[Froggee]

Thanks all

@Grant – glad you enjoyed Dusit. Needless to say Mrs Froggee introduced me to it. She does like her nosh. As for the rugby, I have a friend who is truly blessed. I have considered buttering a loaf’s worth of toast and getting him to drop each slice to see if they all land butter side up. Anyway he got my debenture tickets and went with his fiancée so, of course, it was the first sunny day in Edinburgh in ages and Scotland won. He’s that jammy. I am going to the France game with him next weekend so if Scotland get gubbed and it rains then that is on me.

@CJD – totally yes. Going to the airport the night before clearly takes a good whack of time but it reduces stress the morning you depart and also affords the luxury of being able to cut things fine which equals more sleepy time. Like many things it’s a personal choice but I hate stress!

[Froggee]

Tourvest (who appear to handle Virgin’s retail operation) are absolute jokers. My prior experience of them was asking for a size guide which was referenced in an item description but was not there. After a few failed attempts at sending it to me (including one multi-page ASCII email) they just gave up. As did I.

And then Diana crews…

I ordered one for Mrs Froggee and one for Freddo on the 25th of January which was before they were supposedly back in stock but because Tourvest are incompetent, they reloaded them early.

I was delighted as Freddo is a big fan of Virgin and Mrs Froggee likes stuff. Having missed out on the original “drop” I had been checking most days. Yes, I am that sad.

I got an immediate confirmation and obviously they charged my credit card. Then nothing.

I eventually chased on Friday. Tourvest then sprang into action and on Saturday I got a dispatch notification for Mrs Froggee’s sweater and an order-cancelled-out-of-stock for Freddo’s. Her sweater arrived yesterday. Does that make me a winner? I called on Monday to ask why they would sell me an item they don’t have and keep my money for a month but, of course, they don’t answer the phone. I left a message asking for them to return my call. Which obviously they didn’t do.

I cannot fathom in this day and age how Tourvest appear unable to have actual real time inventory, size guides and other things that any one-man-band online retail operation seems to manage. Like – you know – customer service.

It’s really not the end of the world but it seems that by outsourcing to idiots, Virgin have managed to annoy me rather than further my love of the brand.

We can only pray that Tourvest don’t do anything safety related!

[Froggee]

@yorkshireRich – I cannot help you but can empathise.

On our recent half term break, I was doing the beach thing with Freddo in the evening and, on a near empty beach, a woman got far too close to us given that Freddo likes to spray sand around. I told him to desist at which point she put her tote bag down on the sand and asked me to take pictures of her with her phone. And yes, she had a strong Slavic accent.

She was wearing a long bodycon type dress with a low back and only one shoulder strap, obviously chosen to fully display her large shoulder tattoo. She was not happy with one pose. She seemed very keen on the facing sea but turning back to look at camera position. I guess this included her tattoo, possibly Brazilian-lifted butt and definitely Botoxed lips.

In her world I imagine these would be her three best assets.

I don’t know why but I felt sorry for her. I guess something about a single person trying too hard. If it wasn’t for the lips I would have said she was actually quite pretty but Freddo described her as creepy and who am I to argue. Particularly as Mrs Froggee did not seem to like the tale of my evening’s excitement. No darling – not pretty to me but if you liked the renter look then I’m sure she would appeal.

I was relieved to find hand sanitiser in our beach bag as who knows where her phone may have been.

But every day is a school day as it had not occurred to me that taking a picture into where the sun had just set could be so striking. I got some great selfies with Freddo including one where it looked like a nuclear bomb had just been detonated behind us yet the lighting was still excellent.

[Froggee]

Morning! Some reportage re my ex former best friend Mr McToadrick. He is a bit confused at this as his view is he just did what any person would have done. But I did not know that BA cabin crew can report passengers up the food chain? Do they get golden tickets too? I wonder if you would get less Avios for helping someone out if you were a lowly Blue? So many questions. in some ways the thank you email would be nicer without the Avios bung as the acknowledgment is all that matters. But still a nice touch.

