Bad beat/Moaning/Venting thread - Wordle Gummidge

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Using an unexpected bonus to buy a suit. Dublin tailor, handmade in Italy. Was I robbed or blessed with the €1,150 price tag? I do fully realise its a fucktonne of money, I just don't know if it's a fucktonne for what I bought, or kinda standard for nice fabric and hand tailored. What's a price range for standard good suits?

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Would this be too big?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor

5 or 600MW.

And in the future there will be even smaller plants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor

It's the standard 'The Irish Economy' textbook point that nuclear wouldn't work for Ireland due to baseload. Smaller could work, but probably needs them to be much more widespread. But I wonder why we'd bother right now given the upcoming interconnector and the core comparative advantage of developing wind.

Edit: the energy efficiency grid thing you posted yesterday was cool.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Have an odd enough question. Let's say you have a garage where the roof tiles have 'probable asbestos'. I'm guessing the most sensible approach is to don a very good mask and carefully remove them, rather than rely on experts to carefully don a very good mask and charge a few grand for doing the same thing? As in, the risks of properly contained asbestos, such as in a roof tile, are probably very very small.

[BennyHiFi]

The late great Ted from Scrubs did a version. Somewhat poignant now .

Excellent version. Kinda miss Ted and Scrubs now.

[Solksjaer!]

Excellent version. Kinda miss Ted and Scrubs now.

Poor old Ted died . Think lung cancer at 56ish His band the blanks did a few gigs . My fav scrubs character.

[Micknail]

Using an unexpected bonus to buy a suit. Dublin tailor, handmade in Italy. Was I robbed or blessed with the €1,150 price tag? I do fully realise its a fucktonne of money, I just don't know if it's a fucktonne for what I bought, or kinda standard for nice fabric and hand tailored. What's a price range for standard good suits?

How much did your Brexit/Italian suits work out there in January?

[Solksjaer!]

It's the standard 'The Irish Economy' textbook point that nuclear wouldn't work for Ireland due to baseload. Smaller could work, but probably needs them to be much more widespread. But I wonder why we'd bother right now given the upcoming interconnector and the core comparative advantage of developing wind.

Edit: the energy efficiency grid thing you posted yesterday was cool.

Killed my uncle - mesothelioma . Prefer to pay imo

Edit answered the wrong post . Reg asbestos

[Dice75]

Have an odd enough question. Let's say you have a garage where the roof tiles have 'probable asbestos'. I'm guessing the most sensible approach is to don a very good mask and carefully remove them, rather than rely on experts to carefully don a very good mask and charge a few grand for doing the same thing? As in, the risks of properly contained asbestos, such as in a roof tile, are probably very very small.

Neighbours should know the tiles contain ACMs and will probably rat you out. This will leave you both enjoying a happy life in your new 'hood and work out a lot pricier than hiring a specialist in the first place.

[Micknail]

Neighbours should know the tiles contain ACMs and will probably rat you out. This will leave you both enjoying a happy life in your new 'hood and work out a lot pricier than hiring a specialist in the first place.

Plus, where were the removed tiles "quietly" going to get disposed?

[Goodluck2me]

How much can we match over the currently proposed interconnector?

700MW, which is due to cost €1bn.

[Goodluck2me]

Would this be too big?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor

5 or 600MW.

And in the future there will be even smaller plants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor

That’s the ideal, the obvious problem with the modular ones is that you need “even more” communities not to object, but between that and some battery/storage type utopia you’d be well on your way.

[Goodluck2me]

It's the standard 'The Irish Economy' textbook point that nuclear wouldn't work for Ireland due to baseload. Smaller could work, but probably needs them to be much more widespread. But I wonder why we'd bother right now given the upcoming interconnector and the core comparative advantage of developing wind.

Edit: the energy efficiency grid thing you posted yesterday was cool.

