nikki s

I have just started a healthy eating and exercise plan. I dont want to join a gym as I really really hate those places, but I do enjoy walking, swimming and cycling. I cant get to the swim centre all that often so I generally walk between 3/4 hour to 1 hour 20mins at least 4 times a week. I have just bought myself a bike and plan to break up my exercise with the occasional bike ride. Do you lose more weight and get fitter riding a bike or walking? I always hear that walking is the best workout, but those professional bike riders look pretty fit to me.

I have never had a flu jab, but have had 2 or 3 bad colds every winter for the last 3 years. I haven't suffered a flu for maybe 12 or 15 years.

I work in retail and customers are constantly coughing and sneezing at me all the time.

My boss and workmates say I should get a vaccination, but I am not really keen to if I don't have to.

Whats your opinion?

Australian answers only please.

I just received my statement from MLC for the half year to December 31st, and I have lost a heap of money. So I think I might chuck it into my REST super, which is an industry fund, so if you believe all the ads on TV they are meant to perform better than others, but they are taking nearly one third of my employer contributions in fees, taxes and charges.

I am about to turn 50 and don't plan to retire before the age of 67 or later if I can.

I know yr not meant to react too quickly as its all long-term, but I have only had a growth of 3.9% in the last 5 years so that is not enough to retire comfortably unless im 115 years old.

Does anyone know of a really good superannuation fund that you can trust to give you good returns?

Thanks.

I have seen on you tube, cats having fun chasing a dot from a laser pointer. I think this would be a good way to exercise my cat this coming winter. Where can I buy one from here in South Australia?

I don't use a credit card so am limited with purchasing online.

I have a 5 year old neutered female cat.

Over the last 2 weeks or so I have noticed that occasionally (3 times now) she will stand on the sofa or her bed, arch her back, knead her front paws and stare off into the distance like she is in some sort of a trance. This can go on for up to 1 minute, then she walks off.

I have seen her "kneading" before she settles down to sleep but never seen this other behaviour.

There are no drugs or smokers in the house and I watch what cleaning chemicals i use so I don't think she has been poisoned.

She is mostly an indoor cat, is up to date with vaccinations, not overweight and pretty well adjusted for a cat.

Its just strange because I have had her since a kitten and never seen her do this previously.

Any explanations?

2012 is my year of serious saving, so i am trying to make sure that all the money that I put into my savings account stays in there and doesn't get transferred back to pay for shoes, handbags, speeding fines, bills etc, and that I don't spend money on rubbish that I don't really need and won't even use.

Going well so far, lets see how I am in August.

I am nearly 50, have a very well paying job and plan to retire at about 65 or 66.

Could some financial whizz tell me how much superannuation I should have at this age and also how much I should have in my savings account.

Some one told me I should have 8 months worth of my salary in my savings account.

Is that true?

i have about $350000 in my main super I think and am adding an extra $100/ week.

Some people were saying it was the scariest movie they have ever seen. Not any of the Paranormal Activity movies. Might have had an old house and/or maybe a blonde child in the trailer. I have been looking for it on dvd, but dont know the name of it.

I mean I really REALLY love chocolate and I could not imagine going one week without eating it. I'm not talking about 2 squares of that dark crap, I mean 2 large mars bars, a couple of twirls or at least 100grams of cadbury rocky road every week.

One week you hear chocolate is ok, then you hear its only the dark chocolate, then chocolate will give you bowel cancer, type 6 diabetes as well as leprosy and make all your pubic hair grow inwards.

C'mon nutritionists and food coaches tell me the truth it cannot be bad

I was thinking panda porn parties?

Or maybe Animal CSI, where people pay to guess what animal has died, just by examining its liver?

Any other fundraising ideas to help out our lovely zoo?

I have a grafted Meyer (I think) lemon in a large pot.

It gets regular water, full sun in summer (not much in winter) and feeding with Miracle gro a few times a year.

My friends lemon tree is one year younger and hers is bearing lots of fruit, but I have only got tiny stunted fruit on mine about the size of your thumbnail, and that was only the first year i had it, nothing since.

