September 2016

News to Hang Your Hat On Sept 2016

More irritating reviews, Anything lacking can be mentioned in an
but not for B&B online review. A Suffolk cottage was
praised as being "a lovely house with lots
By Roy McGregor of room" but then the reviewer knocked off
one star because of "no pizza wheel". As
Two things that bug us - okay, there are in a Stratford-upon-Avon property which
plenty more - are reviews and Airbnb. So it was praised for the hot tub, but "lacked
was nice to read that Airbnb owners are basic equipment, no scissors, pizza wheel
also getting some headaches from or something big enough to cook five
reviews. In fact, one so-called expert portions of chips on".
reckons that people will be harder on a
private home than a hotel or B&B. Not As we know, guests may not always think
sure about that but here are a few things through. One review of an
examples. apartment right on the market square in
Alnwick, Northumberland stated "The real
An otherwise well-reviewed Lake District problem was night-time noise.... We stayed
cottage had a long list in one review "The during an International Music Festival, so
side table with flowers is gone, replaced by there was a stage and stalls in the
one of the bedside tables .... The bedside square ... On Saturday night we got no
lamp has been moved to the window sleep before 2 a.m."
shelf ....The sofa is not the one in the photo
....There were only four dinner plates, not At least others get the aggro as well. The
as shown in the photo." The owner best advice given is to do a trial run of your
restrained himself in an equally lengthy holiday let with yourselves as the renters.
reply - "I am so sorry for your
disappointment relating to items of
furniture being moved .... The lamp you
refer to as being moved from one position
to another is movable if you had so
desired, but again I am sorry it was not
where you expected it to be."

Even a welcome hamper must be chosen
carefully, or will be a source of complaint.
About a Cotswolds cottage "The welcome
hamper was not of your usual standard,
the bread was a Co-op loaf rather than
from a local bakery." A Devon cottage got
this "In an area of renowned food
producers, the hamper was all M&S -
poor."

KOP HILL CLIMB enthusiasts hundreds of lovingly restored
Princes Risborough, Bucks (and stored) vintage and classic cars and
motor bikes to drool over, dating from the
By Miv Hughes earliest days of Motoring to the present
day, with the newest models also on
From1910 to 1925 Kop Hill in Princes display.
Risborough, Bucks was the site of the
Motor industry’s testing ground. It was the The Soapbox Car Challenge, children’s
most popular of any of the speed hill- rides and dozens of other stalls including
climbs as its proximity to the Home food and drink make for a wonderful family
Counties drew huge crowds. or enthusiast weekend.

In March 1920 Capt. Malcolm Campbell This year the event takes place on 17th and
drove his 12h.p. Talbot “Blue Bird” up Kop 18th September, and is set to break
Hill, the venue for the Essex Motor Club’s records yet again with over 800 entrants.
first open Hill-Climb.
You can read all about the history, drivers,
In 1925 Francis Giveen was driving the ex- cars and this year’s event on the website,
Mays Brescia Bugatti Cordon Bleu up the www.kophillclimb.org.uk
hill when he ran the car off the road injuring
a spectator, after which hill climbing and
speed trials were stopped on public roads.

In 2009 a revival run took place in the
hopes that if successful it could raise funds
for local charities and good causes and
again become an annual listing in the
calendar of motor events. The rest, as they
say, is history! There were over 250
entrants and 5000 spectators and the
event won the Market Towns Awards for
the South East region.

The 100th anniversary, in 2010, saw the
original Bugatti again grace the tarmac of
Kop Hill to open the event but this time
alongside a brand new Bugatti Veyron,
direct from the factory.

Spectator and entrant numbers have
increased year on year since, with
commensurate increase in the amount of
money raised for charity and good causes.
That brings the total raised since the
revival began back in 2009 to over
£265,000!

In addition to the Hill Climb, (not a timed
exercise now) the paddock display gives

Is email dead? Server controls
Whoever runs your server may enable
By John Gooding, BedPosts webmaster SpamAssassin, or the like, in the level
above you. If the score is set too
A question asked on a BedPosts Forum aggressively then some good emails might
topic made me think – is there a better way not reach you in the first place.
to communicate in this brave new world of
digital communications? Texting? Social Server Blacklists
media? Instant messaging? Usually domains share the IP used by their
server. This means that if an email address
I came to the conclusion that email is still on another domain gets hacked, and
the most universal, convenient and sends out spam, all the domains on that
instantaneous system that we’ve got but server could get blacklisted and the mail of
it’s become a whole lot more irritating and all people using that server gets affected.
unreliable. The problem: 205 billion emails
are sent per day and 49.7% are spam! Spam and Junk Reporting
Google, in common with other mass email
It seems to me that if the world’s 4.35 providers, invites you to report spam. Each
billion email account holders just deleted email reported is a black mark against the
the spam from their inboxes then the email sending server. I’ve recently temporarily
experience would be simply irritating rather changed the BedPosts procedure for
than irritating & unreliable. It’s become alerting new posts. Instead of receiving an
unreliable because users want their email email you now get an in-line notification
providers to stop spam. However you against the bell in the forum’s side
cannot stop people writing and sending if navigation panel - to guard against inactive
they know your email address – you can forum members lazily clicking report spam
only not read it or have it sent to a spam instead of resigning from the forum.
folder. But good emails get caught up.
Hopefully I’ve highlighted some of the
Some measures used to control spam: complexity of email management.

