Nation divided, We’re NOT all in this together

One of the great things about blogging is that regular readers notice a pattern over time. Is the blogger talking rubbish? Is he merely riding a wave of whatever’s flavour of the month to gain ‘traction’ & to line his pocket? OR, is he consistently correct in what he predicts? I’ll let you be the judge; my reason for hitting the keyboard this morning is to comment on an article from Richard Littlejohn [syndicated June 16th] ‘Now Boris Johnson has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory’. Richard Littlejohn is a controversial journalist for sure & I don’t agree with everything he says, however, when he reports on the government’s mishandling of the Covid ‘crisis’ and a divided nation, IMAO, he’s bang on the money. Scroll through previous potless.co.uk blog posts and you’ll see why. I’ve been talking about a divided nation for months. We’re definitely NOT all in this together. I’ve recorded my observations about streets awash with cash for the best part of a year. I predicted weeks ago that June 21st our supposed ‘freedom day’ was never going to happen. (also on the home page of my indemandonline.co.uk website in black and white) Yep…check ’em out…check those blogs & see what I said.

potless.co.uk has been live for exactly a year, and we’ve made progress, but not as much as we’d hoped. The ‘modern way’ of promoting organisations is to spin all the good and bury the bad or the indifferent. In contrast I tell stuff how it really is, warts and all. Supposedly not good PR I know… again, you be the judge. Firms everywhere are plastering their websites, shop and office windows with rainbows & slogans thanking the NHS, virtue signaling & riding the wave of popular sentiment….60% of the public apparently supporting further lockdown and Covid restrictions. It’s easy to see where the 60 % figure comes from….Richard Littlejohn points out that they include 11.5 million on furlough who have been receiving 80% of their wages and 5.6 million public sector workers who haven’t lost a penny.  I urge you to read his article in full. Another plus point of blogging is that it broadens the mind; you have to really research your subject and follow multiple links to learn more. Do that for years as I have, and you get a pretty good handle on what’s really going on with your chosen subject, in this instance Current Affairs. You also discover the meaning of phrases like ‘Bread & Circuses’ 🙂  [Cue: Read the article]

Last weekend I attended my local Stand In The Park for freedom. I had conversations with many of the attendees. Naturally, they asked what I did and how I’d been affected by the ‘pandemic’, as I did them. I told them about potless.co.uk. Most of them were puzzled over the term ‘potless’ & told me they’d never heard of the word. To those kind I invariably reply: ‘If you don’t know the meaning of the word then you’ve never been there…..’ Admittedly, most of them came across as ‘well heeled’ as you’d expect from the west end of Darlington.  I’ve lived and worked in very different circles to them obviously. Street promoting businesses and politics to a divided nation for close on 40 years has taken me places those people would consider their worst nightmare; estates & neighbourhoods that bring tears to the eyes of any ‘grounded’ compassionate person’; places & communities left behind, crying out to be noticed, at war with inequality and injustice.

I’ve alluded to being mildly disappointed over the public’s tepid response to potless.co.uk. At the same time I’m encouraged by high rollers who’ve suggested I’m on the right track but a little ahead of time. I’m on record as saying that millions have yet to be affected by Covid19 mismanagement & we’re yet to see WTSHTF. Richard Littlejohn puts it more eloquently, as you’d expect, from some-one paid £800,000 a year to write professionally. His take on what’s coming? ‘Millions who have been living the Life of Riley at taxpayers expense are in for a rude awakening’ . What are the odds on many of them discovering the true meaning of ‘potless’ for the very first time in their lives?  Stay tuned.

PS: Struggling with debt? Need things doing urgently but little or no money? Get Help today, potless.co.uk is FREE for most casual users.

Save Our Rights, Know Your Rights

Today’s headline news (4th June) is about Portugal being taken off the ‘green list’ of holiday destinations. 345,000 UK holiday makers have seats booked across 1800 flights according to travel data company Cirium. People are reported to be ‘fuming’ over the diktak & jumping up and down about having to ‘self isolate’ for 10 days upon their return should they decide to take a chance. At least the 30,000 ‘jobsworths’ directed by the government to police self isolation will be kept busy 🙁  Airline shares have fallen, BA by 5%, with BALPA (airline pilots union) saying it could be the final nail in the coffin for the beleaguered travel and aviation industries. Benefiting as I do from ‘inside information’ about what’s really going on with the airlines, I have no doubt their prediction will prove correct.

The same week (Monday June 1st) saw headline news concerning another group. A million or so private renters are facing eviction as emergency Covid measures which halted bailiff evictions during the ‘pandemic’, came to an end. In November 2020 SHELTER talked about 450,000 households being in rent arrears, and that situation hasn’t improved. A high proportion of private renters are people worst hit by Covid restrictions. Most of the 345,000 whining about Portugal will have been relatively unaffected financially by Covid (average saved during lockdown £7500) typically people working ‘normally’ from home, public sector employees etc. Meanwhile for those still furloughed by zombie companies, people who’ve been laid off, on short time, or the hundreds of thousands of self employed who’ve received no help at all during the ‘pandemic’, life continues to be especially hard. Inequality is worsening between the have’s and the have nots, the latter group no longer the preserve of the work shy or the scroungers; decent working class people are being thrown under the bus by the elites. We hear talk constantly of so many hundreds of millions of pounds thrown here there and everywhere by politicians. But sadly, few people have any real grasp of numbers these days,  proven by their panic over a ‘virus’ which has a c99.3% survival rate. A mere million people facing eviction is of little concern to the ‘majority’, nor is the plight of thousands of pub landlords to people ‘who don’t use them’….‘sick of hearing about them’

What does a million really look like? I’ll tell you what it looks like. Its 9 miles of people protesting.

