alison

Let's try and keep the gossip and speculation to a minimum, shall we? There must be thousands of other places on the Internet where people can dissect the Brangelina breakup to their hearts' content

If I were on Mumsnet, I'd probably create a serious stink about this, but I'm not, so I'll have to be satisfied with dumping Kellogg's Cornflakes in Room 101. I don't know if you've tried buying any in the last week or so, but the 500 g box has been shrunk to 450 g, I think it is, yet the 750 g one has gone up to 790 g. Fair enough, you might say, but the price has been increased by 25%!!! You do the maths.

I get an error message for that, Yaffa. What *is* the world coming to?

I was a bit annoyed: because of lack of availability, I'd had to book amphi standing for a couple of performances, then had upgraded them once when something better came online. If I'd known there were going to be offers, I might have waited Oh well ...

Here's hoping South West Trains are reinstating their £16 day return offer ... (and not having any interfering engineering works)

Just to remind people that we have an entire subforum dedicated to special ticket offers: http://www.balletcoforum.com/index.php?/forum/30-special-ticket-offers/ Putting them there rather than in the middle of a thread can help draw people's attention to them

Plus there's the thorny old issue of IR35: if you are working as a contractor for only one company, HMRC may deem that you are in fact an employee and that your "employer" is simply trying to avoid their responsibilities to pay NI and taxes for you: https://www.gov.uk/topic/business-tax/ir35 I agree with comments above about going to one of your local HMRC's free workshops: I learned a lot of useful things from one when I was starting out. IIRC, workwear is not tax-deductible for the self-employed (although I would have assumed that if a company was providing a work uniform they should be bearing the cost of it, but I have read of instances where they expect the workers to pay for it). Looking at the situation from a profession somewhat closer to mine: - As for admin, that should be costed into your hourly rate or whatever you're charging - unless it can be regarded as above and beyond the call of duty, in which case I would make an additional charge. - Your contract should include provision for (late) cancellation, on the basis that it might have prevented you from taking on other remunerated work. - As I understand it, the terms of payment depend on whose contract was accepted last, yours or the company's. You are entitled to charge interest on late payments, which are defined as anything beyond 30 days (see http://payontime.co.uk/), although getting too shirty on this, or even threatening with the small claims court or anything more serious, may of course not be beneficial to the working relationship. I personally don't start getting too tetchy about this unless we go beyond 45 days, because I understand that some smaller concerns don't necessarily pay someone to deal with their accounts for more than a couple of days each month. Not sure whether the above actually responds to what you were asking, but I hope it's of benefit to somebody!

Guess they didn't know what suffrage means - or is there a more sinister interpretation?

Sadly, a friend who works in the NHS mental health services can only confirm this.

That said, I can't get it to work

A real bargain Our brand new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte opens this week and there are £85 tickets available in the Orchestra Stalls (usually £163-£190) and £30 tickets in the Amphitheatre (usually £48-£84) for selected performances. Don’t miss The Royal Opera’s first new production of Così fan tutte in more than 20 years. This Royal Opera House favourite is given new life by exciting young theatre director Jan Philipp Gloger and is conducted by the great Semyon Bychkov. How to book Choose your preferred performance on 22 Sep | 24 Sep | 29 Sep | 3 Oct Select Orchestra Stalls or Amphitheatre and choose your seats at the special offer price If, however, you cannot see the offer price, enter the promo code Cosi16 (case sensitive) in the box on the right-hand side and click update (make sure you have no seats selected) Proceed to checkout Terms and conditions apply. Offer is subject to availability, is non-transferable and non-refundable, and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers or on tickets already purchased. This offer applies to the performances listed above only. Make sure you are there as the curtain goes up on an evening full of surprises. Book now

Of course - but then so do their prices

I used to get them badly at junior school, too, and was threatened with cauterisation, but never had it done. I think it *is* generally down to thin-walled blood vessels in the nose or something, but ought to be checked out, because I think there is the possibility of something else being involved. I could understand if it was partly caused by excessive dryness.

I hope so - assuming they can get a good enough cast, of course.

https://www.timeout.com/london/shop/entertainment-tosca-eno?cid=eml~GB_LON~NL~1400983957~&refid=newsletter-2offers-1400983957~CTA~ Offer expires tomorrow, 20th September.

I was confused when I saw the original title, because I was wondering how old that made Julie Andrews!

Missed a big trick there, I thought at the time. I mean, if they can release Acosta's farewell Carmen they could certainly have released Darcey's farewell Song (together with Belinda Hatley's farewell Symphonic Variations :innocent: ) And there must surely be ample recordings for another Ashton DVD by now, perhaps including Daphnis

Thank you, Lexy. That does make some of the casting decisions easier to understand, although I, like FLOSS, am slightly surprised at the number of dancers who were dancing elsewhere at the time. Although the Royal Ballet tours are optional, so perhaps this is something which has spread to the Bolshoi?

Interesting that Tom Whitehead is now first-cast Simone. Benn Gartside is making his debut, isn't he?

Thanks for the link, Confuddled. As both threads seem to be pretty much along the same lines, I'll merge them.

Thanks, Janet. I'm glad to hear of Bracewell's maturing in the role - I think he was the most impressive Oberon of those I saw in Birmingham (and maybe elsewhere?) last time around.

Drat, when you made a reference to smudgy copies, my mind instantly flashed back to the black+white Sibley/Dowell Dream which I presume was a Margaret Dale production

I'm very disappointed at the tone taken in some of the posts on this thread. At the risk of repeating myself, can I remind all members of paragraph 3 of the AUP (link at the bottom right of the page), which reads in full: "3. Contributors must be respectful to others. Vulgar, abusive, racist, and sexist language will not be tolerated. Any posts determined by a moderator to be either offensive or potentially libellous or unlawful or to be against the spirit of this acceptable use policy will be removed. The relevant poster’s account may be suspended or banned. If a member chooses to make highly critical comments this must be done in their own full name and not behind an anonymous user name and email address. Forum rules prohibit members from acting disingenuously, including by personation or wilfully misrepresenting themselves. Members who do this face suspension from the forum."

Thanks, John, that's good to know.

Well, if I were checking out a potential new client's credit-worthiness, the first thing I'd do would be to check with Companies House whether they had filed their accounts on time: late- or non-filing of accounts can be an indicator that something isn't right (although there are also valid reasons for doing it, like if you're changing your accounting date e.g. to bring it in line with something else). You can do that online for free, and also access other basic information about a company. Through my institute I also have free access to the services of Creditsafe, which enables you to do a more in-depth check (and I'd guess there are other companies which offer something similar), but then, why would it occur to you that you'd need to check up on a school or other place of further education?