Just...................whatever

Sculpture Park in Wicklow, Ireland

Creepy.

https://www.boredpanda.com/fear-of-water-thalassophobia/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BPFacebook&fbclid=IwAR0iHz4rge6yb0DNnSI04RDDwYmdGjVdFzEsGY3-fvxzme7s7ga4R56_whQ

Most of those make me more interested in going the water.

Not the black lined pools. Or the killer stream.

I don't understand how some of those wave pictures were taken: look like they were about to wipe everyone out in about 90 seconds.

Does anyone know anything about government bonds? are they a safe investment I know zilch about such things.

That's a Lance question.

Not really a Lance question as that is not the area of finance I am hugely familiar with.

For any kind of investment I would always suggest doing a good load of research from a variety of different sources before getting involved.

The long and short of any investment is you could at best keep the original amount and at worst lose it all. The higher the risk the higher the reward so it depends on what your intentions are.

Do you have spare money that you can take a risk with and want to make loads? Or do you want something that will grow modestly over a long period of time with little likelihood you will lose anything? Do you have any debts that would save more money paying off than any investment would make you over the same term?

Either way, I am not qualified to offer any advice so I would suggest answering those questions yourself to be clear on what you want to achieve and then doing a chunk of research to see what suits best.

Thanks Lance. No I don't have any debts, I paid them off two years ago. I am looking for a zero risk investment with very modest returns, that's why I thought there might be government bonds, but obviously not UK government bonds as I don't want to get involved with the Tory shitshow. I just want to have something a bit better than your bog standard savings account. I know a person who had taken risks and lost £5000 in one sitting, and that is horrible. I think you need to really know your stuff and work in that environment to know what risks to take, a novice would get burnt. Don't want that. But I would like to know how these things work. My brother has ISAs whatever those are.

One of the marks of an expert is a knowledge of lack of knowledge in a given area. You probably still know more about government bonds than the rest of us, and know enough to be circumspect.

We'd all happily give advice we heard from Aunt Susy....

Figgy - an ISA is zero risk. The worst that can happen is you still have the money you did at the start. They are basically tax free savings accounts with a higher interest rate than regular savings.

Only problem right now is interest rates generally are very low so you won't make much... really needs to be a long term investment with the view that rates will increase over time and give you more over time.

Other option is premium bonds. Again, you can't lose the money and a reasonable chance of winning.

From a quick look at how government bonds work, they also seem relatively low risk if you are buying them from a government that isn't likely to default on its debts! So UK gilts would probably be good but, again, low risk means low reward.

Not sure if that helps.

It helps a lot, thanks. I know nothing, as Jon Snow found out. btw what are gilts?

Gilts are UK government bonds.

ok thanks

You know how you don't like spraying DEET products on your skin to keep away midges and mosquitos?  Folks coming from Florida (mosquito haven) discovered that sesame oil does wonders.  Neutrogena makes a sesame body oil (don't buy the fragrance free) that can be ordered online, or I suppose you could mix up your own with fragrance free baby oil and light sesame oil for cooking.  Just need enough sesame so you can smell it but not overpowering.

We had clouds of biting gnats similar to midges, spread a few drops around and the cloud disappeared!  needs to be reapplied more than DEET and probably don't want to put on clothes, but as a skin treatment it's magical and worry free.

I use citronella, a child's formula which smells nicely of geranium. I dont think it has deet in it.

Blech, I wouldn't want to smell like sesame oil though.

It's diluted so pretty light.

Citronella is used in tiki torches, didn't think of trying it on my skin.

I wouldn't try using it neat on your skin, its probably better to buy a specific commercial product for the skin.

On track to star in Top Gun 3.  

The hair fits the spitfire image. Looked like a low flight - isn't that a bit nerve-wracking?

Circuits (take off, go around and land) are 1000 feet. I have done plenty of them already so was all good.

thats cool.