Oxford Street is a mile and a half long, and it’s been crammed recently with activists United for Freedom & fighting to ‘Save Our Rights’. Have you ever been to Oxford Street in London? Marchers between 25 and 40 abreast over its ENTIRE LENGTH account for around 80,000 people alone. As the front of the April 24th procession returned to Hyde Park Corner following 4 hours marching, there were still people at the tail end back in Oxford Street. Play the video of the even bigger May 29th protest ‘Mainstream Media You Cannot Ignore…. ‘ [but you did so #DefundTheBBC] That is what a million people looks like, the same huge number currently facing eviction. I was amongst the demonstrators fighting for our Rights and for Freedom, and against a government hellbent on CONTROL. A government who doesn’t give a jot about ‘low pay workers’, only on re-setting the country to a global agenda and promoting us as an ‘example’ to the World post Brexit. I’ll share with you a few words from Kenan Malik, an Observer columnist writing for The Guardian in March which I think sums it up…

Covid has exposed much about our societies, from the depth of inequalities to the significance of social interactions. There is much talk about using the lessons learned to reset the post-pandemic social contract. When it comes to policing, the reshaping of what “consent” means is already happening. If we are not alert, we may well find ourselves reduced, metaphorically, to sitting in the corner, whispering our grievances.

Private renters, Fight Back against injustice. Don’t feel you’re isolated and metaphorically ‘sitting in the corner’.  Most private renters falling on hard times have done nothing wrong. Know your rights, Click this link for help & to learn more. potless.co.uk is a site made for helping people just like you. We’ve been mildly disappointed this past 14 months over the slow growth of subscriber numbers. This is partly due to lack of funding (work in progress) but also because putting it crudely, the shit has yet to hit the fan. Many people are awash with Covid handouts (like a good many of the 345,000 mentioned above).  Lately though we’ve been encouraged & assured our site for #helpingothers has some merit. Studying new routes to fundraising has led to discussions with senior people in the charity sector, one or two of whom have suggested we may just be a little ahead of our time. Inflationary pressure is building, and it’s far from certain that jolly Mr Sunak’s build back better is going to end well. If you’re finding life tough right now and at the bottom end of the inequality gap, sign up to potless today to EARN, & SAVE MONEY. Please help us by supporting our fledgling platform. Post all those little jobs you want done that nobody else seems interested in doing. Bid for work if you’re short of cash in hand. Thirty pounds earned running errands or doing odd jobs can be a lifesaver to someone facing eviction and homelessness.

And finally; if this blog’s piqued your interest, & you want your voice heard in the fight to Save Our Rights or to protest against inequality & discrimination join us in Parliament Square on the 21st June and again for another march in London on the 26th. (when 2 million are expected) TTFN

Maintain Fences Gates & Trellis

Is Spring a good time to paint garden fences? Well yes, it can be. You just have to make sure the temperature’s not too low, or the relative humidity too high. Don’t paint in temperatures less than 5 degrees C and the closer you can get to 10 degrees the better; Also ensure there’s no rain due within at least 12 hours of painting a fence in Spring. Pick a sunny day before plants have come on too much…if you leave it till high summer, they’ll have grown making access to fence panels harder. What are the benefits of painting a fence? The main one is to prolong it’s life. Painting fences every 3 years will ensure they’re kept in tip top condition; Application of a half decent fence paint will help to replace oils lost through sun and wind and prevent warping & twisting. You can help to avoid expensive & premature replacement too, by keeping your eyes open….small areas of damage may only come to light while you’re painting…a stitch in time saves nine.

Older readers may recall days gone by when anything wood in the garden was treated to a hefty dose of creosote annually. That was before its carcinogenic properties became known. Its use was reviewed by the HSE in 2003 and they permitted its continued sale to professional users in agriculture and industry only, until 2021; typically where long life preservative of wood to protect it from weather and wood devouring insects was required, farm fence posts, sleepers, electric poles for example. Creosote is a complex mixture of chemicals and coal tar derivatives, hence its distinctive smell. Creocote is a spirit-oil based substitute for cresosote and has similar presertavive properties so if it’s HEAVY DUTY you’re after and/or you’re concerned about insect infestation, give it a look. And don’t worry…if you’re addicted to the whiff of the original coal tar product, Creocote smells just the same 🙂

You can buy Creosote or Creocote from Witham’s, click the image to view their site.

For most DIY’ers and gardening professionals though, there’s a raft of fence painting products out there.  A 5 litre tub will typically cover 6 full fence panels. High end treatments which are oil/solvent based, penetrate deeply, and contain biocides to prevent mould/algae and decay, & also protect against UV damage retail at around £19-20. Most people go for water based products which can be brushed on or sprayed, are showerproof within the hour & protect wood for about 2 years. Cost per 5litre? About seven quid. You’ll need a fence painting brush too; two are better, one around 6 inches and one at 4, so you can stipple the paint in between the laths. Don’t go too mad though otherwise you’ll cause dripping through to the opposite side, which begs the question: Can I paint my side of a neighbour’s fence?

Only the owner of the fence can make changes to it. Legally speaking, you must ask your neighbour if it’s alright to paint or stain YOUR SIDE of THEIR FENCE. You should also refrain from growing shrubs up it or do anything that may cause damage. There’s nothing worse than a neighbour painting a fence poorly and allowing a different colour stain to bleed through. If this happens, there’s a strong likelihood you’ll either fall out, have to re-paint their side of the fence to make amends, or both. So be wary.