Why do you think it’s the standard response?

the interconnect costs the same in capital terms (about €1m/MW) than wind does to build, it’s efficient frontier is different though as you both export excess wind and import excess base load. The EWIC is a good example. However you haven’t addressed the fundamental issue that the wind doesn’t always blow.

another cool solution is pumped hydro, where there is a salt cavern in Larne which is quite stable, the idea is to pump air into it at night when power prices are low (see demand low high wind) and then at 4-6pm or peak times let it power up using the compressed gas to reduce peak base load. All fully renewable.

[Strewelpeter]

Te trick with the asbestos is to not move it

[Hectorjelly]

I thought this article was pretty cool, I look forward to reading the book;

The Exponential Age will transform economics forever



https://www.wired.co.uk/article/expo...ge-azeem-azhar

[Strewelpeter]

another cool solution is pumped hydro, where there is a salt cavern in Larne which is quite stable, the idea is to pump air into it at night when power prices are low (see demand low high wind) and then at 4-6pm or peak times let it power up using the compressed gas to reduce peak base load. All fully renewable.

There are c. 2million cars driving in Ireland, they average c.15Km a year, we are planning to be all electric in 20 years, it takes c. 30Kwh to charge 100Km

back of the envelope calculation tells me that by the time we reach 25% penetration of EV's there is no such thing as night rate power.

[Denny Crane]

Plus, where were the removed tiles "quietly" going to get disposed?

Dump truck into the local marsh I think is the normal play.

[Strewelpeter]

I spotted an albino Dalmatian today... it was the least I could do for it

[Micknail]

Dump truck into the local marsh I think is the normal play.

Hmmm, I have witnessed the "dig a big hole" method, just wondering how hard to not be obvious would be up in the big smoke.

In other news I see Dr finance is impressed with Eoin o Broins book on housing - with the jist of where it all went wrong.
I assume it's along the lines of any David McWilliams books whereby hindsight is 20/20.

Must be fun to have just bought a house in Dublin!

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Neighbours should know the tiles contain ACMs and will probably rat you out. This will leave you both enjoying a happy life in your new 'hood and work out a lot pricier than hiring a specialist in the first place.

Ah okay. I actually wasn't fully sure if it was a massive deal. It seems it might be!

Edit: I wasnt planning to manhandle asbestos. I don't have a house in which to do it. Just that it was an issue with a house we were looking at, and was wondering if it's a big issue.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Hmmm, I have witnessed the "dig a big hole" method, just wondering how hard to not be obvious would be up in the big smoke.

In other news I see Dr finance is impressed with Eoin o Broins book on housing - with the jist of where it all went wrong.
I assume it's along the lines of any David McWilliams books whereby hindsight is 20/20.

Must be fun to have just bought a house in Dublin!

His books are genuinely very good. The man knows how to write down an idea.

[dinekes]

The rotation of the earth really makes my day.

The guy who invented velcro died the other day. RIP.

I threw a boomerang a few years ago. I now live in constant fear.

[Lazare]

Was looking through an external hard drive and all I can find is six measly photos of my time in NY for 9/11.

Have a few physical photos somewhere but not sure where.

Definitely had a digital camera with me at the time. Was probably too dumb struck to be taking pics.

That day's plan had us on the top floor of the South Tower at lunchtime. Mad to think.

Was inside the ground floor of them about 13 hours before it happened.

[Micknail]

His books are genuinely very good. The man knows how to write down an idea.

Genuinely thought you were fishing for likes from Shinnerbots

[Raoul Duke III]

Was looking through an external hard drive and all I can find is six measly photos of my time in NY for 9/11.

Have a few physical photos somewhere but not sure where.

Definitely had a digital camera with me at the time. Was probably too dumb struck to be taking pics.

That day's plan had us on the top floor of the South Tower at lunchtime. Mad to think.

Was inside the ground floor of them about 13 hours before it happened.

The Taliban had actually agreed to hand over Bin Laden to the Saudis (before 9/11 was planned).