——- ——- ——- ——- ——- ——-

Dear Mr McToadrick

A Thank You from British Airways

We have been given a report from our Cabin Crew from flight BAXXX on XXX from XXX, where they have shared with us how you helped out an extremely nervous customer who was petrified of flying. They explained how you provided support to calm [pronoun] down and were really helpful to them as crew, and they have reached out to show their appreciation and to say thank you.

We value your loyalty as a GGL member of the British Airways Club, and I’ve added 8000 Avios to your Club account as a gesture of our appreciation.

Once again, thank you for your kindess and for assisting the crew onboard. We hope to welcome you back on board soon.

Best regards

XXX
British Airways Customer Relations

[Froggee]

And on further review, I am now intrigued at the competition for joining the waitlist to get the card and then taking out a paid card. Five prizes of 100,000 United miles for what must be a pretty small sub group in the UK?

I think I might use a second class stamp and a postcard and avail myself of a free entry.

Say prize is worth £800 – that’s £4,000 of prizes. Are they really going to have 4,000 entries?

What is the cost of a second class stamp nowadays? Surely less that one Scottish pound?

[Froggee]

The thing that struck me (as a very occasional United flier) is the points earning dropping from 5 miles per dollar to 3 miles per dollar but apparently 6 miles per dollar if you get this card.

[Froggee]

Greetings from the luggage carousel at Tenerife South airport. At immigration we were marched towards a large empty bank of machines, all but a couple with green lights. But at the last minute we were diverted to a separate queue because of Freddo’s under 12 status.

There we had to wait while another family was processed before it was our turn.

Even Kermit acknowledges it went well.

Our flight landed half an hour early but most of that was lost while we waited for buses. Never surprise an airport with an early arrival – they don’t like it.

[Froggee]

Sad face.

[Froggee]

I am afraid not.

[Froggee]

That sucks so much but thank you for the Froggee family holiday idea.

[Froggee]

I am delighted Yuens is still going strong.

Thanks for reporting back.

[Froggee]

It’s a return.

[Froggee]

This helps:

https://hfp2026mar.kinsta.cloud/2024/02/01/what-is-british-airways-executive-club-gold-guest-list-3/

I have never been GGL.

Sad face.

But in answer to your questions latter – you get two “jokers” as they are called and, yes, they make available cash fares. I have been assured by my ex former best friend Mr McToadrick that GGL is way better than gold.

[Froggee]

Another way of thinking about it is BA set a fixed price (points + money) for Avios redemptions and if the cash cost to BA is more than what BA are charging you then BA eat that cost. This is what is happening in your case. It is just they eat more cost on adults than children.

There are a few places where BA will potentially charge you less than the reward flight saver price (flying from but not to Hong Kong/Brazil are two that spring to mind) if the local fees taxes are less. This is because historically these countries banned spurious surcharges so BA did not charge them.

So there is nothing to be done.

[Froggee]

You mention VPN @Metty

In my experience if you have a VPN on it will not connect. You need to disconnect the VPN and take your chances.

[Froggee]

@ChrisBCN – it is certainly an argument for this but then you can make an argument for anything.

I did exactly this for my brother and mum a bit over one year ago – US down, other markets and cash up. Other markets right, cash wrong. Sleep quality better.

The strongest arguments just to buy the index and forget it are (1) life is complicated enough and (2) in the long run it will be fine.

The arguments not to do this are (1) mean reversion is a strong force and (2) it all just feels a bit potentially puke-in-mouthy and I hate having that feeling.

The US is the most capitalist economy in the world and by no coincidence the most successful so it is a big call to write it off. And the winners are huge positions in the index for a reason. I am passing but I may very well be wrong. I am ensuring we can maintain our quality of living and do not need to be aggressive. Like @JDB I am more interested in absolute returns i.e. not losing money.

