It pays to be persistent

When I changed banks, several direct debits went missing.  Most of these were not a big issue, I contacted each person who complained of a missing payment and sorted it out.  In the case of my credit card company, it was more serious.  I  ended up with penalty payments and interest charges to the tone of over £50.

It's taken several phone calls (and telling them firmly that their offer of refunding half the interest was unacceptable), but we've got there in the end.  I now have printed proof in my hand (in the form of a BACS record provided by First Direct), that MBNA were indeed informed of my change of bank 12 days before they billed my old bank and charged me all those penalties.

They're refunding the extra charges in full.

That's saved me writing a letter to the financial ombudsman.

Blakes-7.com possibly for sale

I'm considering (because I think we may need the money)  selling the domain name blakes-7.com

If anyone is interested, can they please contact me and tell me what they'd be willing to pay for it.  (the price would need to cover the cost of transferring the name as well as the actual purchase)

Maypole Dancing and PA

I'm considering buying my own maypole and hiring out it and myself to allow people to do maypole dancing at fairs/ weddings/etc.

Demand is total guesswork, but I'm hoping I can get some work from schools to cover the basic costs.

Where I don't have knowledge is with regard to sound.  Indoors, I can use either a concertina or CDs.  Outdoors, I'm not sure if that will be loud enough.  I've played for the morris team outdoors with just a concertina, but I'm never at my best when attempting to play and teach at the same time.

Outdoors, there's not always going to be somewhere where I can plug in  a CD player.

Could people who know a bit about this, please tell me what kind of (cheap) options I have.