I'm talking about ) So would a Vodafone shop help?

I'll just give the finger print thing a go and see how it turns out - gona do the pin no too.

Thought hard about best protection and a folding case logically should give best protection. However it's bulky. I also have no inclination to carry cards etc anywhere near my phone - seems "silly" to me to be putting stuff like credit/debit cards in the same case as your phone, what if it gets stolen? everything is gone in one go and the thief might be able to clean you out more easily? My son in law is very "tech savvy" - unfortunately lives at the other end of the country to us - but I've floated my idea of the Spigen to him and am waiting on him getting back to me.

Anyway, the sim is due to arrive today or tomorrow, so things are hotting up. I've decided I'm going to try following this video:



and see how I get on - even the colour of the phone in it is the same "rose" as mine

That's a sound idea. I have two lines from my one phone currently - personal Vodafone and EE for work. Interesting as it can switch between them and sure enough, sometimes one has signal and the other doesn't. But for all intents and purposes, if you're going somewhere really rural or remote, chances are both have no signal. One benefit to the iPhone I must say is the satellite connection, I notice when there's a total lack of any phone service, the satellite option pops up. For emergency calls, but I believe they are expanding this to cover calls / normal texts as well to possibly one contact. They were supposed to charge for it after the first year in 2023... but then some legal complication of them being a 'telecoms' operator (if they charged for it) meant they'd have to hand over more data about calls etc and they refused so good on them for that. I wish other phone companies did this as it's a life saving feature. Especially for free.

For in-shop help... you could try, though I'm not sure. I know I used to use Giffgaff (piggybacking off of O2) which was much cheaper, but one of the ways they achieved that was by having no stores / support phone lines - it was all online back then. So perhaps Lebara is the same and deliberately separate from Vodafone - but you'll most likely get someone in there helpful enough that if they can help you, they probably will! (Look at me, believing in humanity and generosity! lol)

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

One benefit to the iPhone I must say is the satellite connection, I notice when there's a total lack of any phone service, the satellite option pops up. For emergency calls, but I believe they are expanding this to cover calls / normal texts as well to possibly one contact. They were supposed to charge for it after the first year in 2023... but then some legal complication of them being a 'telecoms' operator (if they charged for it) meant they'd have to hand over more data about calls etc and they refused so good on them for that. I wish other phone companies did this as it's a life saving feature. Especially for free.

Ah! so that was what it was all about - I mean by that, when we were out at my younger boy's house Mrs J noticed that in their kitchen she was getting no signal bars and my boy was looking at the phone as he said his does get signal in the kitchen. His phone is android and hers is an iphone When, all of a sudden, my boy said "Didn't know your provider gives you satellite"? She tells me there was something about satellite on the front face which she's not seen before. What you say here explains that? When she later tried the phone in the car, the satellite thing wasn't showing but she did have two bars of signal strength. That sounds a great idea for emergencies.

 

[SB1500]

Ah! so that was what it was all about - I mean by that, when we were out at my younger boy's house Mrs J noticed that in their kitchen she was getting no signal bars and my boy was looking at the phone as he said his does get signal in the kitchen. His phone is android and hers is an iphone When, all of a sudden, my boy said "Didn't know your provider gives you satellite"? She tells me there was something about satellite on the front face which she's not seen before. What you say here explains that? When she later tried the phone in the car, the satellite thing wasn't showing but she did have two bars of signal strength. That sounds a great idea for emergencies.

Yes! Very good to have, in case of a storm or power outage like happened here in January. You can go in and do a 'test' of it which does a simulation call to ensure it's all working and so that you know how it works. Makes you go outside and hold it up until you get a good connection. Worth a try, even to see the technology in action!

 

[bugsymike]

Yes! Very good to have, in case of a storm or power outage like happened here in January. You can go in and do a 'test' of it which does a simulation call to ensure it's all working and so that you know how it works. Makes you go outside and hold it up until you get a good connection. Worth a try, even to see the technology in action!

Do you mean stand outside in a thunderstorm holding a metal object high in the air to see if you get a connection???

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Do you mean stand outside in a thunderstorm holding a metal object high in the air to see if you get a connection???