Spam Filter e.g. SpamAssassin But there’s another important factor – the
Most email users sending from their own human one. Some people just don’t read
domain name have access to a filter within their emails at all, or at best sporadically;
their cPanel known as SpamAssassin. some don’t see the wood for the trees
This “scores” emails on a bewildering (because there are so many emails they
array of criteria, for example: Tests v3.3.x. miss the important ones); some emails get
mistakenly deleted.
Set up hints:
I conclude, the only reliable way of
 In the user controls, 5.0 is the default communicating with people is to use the
setting and is quite aggressive. A phone or send them a letter. Pity we’ve
setting of 8.0 or 10.0 is less so. stopped using fax, that was pretty good.
However, the email is not dead and
 Do not enable auto-delete unless volumes are forecast to keep increasing.
prepared for the loss of good mail
Future issue: What you can do to ensure
 Enable a spam folder and quickly your emails do not arrive in spam/junk
cast your eye over them before folders.
deleting the lot in one fell swoop.

Dani’s Baked Oatmeal upside-down pineapple cake). Top with the
red raspberries. Slice and serve with
vanilla yogurt on the side.

Personal note: I like it slathered with the
vanilla yogurt.

Baked Oatmeal Thanking our Forces

½ cup unsweetened applesauce (or Our armed forces have kept our country
melted butter) safe for almost one thousand years. Many
have lost life and limb serving our people.
½ cup brown sugar Now the independent sector of the
accommodation industry would like to pay
2 eggs tribute to them by offering free
accommodation comprising one bedroom
1 cup skim milk to a serviceman or servicewoman plus
partner (+ children if the room can
3 cups Quick Oats (oatmeal) accommodate).

2 teaspoons baking powder The scheme is open to independent
accommodation providers (small hotel,
Vanilla B&B, guest house, inn, self-catering
apartment). To register click on the
½ bag frozen berries or I use following email link. An email template will
blackberries, blueberries, and red pop up and all you have to do is supply the
raspberries. information required in the message
section and send.
Spray a loaf pan (one with “ears” so it is
easier to flip) with no-stick spray. Pre-heat Thanking our Forces in more detail
oven to 350 F. Put the Blackberries and
blueberries (or fruit of choice) in the bottom This scheme for UK accommodation
of the loaf pan. Reserve the red providers is based on the popular B&Bs for
raspberries. Mix all the other ingredients, in Vets scheme launched in USA and
a large bowl. MIX – do not beat. Put the Canada in 2008. We are fortunate to have
oatmeal mixture in the loaf pan on top of the founder of that scheme, Kathleen
the mixed berries (or whatever fruit). Bake Panek, as a BedPosts Club committee
for 30 to 40 minutes. Place a platter over member and she will help to steer the
the loaf pan, hold the platter and the “ears” sister scheme in UK to similar success.
of the loaf pan with pot holders and flip the
baked oatmeal onto the platter (like an

How it works (for 2016) 4. On arrival you should present
documentary evidence of active or
Participants past military service

1. Participants offer a minimum of one Organisers
room for one night - and totally free -
to veterans and active military on 1. The scheme is being organised
Saturday 12th November 2016 (the jointly by BedPosts Business Club
night before Remembrance Sunday) and Internet Results Ltd, hosts of the
BedPosts websites
2. Participants may instead offer an
alternative or additional date - 2. Organisers will be promoting the
Remembrance Day itself - Sunday scheme through TV, radio, social
13th November media and the printed media

3. The list of participants will be 3. The scheme will be described in the
displayed on the index pages of August issue of Luxury B&B
accommodation advertising portal, magazine and non-BedPosts
BedPosts.uk and BedPosts.org.uk, members will be invited to join
home of community of independent
accommodation providers 4. Ideas for promotion should be sent
to forces@bedposts.org.uk
4. Participants will deal directly with all
enquiries from potential guests 5. If the scheme gets sufficient take-up,
www.bedposts.uk will be re-
5. If breakfast is normally given to programmed to incorporate
paying guests then forces guests Thanking our Forces into
should also be given this free of advertisers' control panels.
charge
Go here to see the current list to be seen
6. When the accommodation is "sold" by the Forces: Online list
an email should be sent to
forces@bedposts.org.uk to notify To Join the List, Click JOIN HERE to get
this the e-mail to complete and send.

Guests The Committee welcomes articles,
photos, and recipes for future News to
1. Offer of accommodation is subject to Hang Your Hat On
the normal terms and condition of
the participating accommodation This is YOUR Club and we hope to give
provider you information about what is pertinent to
Accommodation Providers. Please give us
2. Though the accommodation is being feedback on club@bedposts.org.uk if you
offered free-of-charge the normal liked this Newsletter OR if you did not like
rules regarding "no show" still apply. it – Why. What would you like to read
At the time of booking your credit about?
card details may be taken and used
(as specified in the participant's
terms and conditions) in the event
that you do not arrive to occupy the
reserved room(s).

3. Otherwise, thank you for your
service to our country!