Ninglet

Have been looking graduate and trainee jobs geared towards attracting graduates. It's been 7 years since I last graduated but due to child rearing and temp jobs (so some experience in the field) I never took a graduate role. Would I still qualify or have I missed the boat? I had the impression that a person with a degree and a few years since can be considered a graduate, but what is your limit?

And she said this to her friend in front of you, when you were 13? The precise quote would be ''her eyes have no spirit, just like her Dad''. Would it upset you terribly?

My cousin sent me a box of stationery and toys for Christmas without my knowledge. I got a slip from Royal Mail demanding payment of £20.98 before they can release it to me, this being £8 handling charge and £12.98 VAT charge on the stated £64 (pound equivalent) value of goods. I clarified with my cousin how much she declared as the value on customs slip and she said the value of the goods was below the £40 threshold for VAT but she wrote £64 because she thought it was suppose to include the cost of postage (which was obviously quite high).

Q: Is she supposed to include the value of postage into the value of the parcel?

Q: If I write to Customs explaining the situation, what is the likelihood that they would waive the charge based on my cousin making a mistaken declaration of value?

Q: How likely is Royal Mail to waive the handling charge if the VAT charge gets waived?

I feel tempted to just not pay and let Royal Mail dispose of the parcel, but I don't want them to send it back to her, though she sends me such useless stuff that wastes her money and possibly mine.

Thanks in advance.

When I am out and about by myself, for instance waiting for a bus or on the train, occassionally I get men or a man insulting me, deriding me. One instance a rough looking guy mocking my race and after I refused to give him money he kept at it. Another instance, 2 rough men talking with eachother at the top of their voice about the way I look (not in a good way) and kept looking at me an laughing. What are my rights under UK law to report this as a crime? What numbers can I ring, emergency or police switchboard? Obviously this is not an request for a ASBO pertaining to sustained local harassment, but I still don't know the appropriate step to take. After all, there is no advertising on the subject of which I can find.

I used to play this game after unknowingly buying a pirate copy from China when I was like 12. In the screen where you configure map size, terrain, resources etc, I used to be able to select different personalities/names in the drop down where the word Computer is for the other player(s). I now own a legitimate copy of this along with the Conquerors expansion. However, it only allows me to have one mode for the other players, and that is Computer. In the old pirate version, it was possible to have more peace loving opponents or opponents of varying degrees of aggression whereas now I have a war mongering one as default, in the form of Computer. I'm sorry if it's hard for you to understand what I am saying. Can anyone suggest ways to have different types of opponents and therefore different game plays, whether it be peaceful economic trading or full blown war.

I live in England. My cousin currently resides in China and she sometimes sends me fake stuff, last time it was a Vivienne Westwood purse. Irony aside, can the authorities convict me of anything if they intercept the parccel at customs? I don't really like her gifts and usually give to charity or throw them in the bin if fake as to not get in trouble. I don't really get a warning when she is sending me these things for birthdays and christmas etc.

I have been a customer of Lloyds TSB for nearly 5 years now. Periodically I make a lot of purchases online and instore during sale seasons and when I'm feeling like it. The problem is I often get an email from the retailer saying my bank has refused payment. I ring my bank and go through a labyrinth of security measures before they are willing to discuss the issue, and tell me that they will refer me onto the fraud department.Meanwhile I am on hold and my mobile credit trickles away.

I don't understand why they treat me so suspiciously. I always check my balance online before making any purchase and have never got into overdraft. The recent purchase which has been refused was for a 500 pounds laptop on dell.com. They have refused payments of 100 and 200 pounds before. When I phoned in the past they have told me that sometimes my spending is out of character. Since when does the bank get to dictate when and how much a customer should spend? And since when does the responsibility rest on my shoulders to phone them out of my own pocekt. Why don't they ring me to sort it out? And this has caused so many inconveniences.

Does anyone else have such problems with online purchasing. I am thinking of switching banks, but I want to know if any customers of Lloyds of any other bank get treated like this. If this is how they treat a customer who had never incurred fees or gone into the red, I can't imagine how they treat other people.

Mum is still alive. I am her only child so would be the sole beneficiary of her property, which she currently rents out whilst residing elsewhere.

I understand there is no inheritance tax, and the property would only be exempt from capital gains tax if it is her home at time of death? Not really sure as Aussie tax is complicated.

Anyone can illuminate me? What specific taxes would I have to pay if she leaves it to me in her will, and is it better to gift it to me whilst alive? I am living in the UK at the moment and will be likely to do so in the future.

My mum had booked 2 nights of accommodation at a B&B in Bath. She is due to fly in from New York to Manchester and then on to Bath the next day. In the likelihood of flights been cancelled due to Volcanic ash, can she get refund of her deposit or not?

The guesthouse states their policy as follows:

If you cancel more than 7 days before your date of arrival we will not make a charge and refund any deposits paid. If you cancel after that and we are able to re-let your room we will make a charge of 40% of the total cost of the first night’s accommodation. If we are unable to re-let your room we will charge you for the full rate of your stay.

Their policy is clear, but do they have any obligation to full refund if it's not the guest's fault, but that of a natural disaster?

