agrostic

I wasn't told the carpet in our rented house was non colourfast. I've just used a carpet cleaner on a patch about a metre squared and the dye has spread making it a different colour to the rest.

Is there anything I can do to make it better? I've tried soaking those colour-patches I use in the washing machine and pressing down on the area, but whilst it lifts some of the dye off - it doesn't seem to make it any better.

Help please!

Our heating has gone off. Boiler is ancient and they've been out twice already and just restarted it.

It went off Saturday morning and the Landlord's agent is not contactable over the weekends. They have given us a phone number to call in "emergencies" for their handyman. But they made it very clear that they would charge us for anything we called them out for that wasn't an "emergency" and could wait until Monday.

I would say a woman living in a house with a seven-year-old daughter without heating in early February is an "emergency".

Is there anything legal/official about heating requirements for Landlords in the UK?

Thanks

We've moved and the local supermarket sells only budget brand spring water. I bought some and when you unscrew the lid, it is like it has been pressurised. It makes that fizzing sound.

I never had that with my previous water bottles. What could be causing it? (I'm in the UK.)

I have a Grant Multipass Sealed Boiler from 2003 running on oil. I didn't notice that the water pressure was almost (possible at) 0. I've got the pressure back up to 1 but now the boiler is dead. The fuse in the main house fuse box marked "heating" has not tripped. The fuse in the power supply next to the boiler's timer is working and the settings/timer is on too.

But when I switch the boiler main ON/OFF button - nothing happens.

The reset button is not lit and nothing happens when I press it. I've pressed the emergency thermostat reset button too.

It just seems dead. Are there any other buttons I should be looking for? There seems nothing else to press. But there is no sound and no light comes on when I turn the boiler ON.

Help! It's cold up here.

Mike

I've been searching the web and almost every website I've gone to has shown completely different symbols for the exact same words. I just want to write "wise child" in chinese.

Any ideas?

I made an animation for my daughter about the time she lost her favourite teddy, Pickles. She loved it. My family loved it ...

... you know what's coming next, right? They suggested trying to make money from it because "it was very good".

So, I fell for the flattery and posted the animation on YouTube marked for children aged 2-5:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc1E5pIG3Io

and the response has been great as far as I can tell. I checked the analytics on YouTube and it says that 1 in 4 people that start watching the cartoon, watch it to the end. I thought 1 in 4 was pretty good? If 1 in 4 people in the country like a show, that's a hit isn't it?

Anyway, I extracted 35 still images that tell the story, put the narration in words on each of the images and sent it off to children's book agents. They weren't very nice at all about it at all (the ones that bothered to respond).

Am I missing something? Is my attempt simply "okay" but nothing to shout about?

I'm content to have just made it. My daughter thinks I'm great! But after seeing the figures from YouTube, I'm now kind of shocked that agents (in the UK) weren't interested.

If anyone has insight into the children's market, I'd love to hear your opinion.

Thanks everyone

Mike

I hit the weights 2-3 times a week and jog 2-3 times a week. Every 4-6 weeks I take a week off to fully recover. I use protein shakes as a supplement and have never used steroids. Every so often I break out a pre-workout drink like NO-Xplode or Jack3D if I'm having a rough week. This is how I've been for the past 10 years.

But for the past few months I've been getting weaker and weaker. Every few days, I suddenly feel fine - like I could actually get back in and hit the weights, but the moment passes and I go back to shaking when I lift my daughter up. Seriously, my whole arm started shaking when I was lifting a slice of pizza to my mouth this afternoon!

Doc says what all NHS doctors say ... "let's wait and see what happens" ... a line that has put 3 of my friends six feet under.

Anyone heard of this? I'm only 35. Surely I shouldn't be shaking just picking up items at Tesco? I've tried tracking what I eat, but there is no common thread between the moments in the week where I get my strength back and what I've eaten just before.

Read that wind needs to be at 4m/s before a wind turbine will generate electricity. How do I measure the general wind speed outside my house?

I can put up a blade, but how many rotations equal 4m/s?

Thanks

Mike

P.S. yes, I am not an engineer and realise my question may be full of flaws itself but I hope someone will be able to understand my query!

