75ZT Community

Happy New Year everybody, wishing you all the best for 26.

Happy New Year from us in Yorkie land, not ventured out of the house yet this year, looks too cold. Roll on summer

Dry January is dragging on a bit now

don't time will fly and we will be at the Nano meets before you know it, then we will be saying happy new year 2027 time goes by so fast.

A white snowy day here today. Just came in from clearing about one inch of snow from the front of the house and it is snowing heavy again. Having a mug of coffee to warm up while watching the TV news about Trump's invasion of Venezuela, we live in interesting times.

No snow in Yorkie land, but -4 this morning. Watching Trump on the breakfast news, he doesn't look a well man.

No snow today but that may be because it is too cold and what fell yesterday is now freezing. Too cold and hazardous to venture out for me so will have a play with my mobile phone. I'm trying to fathom how to get it to do voice calls with its sim fitted to my sim-card router. Relatives contend that it is possible and that they use their mobiles this way and while out and away from their wifi router their phones still work ok without a sim card fitted. Everything I've googled says no, use of data yes but voice calls no. Will have to take my phone to said relatives to see what they can do with it.

We have had a tiny bit of snow this afternoon. Might have more later.

Ref the mobile etc, there are ways to make calls. One of which is to use data to make calls via WhatsApp. But you can only voicecall other WhatsApp users. Another is WiFi calling, but as far as I know that still requires the SIM to be in the actual phone. Can't see how it would work in a phone with no SIM when away from the home, unless they are relying on other WiFi hotspots. At the end of the day, all calls are now basically data, and even your 'landline' is going that way eventually, if it hasn't already.

I do recall mention of the use of hotspots in the conversation I had with them. I also think that they must somehow be making use of wifi calling because during my visit they confirmed that their phones were switched on and shared use of the same sim which was fitted inside their sim-card router. I use my phone's sim in the same way but only for internet access with my laptop, if I want to use my phone for voice calls I have to remove the sim from my router and fit it to my phone. My phone gets little use so the sim swapping is not a game changer but it would be nice not to have the inconvenience.

Small flurry of snow here tonight, both car windows are covered, but doubt they will be used until later in the week, as have no need to go out anywhere, may venture down the shed to rearrange it ready for some new work surfaces and draws etc, yesterday spent time learning more about Linux mint cinnamon, making our stew, and watching the darts, just finished watching a film, and am now updating the laptops and tower.

There are some very cheap mobile deals around, especially if you don't use the mobile that much. Currently you can get a Sim, with 3GB data, 300 minutes, and unlimited texts for £1.80 per month for the first 6 months, then £4.40 after that. For that kind of money I'd be considering something like that in addition to the SIM in the router.

I do have a payg mobile as a backup to my contract mobile but it never gets used other than to maintain the credit on it once in every six months. The problem with using it for everyday convenience is its higher cost of use which is compounded by the tendency for many outfits to subject callers to indefinite holding periods to cover poor service. I currently pay £1/Gb to Sky for my sim-only deal and to me that is not cheap, I have become increasingly dissatisfied with it and was not at all impressed with Sky's raid on my saved data allowance when it took away half of my stash. As a consequence I'm looking to move to another provider sooner rather than later.

I was very tempted on Black Friday by Mozillion's 30Gb/mth offer for an upfront payment of £99 which covered you for 2 years service, that is ~ £4.13/mth for 30Gb/mth with unlimited calls and texts included. Unfortunately it came at the wrong time for me to accept because of the early termination cost on my Sky deal. The Mozillion deal is no longer on offer but it is the sort of deal that I would like to position myself to accept in future as my current Sky deal draws to a close later this month. My intention is therefore to swap to a monthly rolling deal with another provider and wait to see what comes on offer, Id Mobile £6/mth 20Gb/mth rolling monthly contract is looking good to swap to atm.

Whenever I'm looking for deals (for other people as I'm happy with my current one) I look here. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap ... /sim-only/

Clear sky here but looks cold outside and remnants of the last snow have yet to melt. I won't be surprised if we get snow again. Had a closer look at ID Mobile and not so impressed having noticed its phishing for personal info on the pretext of a credit check. I don't buy it so will look elsewhere.

Snow here and still going about 3/4" at the moment suspect it maybe deeper by morning, so looks like I'm on the shovel again tomorrow, got the windscreen covers on, and pipe lagging over the wipers.

Wet day today and snow all gone, was expecting storm Grotti to create some mayhem but little sign of it here in NE England. Bit the bullet with my SIM-only deal with Sky, I'll maybe let it run until it expires later this month but it won't be renewed as is if at all. Bought a pre-loaded data only SIM for ~ £30 which will give me 25Gb/mth for ~ 20 months, it expires November 2027. It equates to ~ £1.50/mth for 25Gb/mth but being data only I will have to find an alternative for calls and texts. Might just use my PAYG mobile for that but will be further querying my relatives about their use of their mobiles via a SIM which they have fitted in a SIM-card router. Be good If I can configure the same for myself so that calls and texts are processed via the internet and not via the mobile phone network - as is how I understand it.

Snow depleted here too except for the mounds i created when clearing the path and driveway, sure it will be gone later today, I'm hoping it won't damage the Camelia tree/shrub we have, may cover it up later today with some see through cloth we have for plants, also hope to wash of the cars of salt etc from the roads over the last week or so.

I cleaned and polished my 75 and put it away to be SORN over the winter but had to use it fir work a few days later so then it got dirty again , it’s now SORN and put away but I need to get it back on the drive for another clean when the weather allows

Trebor wrote:I cleaned and polished my 75 and put it away to be SORN over the winter but had to use it fir work a few days later so then it got dirty again , it’s now SORN and put away but I need to get it back on the drive for another clean when the weather allows

Hi Rob.
Hope you had a good Christmas and new year, yes best to keep a nice car like your out of the snow and salt, i presume you have been using the Freelander1 in this weather should get through the snow nice and easy, my FL2 dealt with it great didn't even have to use the snow mode, see at the Nano meets

Snow, only seen a bit of frost and we travelled the length of the M1 Leeds to London, Now you want to talk snow, we took a weeks cruise from Tilbury up to Hamburg and Amsterdam. Snow in Hamburg was over 12" in the city centre, they just carried on as if it were normal. They are far better equipped than us here in the UK