What you do depends on your age, attitude to risk and goals and I would be hesitant to advise anyone what to do. But e.g. with my brother, having advised him to save his pension into a global index fund 20 years ago, I kind of had a duty of care when he asked about portfolio risk as he approached retirement. And my mum is thinking about care home fees. And maybe a few more trips to Bali!

There are index funds for everything – small cap, mid cap, equal weighted S&P 500 which removes the concentration risk from it.

The equal weighted S&P is fascinating. Here is a promotional document from 2023 talking about how great it is after 20 years:

https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/documents/research/research-more-equal-than-others-20-years-of-the-sp-500-equal-weight-index.pdf

And here is another chart starting in 2014 that makes it look poor:

https://www.justetf.com/en/asset-comparisons/index-comparisons/sp-500-vs-sp500-equal-weight

You can make a case for anything but pretty much everybody agrees not to put all your eggs in one basket. Although i do have memories of Buffett quipping that he keeps all his eggs in one basket and then protects that basket with all he has!

[Froggee]

I will try and be brief.

@ChrisBCN – generally towards the end of extreme bull markets where things descend into bubble territory, markets are driven upwards by a narrower and narrower group of stocks as momentum investors herd into stocks that are “working”. When the bubble pops, it is generally these stocks that fall the hardest. The S&P 500 has 500 members but the top 10 now represent almost 40% of that index and these top ten and a number of other large stocks are very much focused on the whole AI thing. The level of capital investment is massive and should it turn out that AI is a bit over-egged this will have turned out to have been malinvestment and the result will likely be the shares of AI focused companies tanking. History never repeats itself but it rhymes and there are a lot of parallels to the dot com bubble. Who knows how it will end but historically, a broad based index fund was seen as a way of diversifying cheaply. The point is that the S&P500 and indeed the MSCI World indices are about as un-diverse as they have ever been. For reference the top 10 are in the link:

https://www.ishares.com/uk/individual/en/literature/fact-sheet/cspx-ishares-core-s-p-500-ucits-etf-fund-fact-sheet-en-gb.pdf

@JDB – no huge beef with Curve but I have a somewhat milder view akin to that of @HampshireHog that it is parasitic. I just made a point of reactivating it on the off chance that Lloyds do something interesting with it.

Maybe I misunderstood how you use Curve but when HMRC request that “If you’re unable to pay your Self Assessment tax bill in full by card, you should use another payment method like a bank transfer” I take that to mean that HMRC do not wish to deal with multiple payments for the same self assessment bill. I got the impression that you and your wife were paying £3,000 towards your tax bill each and every month given the maths of 108,000 Avios.

Anyway I am sure you are totally allowed to do this even if you are asked not to do so but in my reasonable opinion this behaviour is the very definition of arsing about with credit cards and is anti-social as it acts to the detriment of most cardholders – higher costs and worse service.

I assume you are being deliberately obtuse on the whole active management thing as you are not daft. How would you propose active managers should be allowed to market their services? The amount of financial loss caused by the industry as a whole is massive given that – most active funds underperform – and have higher fees than index funds. I take the view that it is best to reduce this harm. Of course some funds outperform and of course knowledgeable people should be allowed to invest in them. But the “oh you should put money in this fund because it outperformed last year or last decade” really does not cut it. Funds change managers frequently. Managers lose their mojo. Markets change and one thing that worked well for some time then ceases to work for just as long.

[Froggee]

I ♥️ unconditional love.

[Froggee]

And this went to spam but I am not going to be censored!

——————————

So much in this thread and an hour before New York opens.

Firstly @squishsquash – that sucks. I would totally be asking a parent here. And I say this as someone who has taken their parent to eight eye care appointments in the last three months. It’s unconditional love innit? But I would not recommend them adding you as a supplemental holder at the point of application just in case you are on Amex’s naughty list somehow. And even adding you on post application there would be the risk that if you are on that list then Amex will then decide your parents are baddies too.

