|
Post by Kimby on Sept 19, 2018 3:54:16 GMT
Questa, you will get the next five guineas that come my way! (What’s a guinea? Besides a hen?)
|
|
|
Post by patricklondon on Sept 19, 2018 4:44:44 GMT
21 shillings, or £1.1s. It was a specific coin once upon a time, and it was considered so posh that upmarket prices like professional fees and luxury goods were quoted in guineas, almost until decimalisation came along. My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam"
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Sept 19, 2018 5:24:29 GMT
If, as "they" say, every drink takes X minutes off yer life, that means that if the Queen Mother had been teetotal, she'd still be alive with many years to go!
|
|
|
Post by questa on Sept 19, 2018 6:13:54 GMT
Early 1950s my Dad was on the committee of the local golf club - a rather rough course set among sand hills and low scrub.The clubhouse was built at the time of post-W.W.2 shortage of building materials and was also rough.
With many people moving into my town, there was an increased demand to join the club, and the new members were in favour of improving the facilities.I remember the fees were 18 shillings, but don't remember how long this covered, One year? Six months?
The committee wanted to raise the fees to 25 shillings but some thought this was too much for what they had to offer. Some suggested 20 shillings (one pound) but others thought this would not give enough revenue to make improvements.
Then my Dad suggested "one guinea, and call it that, not pounds or shillings". Everybody agreed and the members were proud to belong to a club that charged in 'posh'currency...even if the facilities were ratty.
And that was the first committee meeting I ever attended...sat in the corner, sipping lemonade and learning how things were done. I was about 9 or 10.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Sept 19, 2018 7:18:49 GMT
When did they start using Australian dollars, Questa?
I just looked it up for Canada, at it appears that when Canada became a "real" country (1867), it used its own dollar currency.
|
|
|
Post by questa on Sept 19, 2018 9:17:52 GMT
14th February 1966 Our notes were 10 shillings = 1 dollar. 1 pound (20 shillings) = 2 dollars then 10, $20 and $50 dollar notes. Later we got $5 and $100 notes. Coins were same as old currency until $1 and $2 notes were replaced with coins. The new 50c coin was recalled as the minerals in it were worth more than face value of the coin.
If you have held an Ozzie banknote you will know it is not paper but a sort of vinyl/plastic. Goes through a washing machine OK. but don't try to iron them There are many forgery detectors built in, like clear sections you can see through. The mint in Canberra makes currency for many countries.
|
|
|
Post by questa on Sept 19, 2018 10:57:06 GMT
For Kerouac2
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Sept 19, 2018 10:57:47 GMT
Canada started using those plastic banknotes a few years ago too. And got rid of $1 and $2 dollar bills, replaced with coins with a loon (a bird a bit like a cormorant) on them, hence the name loonies and twoniees.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Sept 19, 2018 15:22:53 GMT
They are quite common now in many countries of the world. They are already using them in Thailand and Vietnam more than 10 years ago. I would be quite happy if the euro notes adopted this technique.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Sept 19, 2018 15:27:47 GMT
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Sept 19, 2018 15:31:00 GMT
Some of Mexico's bills are plastic and I really, really, really hate them. They fluff out of your pocket, wallet, or coin purse way too easily, if folded tightly they don't want to unfold, once they're the least bit old they will split along a fold and they just plain feel funny -- like plastic as a matter of fact. I have a 100 peso note (not plastic) in my coin purse right now and it feels like money. No matter what country you're from, you would touch it and immediately identify it as money. The plastic notes feel like pieces of crap.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Sept 19, 2018 15:35:55 GMT
Sounds like you might be from an older generation. Not to worry -- cash money is in its death throes. Most of us will live long enough to see the end of it.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Sept 20, 2018 2:53:33 GMT
I’m hoping to see the end of crypto-currencies (e.g. Bitcoin). The process of creating new bitcoins uses SO much energy, and the buildings housing the hundreds and thousands of computer servers require so many cooling fans that they create noise issues that drive human and animal neighbors crazy. Seems to me that there’s no good reason for this process to exist.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Sept 20, 2018 5:20:46 GMT
I thought that Bitcoins were supposed to be virtual currency, so they shouldn't need any energy, although of course the computer servers use a lot. They seem to be an enormous scam. A bit like being told that a company or person is "worth" x billion $. No, that's not their worth, that's what someone is willing to pay.