It'd be an interesting counterfactual to imagine the history of the last 20 years if they hadn't reneged.

[Dice75]

Was looking through an external hard drive and all I can find is six measly photos of my time in NY for 9/11.

Have a few physical photos somewhere but not sure where.

Definitely had a digital camera with me at the time. Was probably too dumb struck to be taking pics.

That day's plan had us on the top floor of the South Tower at lunchtime. Mad to think.

Was inside the ground floor of them about 13 hours before it happened.

Cousins Fiancé was killed in it. Only engaged 3 weeks. Found his tool box about a year after in the rubble. I'd say she hates these Anniversarys.

[BennyHiFi]

Must be fun to have just bought a house in Dublin!

A (reluctant) landlord's tale (in one act... but there may be a sequel)

I just closed the sale on an apartment I bought in 1999. It was one of 4 one-bed units in a converted late 1800s Victorian three-story terrace building near the city centre. Quite quaint with plenty of character, above two small retail units.

It cost me e1,000 to get on the property ladder via the Shared Ownership Scheme administered by Dublin Corporation back then. Before my purchase closed I was made redundant for the second time in 3 years (in my late 20s) then the dot com bubble burst. Not great timing but I persevered.

Within a couple of years the management company fell off the companies register because the reluctance of the other owners to pay a monthly management fee - this ended up costing us 1,000s to remedy years later when the Multi-Unit Development Act finally saved me and meant the other unit owners HAD to engage with me in re-instituting the company or face potential legal sanction.

However only one other unit owner understood the significance and importance of having a functioning management company to pay the bills, file accounts, manage disputes etc... without one it would become impossible to effectively navigate the day-to-day administration never mind to sell your unit if you wanted to.

I moved out in 2006 having bought a house that I overpaid for and was almost immediately plunged into negative equity on both properties (for many, many years) but had stable employment in growing and popular sectors as did my partner so we just ploughed on paying the mortgages, never really noticing our net negative wealth cos we were just paying the same as rent really.

I never had any problem filling my apartment with tenants and the rent was about twice the mortgage so it washed it own face with taxes, fees, running repairs an all that. It reckon it cost me about 120K to keep it afloat as a landlord and that I earned about 130K from it over that period - thus making my "profit" a (taxable) 10K for all the aggravation and shoe leather I had to go through.

However it did also afforded me the opportunity to take a year off living and travelling in Australia and Asia-Pacific. So that was nice.

I almost had it sold one for a tidy profit once but it turned out it wasn't on the land registry and by the time I got that issue resolved the guy had pulled out and the market had crashed.

Fast forward to the 'landlord' years. I was a reluctant one (and am not expecting any sympathy!) but knew if I didn't drive things with the management company no-one else would.

In the 15 years I let the unit out these were some of the highlights of being a landlord:

• A fire next door which cause its roof to collapse which caused the rain to come in for years against a now exposed party wall and cause serious damp - we sent loads of legal letter but never got it resolved until the building partially collapsed and the landlord was forced to shore it up and issue got mostly resolved
• Our own roof got damaged twice - probably cos of water ingress from next door. The insurance paid up once but h second time we had to club together - a cash call - cos the management company didn't have enough funds to cover it.
• Two floods, one on the ground floor and one via the attic when a water tank leaked while the owners of that apartment below were on holiday and thus didn't notice for a few days (damage was minimal but cost a grand to fix in my apartment)
• An attempted murder in the hallway by one of the tenants relatives who tried stabbed him
• A Christmas Day flood in my apartment where it was raining so hard the rain came into my apartment in a river down the party wall - the tenant helpfully sent me a video around 5pm, just after I'd finished my Christmas dinner. IIRC it was shorting the electricity too.
• One tenant who annoyed all the neighbours by hanging their laundry all round the common area (and cooking exotic food - my neighbours were varying degrees of racist) and another who ruined half my kitchen by not reporting a defect in the sink so all the units on one side got rotted with water damage. Oh... and another tenant who witnessed a suicide in the building across the road while smoking out my window. And yet another one somehow managed to burn both the carpet AND the ceiling. I kept half their deposit - the only time I had to do anything like that - to fix it up and he nearly cried.
• Four reluctant owners (out of six) who would varyingly not show up to meetings, show up to meetings only to complain loudly and continuously about the cost of everything and then not pay their management fee for years and have to be threatened with legal action and still be in arrears (at the time of writing only about one-third of the management fees were accounted for)
• A management agent who abandoned ship because of the grief the property gave him (the current one seems to be considering the same)
• One time I even had to pay the whole block insurance myself out of some redundancy money cos the other owners were years late with their fees and there was no money in the account.
• And at the last AGM earlier this year I was the only person to show up
• When I was selling I found out the solicitor who helped my buy the property had absconded with a load of clients funds including about e500 I had given her for some tax bill which the Revenue demanded be paid in full to allow the sale to proceed - they generously agreed to waive the penalties when informed of the story.

