A few Useful Web URL's/Links
To see a more detailed explanation of the links please select the item you want and you will be transported to a more in depth description of the link.
Do you have any others that you think would be worth adding? If so then why not let us know?
- Travel links, inc road, route planning, etc., air travel & information on safe areas to travel to.
- Consumer rights.
- How to Stop Unsolited Telephone Calls, Mail and Faxes.
- Problems with Premium Rate Telephone Calls?
- Want to try to contact old Services personnel?
- Looking for Independant Financial Information?
- Visit the site of an acclaimed Dahlia grower and judge.
- Do you like afternoon tea and biscuits?
- Various TV web sites.
- Live in the Midlands? Then this site could be for you.
- Postal Charges
Various Travel sites and information
Road Travel :-
- Transport Direct is a new web site that details all the various transport hold ups around the country and has various a route planning services built in, road, rail, bus and air transport are included, and is well worth a visit.
- Viamichelin is another route planner, amongst other offerrings on the site, as it includes European routes in addition to GB.
- MultiMap for online Maps to Everywhere, they say on the site.
- AA Route Planner
- RAC Live Traffic reports for latest traffic incidents or roadworks in a specific region.
- RAC Route planner
- UK National Speed camera database and a specific West Midlands site. Others are available from the national page.
Rail Travel ;-
- Uk Railways on the Net - for Rail information.
- National Rail - for service & timetable enquiries etc.
- Orient Express - luxury rail travel.
Air Travel ;-
- Flight information at Birmingham Airport
- Flight information for Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton
- Flight information for Manchester Airport
- Parking at Airports - try BCP, Purple Parking or Aiport Parking shops as a few typical examples. For more, run a web search, which is to be recommended.
Weather information
- Met office for local, national and international waether reports.
For Foreign Travel, information as regards safe areas around the world to travel to, etc, the following site is a must.
- Foreign & Commonwealth Office - working for UK interests in safe travel etc.
There are others and a quick search using your favourite search engine will show them.
Consumer rights
Ever wondered what your rights are when you buy anything locally or on the web?
The UK government publishes some useful guides and you can find them on the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) web site.
A couple of useful guides when shopping locally or via the web are "Your rights when shopping" and "Online shopping".
It also contains a useful guide to the Distance Selling Regulations that you may want to read especially if you buy over the web.
Stop Unsolited Telephone Calls, Mail and Faxes.
If you're fed up with receiving unsolited telephone calls where people are trying to sell you something, or unwanted mail and faxes again pestering you to buy, then why not register to not receive these. It's a free service and generally works well. Click on the relevant service below to read more and action the service.
- Telephone Preference Service (TPS) - stop nuisance sales telephone calls
- Mail Preference Service (MPS) - stop nuisance/unsolicited mail
- Fax Preference Service (FPS) - stop nuisance faxes
Problems with Premium Rate Telephone Calls?
Then contact ICSTIS, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services, who are the industry-funded regulatory body for all premium rate charged telecommunications services.
They can freeze any premium rate numbers on your bill that you are contesting until resolved I understand so if you are having problems in this regard then do contact them before the whole thing gets out of hand.
Want to try to contact old Services personnel?
There's a few sites out there and a couple that come to mind are for RAF Groundcrew, and the other for the Armed Services. There is of course then the Friends Reunited web site beside others too numerous to mention.
If you know of other sites out there that could be useful to others then please use the Contact Us button and feed them back to me!
Looking for Independant Financial Information?
For some independant financial information, try the following sites;
- www.moneysupermarket.com
- www.moneysavingexpert.com - run by a Martin Lewis, a financial journalist.
- www.moneyfacts.co.uk
- www.thisismoney.co.uk
Dahlia World
Another site if you're into gardening, Dahlias in particular, is the "Growing World of Dahlias", and is now used as a reference across the world. This site and content is maintained by Dave Bates.
Do you like afternoon tea and biscuits?
If you like a nice cup of tea in the afternoon along with a biscuit or a piece of cake, then why not visit a rather nice little site called NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown.com where they review all the latest biscuits and a selection of cakes etc.?
TV web sites
The BBC sites are useful, informative, entertaining and educational and on the whole very easy to navigate around to what one's interested in. you have the News page, which I usually set to my Home site; the Home page; others including Food etc. The BBC site is broken down into numerous sections including your local geographical area and various interests pages, like technology, etc. It's well worth a visit if you've never ventured there!
Another of my favourites is the Working Lunch page, but hey, I enjoy the program too!
Beware the ITV sites as a number don't obey the usual www. naming convention and GMTV for instance is just gm.tv !! I also find them more irritating in their navigation and I have to say I visit them vary rarely!
Live in the Midlands?
Then why not explore the Wildlife, Heritage, Communities and culture of your area, and if you live outside the area take a look at what you could be missing out on. Click on Digital Midlands to begin your exploration.
Seven projects from across the Midlands have joined forces to create a unique digital record of the region. Some of the finest cultural, heritage, natural history and community collections have been digitised and made accessible over the Internet through a searchable database. Collectively, this major new resource demonstrates what makes the Midlands a special place in which to live and learn.
Interesting/favourite Web Sites ....
If you have any favourite web links you think others may like why not send me the information so I can add it to this page?