We checked one of the UK trade sites for costs relating to painting a fence in 2021 using ‘professionals’ (haha). The average cost of staining a garden fence in the UK they say is £400. PHEW! But obviously it depends on size and condition. Digging deeper we found a table of prices covering different sizes of panel. 8 panels 2m x 2m they reckon the average labour cost for a ‘contractor’ is around £150 for a days work. To be fair, fence painting and staining IS time consuming and a certain amount of care has to be taken to protect shrubs, hard surfaces, bulbs & plants. As already mentioned, it’s no good just slapping it on. Your neighbour’s trendy grey panels don’t want to be disfigured by careless application of your Golden Brown! Talking of contractors….do you really need to look for one? In modern Britain we’ve become accustomed to a culture where even the smallest task is bigged up to be something a whole lot more than it really is, accompanied by a sheaf of H&S requirements, product data sheets, risk assessments etc etc. Truth is, when it comes to fence painting, any conscientious handyman, handyperson what-have-you should be able to do a good job for rates lower than those we’ve seen on the ‘trade’ portals. Look for ‘some-one to do odd jobs’ on potless.co.uk and you’ll be surprised at how reasonable some of them are. The five and a half panel fence paint job featured below (first 3 pictures) was carried out by a potless helper in the North East for just £31. The other job shown in Cuprinol Rustic Brown comprised 3 sides, a gate and a garden shed, done by another potless.co.uk odd job man for £170 over 3 days (+ materials). So shop around for handypeople, look at reviews, and use your own judgment. Spring’s just around the corner, and it looks like we’re set for several months more ‘house arrest’. Maintaining your garden and keeping it looking nice is always well worth the effort, especially when you’re going to be sitting out in it for extended periods of time. Click this link to learn more about the most popular fence painting products for 2021. Finally, when you buy your materials, please consider supporting your local ironmonger or homecare type shops, DON’T use Amazon! If you’re wanting help ‘finding fence painting services near me’ , or ‘fence painters in my area’ or you’re looking for help with any other garden project anywhere in the UK, post the details on our platform today!

Why do tradesmen not get back to you?

Why do tradesmen not get back to you? Why is it hard to find tradespeople in the first place? Do you really need a tradesperson at all? If it’s a small project, might you be better narrowing your search & looking for some-one to do odd jobs, capable handymen for example.

People are also wondering if Covid19 has anything to do with difficulty finding reliable tradespeople. Can tradespeople work during Lockdown 2021? The short answer to that one is YES. UK Government says tasks ranging from cleaning to home improvements & construction can continue to be carried out, provided consumers & tradespeople stick to social distancing and Covid19 safe guidelines.

People wonder ‘what is wrong with tradespeople?’ Especially when they’ve asked them to quote, in some cases shortlisting them as favourites, yet never hear from them again. Its not a new phenomena. potless.co.uk’s MD worked in the home improvement industry for decades, and remembers back in the 90s being swamped with work. Complaining about it even! It was a time of BOOM, with mega projects like Canary Wharf attracting large numbers of tradespeople on sky high day rates and lax supervision. Some even managed to work in two places at once, ghost workers, drawing two lots of pay. It helped justify the influx of cheap Eastern European labour a few years later.

But what has that got to do with NOW I hear you ask? Now’s not BOOM! Well, it depends on what side of the fence you find yourself on. We’ve heard a lot about ‘In It Together’ lately, with soundbites like ‘We will not let you get left behind’. [Sunak March 2020]. But fact is, the gap between rich and poor keeps widening; and Covid19 has exacerbated the trend. High and Middle Income households as well as retirees have in the main fared well financially, this past 12 months. They’ve saved record amounts by reducing or eliminating costs completely on travel, socializing, holidays etc. Households savings ratio hit a record 27% in June last year and its stayed up there since. What that means is for every £100 income, £27 is being saved….but only in the top 40% of households. Some of these savings have been spent on works carried out by tradespeople, fewer in number now there’s tighter controls on free movement within Europe. Previous blog posts have highlighted people in my own area spending money like there’s no tomorrow this past 9 months. Life’s been GOOD for tradespeople, with no shortage of work. This means they can, and do, cherry-pick. I read this lately from the wife of a tradesman hitting back at people complaining about ‘tradespeople not getting back to you’. She says…

“my husband is a tradesman and to be honest, a £300 job isn’t usually worth his while…it’s a small, one off job which he might squash in if he has time, which he often doesn’t’.

To be fair, a lot of tradespeople are good at their trade, but hopeless as business people. That ‘little £300 job’ turned out to be an easy fix which took a more savvy tradesperson just 3 hours, with barely any material cost. Two like that back to back equals good profitable business! Some of these people haven’t learnt the lesson ‘Turnover’s vanity, profit is sanity’, busy fools some of them.

Sunak is counting on consumer spending booming as Covid19 restrictions ease. He thinks taxes raised from it will help pay for his £400 billion & rising Government debt mountain. Time will tell, but if the boom materializes, expect it to be EVEN HARDER to find GOOD RELIABLE TRADESMEN. Are you beginning to see the value of potless.co.uk when it comes to help with home services? One in four UK adults (14.2 million) have been left financially vulnerable as the fallout from Covid-19 drives more people into debt (Financial Conduct Authority figures). A whopping 24 million show some characteristics of financial vulnerability. £20 is a lifesaver to some of these unfortunate souls, let alone £300. To give one recent example, a 66 year old woman from Teesside with a disabled son and husband had been asking plumbers to fix a dripping tap for FOUR MONTHS without success. Not one of the tradespeople she contacted got back to her. Posting the job on potless, got the job sorted in less than 48 hours. Do you want to know the best bit? The odd job man who fixed it in less than 30 minutes picked up two other jobs for the same household, making a three figure sum for himself in the process. Sadly, 24 million people out there are just a couple of steps away from destitution while twenty million others have more money than they know what to do with. Isn’t it time you started using potless.co.uk to find good reliable people to do all those little jobs, errands & home services tradespeople aren’t interested in?