It could be an "enlightening" experience

 

[portland_bill]

Cat brought in a tiny mouse, promptly let it go. Five minutes later, got bored with trying to coax it out from behind furniture, and demanded feeding. Got disappointed when I refused to feed her, so went out again.
So, the mouse hunt is down to me again. While peering under the furnitue at the last seen point, I hear a little clunk. Dear little creature has popped into one of the many little trap boxes, dotted around the room. Easy fix, carry box outside, release mouse to scamper away into the bushes.
Cat returned later, not even bothered to look for the thing. The joys of being 'owned' by a cat.

 

[StevenRB45]

I know I've been told I'm wrong about this before...

But somehow the phrase "if you want mice get a cat" comes to mind whenever people talk about their cats doing this..as it seems to be a universal experience among everyone who has cats.

The only people I know with permanent mouse traps set up..have cats.

 

[bugsymike]

It could be an "enlightening" experience

There are easier ways of recharging your pacemaker battery.

 

[bugsymike]

Re the mice, I thought they and rats were incontinent so always leave a trial for the next one to follow.
I tend towards the poison method for a permanent fix, although I appreciate not every ones choice.

 

[porta]

Re the mice, I thought they and rats were incontinent so always leave a trial for the next one to follow.
I tend towards the poison method for a permanent fix, although I appreciate not every ones choice.

It’s ‘controlled’ incontinance, they don’t sully their nests, and don’t leave the trails all the way to their nests so that predators can’t pick up their scent

 

[portland_bill]

I know I've been told I'm wrong about this before...

But somehow the phrase "if you want mice get a cat" comes to mind whenever people talk about their cats doing this..as it seems to be a universal experience among everyone who has cats.

The only people I know with permanent mouse traps set up..have cats.

"Get a cat". You never really own a cat, it owns you. They manipulate your emotions to enslave you, and every cat lover knows this, and succumbs to it all, willingly. This 'little darling' adopted us. She moved in from next door, after our previous cat died. They sense where they'll be welcome, and take advantage, then gently groom you until you're helpless. They will always search better if they're not happy, as ths one wasn't. As well as this one, there are at least two other local cats that keep looking at us as potential slaves.

Female cats tend to bring live prey in, then let go. Their instinct is to bring prey into a contrrolled environment, for kittens to practice hunting. Or in this case, me. Male cats tend to hunt and bring home dead prey, as thier role is to feed the family. Much easier to manage, with just a clean-up. Male cats are generally more affectionate, especially after they've 'had their wheels off'.

We do have a carpet cleaner machine, gets used frequently. Cat currently doing a 'don't you just love me' pose sprawled across the ironing board.

 

[bugsymike]

"Get a cat". You never really own a cat, it owns you. They manipulate your emotions to enslave you, and every cat lover knows this, and succumbs to it all, willingly. This 'little darling' adopted us. She moved in from next door, after our previous cat died. They sense where they'll be welcome, and take advantage, then gently groom you until you're helpless. They will always search better if they're not happy, as ths one wasn't. As well as this one, there are at least two other local cats that keep looking at us as potential slaves.

Female cats tend to bring live prey in, then let go. Their instinct is to bring prey into a contrrolled environment, for kittens to practice hunting. Or in this case, me. Male cats tend to hunt and bring home dead prey, as thier role is to feed the family. Much easier to manage, with just a clean-up. Male cats are generally more affectionate, especially after they've 'had their wheels off'.

We do have a carpet cleaner machine, gets used frequently. Cat currently doing a 'don't you just love me' pose sprawled across the ironing board.

We always had cats, dogs and other animals as youngsters, when married with children more animals appeared, once living on my own again I was happy to have no animals, daughters living in their own house had cats and two dogs, the oldest cat had it's nose put out by the young Cockerpoo and walked out for two years, until RSPCA contacted them to say the old lady who had been looking after him was going into hospital, this was the first they heard inspite of the cat being chipped etc. Against my wishes it was "donated" to me as they still had the same dogs.
Fortunately it has settled down here on the understanding that he only appears for some cat biscuits when it suits him on the odd day , spending the rest of his life attacking all the local wildlife and getting fed by many neighbours each thinking they alone had thought they had "taken in" a stray.

 

[StevenRB45]

The thing is I'm surrounded by field mice and voles, indeed saw one middle of the day yesterday going across a single track road. It then saw me and legged it back in the opposite direction. Also whichever car we have parked out the back always has a single mouse poo on the roof...if you clean it off it's replaced. If you leave it no more accumulates, I assume it's territory marker on a high point. It was on the Mazda...when the C3 moved to the back it was on the C3...now the C3 is out front it doesn't happen anymore but the Toyota has it instead very odd indeed been happening for at least a decade.

