Any question answered...

Not always. There’s a forex place near Farringdon that had better rates than my high street bank, a couple of years back.

Most retail banks make their money on the exchange rate, not fees, so choose carefully if you do go down the bank option, as the rate you'll get from them won't be particularly competitive.

The best way is to find someone who is going to the US soon and wants USD and you'll both get a better rate meeting in the middle of the buy/sell rates than if both went to a forex place.

Otherwise how much is hunting out a great rate worth? If you've got US$300 then the difference between a shit rate and an average rate is going to be £10 or so. Is spending 2 hours of your time getting an extra £10 worth it?

Another trick is finding someone who has recently gone to the US and has a buy back option on money they converted. They can pretend they didn't spend it all and get it converted for you at a preferable rate.

Look at on one planetx as they were selling some converters at 49p

Can you get Lomza beer easily in London? In Dublin it was commonplace but that was probably to do with the large population of Polish immigrants. I'm wondering if I'd get lucky with a random off-license or need to go to a Polish supermarket.

It's not the most common. You'd have to get lucky to get it in a standard offie I reckon.

http://www.lomzabeer.com/cities/london

M&S are worth a look as well. I used to use them quite a lot a few years ago to exchange euros to pounds. There are places you can post cash to that are quite competitive but not competitive enough for me to want to stick a load of cash in the post!

In my travelling days I always used M&S.
Their deals were better than those of anyone else.

Good find, thanks! Will try a Wedlinka shop nearby and report back

Am a fan of polish beers, as they are brewed in Poland still and not brewed here and relabelled.
I would recommend finding a polish shop, getting friendly with the people in there as there are regular deliveries, under the counter of polish beers.
I would also recommend the polish deli meats and polish foods.
IMO Polish and Italian proper food is very close in spice and flavour palette.

Drinker’s Paradise in Kentish Town might have it.

This seems a bit of a stretch, but has anyone replaced a battery in a Philips Sonicare toothbrush?

Mine had been needing charging more frequently until this week when it just stopped doing so at all. The battery isn't supposed to be replaceable, but the chance to revive it for a tenner is more appealing than buying a new toothbrush and the unnecessary crap that will come with it.

You can probably find instructions on youtube

I didn't change the battery but I had to tighten a screw, I used this method to open it.
It will depend a bit on your model.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Opening+Philips+Sonicare+without+damaging+it/160920

Battery will need a bit of soldering from what I can see online.

Mine had been needing charging more frequently until this week when it just stopped doing so at all. The battery isn't supposed to be replaceable

Grrr. This actually bugs the shit out of me. Loads of devices out there where the battery dies way before the device does and you end up having to throw the whole thing away. Bike lights, I’m looking at you too.

If it helps anyone for the future, the kids versions of these toothbrushes take two AA batteries, seem to work the same and take the same heads as the adult ones. Use your rechargeable AAs, you don’t need another charger plugged in somewhere and never worry again about an internal battery failing.

I think the sad reality is 99% of people don’t use rechargeables and environmentally it probably works out better to dispose of the device than it does to deal with the mountain of cheap pound shop batteries people would otherwise use.

Yes. A long time ago though. It was not difficult and it worked fine again, but I was always slightly concerned about whether it was waterproof.

How do I clean off whatever this is on my shifters, without further damaging the plastic/rubber whatever? Appears to be some sort of coating that's degrading rather than dirt from the outside world. Not coming off with a gentle scrub with a sponge and warm water (although it does become invisible when wet)

1 Attachment

What material is it?

The shifter? Slightly rubbery plastic I think. Carbon blade and rubber hood unaffected

Looks like beausage. I would leave it as is, unless it is corroding in a dangerous way.

beausage

Had to look that up. Certainly reflects my general approach to cleaning / maintenance, good to know it's fashionable too

Looks like beausage.

Looks more like bloom or photodegradation to me. The material is probably glass filled nylon. It might be worth trying an automotive plastic restoring product like Armorall.

Extremely helpful as always!