Has The Credit Crunch Affected Your Hobby

[davefish]

andywg, do you really need 2 new computers to go scuba diving?

 

[Mr._Fishy]

andywg, do you really need 2 new computers to go scuba diving?

I'm pretty sure he is talking about dive computers not regular computers lol. A dive computer calculates a safe ascent rate based on time and depth of the dive.

 

[davefish]

andywg, do you really need 2 new computers to go scuba diving?

I'm pretty sure he is talking about dive computers not regular computers lol. A dive computer calculates a safe ascent rate based on time and depth of the dive.

Ah! That would explain it. I didn't realise there were special computers for diving... are the calculations really that hard? Sounds like a bit of easy arithmetic to me... but then I've already shown my ignorance in asking the question in the first place!

 

[Mr._Fishy]

andywg, do you really need 2 new computers to go scuba diving?

I'm pretty sure he is talking about dive computers not regular computers lol. A dive computer calculates a safe ascent rate based on time and depth of the dive.

Ah! That would explain it. I didn't realise there were special computers for diving... are the calculations really that hard? Sounds like a bit of easy arithmetic to me... but then I've already shown my ignorance in asking the question in the first place!

There are decompression tables but computers simplify it. They can also take into account some factors that the tables don't. They also can perform a couple of other tasks.

 

[fergalthefish]

good for you andywg!!!! nice to know someone benefits from other peoples misery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[maximinimus]

Not so much the (insert buzz word for recession) but the rising cost of fuel has stunted my hobby, I was looking at an upgrade from my 180L this year to a 300 or 400L but the money I should be saving each week for the new equipment has been going towards fuel, in the end it was a choice of new car or new aquarium. I could make some sacrifices and save enough for a new aquarium, but I like to make sure I have enough saved in case of emergencies.

 

[kewskills]

Luckily it has not had an impact yet on me, but i am lucky with what i earn and what my partner earns, however things can change very quickly in this world.

 

[Arfie]

everything should start to stabilise toward the end of 08 apparently.

I wouldn't hold your breath, while the fuel issue maye be eased, it may well take 2-3 years to dig out of the "credit crunch" lenders are going out of business and house prices are falling. Buy to let mortgages are even harder to get meaning that they are no longer propping up house prices. There are many people with high loan to value mortgages (95% - 125%) who will be in negative equity if they sell, but who wont be able to afford the increased mortgage rates once they come off the products they are on and can't get new deals meaning an increase in repossessions which will further depress the value of houses.

It hasn't affected me, but then I only have run of the mill community tanks, so no high lighting like the planted or marine tanks. What I wont be doing is setting up any more tanks.

Arfie

 

[chesterscot]

my m8 used to be a debt collector till someone smacked him (lol) (not funny really)
i asked him how he slept at night and his reply was soundly with a big wedge in his wallet

 

[andywg]

Ah! That would explain it. I didn't realise there were special computers for diving... are the calculations really that hard? Sounds like a bit of easy arithmetic to me... but then I've already shown my ignorance in asking the question in the first place!

One can use a dive table to work on a square profile (assuming you dive straight down to the deepest part of the dive, stay at that depth for x minutes and then ascend) but in reality this doesn't happen.

When looking around a wreck you will be at various different depths as well as perhaps coming back up a beach and having a longer period in the shallows. A dive computer takes your current depth and keeps plumbing it into algorithms to give you an idea how long you have before mandatory decompression stops are needed and then manages such stops. It can then work out once you are back on the surface how long you can stay down.

Trying to do a second by second calculation of what you can do based on where you are and what you have done is far more than I would be capable of underwater without any equipment

good for you andywg!!!! nice to know someone benefits from other peoples misery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you. Though on the converse, I do less well when everything goes well. Swings and roundabouts. I will admit that I am looking forward to th next year or so, especially if we can hit a recession.

my m8 used to be a debt collector till someone smacked him (lol) (not funny really)
i asked him how he slept at night and his reply was soundly with a big wedge in his wallet

Nothing wrong with debt collection. I can't understand how people can take money and agree to pay it back and then break this agreement, often without contacting those that they owe money to. If you don't want a debt collector at your door, don't borrow. Other than a mortgage there are very few things in life that become so necessary that you can't save up for it.

 

[LastBoy5cout]

Being in the car industry we are affected by it, things have slowed down but we are lucky in that our customer base is old duffers with lots of disposable income to spend on nothing better then cars.

Personally I have reined in my spending and where I would go to the fish shops at a the weekend and normally walk out with something I didnt really need I now am fighting the urge and not even going in for a look.

 

[quaver]

I take great comfort in the fact that it is not just me who is cutting back. My hours have been cut from 39 hrs per week to 21 hrs per week. I'm looking for another job but nothing out there. Used to spend a fortune on fish and equipment, now I'm finding I'm eating own brand cornflakes and scraping the butter container. The rate I'm going I'll be a pikey whino by the end of the month LOL

 

[fergalthefish]

Ah! That would explain it. I didn't realise there were special computers for diving... are the calculations really that hard? Sounds like a bit of easy arithmetic to me... but then I've already shown my ignorance in asking the question in the first place!

One can use a dive table to work on a square profile (assuming you dive straight down to the deepest part of the dive, stay at that depth for x minutes and then ascend) but in reality this doesn't happen.

When looking around a wreck you will be at various different depths as well as perhaps coming back up a beach and having a longer period in the shallows. A dive computer takes your current depth and keeps plumbing it into algorithms to give you an idea how long you have before mandatory decompression stops are needed and then manages such stops. It can then work out once you are back on the surface how long you can stay down.

Trying to do a second by second calculation of what you can do based on where you are and what you have done is far more than I would be capable of underwater without any equipment

good for you andywg!!!! nice to know someone benefits from other peoples misery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you. Though on the converse, I do less well when everything goes well. Swings and roundabouts. I will admit that I am looking forward to th next year or so, especially if we can hit a recession.

my m8 used to be a debt collector till someone smacked him (lol) (not funny really)
i asked him how he slept at night and his reply was soundly with a big wedge in his wallet

Nothing wrong with debt collection. I can't understand how people can take money and agree to pay it back and then break this agreement, often without contacting those that they owe money to. If you don't want a debt collector at your door, don't borrow. Other than a mortgage there are very few things in life that become so necessary that you can't save up for it.

its not always as simple as that andywg, there are many reasons for peoples debt.

 

[andywg]

its not always as simple as that andywg, there are many reasons for peoples debt.

It may not always be like that, but in the last 5 years I have been in insolvency it has been like that for every personal insolvency I have seen. In particular, the only people who have had debt collectors knocking on the door are those who have just stopped paying those that they owe money to without actually telling their creditors of their issues.

I used to work for the government interviewing bankrupts. They would come in saying they had to use the credit cards to make ends meet, but when you looked through the statements for said cards you would find a lot of superfluous spending on them. I would class food as being needed to make ends meet, not holidays or shoes, but I guess we all have different ideas of what is necessary and what isn't.

No one is forced into debt, and most people who end up in debt start out because they have a credit card/loan application and decide they want something now instead of saving for it. I don't say this as some person judging from what they have seen on the Jeremy Kyle show, I say it because I work with the end result of debt every day.

 

[quaver]

yeah, okay, you say all that andywg, but I personally do not have alot of debt. I took on the car because my income would allow it, just like I took on fish cos my income would allow it. Would you class having fish in the same bracket as holidays and shoes then?