So, to cut a long story short, I decided I'd had my fill last year and due to inflated prices now and having paid the mortgage down significantly figured it was time to sell and give myself a well earned break from the dreaded co-owners (who were almost always far worse t deal with than tenants).

It took a long time to get the whole thing moving and over the line for many reasons, not least of all the pandemic, the tax issue, missing deeds, lazy management agent and various other thorns in my side. But I had to persevere.

Ultimately I've walked away with a modest six-figure profit (from a 1K investment) and will quite happily plough this into my third and hopefully final property in Dublin if I can find something that suits in the coming weeks and months while keeping my half paid off current house for my pension. If I can't find anything I'll just hang in there and an opportunity will present itself eventually

So my (not so) hot take on the property market is:

1) Don't get involved in apartments if possible - if you're buying have your own front door onto the street so you're not relying on anyone else to pay or fix shit that goes wrong.

2) Buy what you can afford when you can afford it and don't listen to anyone telling you otherwise - as long as you're planning to live there for as long as you have to. If you're investing, though or think a swift turn around for a tidy profit might be for you then all bets are off. That game ain't for me.

3)If you have to be a landlord, don't be a cunt. I always undercharged my tenants (who mostly seemed genuinely grateful) because my mortgage was so low I could afford to. And they always got anything they asked for. You'll feel better about being a capitalist swine if you're nice.

4) Beware people with fancy pensions telling you property isn't suitable for a pension - by the time I retire I'll should have turned that e1K investment (loaned to me at the time by my then girlfriends parents - something I remain eternally grateful for!) into about a million quid of assets with a steady, decent income stream and all for the cost of just paying the equivalent of the rent for each gaff.

Even if things crash again the day before I retire I'll be alright and, more importantly, so will my son who inherits it all (unless I can degen it all away through a long and dissolute retirement).

So, for now, fuck being a landlord. Until the next time.

[Raoul Duke III]

That was a nice twist at the end from 'being a landlord is a fucking nightmare'.

[Wombatman]

Using an unexpected bonus to buy a suit. Dublin tailor, handmade in Italy. Was I robbed or blessed with the €1,150 price tag? I do fully realise its a fucktonne of money, I just don't know if it's a fucktonne for what I bought, or kinda standard for nice fabric and hand tailored. What's a price range for standard good suits?

Struck by an idea today. Somebody needs to setup a shared online body dimensions repository to link in with online shopping for a guaranteed tailor-made fit every time.
Probably some snazzy software could accurately capture using a phone or web cam. When shopping, your browser will auto fill your sizes from your Dimnsionizer \ Measurator account.
Maybe some B&M retailers, who do significant online trade, could host measuring booths, equipped with all singing all dancing sensors, to allow quick login to add or update one's statistics.

Fully expecting it to be done already. Should be easy enough to monetize. Could save online retailers a tidy sum on returns processing.