I agree with Bixa about those plastic banknotes. They stick together too easily.
|
|
|
Post by mossie on Sept 20, 2018 8:17:24 GMT
Plastic notes are a real pain, our £5 and £10 notes are already and I expect 20s will soon go as there are quite a lot of forged ones about. They stick together when you don't need them to, but trying to count them out in a heap is impossible. I saw somewhere that the use of touch and go cards is outstripping cash, so cash will go eventually.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Sept 20, 2018 11:21:55 GMT
While I was paying for some fruit, some cars fell out of my wallet - not credit or debit cards - and a young man pointed it out. In turn, he was paying and $100 fell out of his wallet; fortunately the other customers pointed it out!
|
|
|
Post by questa on Sept 20, 2018 12:03:32 GMT
Were the notes made by the Oz mint? I haven't experienced these problems. I don't fold them but lay them flat in my wallet. They usually come out of the wallet in an orderly, if too frequent, manner. If the notes stick together try a shake of powder in the area.
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 20, 2018 19:59:38 GMT
Had my first ever proper manicure yesterday...this afternoon I chipped a nail. Bummer.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Sept 20, 2018 20:02:18 GMT
Quick-o karma there, LaGatta!
Cheery, manicures are wonderful if you never use your hands. Whenever I have one I walk around for a day admiring my hands & vowing to keep them that way. But I also garden and cook and type and do housework, so ........
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Sept 21, 2018 18:28:02 GMT
This morning there was a rather violent rain and wind storm in Paris around 7 a.m. Apparently it was the same storm that hit the British Isles a day or two ago. Anyway, I quickly realised that my flourishing basil plant was gone from my kitchen window. I had wired the pot to the outside railing, but obviously not as securely as I should have done. Anyway, I went downstairs to see if I could save it. The rain continued to pour down. I found it agonising on the pavement. The unbreakable plastic pot had broken. Dirt clods littered the footpath. I picked up the central stems which remained linked together by their roots and said goodbye to the much lovelier outer stems that had broken and which were in their death throes. I put the victim in the kitchen sink. A few hours later, after the movies, I returned with a new pot and a secure window pot holder which I attached to the railing. I repotted my patient, watered it and wished it a speedy recovery.
Will it ever forgive me?
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Sept 21, 2018 19:02:34 GMT
K2 I hope you collected the broken stems and brought them inside to dry. Dried fresh basil is good, too.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Sept 21, 2018 21:44:40 GMT
I thought that Bitcoins were supposed to be virtual currency, so they shouldn't need any energy, although of course the computer servers use a lot. They seem to be an enormous scam. A bit like being told that a company or person is "worth" x billion $. No, that's not their worth, that's what someone is willing to pay. I don’t understand - despite many explanations - what bitcoin is (or why we need it). But the part of the explanation that I do understand is that the process of “creating bitcoin” is solving complicated mathematical puzzles that require vast arrays of computer servers, which suck up huge amounts of electricity and release enormous amounts of heat. The fans needed to cool the server banks make a tremendous amount of noise, which makes them “bad neighbors”. And bitcoin “mining” companies tend to locate where energy costs are relatively low. In Montana, we get a lot of our energy from hydroelectric dams, and soon-to-be-obsolete coal-fired power plants, so there is a lot of interest in setting up new bitcoin mining operations. We also don’t have laws on the books governing such a new technology, so there’s little that people can do to stop a bitcoin miner from setting up shop next door. Wish it would go away!