Keep hearing everyone say "the prophets have told us to get a 72 hour kit and a year's food storage" ... which prophets? I can't find a single statement by any of them saying such. All there is, is a reference to 72 hours and a helplist in an LDS handbook.

We were thinking of going to disneyland florida from 22nd to 29th of October. We've been during the US summer holidays and it was almost pointless.

I can't work out the school year in the US. The only information I can get is that "maybe" 30% of schools take "two weeks" off in October ... but never says which two weeks it might be and 30% seems a strange figure ...

I would imagine that the law would not prosecute you for failing to dive in to a canal to help someone drowning. But what are the laws on "not bothering to throw the nearby rope/ring in to the water" or "not calling for help"?

Where is the line before the law will actually do something to you for failing to act?

I read that Facebook is being forced to shut down Beacon over privacy problems. Then I read the number of Facebook users is up. Then I read that people are suing Facebook for selling their information. Then I read that the number of Facebook users is up again. Then I read that the "privacy settings" for my photos are practically pointless and that anyone potentially can look at my photos. The number of Facebook users continues to increase.

Can Facebook really do what it wants with all our information and we'll continue to sign up?

Why? If the government tried to collect as much information as we give Facebook we'd fight it wholeheartedly ... but Facebook actually makes money from SELLING that information. What is going on?!?!

http://www.noclaimsdiscount.co.uk/news/art_display...

We're being harrassed by a private parking ticket collector. We questioned the ticket (as per their offered appeals process) and when they responded 3 months later turning down the appeal (surprise, surprise) we sent out a cheque but they sent it back!

We then received a letter from a solicitor saying they were to recover £180 (original ticket was £60) because of the delay ... they were the ones who took 3 months to respond to the appeal. We've refused to pay because we sent them a cheque and they sent it back.

There are plenty of complaints about this company, Central Ticketing Ltd, in consumer forums -- and the "firm of solicitors" Graham White Solicitors is apparently it's just one guy called Michael Sobell using some other firm's brand name. The debt collection agency just happens to have a very similar address too ...

They keep writing to us and threatening to "send someone round". Can I get an injuction or something? I'd rather pay £180 fighting this!

Thanks

Mike

We live at the bottom of a hill (all farmers fields above with dis-used quarry right next to us) so even after a tiny bit of rain my lawn is more like a water bed. I've tried digging down to see if there is a pocket I can drill through but at 4ft down the soil is even wetter than near the top!

There is no-where I can siphon the water off to (road surrounds 2 sides of us, houses across etc. etc.) so how do I dry out ground that is basically more suited for being a well than a lawn?

And please don't say just move the lawn or tarmac over it! It is in the only location it can be and I like a bit of lawn ;)

Thanks everyone

Mike

We've ended up with a lumpy lawn where little dips have sunk in all over the front area - the back area is fine. Some are the size of a fist sunk in, others are much smaller. I saw Rolawn top dressing which says you just brush it in and it fills in the dips and levels the lawn - but is it any good? It's apparently mostly sand, so would I be cheaper just buying sand and brushing that over the lawn?

Thanks!

MIke

My wife is fuming! Stupid Sky+ didn't tape the very last episode of grey's anatomy saying it "clashed" with another program ... but it didn't! We weren't taping anything for an hour either side of it being on.

Not the first time Sky+ has done this either. Intelligence, NCIS and Boston Legal have all either shown "failed" or "clashed" for their very last episodes which leads me to think that there is some jerk in Sky HQ screwing with the viewing public!

But anyway, I'm trying to get a hold of the last episode but the only options I see are to buy the whole season box set for £55.

We bought some slabs over two years ago to put in a patio -- but I developed arthritis around that time so had to save up to pay someone to do it instead. Now, two months into the job and we have to keep calling up the patio guy to come round and re-level because corners keep sinking in. The slabs were slightly warped (bent in the middle) due to sitting for so long but now he is saying that they are even more warped and that is what is causing all the dips to appear.

Surely not? Surely concrete slabs don't warp in new places 2-3 times a week?