Am I the only one?

[Dot]

I got up on Monday morning to find neighbours rubbish strewn all over my garden inside & outside in the road against our hedge.
I had a feeling this was going to happen as they left it out on Sunday and that was the start of Storm Isha.
I kept my wheelie bins in the garden as I thought it would be safer to keep them against the side of the house than to leave them out. Headed off to work feeling grumpy and stressed after trying to pick up as much as I could before I left the house.
Only picked up the stuff that was in the garden and figured neighbours could pick up the rest.

Rant over and just trying to focus on other things now.

Got the train to work today as Tuesday night Storm Jocelyn arrived so thought I'd prefer not to be driving.
I think things are a bit calmer weather wise this evening.

[Dot]

Has anyone ever bid for a car or a house in an auction?

Not something I have done myself but a relative bought a car many years ago.
Didn't really go to plan and the car turned out to be a bit of a disaster from what I heard.

[The Creeping Spleen]

Have we done folk giving their kids weird names lately?

A Facebook friend has just had a baby girl, and her and hubby have named her - wait for it - Atari.

[Dot]

Does anyone else think that prices at the dentist seem to be going up and up?
I got the second part of a root canal treatment done yesterday and it cost me £300 - just wondering why my husband who also got one done recently had a price tag of more like £80.

Perhaps mine was more complex and I am nearly tempted to ask for an itemised bill next time I am getting any treatment.
My husband said to me perhaps they think I'm a private patient.

[The Creeping Spleen]

I had two teeth out in November of last year, and that cost me £150 odd.

But there was a story in the Greenock Telegraph a couple of days ago about how a local dental practice (which is just along the street from me) is having to close down and that other surgeries in the area can't accept any new NHS patients.

[Grahame]

My husband said to me perhaps they think I'm a private patient.

That does sound more like private pricers, Dot. My dentist is private and I recently paid £630 for a root canal and crown. My wife has DenPlan insurance and would pay less than £200 for similar treatment.

[Dot]

Spleen,
Our dentist surgery does NHS & Private and have advertised for new patients in recent times.
My dentist recently asked me if I could leave a review on Google and think this was to balance out the fact that someone had left quite a poor one.

Grahame,
I will find out more on my next visit later this year.
Yes there seems to be a few people in that DenPlan scheme.

[Dot]

In an episode of 'Shetland' during a police interview 'Auld New Year' is mentioned.
I had never heard of this before and apparently it is on 13th January.

Do other parts of Scotland have this too?

[Grahame]

Do other parts of Scotland have this too?

I've not heard that particular one before, but quite a few local festivals have this sort of displacement - for example, the Burryman festival in South Queensferry is held on 11 August, but it's clearly a displaced Lughnasadh/Lammas festival from 1 August. Burning the Clavie in Burghead takes place on 11 January and is another displaced New Year festival like the Shetland one.

The displacement is a result of the switch from Julian to Gregorian calendars in 1582, when 11 days were inserted into the calendar to try and bring seasons back into sync with what was happening with the seasons, and the date switched from Thursday 4 October to Friday 15 October. Some folks were mightily miffed at this and demanded to be given back their 'stolen' days.

[Dot]

Thanks Grahame.
Your reply made for some interesting reading.