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Oct 8, 2018 14:07:50 GMT
Today I received an apparently legitimate e-mail from a market research company looking for "men over the age of 55" who were aware of the existence of online dating sites and who would accept a panel discussion later this month in exchange for a payment of 50 euros for participation. Instant deletion.
|
|
|
Post by whatagain on Oct 8, 2018 18:48:50 GMT
Plus bitcoins keep track of every transaction associated with the bitcoins created. THe longer in use, the more complex the chain of characters. So yes, the more energy it needs to be stored and followed.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Oct 8, 2018 19:19:45 GMT
It is probably the source of global warming.
|
|
|
Post by casimira on Oct 12, 2018 4:41:21 GMT
Having to "bite the bullet" so to speak dealing with calling umpteen Medicare supplemental health care plan companies/agencies that fall within our current monthly budget.
Bureaucracy ad nauseum and ever so exhausting but knowing that the person on the other end of the phone line is only doing their job.
One gentleman from one of the supplemental providers I am exploring was so kind and informative. And while I have a wee bit of savvy and knowledge of what my needs are it turned out that upon my chattiness with the gentleman I spoke with that he was from Puerto Rico and has a sister who in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria last year succumbed to the same neurological syndrome that my husband was attacked by and still suffers from bouts of neurological symptoms of randomly.
One recent bout was out and out excruciating and it has been an incredibly stressful period for us not knowing when it will abate or reoccur.
I apologize to the members of this community for my lack of whatever that may have imposed upon my being more than enthusiastic and/or participatory in the spirit that y'all have been more deserving of from a more than grateful member.
|
|
|
Post by Kimby on Oct 12, 2018 12:32:15 GMT
Medicare insurance providers have been calling non-stop and our mail is mostly junk mail from insurers eager to pick up the slack that isn’t covered by Medicare.
I would be overwhelmed, except for the fact that Mr. Kimby went through the process two years ago and has graciously rescued me from dealing with it on my own.
Several things he has learned: 1. medi-gap policies are generally better (and cheaper) than the Medicare Advantage plans pushed by the insurance companies (which make out like bandits from these less flexible PPO type policies), and 2. There are several parts to Medicare, and you have to sign up for each part you need to have coverage. Part A is hospital visits, Part B is doctor visits and testing, etc. 3. If you have - or anticipate having - significant drug needs, sign up for Part D (drugs) right away. There are significant penalties for adding this coverage later. We are gambling that waiting will pay off for us as our drug needs are minimal (and generic) and our family histories don’t predict expensive drug therapies. 4. Within the Medi-gap coverage there are multiple plans that are available. Mr. Kimby has concluded Plan N is the best for him and also for me. (Don’t ask me why. I’m so grateful he has spared me from having to deal with the minutia of this process.) 5. Some insurers offer “family discounts” if both of you sign up with them. His plan (CGI of Omaha) is one of them. Unfortunately, they have stopped writing policies in Montana, so we don’t get this bonus.
My plan is with Mutual of Omaha. The monthly payments are ~$80, about $700 LESS than my ACA (Obamacare) plan, and the co-pay for office/hospital visits is $20/$50, with an annual deductible less than $300 (vs. $6550 with ACA!).
I can’t WAIT to turn 65 next month! But then the aging clock can stop, please!
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Oct 12, 2018 14:03:00 GMT
I pay about the equivalent of $100 a month for my supplemental insurance here but at least there is no deductible and zero to pay for things like hospitalisation or medicine. I have just been lazy, though, because if I look around, I know I can get the same coverage for at least 30% less.
|
|
|
Post by whatagain on Oct 12, 2018 16:12:21 GMT
My boss pays for Medicare. Basically we are covered by law - gov takes 12.7 pc of all wages for Onss - office national santé (sécurité for 2D s ?). It covers most of medical help but not extras like single room or dental or this or that. So my boss pays for these supplements. When I retired I guess I have to start paying.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Oct 12, 2018 16:19:21 GMT
Indeed, that's how it works.
Meanwhile, I nearly jumped out of my skin a couple of hours ago when somebody walked past my window. Since I live on the 3rd floor, this is not the sort of thing that happens often. Of course, I know very well that scaffolding is going up on my building, but I have not been following the progress minute by minute.
|
|