Snow

January 2nd 2021 and there’s a foot of snow in parts of County Durham in the North East of England. If you’re struggling to clear a path, ask for help on potless.co.uk, we’ve got dozens of willing helpers who’ll clear it for FREE (altruistic volunteers) or for cash (help for hire). It costs nothing to post a job or errand on our platform. Don’t forget too, we have people registered under the Car & Bike category so if your car won’t start because it’s cold and not been used over the festive period, find some-one with a set of jump leads to help. Spread salt & grit on the snow and spread the word about potless.co.uk while you’re at it. We’re 100% British and not just another big American corporation intent on running your life and lifting your data. Stay tuned for regular updates including useful blog posts on everyday home service problems we can help you solve 🙂 🙂  #snow #NorthEast

The Telford Tory & how YOU can give something back #helpingothers, Sustainability

It’s been just over a month since my last blog on here; truth is there’s not been a whole lot that’s caught my eye & worthy of comment & I’m not one for writing mindless drivel. Today is New Years Day & my mind’s racing as I contemplate 2021, not least since spotting a couple of tweets on Twitter earlier, the first from Telford Tory MP Lucy Allan about lockdown, the second from home furniture giant IKEA promoting sustainability.

Now one doesn’t naturally associate the Tory Party with much compassion but it’s wrong to tar them all with the same brush. Recent weeks have seen several of them break ranks over lockdown, calling for a more balanced & reasoned approach to Covid19. ‘Working class Tory’ Esther McVey was another, reflecting the views of increasing numbers of the general public & talking Common Sense. I spend much of my time street campaigning, and have done for close on four decades. One thing I’ve noticed this past few months is rising levels of inequality. Telford Tory MP Lucy Allan’s lockdown tweet is right on the money. She’s right. Large numbers of public sector workers as well as those contracted to them including ‘key workers’ are relatively unaffected financially by Covid19 restrictions. At the same time, millions of others are facing bankruptcy, job loss & severe hardship…through no fault of their own. Yet there’s little empathy. Self employed people and small company directors in particular are being vilified, portrayed as tax dodgers…yet 3 million of them have seen no state help at all no thanks to Chancer of The Exchequer Rishi Sunak. I’ve been self employed all my working life, and am well used to ‘non business-people’ sneering at our status. My own parents rubbished business, as do most of my partner’s side of the family (all of whom work for the state), and you may remember PM Johnson a couple of years back saying ‘F*ck Business’. These people have little understanding of trading or making one’s own way in the world as an independent worker or budding entrepreneur. There have been numerous posts on social media accusing small limited company directors of choosing that status to avoid paying tax & NI. Some have applauded Sunak saying ‘he recognizes this & that’s why he’s excluded them’. But did you know to give but one example, that if you choose to trade online, bankers will often REQUIRE limited company status just in order for them to process payments? There are mountains of red tape surrounding self employment, agency work, freelancing, specialist & seasonal industries and large numbers are struggling right now.

So, if you’re reading this & still doing OK during Covid19 lockdown, spare a thought for the less fortunate. What can YOU do to #helpothers & sustain peoples livelihoods? I’ve chosen the word ‘sustain’ carefully. Why? Because furniture store giant IKEA is pushing the sustainability message this New Year’s Day with the ‘Fortune Favours the Frugal’ advertisement (a slogan that fits well with our ideology at potless) under the social media hashtag #WonderfulEveryday. Looking at IKEA’s Twitter feed I’m wondering if management now wished they hadn’t. Two tweets I love are…

‘HAPPY NEW YEAR, I spent the night building furniture with Eli, I’ve seen hell and it comes in the form of ikea flat boxes’ (from @EliseLaurenne)

TIP: click this link to find out more about flat pack furniture help! The other comment I like is from @CukeLowdell who tweets….

‘ Are you joking me? IKEA and ‘frugal’ should not be in the same sentence. Waste waste waste, consumerism, materialistic, built to last 5 min bullshit…..buy local quality goods, better yet Preloved second hand goods #WonderfulEveryday’.

By posting jobs and errands on our 100% British online marketplace, you can help make our site #WonderfulEveryday for anyone seeking assistance ‘with the little things in life’ as well as for those registered to do the work, either as paid service providers or altruistic volunteers. Look out for a potless.co.uk ‘WE NEED PEOPLE LIKE YOU’ postcard (pictured above) coming your way soon.  SAVE it, you never know when it might come in handy! Say NO to the big American corporations intent on running your life & harvesting your data for profit. Support our platform while #helping others. Thanks guys.

Happy New Year!

Small Change

Small change. What do we mean by that? Dictionary.com offers two definitions…

• coins of small denomination
• someone or something insignificant or trifling

Both definitions are quite apt for our site. I was talking to a potless.co.uk service provider the other day and he told me some people call a £20 note an ‘adult pound’. In other words, it’s the grown up version of what a kid would think of as ‘useful’ cash when they’re in receipt of a humble pound. Older readers may cast their mind back 30 odd years and recall TV dramas like Minder & The Sweeney…do you remember the cockney slang?  £20 back then was a Score, £25 a Pony, £100 a ton, £500 was a Monkey. Best stop there I think, before I upset half of Hartlepool 🙂  Anyway, you’ll know potless’s Raison D’etre is to help people SAVE MONEY and EARN MONEY. The site was set up to GET HELP 3 ways, either help for free, help for hire or to barter. If you were only posting a small task or errand we offered two options: Jobs for FREE or Jobs < £10. We’ve now made a small change, and raised the ‘little jobs’ limit to £30. Confused? We sincerely hope NOT. To clarify….