Some people would say get a parent to apply and then just use their card as Amex don’t appear to do name verification but that is a wee bit too risky for me as in the event of changes/refunds BA and Amex might end up getting annoyed with you.

Secondly @Scott – that is totally not funny and is very hurtful. Indeed my side is still hurting from all the laughing I did not do. Go and stand in the corner until you are sorry.

@JDB following on from your highlighting a couple of funds with decade plus periods of underperformance as examples of strong investment track records, now this? Our original poster had a very valid reason for cancelling her cards, admitted making a mistake, and you bounce in and throw the insults! And the irony of you posting elsewhere today about rinsing Curve and I assume Barclays/HSBC to earn 108,000 Avios per annum on HMRC payments where credit cards are not accepted is beyond the pale. I would tell you to go stand in the corner but @Scott is already there so instead take a long look at yourself in the mirror.

[Froggee]

So much in this thread and an hour before New York opens.

Firstly @squishsquash – that sucks. I would totally be asking a parent here. And I say this as someone who has taken their parent to eight eye care appointments in the last three months. It’s unconditional love innit? But I would not recommend them adding you as a supplemental holder at the point of application just in case you are on Amex’s naughty list somehow. And even adding you on post application there would be the risk that if you are on that list then Amex will then decide your parents are baddies too.

Some people would say get a parent to apply and then just use their card as Amex don’t appear to do name verification but that is a wee bit too risky for me as in the event of changes/refunds BA and Amex might end up getting annoyed with you.

Secondly @Scott – that is totally not funny and is very hurtful. Indeed my side is still hurting from all the laughing I did not do. Go and stand in the corner until you are sorry.

@JDB following on from your highlighting a couple of funds with decade plus periods of underperformance as examples of strong investment track records, now this? Our original poster had a very valid reason for cancelling her cards, admitted making a mistake, and you bounce in and throw the insults! And the irony of you posting elsewhere today about rinsing Curve and I assume Barclays/HSBC to earn 108,000 Avios per annum on HMRC payments where credit cards are not accepted is beyond the pale. I would tell you to go stand in the corner but @Scott is already there so instead take a long look at yourself in the mirror.

[Froggee]

And breathe.

[Froggee]

My lived experience answer:

Before Mrs Froggee and I were wed, one of my ushers (Bort – who flew in from the States) and I took off for a couple of nights. He is Canadian so likes driving and we did Edinburgh to Skye, spent the night at Skye, caned it to Nairn via Loch Ness, and after spending the night in Nairn, homeski via a lady in Dunfermline to collect heart shaped tablet as wedding favours.

Anyway, in planning that trip, I used this site which incredibly is still alive. It looks like the fellow stopped updating it in 2023 but not much changes e.g. Nessie is still hiding.

https://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/fortwill.htm

It is how the internet used to be 15 years ago which weirdly makes me happy and just clicking on the various places and links is like window shopping for a road trip. It is pretty digestible so might help your friends?

[Froggee]

My AI bot answer:

A good 4–5 day plan from Edinburgh is: 1 night in Glencoe, 1–2 nights around Loch Ness, and 1–2 nights on Skye, focusing on scenic drives and short, easy walks rather than long hikes.
​

Below assumes you have a car and are starting from Edinburgh; adjust nights up or down depending on whether you want 4 or 5 days.

Key driving times
Edinburgh → Glencoe: ~2.5–3 hours by car (about 116 miles).
​

Glencoe → Portree (Skye): ~2.5–3.5 hours driving (around 124 miles).
​

Edinburgh → Loch Ness (via A9): about 3.5–4 hours driving (roughly 170 miles).
​

Suggested route overview
Option A (4 days): Edinburgh → Glencoe → Skye → Loch Ness → Edinburgh.
​

Option B (5 days, more relaxed): Add an extra night either on Skye or at Loch Ness to give yourselves a pause day with only short walks.
​

