How quaint, BT have just delivered a phone book, all nicely shrink wrapped. It didn't come with the postie either. And I'm not a BT customer...
At a quick glance it's a yellow pages, though the pages are white. It's also nowhere near the size I remember good old Yellow Pages's were. (pedants?).
It will go straight in my bin as I no longer have a telephone table in the hall to put it on!! :-)
Does anyone use a paper phone directory these days??
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Tried to, just last week. Power cut, seemed to go on for ages, so thought I'd ring the power company to see if there was an automated message or anything. We have no mobile signal at the house so landline it would have to be.
Only way of getting their number would have been the phone book, but we'd chucked it. Lesson learned - note down rarely required "emergency" type numbers or keep the blasted phone book.
Edit - I imagine there's some sort of directory enquiries thing you can call, and I expect it costs a fortune, so didn't even contemplate that.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 8 Jul 16 at 15:54
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Ha! Got me! I couldn't think of a circumstance where I'd need it.
(I expect the emergency numbers are on the utility bills though, which I *think* I still get in hard copy - and even if not, until I have a clear out, the old ones are there...
Oh, and of course my mobile usually fairly fully charged so I could have got t'internet on that... I have a feeling my landlines don't work in a power cut, they are plug-in walkie ones (DECT).
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I get two phone books (to cover areas adjacent to my area) regularly - TalkTalk ask via your phone service configuration if you wish to be included in the BT listings.
However, despite Crankcase's pessimism, there's no need to worry too much if you don't get one, as you can check both Residential and Business addresses quickly and easily for free via BT's on-line phonebook website:
www.thephonebook.bt.com/publisha.content/en/search/business_by_type/search.publisha#
www.thephonebook.bt.com/publisha.content/en//search/residential/search.publisha?Surname=&Location=&Initial=&Street=#
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>> However, despite Crankcase's pessimism, there's no need to worry too much if you don't get
>> one, as you can check both Residential and Business addresses quickly and easily for free
>> via BT's on-line phonebook website:
But not if your power is out and you have no mobile signal.
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>>But not if your power is out and you have no mobile signal.>>
Apart from the fact that it's a pretty rare combination, one reason why although I have a trio of Panasonic landline phones, there's also a corded one handy...:-)
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>> Apart from the fact that it's a pretty rare combination, one reason why although I
>> have a trio of Panasonic landline phones, there's also a corded one handy...:-)
>>
Likewise in Harley Towers. We had a house fire in 2012 as some might remember and the power was off for a couple of days; thankfully I'd still got an old corded one and it was a godsend.
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>> thankfully I'd still got an old corded one and it was a godsend.
>>
I keep my old one for the same reason.
You can buy a new BT one for £10 or a refurbished one for £4 upwards.
Madness not to have a spare at that price.
IIRC modern mobiles have a short battery life so with the power off where do you recharge it ?
Leave it with a friend outside the area affected by a power outage or leave it to charge in the car?
My old "steam" Nokia with blutooth ( only used in the car) turned off lasts a week.
I also have three charged batteries that I can swop in in seconds.
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I hope the yellow pages is being recycled.
I'm no luvvie tree hugger, but my local community pool collects paper & card for recycling. They have two 20' containers on site and a team of volunteers to stack the stuff... I think last year they raised £16k toward keeping the pool open. I don't use it myself ( I know I know) and it really annoys me when local residents take their paper to the local tip instead of the pool
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Yes LL, recycled. Really ought not be produced in the first place though.
Separate bins here for paper/card, and another for plastics and tins. garden waste is extra and less frequent and you have to take your own glass but there are disposal points around the place, not just at the tip.
I had another trip down memory lane when I visited my daughter's new house in Brum - they have "food waste" bins - aka pig bins if you are a certain age :-)
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>> I had another trip down memory lane when I visited my daughter's new house in Brum - they have "food waste" bins - aka pig bins if you are a certain age :-)
I am and we had pig buckets in the canteen at primary school. Whenever we had sponge pudding for dessert, a particular boy would be escorted to the bucket to throw up. I had a similar problem with semolina, but always managed to keep it down. Nowadays, if they forced kids to eat stuff they didn't like, I should think they'd have parents round to force-feed the head teacher.
Needless to say, I've never eaten semolina since. I recently discovered it's the ingredient of cous cous, which I really like, so I suspect the problem for me is the addition of milk to make a dessert.
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>>I had a similar problem with semolina
I refused to eat the blimming stuff in skool, and tapioca :( :(
I'd eat it now though funny lea enuff. I eat millet too occasionally - it makes me quite chirpy.
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An only budgie is a lonely budgie. Does herself eat it too?
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She has done, it makes an 'alternative' porridge: www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/sweet-millet-porridge/
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We have a food waste bin too. I remember the lorry that collected the pig bins from school, but I'm fairly sure it doesn't go to pigs any more since BSE. It should end up being composted or fuelling an anaerobic digester.
We put raw vegetable waste in our own compost bins. All other food waste goes in the 'pig' bin. Putting it in landfill creates a lot of methane apparently, but a good proportion of people still never put the food bin out.
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>>I'm fairly sure it doesn't go to pigs any more since BSE
I don't recall ever hearing of a case of Porcine Spongiform Encephalopathy.
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>> >>I'm fairly sure it doesn't go to pigs any more since BSE
>>
>> I don't recall ever hearing of a case of Porcine Spongiform Encephalopathy.
It's controversial.
www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jul/14/food-waste-fed-to-pigs
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23769171
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The useless incompetents on Anglesey bin kitchen waste on the road.
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>> The useless incompetents on Anglesey bin kitchen waste on the road.
