Any question answered...

I think the answer is no

You are right.

Inverse bead shim.

Hotels. Is there a 'go-to' chain for cheap but reliable hotels that are fairly ubiquitous across the country? Having to go on quite a lot of shoots lately and usually i just book whatever's closest to the location, but the Battlefield Travelodge nearly finished me. Are Premier Inn better generally? See also Holiday Inn/Express, various Hilton brands (DoubleTree/Hampton etc). I don't mind paying a little extra but I'd rather the room came furnished for example with a safe and ideally if it actually had some soap in the rusty tank loosely nailed to the tiles in the grimey bathroom. 1stworldprobsetc. Ideally something that most towns will have (668 Premier Inns in UK/500 Travelodges/200 Hiltons etc)

No. A lot of them are franchises so vary quite a bit in quality. Premier Inn tends to be better than Travellodge. Hilton tends to be better than Premier Inn although there is generally a fair price premium for not that much better.

Down to specifics though and some are nice and some are shit from all three so it's not a hard and fast rule. On top of that there are smaller chains like Village hotels that are nicer but not everywhere.

We have a live mouse in the kitchen (or maybe mice but certainly one mouse)

Humane traps? Do they work? Do you just tip them the fuck outside?

Have stayed in Air B'n'Bs in De Pijp and Museum Kwartier, both fine but De Pijp was better (south end, off Ferdinand Bolsstraat). Mana Mana restaurant was a highlight. Had our bikes with us so can't comment on how easy it was to get to attractions by other means. There were trams going somewhere.

Boo hiss franchises of varying quality - not sure why I didn't consider that... OK, ta. Might just buy a caravan instead.

@aggi

Given

668 Premier Inns in UK/500 Travelodges

And

Premier Inn tends to be better than Travellodge

Clearly Premier Inn is the safer bet.

They all have a restaurant/bar, and nearly all do an OK (and unlimited) breakfast. Whereas in many Travelodges, you have a choice between a Rumbler out of a vending machine, or trying to find a Wetherspoons in the pissing rain.

De Pijp is a cool place to go for bars and stuff. I stayed near the medical centre in the south-west which is a little way out from the city centre but only really 10 minutes or so on a tram. I walked it, going past the olympic stadium and through vondelpark which was about 5km so a fairly long but not unpleasant walk. Got the tram back in the evening and managed to get on the right one first try somehow.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/280521/

To summarise, humane traps are shit, if you put it outside it’ll come back in, you need to eradicate the food source and block all mouse sized holes.

My garage had some meeces so I tried a sort of see-saw humane trap which worked once. Mouse released up the garden. Then the trap was often tripped but no mouse resident so I reverted to "Little Nipper" which never failed but was never humane.

What's a Rumbler??!

At the Battlefield Travelodge I had an option of a mini pack of cornflakes and some UHT milk. There was a Greene King across the road that did breakfast but having had dinner there the night we arrived and promptly been sick I opted for a drive-through Starbucks.

Premier Inn Northampton here we come!! Ooh - Northampton - what time do you open @StevePeel ? Could get a coffee before we start shooting in theory.

Also "Battlefield Travelodge". Not the sequel many EA fans were expecting.

Premier Inn is the best of the bunch in my experience, although I have a soft spot for Holiday Inn Expresseseses after one of them saved me and @Cycliste from having to spend a night in the worst hotel I've ever visited (the Crewe Arms Hotel).

Humane traps? Do they work?

@Cycliste caught a mouse in a humane trap. Well, I think it was a mouse - it was a bit difficult to tell after she'd got back from a 2 week holiday. Not a good way to go. Definitely not humane.

+1 for the Premier Inn. Very consistent quality, good locations and decent prices. The good night sleep guarantee also worked when I invoked it in York, refunded on the spot, no questions asked. My favourite so far Liverpool docks, in old dockhouse, view of said docks - £120 for family of 4 at weekend.

You need to take them like 3 miles or something, otherwise they can find their way back. Unless you've got a 3 mile long garden, in which case my mistake milord.

Edit: Things that will help to get rid of mice:

• wire wool in every nook and cranny
  
• peppermint oil in every nook and cranny
  
• have your friend's cat round for the afternoon; the smell will deter the mice, but it's possible the cat will actually catch the mouse (not humane)
  

To be fair the rest of the subtitles are absolute nonsense. You could call it Battlefield Travelodge and I bet only 2 people would notice

there's a nearby wifi network that has a funny "link" symbol - what does it mean?

1 Attachment

Someones phone being used as a personal hotspot.

ah. thanks.

I want to cancel Virgin Media TV has the £45 a month I pay doesn't currently present me with enough value.

My questions are:
A) How easy it to cancel - I have had it for years and presumably am not on some sort of contractual obligation
B) I do like the set top box and do watch - and like to record - stuff on BBC, plus I enjoy watching in HD. Is there some sort of Netflix-running, freeview HD recording box I can get with a one-off cost that will replace, like for like, most of what I value in Virgin, without paying for all the extra channels I never watch?

We contacted Virgin and extracted ourselves from everything except broadband, though they will offer price freezes and discounts till the cows come home before they accept that you just don't want their TV.

There are plenty of Freeview+ HD boxes that will do the recording part and some of the better ones will have smart features like streaming. Probably £300+ for those.

A) It's not too tricky but they will spend a fair while haggling with you.

B) There are lots of Freeview Play and Youview boxes that do this kind of thing. Generally £200+ for a decent one (Humax has always been a decent make).

However, when I started looking at this I ended up sticking with Virgin. You can't really get fast broadband for under £30-£35 a month so the additional tenner a month for the basic TV package but a better box made sense compared to spending £250 every few years for an up-to-date Freeview box.