Customers can now GET HELP with their ‘To Do’ list by posting the errand or home services job under the following categories:

• FREE (if they’re low on funds and looking for a volunteer or altruistic person to help them with their task)
• UP TO £30 (if its a relatively small task you’re posting & you’re happy to pay up to £30 to a local tasker, handyman or tradesperson)
• £30+ (if it’s a Bigger Job. There’s no upper limit. The drop down menu gives you an opportunity to insert the approx value you put on the job)

Got that guys? Good. Remember too, that if you don’t have a smart phone or computer, or you’re not very good at tech, then you can always phone or email us with your ‘to do’ list and we’ll post the job for you manually. 07902-897609 is the number you need or email ops@potless.co.uk.

The second definition of ‘small change’ namely ‘someone or something insignificant or trifling’ is the other reason we started the site, and its what sets it apart from others. One of our major competitors started with similar ‘good intentions’ in 2008, yet now, after a decade or more struggling to monetize the concept of ‘errands’ and ‘little jobs’ they, like so many others (YAWN) have gone down the ‘trusted trades’ route, a road ‘paved with gold’ (for them, not the users). It’s the same old story….GREED. I got my hand wrapped by a potential advertiser a few weeks ago; he criticized my original site meta which posed the question ‘will 2020 be the year of reckoning for those consumed by greed?’ The way things are looking right now the answer is most definitely Yes for some; while others have been nimble on their feet and carved out lucrative opportunities on the back of Covid. Some call it a Scamdemic. Check out THIS LINK to see what I mean about greed, opportunity and scams.

Until next time, take care, and remember…you DON’T HAVE TO STRUGGLE to get things done. A customer in Stockton-On-Tees this week posted she wanted help getting Christmas decorations down from her loft. A job many people would think laughably easy…..but not the case when you suffer from reduced mobility, with a son whos sick and a husband who’d been hurt in an accident. The potless.co.uk service provider who offered HELP with the Christmas decorations landed on his feet. Do you remember my previous blogpost about the streets being awash with money, with tradespeople ‘never had it so good’ on the back of Jolly Mr Sunak’s handouts? Apparently ‘local tradesmen’ weren’t interested in helping our customer & couldn’t be bothered quoting to fix a leaking tap or fit an additional power socket. She’d given up on asking them.

So what’s the moral of my story? ‘Showing willing’ and helping an older person with Christmas decorations opened the door for a potless.co.uk service provider. He made light work of the other two jobs while he was there…leaving her with a smile on her face, and him better off to the tune of a £100 (fee + materials). We call in win-win. Who’s next?

How can I get a Tesco delivery slot?

Answer: With Difficulty apparently. Friday 13th November saw Tesco delivery customers react with FURY as the firm’s online delivery website suffered a ‘technical issue’.  (Tesco spin for being unable to cope with the huge surge in demand for online delivery)

Some Tesco Delivery customers complained about waiting two hours or more to try and book Christmas grocery delivery slots, only to have the site shut them out. Guys, its just the second week in November!! It looks like millions of people are going to struggle BIG TIME to get their grocery shopping via online delivery this Christmas, or even now in the run up to the festive period. Lockdown and Covid Fear is keeping shoppers away from stores, and putting huge pressures on the big 4’s online shopping systems. Of course there are many grocery shopping customers who don’t use online delivery, including people who aren’t online (yes they do exist), those who can’t afford it, and those who organise their time better who want to see what they’re buying. I’m not being cruel with that last statement…I simply don’t see the point in spending 30 minutes to an hour fiddling with an online order, when I could whip round a store early of a morning and have it DONE & DUSTED without the hassle, but that’s just me. Currently, there are many people whose main reason for choosing tesco delivery is they don’t want to be close to another human being. AT ALL. We’re hearing about people frightened to even open their windows. My local #redwall Tory MP Dehenna Davidson told me she surveyed people across the Bishop Auckland constituency & found 55% approved of Lockdown2. I’ve also seen reports that 70% or thereabouts of people nationally, support the control measures….in my view, the 55% which led her to vote FOR the measures were misinformed…since new information about the accuracy of figures has come to light, but HEY!…that’s a whole different story. We’re here to talk about online grocery deliveries!

Tesco Delivery costs. If you want two or more deliveries a month, you can sign up for their Delivery Saver option. They charge around £7.99/month c£48/6 months and that entitles you to free Deliveries and free Click & Collect as often as you want, BUT…your order needs to be £40PLUS.  So, if you’re like my other half and you SHOP AROUND and use Lidl & Home Bargains as well, then your Tesco shop is unlikely to be £40+. (at least for us…a 2 person over 60’s household). We also have to remember there’s a good many people who shop day to day since 16 million jobs are reckoned to be ‘precarious’ due to Covid, 3 million self employed & Ltd company people have been #excluded from help altogether since March & 14 million were already living in poverty [Social Metric Commission figures] before Covid 🙁

One off Tesco deliveries cost more. All the big 4 have dramatically increased capacity to offer home delivery for grocery shopping; Tesco delivery slots number around 1.2 million a week, as online grocery shopping sales have jumped from 7% of overall sales to 13%. No surprise there then, but little comfort for some-one ragged and demoralized by the state of affairs we all find ourselves in…some-one who’s maybe HAD IT with online delivery website hassle. Every cloud has a silver lining. potless.co.uk was dreamed up with this very scenario in mind! Our online marketplace is gaining ground, at a snail’s pace…but that’s only to be expected; we’re operating on a shoestring without the benefit of tens of millions of £££s in venture capital. Progress in late Summer was up and down; now things have settled, with a steady increase in help providers. We’re building a small army of willing helpers. There was an article in the Guardian this week titled ‘Lockdown is breeding resentment. The right can see that – does the left?’  It chimes well with the ‘About Us’ page on potless.co.uk…written 12 months ago. Julian Coman writes:

The biggest victims of lockdowns and curfews have been blue collar workers, the self employed and those whose livelihoods depend on servicing the better heeled’…..’If you have to leave your home to do your job, you are probably in trouble. If you are securely ensconced in the better paid knowledge economy, and able to retreat to the virtual world of Zoom, you’re probably still in business.’….Covid has widened the already yawning divide between the better off graduates and the non college educated. Regional inequalities have deepened’ blah blah….

