Member Info for Bonz1957

All spelling mistakes forgiven at this time of the year what with all the sherry being consumed before the sun is over the yard-arm, and every single meal being laced with shery, port and brandy lol!! Congrats on all the births that seem to happening in your ever growing clan, December is going to be a very expensive month for pressies from now on. Depressing news on the sp front here, with my tiny holding now worth well under £100. After dealing costs i'd be lucky to have enough left over for a Thorntons hamper!! Finally relaxing after the travails of recent months, the tree and lights are up - although still waiting for daughter to surface from her pit and place the baubles as only she can - the booze cabinet is stocked to the point of over-flowing, and the usual end of year rally has put a nice blue tinge to my portfolio. All appears well with the world, for a week anyway. ATVB.

I see the note from Credit Suisse that boosted Carpetright and Ocado failed to lift the gloom here!! ATB.

Ocado and Carpetright were in the top spots after Credit Suisse reassessed its forecasts across the European General Retail sector ahead of the January 2012 trading statement season. "Demand conditions for 2012 remain uncertain, although we are cautiously optimistic on the UK environment versus the rest of Europe," the Swiss broker said. Maybe the picture here is not as bleak as some would have us believe!! ATB.

Not the best version ever, it froze half way through, but i'm sure you know the song. Was it really 1980?? Where the F did the last 30 years go? No need to answer. ATB.

Have seen a lot more THT products in Tesco this year than ever before, just wonder what the profit margin is on them. They will need to sell an awful lot to make money, and will have to compete with other up market brands like Green & Black's. Getting married again? Does current hubby know? Are you open to offers? Could you see yourself ever marrying a Sassenach? We have so much in common xx!! If Junior doesn't hurry up it will spoil a few peoples Xmas plans, but don't suppose they will mind at all. You know me, i don't like to be the bearer of bad tidings, i just have an opinion. Just use it to counter others ramping. I would say that's Bonz 1 Netley 0, but really take no joy from being proved correct. Thought this year would be flat overall, and it has been. Think next year will be flat at best, but would love to be proved wrong. If you're still talking to me this time next year and the FTSE is back up to 7000 then i will enjoy you telling me i was wrong. I'll have a shed load of Thorntons shipped to you lol!! Hope you enjoy your family festivities, whereas ours will be a quiet one this year recovering from the recent turmoil. The misses has gone up to Yorks today to take the MIL out for lunch pre Xmas - a mere 400 mile round trip for lunch!! Thanks for the song, i'm more of a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXy6wPmlYKg man when it comes to Xmas records. ATVVB.

May be doing my bit for THT and stocking up on the chocs, but feel rather guilty about not supporting BP. Have spent most of the last couple of months on the motorway network, either London-Yorks for a poorly Mother-in-Law, or London-Devon talking to planners and builders trying to get a granny annexe sorted for her. And i'm sorry to say my petrol has been bought in Tesco or Sains - Shame on me!! I just can't resist those 5/10/15p off offers. When it takes over £100 to fill my Espace and i can get 15p off in Tesco which is where i normally shop, what am i supposed to do?? Oh, the sleepless nights!! No not really, that's just the misses snoring lol!!! I see some people over on the BP board are still talking about £6 soon. Nice if it happens but will be happy to see all the litigation behind us, an sp holding above £5, and an increased div. May you have a glorious festive break and may all your indicators be blue next year. ATVB.

The main problem with being a manufacturer rather than a retailer is that the buyers are always trying to screw you into the ground for every last penny and you have no control over the price the retailers charge. Was talking to a buyer from Majestic last week who would love to take some wines from a local supplier - in the South West - but is only prepared to offer £2.05 a bottle but the supplier wants £2.10 and so they haven't talked for weeks!! If THT lose the majority of their High Street presence IMHO they will never recover former highs. They will simply end up producing boxed chocs for the multiples and do some business online. But as i have said before how much is it going to cost in P&P to send me a couple of bags of Viennese Truffles? And what chance have i got in receiving them in any sort of pristine condition once postman Pat has hurled them around the sorting office and his van?? See, you should have listened to me, and not been swayed by Netley's huge posting tally and command of long words lol!! The High Street was already under immense pressure from the out-of-town sheds, i dread to think what it will look like if we ever get out of this mess. Probably a mix of plywood shutterring, charity shops and kebab take-aways. Best of luck with your PMO shares, and think BP are big enough to ride out any court proceedings. But then again WTFDIK?? ATB.