Day 1 – Edinburgh to Glencoe
Drive Edinburgh to Glencoe via Stirling, Crianlarich and Rannoch Moor, one of Scotland’s most scenic routes.
​

Afternoon easy stops (pick 1–2):

Glencoe Lochan: almost-flat loop with big-mountain views and mirror‑like reflections, suitable for all fitness levels.
​

Short stroll around Ballachulish peninsula by Loch Leven for coastal views and wildlife.
​

Stay overnight in Glencoe/Glencoe Village/Ballachulish.
​

Day 2 – Glencoe to Isle of Skye
Morning: scenic photo stops in Glencoe (Three Sisters viewpoint, lay‑bys along A82; minimal walking needed).
​

Late morning/afternoon: drive to Skye via Fort William and the Skye Bridge; total drive ~2.5–3.5 hours depending on stops.
​

On Skye (south or around Broadford/Portree), choose a gentle walk:

Isleornsay lighthouse coastal stroll (South Skye) – easy, low‑level with sea and Knoydart views.
​

Short coastal wander near Broadford if staying there.
​

Overnight on Skye (Portree is central; Broadford or Sleat are quieter and closer to the bridge).
​

Day 3 – Easy exploring on Skye
Focus on short walks and viewpoints rather than long Cuillin hikes.

Options (choose 2–3 depending on energy and weather):

South Skye:

Armadale Castle gardens and coastal paths – gentle walking and historic setting.
​

Post Hill above Armadale: short but steeper hill for a quick view if you feel up to a brief climb.
​

Sleat peninsula:

Point of Sleat walk – well‑marked, fairly easy path to dramatic coast and a beautiful beach, about 6 km round trip (can turn back earlier).
​

If you’d rather minimise walking in winter weather, use Skye’s many road‑accessible viewpoints and short roadside stops instead of longer trails.
​

Stay a second night on Skye.
​

Day 4 – Skye to Loch Ness
Drive Skye → Loch Ness via the A87/A82, aiming for Fort Augustus or Drumnadrochit depending on where you want to base yourselves.
​

Around Loch Ness, good short, non‑strenuous options include:

Urquhart Bay Woods (Drumnadrochit) – ~2 km, mostly level forest walk.
​

River Oich walk from Fort Augustus – ~6 km along the canal and river, easy going; you can cut it shorter.
​

Falls of Foyers viewpoint trail – ~4.5 km; there are shorter out‑and‑back options just to reach the main falls viewpoints.
​

Consider a visit to Urquhart Castle (largely wandering on paths rather than serious climbing) and a short Loch Ness boat trip if running.
​

Stay overnight near Fort Augustus or Drumnadrochit.
​

Day 5 – Loch Ness to Edinburgh (or compress into 4 days)
If taking 5 days:

Do one more easy walk on the south side of Loch Ness in the morning, such as the Loch Ness and Torr Woods circular from Dores (~7 km, rolling but moderate; again, you can turn back earlier).
​

Drive back to Edinburgh via the A9 (roughly 3.5–4 hours), perhaps stopping around Aviemore or Pitlochry for coffee.
​

If limited to 4 days, drop the second night on Skye or shorten the Loch Ness time:

Example: Day 1 Glencoe, Day 2 Skye, Day 3 Skye → Loch Ness, Day 4 Loch Ness → Edinburgh.
​

If you share your exact month, whether you’ll drive or use buses, and how much walking per day feels comfortable (e.g. 2 km vs 6–7 km), a more granular day‑by‑day with specific trails and timing can be sketched.

[Froggee]

You book here:

https://www.costcotravel.co.uk/car-hire/offers/car-hire-offer

But you need a Costco membership although I think an online only one works.

[Froggee]

Well I would suggest taking up meditation.

And I remember meeting your husband at the HfP summer party. He seemed like a lovely fellow so I would suggest you go and ask him for a make-you-feel-better hug.

Apart from that, stay strong, chin up.

I am sorry for your loss.

Froggee.