One of the saddest things in this pandemic is the lack of empathy with the less fortunate. Government ministers and the ‘better heeled’ as they call them, if they’re not directly affected, they don’t care. We have them in our own family, as well as neighbours. Their reaction to the plight of pubs and ‘hospitality’? ‘We don’t use’em, who cares, fed up with hearing about them’. Maybe they don’t, UNTIL. Until the day they’re on the way to their umpteenth vacation…and they’re thirsty. Often, these people have no idea or feeling for other’s who routinely struggle; twenty quid to some of those folk is a lifeline. People sometimes ask me what ‘potless’ means. I reply ‘Well if you need to ask, you’ve never been there!’  So, if you’re moaning about Tesco delivery slots and hassles booking a slot, spare a thought for the less fortunate. Two million people earned less than the statutory minimum wage while on furlough. [ONS figure] We’re busy recruiting them on potless; invariably they’re resilient souls who still manage a smile. Some of them have signed up for Delivery & Collection, and Shopping. Some of them will shop for you, SAMEDAY, NEXT DAY, ANYTIME OF DAY. Many of them are DBS checked. So if you’re struggling with supermarket online deliveries, why not arrange grocery shopping through potless.co.uk? Post your requirements for FREE. Don’t be a slave to the greedy giants! The little guy is more than capable of  ‘delivering the goods’, you just gotta find ’em…..Click GET HELP now and complete the form, it takes no more than 3-4 minutes! Spread the word and help make our 100% British online marketplace a success! Until next time be good & #StaySafe!

It never rains but it pours

What does the idiom ‘it never rains but it pours’ really mean? It’s used to say that when something bad happens other bad things usually happen at the same time.

It could fairly describe this past week as large parts of the North East suffer yet more restrictions adding to the misery endured this past 6 months. It’s also rained pretty steadily…we had one day of it solid & heavy, plus two nights. As a result we’re seeing waterlogged fields catching some farmers out….we’ve quite a few fields still to harvest here in the North East. I’ve been following the season with interest. Spring barley’s normally in the ground by the end of March latest. Whether it was due to Covid panic &/or labour problems I don’t know, but many fields locally weren’t sown till much later. High winds nipping the tips and several weeks of drought over the summer stunted growth too, hence the late harvest. Thankfully, most of the remainder got cut yesterday…leaving a few fields of beans to harvest over the weekend….Sunday looks good. The heavy rain also got some home-owners worried too….Leaking gutters, flooded lawns, and old flat roofs finally giving up the ghost, on top of redundancy notices aplenty as 45 day consultation periods kick in, with job losses forecast come the end of the month…..it never rains but it pours.  Sadly, money formerly put aside by many for ‘a rainy day’ has dwindled, in the cause of shoring up finances, especially those unfortunate souls who have found themselves #excluded thanks to WonderBoy Sunak. Our idiom ‘it never rains but it pours’ could well apply to him too…as he faces demands to pledge yet more billions supporting workers in industries now forced to close once again. Am I sorry for him? Not really. But hey! Let’s not get too political. We’re here to talk about leaking gutters & roofs, flooded gardens and how you can put things right with only limited funds. That’s what potless is all about…#helpingothers.

I spent 20 years around people’s roofs, 1982-2002, across East Anglia, the East Midlands, Essex & South East London and was one of the very first proponents of uPVC fascia systems, now known as ‘roofline’…… a good 15 years before  ‘travellers’ ruined the trade & its reputation. So I know a thing or two about gutters (called ‘rhones’ in Scotland) and roofs. Having a chartered surveyor for a father stood me in good stead too…from an early age I had the ‘stitch in time saves nine’ approach drilled into me, particularly with regard to property maintenance. I’ve seen numerous homes badly damaged and in two cases completely destroyed, all because their owners neglected leaking gutters.  That drip-drip-drip can make its way into and through walls from splashback, it can fall adjacent to foundations and eventually undermine them causing subsidence; water can cascade onto a flat roof and hasten its demise…the list goes on. In short, Home Maintenance Matters. Neglect it, and as sure as eggs are eggs, you’ll be in for a hefty bill.

The building trade call all the components of guttering ‘rainwater goods’. They come in cast iron, steel, aluminium, PVC, uPVC & even concrete. The first three are best left to a specialist to fix in my view. Cast iron is heavy & brittle, however, if it’s leaking it can usually be quite easily repaired, with full replacement not necessary. Joints overlap, are sealed with a rubber gasket and screwed tightly together. They can be a devil to get loose, but once you’ve dismantled a joint, seal replacement is easy. You just gotta watch you don’t damage the gutter from clumsy ladder positioning, or dislodge the whole system while working on it….if it’s cast it’ll probably have been up there for decades, a century even…and fixings might be into decaying woodwork…lean on it or push too hard and you could have the whole lot come crashing down :(. Onto your conservatory perhaps??? 🙁 🙁  Or even worse, a passer by. If you’ve got aluminium guttering, there’s a good chance you won’t get much trouble from the gutter itself because it’s likely to be seamless. Fittings are crude though in some cases, using nails through the back into the timber fascia…if your fascia’s rotting then the gutter can tilt. Most people fitting ali gutter though fit it once they’ve replaced the boards with uPVC; your main problem with ali is that most installers only do half a job, leaving the old cast or plastic downpipes in place. Why? Because making pipe is tricky, especially when you’ve got swan-necks to fabricate. It gets expensive, so all too often they’ll just run the ali into your original pipe…and that’s where you may get leakage. Overall though, I’d say ali is a good bet. In the US, it’s pretty much universal.

