A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum

[FFAdminMKS]

Familiar email from YouGov inviting me to participate in a survey for 25 points. I click Yes. Immediately I get a strange pop-up saying this is a flash survey (1 minute): best to complete flash surveys on mobile with app. Download app here. No, I'll do it on my laptop. First question: How do you feel about the summer transfer window - Very Happy Happy Neither Happy nor Unhappy Unhappy Very Unhappy. Then something about joining clubs. My immediate thought was: Oh, no! I clicked on a link on an email. What have I downloaded? Made my excuses and fled.

Googled "Summer transfer window", and decided my answer(s) wouldn't have been of much value to them anyway.

[french frank dixit]

[Pulcinella]

Familiar email from YouGov inviting me to participate in a survey for 25 points. I click Yes. Immediately I get a strange pop-up saying this is a flash survey (1 minute): best to complete flash surveys on mobile with app. Download app here. No, I'll do it on my laptop. First question: How do you feel about the summer transfer window - Very Happy Happy Neither Happy nor Unhappy Unhappy Very Unhappy. Then something about joining clubs. My immediate thought was: Oh, no! I clicked on a link on an email. What have I downloaded? Made my excuses and fled.

Googled "Summer transfer window", and decided my answer(s) wouldn't have been of much value to them anyway.

[french frank dixit]

Where do the points go/accumulate?
At least with the ONS surveys I do we get a £10 voucher!

[french frank]

Where do the points go/accumulate?
At least with the ONS surveys I do we get a £10 voucher!

I've been doing the surveys for some years and so far have had one payment of £50 paid into my bank account. I was suspicious of that too, as it involved giving my bank details, but the payment duly arrived. In about another ten years I might get another payment

[Nick Armstrong]

At least with the ONS surveys I do we get a £10 voucher!

Same here! The first year, M&S operatives looked dumbfounded at the voucher on my phone screen, so I learnt that it’s best used online - a new pack of M&S socks was largely ONS-funded… via ‘click’n’collect’

[oddoneout]

Where do the points go/accumulate?
At least with the ONS surveys I do we get a £10 voucher!

I got invited to do an ONS survey a while back.Quite apart from being very unimpressed with the questions which seemed to have been cobbled together from a more general survey to take account of certain aspects of Covid - but whoever designed it evidently didn't know enough about the different types of working or working environment so a good few of the questions I couldn't answer accurately as there was no N/A option - there was an awful faff to get the voucher I'd been promised as - guess what - it was all online/smartphone. That wasn't made clear at the start. Eventually I was grudgingly told(had to phone) that a paper voucher would be sent, and no she didn't know when I would get it as they were done in batches and I'd missed that period's mail out. I think it was about 3 months later it turned up, when I'd given up on it. On the plus side at least it was a usable voucher - I was able to find somewhere that would accept it for something I actually wanted.

[Pulcinella]

I got invited to do an ONS survey a while back.Quite apart from being very unimpressed with the questions which seemed to have been cobbled together from a more general survey to take account of certain aspects of Covid - but whoever designed it evidently didn't know enough about the different types of working or working environment so a good few of the questions I couldn't answer accurately as there was no N/A option - there was an awful faff to get the voucher I'd been promised as - guess what - it was all online/smartphone. That wasn't made clear at the start. Eventually I was grudgingly told(had to phone) that a paper voucher would be sent, and no she didn't know when I would get it as they were done in batches and I'd missed that period's mail out. I think it was about 3 months later it turned up, when I'd given up on it. On the plus side at least it was a usable voucher - I was able to find somewhere that would accept it for something I actually wanted.

I would certainly concur that the appropriateness of many of the questions leaves much to be desired, and the questionnaires often leave me wondering at the quality of the staff devising them.
I rang them once as I was not able to go back and correct an answer once I realised that they classed my state pension as a Benefit!

But then, we got the awful Brexit referendum question: how many people must have seen that and thought that it was exactly what should have been asked?