Thanks for that, and the very best of wishes for Christmas and the New Year to you as well. Not sure where that article came from but found it very hard going with all the BE's and NH's - WTF was all that about? Not a good time to be in here at the moment, or any retailer for that matter. HMV, Blacks, Ocado, etc, etc. I'm doing my bit on the spending front, even spent close to £100 in Thorntons last week, but it would appear that's not enough to get us out of the brown sticky stuff we find ourselves in at the moment. What's occuring with BP? When is that going to return to former highs? You would have thought that with my fairly large spread of shares i would have 1 or 2 that were doing well, but no!! Apart from my utilities all the rest seem to be hiding, with the result i've had a fairly flat 2011 apart from my footy shares - and am not expecting any improvement in 2012. I suppose things could be worse - i could be greek lol!!! ATB.

Not a good day here. Lots more averaging down for you, and what with the recent fall on HMV 2012 is beginning to look like a busy year for you lol!! ATB.

Lord Harris looks to have made a shrewd purchase, up £37,500 in under a week. Not always a dead cert but directors buys are very often a good indication of where a company is heading, and the dire reports on this one going sub 300p seem to be a little overdone. As a director of my football club i think the man has shown excellent judgement, now all we need is a boost in sales and a return to a healthy dividend.

No need to SHOUT!! Take 'Caps Lock' off, it's easier to read.

A month on and if you held your nerve and kept your short open you could be onto a nice winner. Who TF knows which way this will go next!!! ATB

You would have been proud of me!! Decided to embrace the festive spirit at the 11th hour and did a mega shop in Thorntons Barnstaple to treat ourselves and to say thank you to a few people who have been of great help to us over recent difficult weeks. Ended up using all four of the '£5 off £20' vouchers and a few of the £2.50 and £1 ones as well and struggled out of the shop with four large carrier bags. Have to say they were rather busy with one assisstant desperately trying to refill the shelves as quickly as it was flying out the door. Son likes the sound of Mint hot choc and the misses wants to try the Chill and Raspberry flavours so looks like we'll be paying another visit to THT very soon. Am now back in London and not planning to go anywhere for a week in order to recharge batteries. Have treated myself to a few minikegs of beer from a brewery we have just bought into in N Devon. Don't ever expect to see a return on our investment but it provides a focus for us when there and the beer is great. Have just posted the Xmas cards, but used 2nd class stamps and have realised we've missed the last posting date DOH!! I'm trying to get a months paperwork in order and the misses is putting up decorations, so it looks like we will be having a Xmas after all. Hope all goes well with the new arrival, like my daughter they will have to learn to stand up for themselves and make sure they get separate B'day and Xmas presents. Have bought No 1 Son an ipad for xmas, he's busy putting all of his music up on the 'cloud' - whatever that means - and daughter has been promised a summer holiday and spending money to the same value when she comes to book. But as she hasn't yet given us any ideas we had to give her an IOU for her 21st. She would like a nice watch but can't decide which one, and already has most other things so that can wait for a while. We've never been really big on giving Xmas pressies as we tend to buy things for each other as and when they are needed, and the misses and me stopped exchanging pressies back in about 1983 lol!!! I'm just happy that we'll all be together for a fortnight and her mum is being looked after. Markets seem pretty static this month, just waiting for all the Euro crises to be resolved if that is possible. Guess we won't see a major movement either way until the so called experts who gave Lehmann Bros a triple AAA rating stop playing around with countries credit worthiness and we start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. As for BP, pretty certain they are big enough to shake off their woes and eventually recover. Have enough cash in hand to complete the work needed for the MIL on the Devon house and see us through the next few years, so can afford to leave most of the investments to look after themselves for a couple of years yet before they need to be cashed in. Would be nice to see 7000 again by 2015 - what odds?? ATVB.

The 21st went better than expected. No-one got hideously drunk, and to date we've not had any complaints from the venue or the nearby hotel we booked them all into. Not bad for a bunch of 21 year olds. I must have a daughter with sensible friends lol!! The next day we took a few of them for a meal in a Hard Rock Cafe up in London and then went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Just a cross between a German market and your average fairground. Now i know where all the rides go in the winter!! My daughter thought parts of it were like a scene out of 'My Big Fat Gypsy Christmas' lol!! Hope all goes well with the ice-skating. Xmas has been officially cancelled this year in our house. All of the decs and the tree were in Devon as that was where we were planning to spend it, but having spent so much time in Yorks recently we've not had time to do anything. At least she (MIL) is now safely in a home and her house is up for sale, and we have spent the last couple of days in Devon talking to the planners about what we are permitted to do and what we need permission for to create the Granny Annexe. One last big push tomorrow trying to get the local Job Centre to certify copies of the Power Of Attorney for Pension and Attendance Allowance Depts - all part of DWP - as the latter ceases after 28 days in hospital and she was in for 29!!! Bugger!!! Trying to talk to anyone about it and getting it re-instated is turning out to be the latest nightmare we are having to deal with. It used to be one payment with the pension, but since April this year once it is taken away and "de-combined" it is not possible to re-instate it as one payment so we have to talk to two seperate depts in two different parts of the country who seem incapable of talking to each other. And then back to London via Portsmouth on Saturday to collect No1 Son from Uni. We will take Xmas back with us but not sure any of us has the energy or enthusiasm to do anything with it all!! Please keep me informed of your celebrations as it will probably be the closest we get to any festivities this year. As for anything to do with shares i will be happy if 2012 ends up being flat but i would like to re-coup some of the rather large losses my unit trusts have clocked up in the last six months!! I still think there is worse news to come out of Europe which will have a knock-on effect on us. I would love to be proved wrong, of course, so any improvement on where we are now will be gratefully received. Personally i would like to see an uplift in BP and LLOY, and for BT to at least hold on to recent gains, as these are by far my largest holdings. As for THT, who knows, i won't repeat my already well known doom and gloom scenario, I'll just hope for both our sakes that sales grow, costs fall, profits rise, and the div is increased. Finally banked my £1 div chq today, and no i won't be going on a mad shopping spree lol!! ATVB and Festive Felicitations 2 u.