I have been told that because I have spikes on my tree, the wrong part of the graft has taken and it will never have any fruit.

Tried iron, tried nitrophoska, tried miracle gro, blood and bone.

Any help?

I cant plant it as I am renting this place.

All the lemon trees in the area look great.

I think this is worse than Barbie Girl by Aqua.

Anyone agree?

What is your most hated tune?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NO-h9PFum4&ob=av2e

I walk into other peoples houses and look in magazines and the throw rugs look fantastic. When I put them on my leather lounge they either fall off the back and end up on the seat or the just look stupid and daggy. Any hints on A) how to stop them falling off and B) where to put them to make them look good?

I have a sort of light beige coloured couch. One throw rug is a mottled brown/cream angora and the other is a chocolate brown sort of fluffy one. I have 3 cushions on my couch too.

For the last week I have been having lots of problems accessing my Yahoo mail.

They advertise the new yahoo mail as better and faster!!! But I cant delete anything out of my spam box, I cant move any emails from my inbox to other folders, plus most of my mail I cant even access without clicking a "retry loading" button.

I have tried accessing at 6pm, 11pm and even 4am so I know it isnt the speed of my broadband or my computer.

Everything else is fine, have a great antivirus, so I know its not that.

Tried defragging, no difference.

Anyone got any ideas?

Bring back the previous version of yahoo mail, I had absolutely no problems with that at all.

Now that spring is finally here, i have prepared a garden bed that is very hard to grow much in. It is in full shade in winter and hot afternoon sun in summer. I live in South Australia, so the summers get pretty hot here.

The bed measures about 2 metres by 3.5 metres, pretty good drainage and I have prepared the bed well with lots of compost over winter.

All that seems to do well in this bed previously is diannellas and sweet basil. I would prefer natives, but they all seem to need full or part sun.

Any ideas gardeners? i already have enough veges growing in other beds, so not really interested in any more.

I am in a quite well paying full time job. I am nearly 50 and plan to retire at 65. I have around $400,000 in my superannuation account as well as having some shares/managed trusts. At this stage i am adding an extra 15% of my wages to my super account and 15% into a savings account. I have no mortgage, credit card debt or personal loans, so I am much better off than most other people out there.

My question is what percentage of my income should I be saving and how much should I be putting in my super at my age? I tend to buy stuff when I need it and am not really saving for anything in particular.

I would prefer answers from Australians if possible as I don't understand all the American jargon.

i bought a Telstra T-Hub a couple of weeks ago, and seem to be having a lot of problems with it. I am not sure if these problems are with all sets or just mine.

1) cant get any good digital radio stations

2) wont stay on central standard time, keeps switching back to EST.

3) keep losing my WIFI connection, even though the base station and the handsets don't move and i leave my wireless thingy on all the time.

4) really really tinny and crackly sound when i use the touchscreen for calls

5) settings eg alarms, screen saver etc seem to do their own thing eg change or switch on and off at will

6) it wont send SMS, just keeps saying "sending" but text doesnt arrive.

I have rung T-Hub support so many times in the last fortnight i feel like a nuisance.

Is any one else having problems?

I am trying Melatonin for insomnia and the instructions say to dissolve the tablets under the tongue. Why does this work differently to chewing them, dissolving them on top of your tongue or just swallowing them?

Yahoo do a good job of getting my SPAM mail in the spam folder but i would like to block these guys that consistently send me stuff day after day after day. I know how to block a sender if i actually open the email, but is there some way to block them without opening it? Please do not send me complicated instructions or use terms that are too technical. Although i don't feel that i am a beginner i would class myself as a novice as far as computer use goes.

Thanks

A friend of mine has a theory that the recent spate of large earthquakes are caused by the fact that we are pumping so much oil out of the ground, therefore unsettling the continental plates, due to the viscous liquid being replaced by less viscous seawater.

Seems plausible to me.

Any geologists or earth scientists out there with an answer?