[Solksjaer!]

The rotation of the earth really makes my day.

The guy who invented velcro died the other day. RIP.

I threw a boomerang a few years ago. I now live in constant fear.

Paid a fecking carpenter 700 quid upfront to build us a new double bed. Fucker did a bunk

[Denny Crane]

Struck by an idea today. Somebody needs to setup a shared online body dimensions repository to link in with online shopping for a guaranteed tailor-made fit every time.
Probably some snazzy software could accurately capture using a phone or web cam. When shopping, your browser will auto fill your sizes from your Dimnsionizer \ Measurator account.
Maybe some B&M retailers, who do significant online trade, could host measuring booths, equipped with all singing all dancing sensors, to allow quick login to add or update one's statistics.

Fully expecting it to be done already. Should be easy enough to monetize. Could save online retailers a tidy sum on returns processing.

Tailors Mark essentially did that. Although they seem to have been taken over or rebranded and it's 3 or 4x the price now.

[Mellor]

That other landlord management stuff sounds headwrecking. I think a part of the problem is that many people just don’t fully grasp how apartment buildings should function. They see the body corporate/management compay as some mysterious building owner asking for money.
it’s not helped by Dublin planning laws that stifling good apartment design in favour of low rise units of mini houses stuck together.

[Raoul Duke III]

Tailors Mark essentially did that. Although they seem to have been taken over or rebranded and it's 3 or 4x the price now.

Luckily I haven't really worn shirts much for the last 18 months but would be interested in the new Tailors Mark (which was great as you say), if it's out there. Any ideas?

[Micknail]

My gods they actually went and made a movie about Finkel vs. the rest of us

[Mellor]

That other landlord management stuff sounds headwrecking. I think a part of the problem is that many people just don’t fully grasp how apartment buildings should function. They see the body corporate/management compay as some mysterious building owner asking for money.
it’s not helped by Dublin planning laws that stifling good apartment design in favour of low rise units of mini houses stuck together.

[hotspur]

Took a notion to head to Galway today to a see a play during the Galway Arts Festival. Domhnall Gleeson is in it.
i

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Luckily I haven't really worn shirts much for the last 18 months but would be interested in the new Tailors Mark (which was great as you say), if it's out there. Any ideas?

The guy I went to for the suit, hunter treacy, does handfitted shirts also. He takes your dimensions and ships them off to his Italian place to be made of the fabric of your choice. It's €150 a pop though.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

We spent last night in Hidden Valley camping site. In case anyone is unsure about camping from their camping scout days:

1. The Decathlon inflatable tent is a thing of wonder.

2. There's still no comfortable way to sleep in a tent.

[Hectorjelly]

We spent last night in Hidden Valley camping site. In case anyone is unsure about camping from their camping scout days:

1. The Decathlon inflatable tent is a thing of wonder.

2. There's still no comfortable way to sleep in a tent.

have you tried opium?

[hotspur]

What were you sleeping on Hitch? Big inflatable mattress things are bad but inflatable mats a couple of inches thick are good imo.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

What were you sleeping on Hitch? Big inflatable mattress things are bad but inflatable mats a couple of inches thick are good imo.

Well that's precisely it! They sell these ridged mattresses as a default which are horrific. And we forgot pillows. Must get the inflatable mats!!

[Lazare]

Back at parkrun this morning for the first time since March 2020. Felt amazing to be back.

Russborough House is a stunning track, mostly trail and grass. Tough enough uphill finish.

[V for Vendetta]

Was looking through an external hard drive and all I can find is six measly photos of my time in NY for 9/11.

Have a few physical photos somewhere but not sure where.

Definitely had a digital camera with me at the time. Was probably too dumb struck to be taking pics.

That day's plan had us on the top floor of the South Tower at lunchtime. Mad to think.

Was inside the ground floor of them about 13 hours before it happened.