Check out Lawrence Tomlinson the man behind Ideal Care Homes and the LNT Group - one of the fastest growing companies in the UK and ranked 28th in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 companies. Also the man behind Ginetta cars, one of my all time dream cars. If he can successfully do care homes why can't everyone else?? I've already reserved my place, not long to go lol!!! ATB.

I'll not be in any hurry to spend my £1 Thorntons div, will add it to the £3.83 i've just received from Pace and when they add up to enough to cover the cost of petrol will take them to the bank lol!! As the vast majority of mine are taken as new divs the only holding that produces a cheque worth getting worked up about is BG so will have to find another source of income to fund my retirement!! After recent experiences am thinking of opening a care home as the one the MIL is in produces over £25,000 a week from a 48 bed unit - there must be a profit to be had from that. ATB.

My last post makes you look like a Bond extra lol!! I forgot to click on the drop down box DOH old age!! I'm beginning to look like a badly run bus service: nothing for days then 3 turn up in quick succession!! ATB.

Have just re-read your last post where you describe me as "bored leader" LOL!!! Far too busy at present to be Bored!! I may well be the elder statesman on here, but would never consider myself to be the Board Leader. With your research and the frequency of your store visits i think that title belongs to you. ATB.

Not possible to have her with us in either London or Devon as we do not have any ground floor facilities for her to use, so we'll probably go up there for a couple of days with the kids. Trying to get her house tarted up to put on the market next week then off down to Devon to get the 'planning' machine in motion to get her a Granny annexe with en-suite wet room built by the summer so at least she can have a couple of good years with us by the sea. Seem to be spending more time sat in traffic on the M1 than anywhere else at the moment!! Xmas has been officially cancelled for us this year, we're likely to spend most of the time travelling between London and Yorks, and the tree and decs etc are in Devon as that is where we were planning to be - oops!! The only good thing is that as we are both retired we can be where we are needed with no restraints, God knows how we would haqve coped otherwise. Little bit of on topic: bought some nice chocs in Thorntons in Barnsley - there was no photo of me by the till saying "do not serve this man" after my previous scathing comments - to say thank you to everyone who has helped us and some jellies for the lactose intolerant sister-in-law. Am so stressed out with it all at the moment with so many people wanting to see the Power of Attourney - that fortunately we already had in place - and having to carry copious amounts of id to prove who we are, that i forgot to buy myself any Viennese truffles AARRGGHH!! Have no internet access when away from home so am going to have to leave you in charge here until well into the New Year. Will pop in when time allows, and would like to wish you and yours the very best of health over the festive period. Spare a thought for me when dipping into the box of celebrations or pulling that Xmas cracker, as we may well be spending it in the closest pub this year, wherever that may be, trying to soak up a little bit of someone else's Xmas spirit - Aahh. ATVB.

See not much has happened here in my absence, although the FTSE has recovered most of the last months losses in the last couple of days. Back home for a couple of days before venturing back up to Yorks to see the MIL who is now ensconced in a residential Care Home and is celebrating her 87th birthday tomorrow. If i tried to recount to you the hassles we have had trying to get her out of hospital and the clutches of Social Services i'd still be here this time tomorrow. It got so bad at one point we had the European Court of Human Rights quoted to us!! And all we were trying to do was to put her in a home that she wanted to go into, after the doctors had said that she had the capacity to make her own decisions AARRGGHH!! It didn't help that the social worker on the case did a runner - no-one knows if or when she will be back - and we were passed around the dept to anyone who was in at the time, complete chaos. If i have learnt one thing from all of this it is NEVER to involve Social Services!!! ATB.