[french frank]

I thought my breakfast coffee tasted very odd this morning. Then as I was boiling the water for my second cup just now I remembered: I'd left a limescale solution soaking in the kettle last night and forgotten about it. Second cup tastes fine.

[Serial_Apologist]

I thought my breakfast coffee tasted very odd this morning. Then as I was boiling the water for my second cup just now I remembered: I'd left a limescale solution soaking in the kettle last night and forgotten about it. Second cup tastes fine.

That limesecale remover is very corrosive, so I hope you are, or will be OK!

I have noticed that after using some sink cleaners on my washing bowl, such as Cif, the taste transfers via subsequent plate washings, regardless of having pre-rinsed the bowl, as I thought, thoroughly.

[oddoneout]

I use citric acid - quick, safe, inexpensive and no nasty residual smells/tastes . Admittedly I only boil up small quantities of water - a mug at a time - but the dosage instructions on the box are a nonsense. I put water in the kettle up to the scale level, boil up, chuck in a heaped teaspoonful of the crystals, leave it to fizz for a few minutes, rinse and the kettle's ready to use again. The only time I used the half box dosage was for a crudded up urn at work.

[french frank]

I use citric acid - quick, safe, inexpensive and no nasty residual smells/tastes . Admittedly I only boil up small quantities of water - a mug at a time - but the dosage instructions on the box are a nonsense. I put water in the kettle up to the scale level, boil up, chuck in a heaped teaspoonful of the crystals, leave it to fizz for a few minutes, rinse and the kettle's ready to use again. The only time I used the half box dosage was for a crudded up urn at work.

I suppose it might depend on where you live. Bristol has notoriously hard water and limescale build-up is a regular problem. (by the way, I'm feeling fine - ate a hearty lunch

[oddoneout]

I suppose it might depend on where you live. Bristol has notoriously hard water and limescale build-up is a regular problem. (by the way, I'm feeling fine - ate a hearty lunch

It does indeed depend, but as my area is 332 mg/l CaCO3 and Bristol area is 232mg/l CaCO3 according to the figures I can find, I think it would be safe to assume that citric acid would work for you? I remember many years ago when we had a new boiler put in and asked for a scale inhibitor to be fitted as it was a combi (we were early adopters so there was a lack of familiarity) the engineer tried to dissuade us - "no need" - so we insisted he check the figures, as per the installation instructions, instead of just making assumptions about actual levels. He didn't believe what he was told at first when he phoned "head office" and they looked it up, but eventually conceded we had a point.

[french frank]

It does indeed depend, but as my area is 332 mg/l CaCO3 and Bristol area is 232mg/l CaCO3 according to the figures I can find, I think it would be safe to assume that citric acid would work for you? I remember many years ago when we had a new boiler put in and asked for a scale inhibitor to be fitted as it was a combi (we were early adopters so there was a lack of familiarity) the engineer tried to dissuade us - "no need" - so we insisted he check the figures, as per the installation instructions, instead of just making assumptions about actual levels. He didn't believe what he was told at first when he phoned "head office" and they looked it up, but eventually conceded we had a point.

Yes, I was mistaken in thinking we were among the areas with the hardest water. The kettle is the only appliance I ever descale, and I don't do it very often. No wonder I forgot half way through the process and left the stuff in the kettle overnight

[kernelbogey]

I use citric acid - quick, safe, inexpensive and no nasty residual smells/tastes .

I have found chip-shop vinegar works well.

[oddoneout]

I have found chip-shop vinegar works well.

Does it have to be chip shop vinegar(is the fish and chip top note important) or would ordinary malt vinegar from the supermarket do?

[Bryn]

Does it have to be chip shop vinegar(is the fish and chip top note important) or would ordinary malt vinegar from the supermarket do?

Fish and Chip shops do not provide vinegar. They always use "non-brewed condiment", which is manufactured from acetic acid and water. A sort of ersatz vinegar.