Well the background:

I talk to a guy on messenger. He knows I have a bf, he sees me on webcam the first time and said 'you look nice'. I also talked to a female friend online and we webcam, and her husband walks in, sees me on the screen, and she told me that he said I looked nice. I understand that if a guy who is friends with me or who sees me regularly says that it could mean I looked dressy or smart on that day.

In these situations, I think they either meant I looked friendly nice, or that I am nice looking, or that I dress nice and have good grooming (which is unusual for the first time seeing me though).

So what do you think these two guys mean?

I lived in suburban Sydney for about 12 years, whilst growing up. As a result of my adolescence and hence immaturity and lack of awareness of what was around me, it's only years later that i'm now curious about why, looking back, I never saw any Aborigines. I never saw any of them at school (i've been to two primary schools and two high schools), nor at universities (I went to one and regularly went past two others. I also never met any at work (I held a number of temp jobs in retail and the like).

I remember hearing from my mum that Aborigines live in Redfern, but I never saw any either when I stopped by. Where ARE they? Where do they live? Do they only live in the outback and certain 'ghettos'? Are their childrens school attendace rates very low?

I remember reading an online article from The Australian (forgot how to find it again) that Aboriginal rates for early death, birth mortality, alcoholism, suicide, and umemployment, among other vital stats, are much higher than the national average. I find it hard to believe that as a racial group they are lazy, unmotivated, psychologically flawed etc.. Of course there are cultural mismatchs between the Aboriginal way of life and the 'white' or mainstream Australian civilisation. If that's the case, why should we impose our ways onto them and punish them when they don't conform, or don't know how to conform? If there are undiscoverd tribes of people still thriving in places like South America http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7426794.stm then surely it's possible that Australian Aborigines could have thrived too if left alone. After all, they were able to forage for food in the arid outback which is quite dangerous for the average Australian to survive in. Maybe due to the imposed civilisation that is at their door step, they are unable to cling onto a 'primitive life' of their own choosing, if they want any recognition or any rights at all. Many of them abuse alcohol because they don't know how to handle it and they have not been educated on the risks to addiction and to developing health problems. That is my theory.

Anyways that's the background to my limited understanding. What are your views?

Lots of sources and anecdotal evidence suggest high heels can cause immense pain, various injuries to feet, ankles and knees. Why has nobody campaigned for health warnings? Especially at a time when impressionable teens and tweens are jumping on the bandwagon, without full knowledge of the physical consequences?

http://www.medicalsearch.com.au/News/High-heel-inj...

http://www.heel-that-pain.com/injury.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s86ZC0NAxfM

If someone can only get work in certain jobs due to limited abilities and/or life circumstances, and the work makes them utterly miserable, and depressed, sometimes even suicidal, should they quit and go on benefits, beg, or continue and hope they won't jump out the window. And what if counselling doesn't help.

Did you get many questions on statistics, eg what proportion of people stated Hinduism as their religion in the last census. I know most of what's in the book and just want to know how much effort should be put into memorising stats, which are quite a lot.

Tsunami rubble is what I mean as there is not enough space in the question.

You hear of British, Chinese and Russian etc rescuers joining the rescue effort in Japan, yet they can only do so much on foot. My friend in Tokyo has an aunt who worked in an old people's home in Sendail. As of now they are still trapped inside with diminishing food, no water, no electricity or gas. They are afraid to venture out due to the flooding river nearby. She is asking people on facebook and twitter for advice on how to survive in such a condition. Why are rescuers not coming in by helicopters? I understand that roads are destroyed and other infrascture in the same fate, but why not also get a boat from someone South with supplies and go up avoiding the radiation zone and to the port of Sendai, then they can go inland and distribute food. It just seems that the focus has been on the nuclear disaster. They are not doing enough, not quickly enough, for the people hanging on by a thread. I think the Japanese government should stop being so proud and appeal to the UN for a world wide rescue effort, cause clearly they need something that they don't have at the moment.

Should foreigners who are in japan for work and other short term purposes leave as food, water and other resources are scarce. Also most foreigners have homes in their own countries that they can stay in. A lot of Japanese people have lost their homes, and would probably have trouble finding a place to live in the near future when they need to evacuate their areas. It just seems unfair that foreigners who can leave are staying and using up resources. It's not like they can't go home.

This also applies to foreigners in areas left largely unscathed because I would imagine that food in the country would need to be collected and redistributed to those most in need, if it's not already happening.

My Japanese friend said this regarding her workplace. She didn't explain and I didn't want to ask since I was supposed to be better at English.

I get quite a lot of comments about how slim I am, and sometimes I note a hint of resentment or something negative. I don't really think I deserve it as I am trying to gain more fat to get a plumper figure. It's not like i'm starving myself.

If you are trying to lose weight, are you envious of slim people?

I'm asking after running into some people that aren't nice, don't have manners, and who can be downright nasty. This of course applies to real life as well as online.

It seems some people are quite bitchy and some will ridicule you in public about something for no reason. Of course I don't know if people are just racist (i'm Asian). I was served by a woman who ridiculed me by making sour faces everytime she asked me something and I replied. I was like wtf?

Once when I was in Wales my bags got stuck in the aisle when I needed to get off. I tugged at it and instead of people helping me, they laughed. But then again I rarely see any local Welsh people being curteous or nice.

What are your experiences? This mainly applies to manners in public, but if you want to enlighten me on general behaviour everywhere else in life, then be my guest.