So what about PVC and uPVC. The ‘u’ in uPVC stands for ‘unplasticised’ PVC, which means it isn’t brittle like PVC, aged PVC  especially. People don’t like repairing gutters because it involves ladders and height. Add PVC to the mix, and the job can become a NIGHTMARE, which is why so many people don’t bother. Until it’s too late. When new, PVC was fairly flexible and easily manipulated. You’ve got stop ends, unions, brackets, running outlets, 45 degree bends, 60 degree bends, 90s, downpipes, clips, hoppers, heads and shoes; did I forget anything? Yeah, blood sweat and tears. Oh and screws. Stop ends, unions and brackets ‘clip’ together which is all very well when new, and builders are working off scaffold, but a very different matter when it’s been exposed to 30 years of sun & you’re attempting a quick fix off a ladder.  You’ll find it well nigh impossible to remove some fittings without them shattering.  There’s more bad news. (it never rains but it pours). Gutter manufacturers of which there are many (Marley, Osma, Polypipe, Marshall, Hunter, Floplast etc) are notorious for updating their ranges frequently, rendering older lines obsolete. New fittings often aren’t compatible with old, meaning you’ll need to shell out for a complete NEW system.  So guys, TAKE YOUR TIME removing old fittings and attempt to save them. Hot water can help…it softens the fitting so you can manipulate it free more easily. One particular make springs to mind which caused more than its fair share of grief….Rymway. On paper it looked good….PVC gutter fitted into cast ali brackets. There was no danger of the brackets ever giving up…problem was, trying to get old PVC gutter out of the ali fixing…..pushing on it, or levering with a screwdriver and PING, you’d get breakage usually in the form of a semi-circular hole, like somebody had bitten it. I’ve been there, got the tee shirt. The good thing….it was fairly easy to adapt new gutter to fit into the old ali brackets….especially if you chose uPVC. Oh and by the way….here’s another useful trick or ‘hack’ as the millennials like to call it these days 🙁 . If you go down to a merchant (assuming you can find someone who’ll be pleased to serve you) they’ll probably direct you to racks of rainwater goods. I mention racks….because most installers use 4m lengths. You’re probably wondering how you’re going to get a 4m length of gutter home in your Toyota Yaris? Yes? Well, you could ask for help on potless…..but dare I say it…there’s a better way. It might sound CRAZEEEEEEEEEEEEE but if it’s cheap half round gutter you’re buying it’s possible to fold it in half. Yes really, but be careful and don’t fold it double for any longer than you have to, but at least you’ll get it home in one piece. It’ll distort slightly, but a little scalding hot water massaged across the disfiguration should restore it’s shape; if it doesn’t quite do it, don’t fret because ten years more in the sun once its up and supported in the brackets WILL.

Remember we mentioned flooded lawns? All too often it’s due to a faulty or even blocked downpipe. When we’re out street campaigning we see houses all the time with missing ‘bottom halves’ of pipe…they’ve been caught by cars or kids and never replaced. If the water’s running free, then most of it will miss the drain hence flooding. So, fit a new pipe; it’s easy…you’ll need no more than a hacksaw, a cordless drill with an 8mm masonry bit, and a flat head screwdriver to fix the support clips. Don’t have those tools? Ask for help on potless. One thing to bear in mind….Replacing a broken downpipe is a good opportunity to SAVE WATER. How? By fitting a diverter like this, great if you’re a keen gardener and/or you like potted shrubs and plants.

Why you don’t want window cleaners trampling over your dodgy old flat roof.

And finally, flat roofs. This is a subject in itself, and warranting many pages….YAWN. Suffice to say, people conveniently forget …flat roofs of the felt/asphalt kind are only ever TEMPORARY ROOFS with a 20

What an old flat roof with a chip board deck looks like from inside your garage, when it’s starting to fail.

odd year life span. So if you’re living in a house built in 1970 (when these kinda roofs were de-rigueur) and you’re still on the original membrane you’ve done well so count your lucky stars! By rights it should have been replaced, probably twice. Early felts were mostly ‘rag based’ and prone to rot. To make matters worse, chipboard was used as decking. If any moisture gets through to the chipboard it starts to spread and blow. Add a clumsy window cleaner to the equation and sooner or later it’s going to fail BIG TIME. He could quite literally step on the roof one day to reach bedroom windows, and end up falling through onto the kitchen table. I’ve seen it happen. Don’t forget, it never rains but it pours, and a good reason I don’t like window cleaners…DON’T EVER let them climb on your roof, even if it’s tiled. They will cause damage (unseen & potentially costly). If you can’t clean your own windows from inside, then employ cleaners who use water fed pole equipment…they never do as good a job as traditional window cleaners, however, risk of collateral damage is low. If you’ve a roof starting to give problems and you’re unfortunately potless just now, don’t despair. If you can locate the spot where it’s leaking, (NB: be careful on fragile roofs and use a crawler board or sheet of ply to spread your load) you can effect a temporary repair by covering it with a patch. Torch on felt is good and better than cold patching solutions. You’ll need a calm dry day, a warm air gun or even a hair drier to carefully dry the surrounding area (including beneath the leak as far in as you can get without aggravating the damage, and NEVER use a flame). You also want a roll or roll end of torch-on felt, a stanley knife, and a blow torch. Buy ‘green mineral torch on’ or ‘cap sheet torch on’. Once you’ve dried the surrounding area, and meticulously removed all foreign objects, roll the felt out, apply the flame to the back of the felt, heat it, paying particular attention to one edge. Stick the edge down about a couple of feet from the area of damage, then slowly roll the remainder of the piece down and over the area of damage, heating it with the torch as you go, until you’ve got the whole piece down flat.

