Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm not suggesting anything. I just like saying 'Kraft Dinner' in my head like Terrance and Phillip.

It's better in my house.

Wales is to cooking what the French are to singing.

Sorting out all the utilities. Phoning and telling them 'the property will be vacant after this date' and what arrangements do they need apart from a final meter reading?

Electric/Gas: Final meter reading, that's fine.
Water: Final meter reading, that's fine.
Sky: No action required, do what you want with your Sky+ box and router.
BT: No action required, that's fine.
TV Licence: OMG WE NEED DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE THAT YOU WON'T BE ILLEGALLY WATCHING TV ELSEWHERE OR INDEED ARE NOT LYING AND PLANNING TO WATCH TV ILLEGALLY IN YOUR HOME SO WE NEED DEATH CERTIFICATES OR HOSPITAL ADMISSION PAPERS!!!11111

Sounds about right.
I'm moving banks to Santander, and I spent a few hours bouncing all my direct debits across. I had to phone a couple of people (Aviva were one), but most places let me do it via the web.

For my TV license though, first I had to wait ages to talk to someone, who is going to send a form in the post that will take up to...

Get ready for this...

TWENTY WORKING DAYS

Haven't you gone yet?

When I moved to HSBC, they moved all my DDs and SOs for me. Didn't include tv license though.

Cancel the direct debit the day before you leave and send the license or printout to them with a note saying 'Gone to Canada! Bye!'. Let the next occupants deal with the threatening letters (which will probably still persist after they get a license themselves-hell hath no fury like the TV licensing bods)

When I first moved to Nottingham, my housemate and I decided not to get a TV as we were skint and didn't want to pay for a licence. We got six threatening letters in 18 months, two of which were sent recorded - I had to traipse six miles to pick them up from the depot. Cunts.

I've heard the weather is lovely there this time of year.

A portent of things to come.

I just filled in the section on the threatening form that says “I only use my TV for video games. Ta!” and—fingers crossed—haven't heard anything since. Yet.

Er... That makes no difference whatsoever, does it? It's a TV license, not a BBC license.

Unless it's detuned, you still need a licence for that.

It'd be like filling in your MOT form saying you don't need wipers or lights because you don't drive in the dark or when it's raining.

*paging Dimrill*

Er... you need neither of those for an MOT, because you can indeed get an MOT that's only for use in the daytime.

You're shitting me.

No, is true.

I don't believe that's true. From previous discussions I don't think you have to render your TV set incapable of receiving terrestrial TV, other than having it not attached to an aerial.

Malabar is right and you two are wrong: http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check/view ... mc_id=r001

I think the law moved on a bit in recent years, back when you did need a receiverless monitor in order to plead exemption.

My TV isn't attached to an aerial.
Edit: @ Craster.

Nah, it's always been the same. It's just now people have the internet and can research themselves, rather than going by the what the TV licensing dudes tell them, which is actual proper lies sometimes.

See: detector vans. Which DO NOTHING.

I think it'll be a shame when people realise that they don't have to bother paying the license fee. I'm sure there are those who want it to happen so that they can say it is unworkable. Because they loathe the whole idea of the BBC.

That seems odd that you can be exempt if you only use the iPlayer; as the whole thing's intended to fund the BBC you'd have thought that watching BBC programmes would incur a license charter regardless of the medium you used. I wonder if maybe the license charter has just never been updated to include these new fangled distribution methods or something?

For the record, I’d happily pay the TV licence if I actually had it hooked up and watched live TV. But I don’t. I use it solely for video games and Netflix. Live TV is a broken model.

Either way, I’m exempt.

I listen to BBC radio stuff sometimes and watch BBC TV content (albeit exclusively through the iPlayer and never 'live') so I'm happy to pay for it on that basis.

Also, it's very existence massively pisses off Rupert Murdoch so it's worth every penny on that basis alone.

Something like that - technically the iPlayer, as a catch-up service, doesn't count as a "broadcast", it's more like a video player. The bits that you can watch live, such as F1, do require a licence.

The former is why things sometimes aren't available when they're being repeated on the TV channels.

Mostly I just want to know why Family Guy still isn't on the fucking iPlayer, even seasons that they've bought since it was launched. Major Hollywood films are, after all, and Family Guy isn't "first-run" on the BBC (I think?)

