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sa 5 Nov 2022	Life Skills No. 51: A bit incomprehensible why the post office feel the need to add to stamps what they call a bar code but what looks like a QR code and then say we can't use the old ones after Jan 31? With a first class stamp at 95p it can soon add up so worth trading them in. If you've lost the leaflet that came through the letterbox you can download one which is slightly different.
we 12 Oct 2022	Life Skills No. 50: Spices in most supermarkets (even the big one at Martlesham) only seem come in those little glass tubes making Life Skills No. 9 redundant... but Cupboard Love on Framlingham market has spices and stuff loose including the ground coriander we wanted, just bring a jar.
we 17 Aug 2022	Life Skills No. 48: If you're going to oil your Swiss army knife because the blades have become a little stiff take out the toothpick first or you'll be tasting 3-in-One for weeks if not months.
tu 19 Jul 2022	Life Skills No. 47: Visiting the Leiston or Ipswich council tips needs an appointment ... and a single mattress should fit into the back of a small hatchback.
sa 28 May 2022	Life Skills No. 46: Seems the Saxmundham Waitrose normally closes at 8pm, who knew? We didn't and they don't announce it on the pa.
su 1 May 2022	Life Skills No. 45: If as a small attempt to lighten life's load you usually order a lovely latte don't order a lovely *cappuccino* because you'll get a latte, order a captivating cappuccino. Similarly if you say Get me anything but a cheese roll you'll get a cheese roll.
th 31 Mar 2022	Life Skills No.44: We've finally worked out how you get a bacon roll in Costa Coffee when you can't see it on the menu ... if there is one you pick it out of the display cabinet. OK, you all knew that.
mo 14 Feb 2022	Life Skills No. 43: An OPEN sign that can't change to CLOSED is not to be trusted.
tu 18 Jan 2022	Life Skills No.42: Months back a £60 hard disc sent via a Royal Mail signed for service was delivered somewhere else than it's proper destination here. The local post office was totally disinterested and the sender was getting pretty much the same response from the Royal Mail help line. Adding the what3words to the address might have helped.
tu 4 Jan 2022	Life Skills No. 41: In an East of England Co-op expected free exchange of a torn bag for life. Later discovered we'd been charged 29p for recycling. Seems bags for life are no longer immortal, luckily we have a nylon type bag with a cat motif that folds up dead small.
tu 12 Oct 2021	Life Skills No.40: We're clearly a bit slow, we couldn't see how useful emergency equipment like a defibrillator is when it's locked behind a number pad. What you do is dial 999 to get the code, though in our defence some cabinets don't make this clear.
tu 23 Mar 2021 Life Skill 39	Life Skills No.39: The first law of electronics is It's always the lead; the second law is the same as the first. The cable bending where the strain relief ends (insert your own constipation joke) breaks the wire inside. Tape tightly wrapped around the cable to stop the bending is a temporary fix until a replacement lead arrives which in time will also become unreliable where the strain relief ends ...
mo 4 Jan 2021	Life Skills No.38: We expect you know it's a good idea to ask a service provider for a deal before renewing a contract? What surprised us more after dickering with BT via online chat was not that it saved some £240 on the year but after doing the sums the deal worked out pretty much the same as Plusnet ...
fr 25 Sep 2020	Life Skills No.37: If you've have money in National Savings (prudent old you) at the end of October most interest rates are dropping to pretty much non-existent presumably in attempt to help pay for the coronavirus.
mo 21 Sep 2020	Life Skills No.36: Just after the lock down start we lost a filling. Months of trying and eventually we got a dentist's appointment for November but the missing filling was feeling uncomfortable. For £1 (it must be the last outstanding bargain in Western Europe) the Framlingham Chemists has a temporary filling paste for DIY fillings. Put it in Tuesday and it's still there.
mo 22 Jun 2020	Our grateful thanks to Tony Hutt for doing the sum we should have and calculating the standby cost of charging USBs on a 13amp socket is pence per year ... but then as our mother said (wagging her finger) when she got a £200 ex-gratia payment for slipping over sequence dancing It's not the money nearthecoast it's the principle.
mo 1 Jun 2020	Life Skills No.35: We were attracted by a short lived Screwfix offer on these 13amp sockets with USB charging, but you know how your USB charger gets warm even when nothing's connected? That's because it's still consuming power and it's still going on your bill. For these sockets it's less than 75mW but it is 24/7 so we gave it a miss.

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