Torch on flat roofing can be performed by confident DIY’ers, it can be FUN even, but not for the faint of heart or bedwetting #StaySafe brigade. And watch out when you’re using that flame!

Ensure all the edges are sealed well to the old membrane. Job done, but please, don’t get over-excited. Chances are, you’ll leave it like that until it leaks again, but this should only be regarded as a quick fix. Get saving, and get quotes in for a full replacement. If you’re selling your house, camouflage the patch by covering it with stones…a bit naughty I know, but ‘what the eye doesn’t see the heart doesn’t grieve over’ does it? Besides, a good surveyor will provide written warning at survey of an old roof deemed necessary to replace. The stones on a flat roof by the way are there for two reasons. With green mineral felt, the ‘stones’ are incorporated as it were, in the membrane, so chippings aren’t strictly necessary. Plain felts they are. The stones shield the felt from harmful sun. They also hold a little rainwater in between the stones during dry spells, which helps to keep the felt cool and avoid excessive heat from sun which can cause blistering. Got it? Good. potless.co.uk isn’t just another ‘trades’ site here to take your money….we’re a site with a soul and a conscience. We’re here to help you in numerous ways, so Stay Tuned.  You can SAVE MONEY by asking for help or EARN MONEY as a helper #NowHiring #Stillhiring, please subscribe and spread the word to other potential users! Thanks for reading.

Autumn Equinox

Today, September 22nd marks the Autumn Equinox, but what is it? The simple answer is the time when day and night are of equal length and when the sun’s exactly above the equator. A more complex definition is it’s the instant of time when the plane of the Earth’s equator (extended indefinitely in all directions) passes through the geometric centre of the sun’s disk. This occurs twice a year, March & September, Spring & Autumn equinox respectively. The word ‘equinox’ is derived from the Latin aeqinoctium meaning ‘equal’ (aequus)  ‘night’ (noctis). There’s a spiritual side to the Autumn equinox too…traditionally it’s time to celebrate the harvest, and when the summer has finished giving its fruits, which are collected in preparation for winter. In today’s wired world its all too easy to forget these ‘simple things’. Outside my bedroom window there’s a rowan tree, which get’s laden with berries in late Summer. Right now at the time of the Autumn Equinox it’s about 2/3 stripped as blackbirds, robins and starlings devour the fruit, building up their body fat to survive the winter. Most people these days wake to a cacophony of notifications, most of them trivial, nevertheless they take precedent over nature and/or simpler pleasures, demanding to be attended to; the average Briton spends 3 hours 23 minutes looking at their phones daily (Screen Time Statistics, how do you compare).  I often pass comment to my other half about addiction to ‘devices’ especially by the young as she checks her Facebook 🙁  I prefer to watch the birds as I sip the first coffee of the day. And it get’s worse….when they do rise, many folk switch on the TV for a dose of Breakfast Propaganda/Spin…setting the mood for the day. Each to his own of course. What millionaires have told me over the years is never far from my thoughts…why do you seldom see advertising for luxury cars on TV (think Maserati, Rolls, Bentley, Ferrari, even Jaguar to a degree)? Because ‘the kind of people who drive them don’t have time to watch telly’, and nor do I. Life’s too short. If you’ve read my last blog, you’ll have learned that interest in potless took a dip in August; now it’s gaining strength again, flowing like the high tides we’re accustomed to at the time of an equinox. ‘Time & tide waiteth for no man’ …an idiom attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer in the 15th Century & at the forefront of my mind as a driven individual and former Merchant Seaman. Blogging is interesting for many reasons, not least because when one researches a subject it uncovers more….and I see Shakespeare went one better writing ‘There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.’ Food for thought.

So, with the country in turmoil, what might be worth thinking about this Autumn Equinox as we face several months more of uncertainty? I thought it might be fun to look at some of potless.co.uk categories, so here goes….

Is probably going to be cancelled this year if Hancock has his way. Has Christmas been banned before? At the time of Oliver Cromwell’s leadership, Christmas was rejected as a joyful period when a 1644 ordinance confirmed the abolition of the feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun. From this point until the Restoration in 1660, Christmas was officially illegal. Although Cromwell himself did not initiate the banning of Christmas, his rise to power certainly resulted in the promotion of measures that severely curtailed such celebrations. The Puritans’ prohibition of Christmas proved very unpopular, and pro-Christmas riots broke out. Cromwell was eventually beheaded but perhaps not in the way you may have imagined. He died from kidney disease or a urinary infection in 1658 aged 59 while still serving as Lord Protector.  Only later, nearly two years after his death was his body exhumed by supporters of the monarchy from its resting place and beheaded. His head was displayed on top of a pole outside Westminster Hall for more than 20 years.

22nd September marks the beginning of Autumn and we can expect dark nights and cold days. Perhaps not the best time to cycle to work. Would Car-Share help?  What about when the car won’t start because you didn’t think the battery needed changing? The first -5 degree morning might mean you’re left stranded and unable to get to work. Not everyone is a member of a breakdown service, and many who are don’t have ‘HOME START’ so Ask for Help on potless, post ‘Jump Start my Car’ under Car & Bike and mark it URGENT.