FWIW I do pay my licence fee and i'm happy to. Most people don't have an issue with paying for the BBC I believe, but a lot of people do have an issue with the licencing authority, who are outright scam artists and cowboys.

The delay between live TV sports and the Internet streams of the same is such that I'd not call anything on iPlayer live.

It's all to do with the definition of "live" in the licence, which is akin to "broadcast as live" I believe?

From my experience with Olympic stuff at the weekend the delay is ~5 seconds; are you honestly bothered by that?

A week after our house went up for sale, another estate agent called and asked how it was going. I said that we were happy with our current agents and that if we did decided we needed anything else we would let them know.

A month later (today), same fucker calls back and asks the same question. I explained that we are still happy with the current agents and that if we want to do business with him, we will contact him. He replied that they'd 'had a good response in this area'. I explained again that if WE want to do business with HIM, WE will contact HIM and not the other way around. He wished me the 'best of luck'.



Fucking cunt and the ridiculous suggestion of 'Wow, I really like this house, but I'm only prepared to buy it through a particular estate agent'. Fuck off.

Interestingly, and vaguely related, I've pretty much rented out my house (which is awesome, been 4 months) but I had a phone call from a different estate agents. The prospective tenant wanted the house, but didn't want to deal with my estate agent, she viewed it through my estate agent and then called a different agent to see if they could get it for them.

I think if he had someone specifically after the property he'd have said as much as opposed to the incredibly vague 'had a good response in the area' as then I'd have been inclined to listen to him. Opening the call with a likewise non-committal 'wondering how things are going' doesn't make me think anyone is after it so much as a cheeky salesman trying to get another listing on his books. I note that the numerous other agents in town haven't harassed me, including the one who gave our second valuation.

See if he'll sell it for 2.5%. Tell him to call back when he will.

Digging through boxes to sift out stuff to keep from stuff to bin has found a number of interesting relics, including:
-a Quickshot two button joypad that needs a gameport/MIDI to plug into
-a Hayes Optima 14.4k EXTERNAL (!!!) modem.
-an Origin Systems catalogue offering a 'complete collection' of the original Wing Commander for only USD$79.95. Strike Commander is the featured product, placing it about 1993 or 1994.
-the free stickers from my copy of The Adventures Of Willy Beamish (with the rather wistful legend 'to be nine years old again...')
-manuals for classics like Stellar 7, Test Drive 3, Adventure Construction Set, Project: Space Station
-a switcher box for North American TVs... to let you switch inputs between cable TV, VCR and game systems.
-maps and charts for F-15 Strike Eagle II and F-19 Stealth Fighter.

Also, rendering old mostly-dead hard drives useless by throwing them repeatedly against the garage wall as hard as you can is fun! After three impacts the whole thing rustled like a box of Nerds and as I was putting it into the bin a little chunk of platter fell out through a gap in the now mangled frame.

Not in the slightest, what gives you that idea?

Final day in work done, and it was a complete fucking disaster (as you may be aware) so that's that done.

For fun, I made this:


Just about any lingering thoughts of this all being a mistake were squashed by the events today.

It is a mistake. Leaving We. Bastard. Having deaf fun in a foreign land where you're looked upon with suspicion due to your accent. Batrdss/.a.

Dusting and packing the consoles up and thought I'd arrange them nicely for a group photo.



Not pictured: Xbox 360 (currently playing loud music), Xbox (in the other living room), Colecovision (in a box in the attic), Sega Genesis+Sega CD+32 (also in a box in the attic), DS Lite (on the shelf behind me).

Chin up, Dimrill.

We'll all need to to fill up the quota once he's gone.

Goddamn, that fucking reverse beeper.

We finally had another viewing today... they must have been in the house for half an hour. I know as I phoned Mrs Metal as I left my chiropractor's office just as they were arriving. I strolled leisurely through town, stopped in Spar for a bottle of Coke and they were still there when I got home.

FINGERS FUCKING CROSSED.

If we all just keep an eye out for a Canadian with bizarre gaming standards and a porn obsession, we should be able to replace him quite easily if we're a bit patient. I mean, they're all like this, right?

I hope we get Robin Sparkles.