But I quite rarely actually have to set traps because unless I have a cat bringing them into the house...they don't like coming in. Given there's more food in the fields outside and they aren't house mice so are scared of humans. The only time they come close to humans is if we have a bitter winter and they are literally desperate and you usually only get one at a time.

Obviously urban house mice are a different thing entirely.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Our estate is quite modern high density housing with 3 blocks of flats, and a mixture of terraced and detached houses. There are so many cats around us it's all a bit "silly" the house opposite has at least 3 at any one time, and 3 dogs and a whole load of other stuff, like a large lizard which lives in a big tank. There are at least a dozen - cats - I see regularly and one very big and quite "rough" looking but obviously well fed ginger Tom who completely rules the roost - all the others are scared of him and run away whenever he's around.

Although I grew up in the country next to a farm and there were always loads of animals around, we can't have any because it sets Mrs J's asthma off. I don't mind them myself, although I'd take a dog over a cat all day long. There are a couple of the cats who will often come and sit by me when I'm crawling around under the cars and I quite enjoy their company. One in particular seems to be quite interested in what I'm doing as it actually watches quite closely and will even poke it's nose in to the extent that I can't see what I'm doing and have to shoo it away.

What I don't like is the way they scare the birds away. When we first moved into our houses - it was a newly built estate then - there were lots of different birds. Then, as more houses were built and more people moved in with cats, the bird population fell off. Now, pretty much all we see in the garden are pigeons and magpies with the occasional crow now and again, seagulls fly over all the time but never land. All the smaller birds have gone. It was a great surprise to me to see a mouse, quite a large one, scuttling across our patio at the back of the house the other day. It was nothing like as large as a rat but definitely bigger than the wee house mice I remember so well from my youth. Also it had quite a nice reddish brown coat, not the sort of grey colour I remember. Anyway, it ran from the corner by my gate to the edge of the steps from my patio to the rest of the, small, garden I have. The steps are made from 3x2 ft slabs and There is a small excavated hole under the end of the slab, I guess he/she maybe with "family" are living under there. - we've named him "Mickey". I probably should put down bait or something but I don't think he's interested in coming into the house and I don't want to kill him. A few years ago the flats opposite had quite a big mouse problem, they were running riot inside the utilities trunking and were in pretty much every flat in the block, took a professional to get rid of them. At that time I did a survey of our house and identified several possible entry points which I sealed up - things like where the gas pipe comes in etc. I also installed "Mouse Mesh" covers on all the air bricks. Although neighbours have had mouse problems, so far, we've been fine. What does surprise me is that, with all these cats around, "Mickey" chooses to live in the middle of them!

 

[portland_bill]

We always had cats, dogs and other animals as youngsters, when married with children more animals appeared, once living on my own again I was happy to have no animals, daughters living in their own house had cats and two dogs, the oldest cat had it's nose put out by the young Cockerpoo and walked out for two years, until RSPCA contacted them to say the old lady who had been looking after him was going into hospital, this was the first they heard inspite of the cat being chipped etc. Against my wishes it was "donated" to me as they still had the same dogs.
Fortunately it has settled down here on the understanding that he only appears for some cat biscuits when it suits him on the odd day , spending the rest of his life attacking all the local wildlife and getting fed by many neighbours each thinking they alone had thought they had "taken in" a stray.

I'm guessing that despite the old lady looking after him, she'd never needed to take him to a vet. Usually, if taken to a vet, they'll read the chip, and refuse to treat unles the registered owner agrees. When our cat moved in from next door, and almost immediately became ill, the vet would not treat it until we got hold of the neighbour and got permission. She eventually accepted that the cat had moved, and it is now registered to me.

Our previous cat, we got from a shelter, with what was supposed to be her brother, as a pair. Turned out, they were not related, and not happy together, so the male left. Despite reporting him 'lost', several years later, I got a bill from a local vet for him being put down, and disposed of, having been hit by a car. I asked whether his condition suggested he was still a stray, or well looked after, but they were unable, or unwilling to answer that. I fear there might have been a family nearby, missing 'their' cat, unaware of his fate.

 

[bugsymike]

I got a bill from a local vet for him being put down, and disposed of, having been hit by a car.

Bit of a cheek that vet.