Meggan's Mum

I have discolouration in all of my finger nails and they appear to be coming away from the nail bed. They are not thickening or breaking as some of the picture show, they just look like they have dirt behind the nails. I have been to the doctor who won't prescribe anything until I have given a sample of my nails. I have done this in the past and the results have come back as no infection. I have bought over the counter treatment made by Scholl. It has worked in the past but it is very expensive, £28 for just a very small bottle and as I have to use it on all my nails it is costing me a lot of money. I have looked up natural remedies and there are lots, like apple cider vinegar, vicks vapour rub, tea tree oil. Has anyone tried any of these and have they worked. At the moment I am using household bleach using a nail brush to get it under my nails but although it gets rid of some of the discolouration the nail bristles can't go down far enough to reach it all and I am so ashamed of the look of my nails I try to hide them from view.

I am making some mini bakewell tarts and I'm not sure whether to blind bake the bases first as it seems a bit of a hassle. I've looked up many recipes and some say to blind bake and others not so don't know what to do.

We have lost the instructions for the new Toshiba DVD combo we bought for Christmas. I know how to work everything except for how to get the DVD's out of the TV set. I have looked up the manual on the Internet but you have to download it and the last time I downloaded a manual I got stuck with the 'Ask toolbar' which was a pain to get rid of. Can anyone help me to get my DVD out of the TV please.

I have a new computer and instead of Google I have Firefox. I like to play Scrabble on Facebook and when I do I get a window up saying "This plug in is vulnerable and should be updated. Activate Adobe Flash and then it says 'Check for updates'

However at the top of the screen there is a message saying 'Firefox has prevented outdated plug in Adobe Flash from running on Facebook Apps.

Can anyone tell me what this means and do I need to 'Check for updates' and activate Adobe Flash. I don't want to do anything to harm this brand spanking new computer.

I have changed my Talktalk email address, the one that my Answers from Yahoo Answers goes to. How can I change the information Yahoo Answers has on my as I am not receiving any answers to my questions and I have to go into the main Yahoo answers to look at any replies.

Just recently I am having problems scanning documents and saving them on the computer and I don't know if it's a problem with my scanner or my computer as it has only just happened and I've done it many times in the past. My scanner is a printer, scanner and fax (HP Photosmart C5180 all in one) I have no problem printing documents from my computer or copying and printing out documents using the scanner but sometimes I try to scan a document from the computer, the scanner seems to work fine but on the computer screen the line showing how far the copying has gone stops and then goes no further. I can't then get rid of it by cancelling and always have to click Ctrl Alt Delete to clear the screen. However sometimes it works perfectly. Anyone know why this should be please. I really need to scan and send documents for my husbands business so it is really important. Thanks

Is there such a thing as an electronic address book. It would be so much better than a paper one. You could make alterations and deletions easily and wouldn't get untidy.

My desktop computer is only a couple of years old but is being a problem. When I turn it on sometimes the screen remains blank, sometimes it gets as far as Windows come up on the screen then four little lights appear which should which should circle round and light the middle logo but often the lights just freeze and nothing will happen no matter what I press. Then I have to turn the computer off and on again. Sometimes the same thing will happen again and eventually it will bring up a screen which says I must Restore, once I have done that the computer usually boots up o.k. It does often take a long time although at other times it starts perfectly well. Help please.

We have just bought a Voodoo Lily as we were fascinated by the beautiful but smelly plant. However a friend has just told us that they are poisonous for dogs. We wanted to plant this out in the garden but have three dogs who are very inquisitive and often eat stuff in the garden. Is the Voodoo Lily poisonous for dogs and if so it is the whole plant or just part of it.

I have cleaned all the glass in the greenhouse, all the pots and staging but I would like to also disinfect the soil as last year I had botritus and also leaf hopper. I plant my tomatoes direct into the soil in the greenhouse after adding the compost from my very good compost heap. If I use Jeyes Fluid I know it is a good disinfectant but will it kill any good nutrients left in the soil and also how long would it be before I can plant tomatoes into the soil. I am in my late 60's and not that fit so I am not able to replace any of the soil in the greenhouse because of the digging and lifting it would require.

We use a dehumidifier in one of our garden sheds and my husband thinks the water it takes in is o.k. to use the same as you would distilled water which I usually buy for my steam iron. I don't think it would be any good but would welcome people's opinions,.

I have recently won a slow cooker (crock pot) and today wanted to make a beef casserole. However although all appeared o.k. and working, when I came home from a visit to the shops I noticed the light had gone out, now when I try to turn the thing on it blows the trip switch and it is obviously faulty. I now need to cook the casserole in the oven. At what temperature should I cook it, i.e. what temperature would the slower cooker use for cooking the casserole.

My husband is an XL size and I want to knit a sweater in Double Knit (UK) but am having trouble getting a knitting pattern either in the shops or on line, they all seem to use chunkier wool. I have a sweater pattern but it's a very old one and just goes up to a size 44 ( I think that XL is 46) - does anyone know how many stitches I would need to cast on to make a sweater that is XL as I think I could probably adapt the pattern I have by make it just a bit bigger.

We recently paid off our mortgage but the bank took over £400 the next month to pay the mortgage. When my husband called he was told that the bank did not overpay yet when he insisted it be looked into it was found that we the bank had taken the last payment in error. So they owe us over £400 but the letter explaining their oversight says that the money will be credited to our again in 4 weeks! The Bank is Santander and the Mortgage was with Santander so why will it take them 4 weeks to pay us our money back when it takes a few seconds on a computer. When we owed the bank money they took it straight out the next day, charged us interest yet when we said that they should pay us interest as they will have our money for four weeks they say that's not the way they work. Should be go to the banking ombudsman or is that just a waste of time?

We have an ex directory number and recently I've been getting calls from really strange numbers, I have a phone which displays the callers number so that I can refuse to answer if I want. Today I got one call fronm 0123456789 which I didn't answer. About half an hour later I got a call from 011777123456789 - obviously it's from the same source. I picked up the second call and just said Can I help you, there was a mutter and the phone was put down. Normally I'm not bothered about random numbers phoning as I know there are people employed just to ring any number and try and sell you something, but when the number is almost identical apart from the 011777 in front it got me a bit concerned. Anyone know how they do this and who could be ringing.

I want to make my own mincemeat for mince pies but don't want to use any alcohol. How long will it last. I don't really want to be making it at the last minute. And will it need storing in the refridgerator?

I have just been given a Tablet as a present. There was no booklet of instructions with it, all it shows me how to do is to turn it on! I am in my 60's but know a fair bit about using computers etc but have had to sort out how it works with trial and error. Why can't there be an instruction booklet, I got one with my mobile phone!

I always used to use Phostrogen as a liquid feed but the last couple of years I've used Miracle Grow. The latter works out more expensive but I think I've had better results. Which is best as an all round fertiliser, I use it on pot grown flowers and baskets and tomatoes.

I have some Welsh friends coming over for tea and I wanted to cook some traditional Welsh Cakes. I've looked up loads of recipes and they vary as to whether you use butter or a combination of butter and Lard. I've used Lard for other things in the past and I think it smells awful. What is the reason for using lard and could I substitute it with trex or cookeen (vegetable fat) or just use all butter.