The Mrs has a touch of PTSD about the whole thing having been on a train in NY heading in to the towers that morning.

Luckily one of her party was dragging her heels and they were 30 minutes later than planned on the day which made all the difference. They still got caught up in the chaos but avoided injury or worse.

She used to get very tense leading up to the day and all the docs and tv coverage didn’t help although she worked through some of it with a professional which helped.

But the good news is we’ve gone and redefined what this date will mean in future for our family as V2.0 arrived at 4.46 this morning. Apparently this means I have a gentleman’s family! The main thing is everyone is doing well.

[Lazare]

Back at parkrun this morning for the first time since March 2020. Felt amazing to be back.

Russborough House is a stunning track, mostly trail and grass. Tough enough uphill finish.

Forgot to mention (how could I?) that I ran into ionapaul and his lovely family down there.

Great to bump into you Paul.

[Lazare]

The Mrs has a touch of PTSD about the whole thing having been on a train in NY heading in to the towers that morning.

Luckily one of her party was dragging her heels and they were 30 minutes later than planned on the day which made all the difference. They still got caught up in the chaos but avoided injury or worse.

She used to get very tense leading up to the day and all the docs and tv coverage didn’t help although she worked through some of it with a professional which helped.

But the good news is we’ve gone and redefined what this date will mean in future for our family as V2.0 arrived at 4.46 this morning. Apparently this means I have a gentleman’s family! The main thing is everyone is doing well.

Wow, a lot there V, incredible 9/11 story but most importantly, wowzers, huge congrats.

[Solksjaer!]

9/11. Just as well there was no widespread smart phones back then or the grimness of it all would be on your WhatsApp every 20 seconds .

Good luck to Mayo today. And Vs new clan member.

[Lazare]

This is brilliant

[Raoul Duke III]

Congrats V.

Well outnumbered now.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

That's lovely V!

[Theresa]

Unreal V! Delighted! Prob wouldn't settle on the V2.0 name though. There's a lot of road in that one for the new kid to hold over V1.0.

[Mellor]

Great news V. Here’s to putting the past away and defining dates.

[Mellor]

In other news, anybody have a link for the all Ireland?
unlikely but worth a shot

[shrapnel]

Congrats v4v for v2. 0.

Always so lovely to hear when all goes well!

[Gimmeabreak]

Congrats V4V.

[ionapaul]

Congrats V great news.

Was nice to meet Lazare at parkrun this morning; a long 18 months to go without! Russborough House seems pretty cool.

[Strewelpeter]

Thats great timing for No 2 GL

[Raoul Duke III]

How do Mayo leave O'Shea on? Headless. Not that he's alone there, hopefully they get the heads back for the last quarter.

[Guest]

Lol Mayo again missing goal chances galore. Congrats to v4v a gent. The night of sept 11 I was in a casino in Cairns had booked flights to Bangkok the 13th. Was down 800 dolls case deuce went on a heater on poxy black jack. Few hours later barely able to walk rocked up to the cashier bundle of chips 14400 dollars in crispy green hundreds. Woke up hungover to the shocking news. Met two lads I knew on the street next dat day asked are they out tonight said stone broke told them I had a solution. Brought them out gave them a 100 each and bought every drink. Met up with a girl I was seeing in Australia in Thailand even with all that cash for a backpacker was miserable it didn’t go great.. Could have done so much at the time but if the head and heart are gone what can you do.

[Raoul Duke III]

Classic case of a team beating itself.

Reminds me of Clermont. It's actually hard to watch.

[Guest]

Classic case of a team beating itself.

Reminds me of Clermont. It's actually hard to watch.

How do they late this year get revved up for another season especially the senior players. Thought the ref has had a very good game.

[Strewelpeter]

You gotta feel for Mayo but this is hilarious

Is it really true that Aidan O'Shea has now played in 7 Finals without ever scoring a point Maybe its him they should do a Wicker Man on instead of the one surviving player from the last winning team.