>>
...that almost, but not quite, looks like "rearrange these words into a well known phrase or saying"...
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Perhaps the answer is to cook the pigswill, or just heat it momentarily to a high enough temperature to kill orf any viruses. Costs involved of course, but feeding soy products cost money too.
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>> Does anyone use a paper phone directory these days??
My mother does, along with also looking in the newspaper or weekend magazine to see what's on TV - despite me telling her many times to press the guide button on the TV remote.
She also still uses the Argos catalogue, whereas I just open the Argos App on my phone/tablet.
I guess it's an "old" thing. She has never been any good with technology.
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Flash git...we were in Poundland today - got a rope and a Toblerone for £2.00..!
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Not sure I'd trust a £1.00 rope. Unless it's just for well, y'know, playtime...
:-))))
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....not sure I'd trust a £1.00 Toblerone - probably far-eastern or Indian clone made from squirrel-s***.
;-)
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Well, if he starts scurrying up trees and hiding nuts we'll know for sure.
;-)
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>> Well, if he starts currying up trees
>>
...could be either far-Eastern or Indian........
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The problem is that virtually everyone is ex-directory these days. Everyone is obsessed with privacy. Anyone remember Kelly's street directories? Used to list everyone living in towns by house number.
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I posted a quite expensive item to the Irish Republic a couple of years ago. The address was alone the lines of the sender's name and the village....no house name, no postal code. Got there alright !
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I think the Irish are in the process of introducing postcodes, although I may be wrong. Certainly they haven't been in the habit of using them.
A friend of mine used to live in a rented cottage in rural Oxfordshire many years ago. The property was called "Bunny's End". Well, you can perhaps imagine what we used to change it to and the post still got there !
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We have a phone book but rarely use it. I did a rough count of entries on a domestic page a few years ago. I think there were about 900 on an A4 size. Like they expect me to actually read any ? We get the yellow one as well, useful now and again.
I think the swill lorry used to deliver to our school rather than take stuff away. I like semolina occasionally but it needs plenty of jam in it. School used to serve up pink sponge and then made it even fouler by giving you a dollop of tasteless white custard/sauce over it.
Our beloved council are shortly to take our big, 240 litre, general waste bins away and give us a smaller one to encourage more re-cycling. Great, we already re-cycle everything we can and the 'non' bin is still full to the brim at the end of the two weeks. That should see the streets full of black bin bags torn apart by animals !
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Our place advertises in the Yellow Pages and over the last couple of years the "sell" has almost exclusively been for Yell.com and the actual yellow pages are a byproduct. Now owned by another company whose name I cant remember!
Interestingly we have call count set up, adverts in 2 different yellow pages and appearing online as well and 4 different numbers. Surprising the amount of calls that still come initially from the paper version.
As with many of these types I guess, their big pitch is you pay extra to move up the rankings / the search analytics etc. But when you point out if everyone does that, we will all just end up back in the random pool then their attempted justification is quite funny to watch.
Especially when your own place has just taken on a digital marketing guru who could use facts to basically out argue everything the rep said!
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What on earth do you fill it with Ted. Our council collects the bins on alternate fortnights but I often don't put the general waste bin out. Once a month is enough. Nearly all the waste is plastic bags, plastic film and the like which doesn't take up much space. Nearly everything else is re-cycled or composted. There are only two in the household though.
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>> What on earth do you fill it with Ted.
>>
It does depend on what the council can recycle.
Ours for example does not recycle Tetra Pak type cartons.
I cannot expect SWMBO to stamp on each one :-)
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Would have thought you would have devised a Tetra Pak crushing machine for her. Your next project. ;-)
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Or you could just buy her one for her birthday.
www.cancrushercompy.com/milk-carton-crusher/
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>> Or you could just buy her one for her birthday.
>> www.cancrushercompy.com/milk-carton-crusher/
>>
€56? Hell's bells.
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We've already got the smaller non recycling bins, they are pretty small. You could get about 3 bin bags in them and that's it. We recycle pretty much everything that the council allow, which is pretty much everything apart from glass. You have to do that yourself.
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>>The property was called "Bunny's End". Well, you can perhaps imagine what we
>> used to change it to and the post still got there !
Is it just me, or does anyone else need a clue?
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"Rabbit's" erm, "bottom"...
;-)
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Being able to rip a phone book in half used to be one of those useful accomplishments supposed to impress people. There's a knack of course - roll it a bit so you are tearing a slightly tapered wadge, not the whole thing at once.
A lost skill, as our recent phone book is only about half an inch thick.
I did actually try looking something up in it yesterday - I'm looking for a source for a small number of reused slates 24X12. Nothing in the book of course, but as usual, lots on google in seconds.
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I used to tear phone directories in half and never did it the way you say Cliff , that makes it more difficult......the technique is to break the spine and then it will tear easily from the back.It really is no sweat for anyone with a modicum of strength.Try it for yourself.
Once greatly impressed the girls at work by performing the feat ten times in a row with progressively thicker directories......
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>> I use this online one:
I tried that one a while back and kept getting the response 'This person could not be found'
I've just tried it again by putting half a dozen random names in from my 2016/2017 'phone book, and received the same response as before.
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I've just tried looking up myself. I can not be found.
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Impressive suppleness for a man of your age, Cliff.
};---)
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>> I tried that one a while back and kept getting the response 'This person could not be found' >>
As I pointed out earlier my ISP, TalkTalk, asks in its configuration/services section if subscribers wish to be included/ex-directory in the BT phone book listings.
If anyone uses an ISP other than BT, presumably something similar will be in place?
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Phone book - Crankcase
