Sad news today informing us that the Queen is unwell and her family is congregating at Balmoral.
I’m not a staunch Royalist by any means, but the Queen has been a completely benign constant the whole of my life, and it is always sad to lose something like that.
My thoughts are with her and her family.
I wrote the previous three paragraphs this afternoon. After finishing a lesson this evening, I turned on Planet Rock and they were playing sombre classical music – so I guessed immediately what had happened.
Before the Covid Pandemic, I always bought Cravendale Milk from Asda. It tasted perfect, but the main thing was that due to how it is processed it lasted much longer than traditional milk.
Once the Pandemic first started we were not allowed out (or it was a major risk if we went out for legitimate reasons), and getting milk became an issue. Even if you risked going to a shop everything had been panic-bought anyway. So I signed up to Milk & More, which is as close to a traditional ‘milkman’ you can get these days.
They were a lifesaver. Milk (and eggs and fresh vegetables, plus plenty more) were delivered three times a week. The ‘plenty more’ wasn’t all exactly my taste (much of it was vegan nonsense), but they supplied fresh onions and fresh carrots, which were. Yes, it was more expensive than from Asda, but it was available by regular delivery without having to go out.
Now, I am a person who likes to stay faithful to a supplier unless they annoy me somehow beyond a certain point. So when they stopped doing onions I didn’t move away from them. And the fact that some deliveries of carrots involved things that were as limp as an uncooked Frankfurter just meant I stopped buying them. And the additional fact that some specialist eggs (as well as normal eggs) were sometimes not delivered due to ‘stock issues’ still didn’t deter me. As I say, they were a major help during the Pandemic.
Even when the price of a 2 pint bottle of milk (my main reason for sticking with them) went up from £1.50 to £1.62 I didn’t flinch.
But I have discovered today that the price of milk from Milk & More has now increased to £1.95. And along with a change to the delivery schedule – which wouldn’t have been a problem in itself – that is just the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I can buy 2L (4 pints) of Cravendale from Asda (and most other places) for £2.10. That’s half the price per litre. So I am afraid my loyalty has run out of steam.
Part of the problem is that I also get groceries for the old lady who lives next door. She has all the signs of early dementia – she forgets she’s not given me a grocery list every week, then forgets she’s given me one when I’ve chased her for it, then she forgets the Carved In Stone weekly Asda delivery every Wednesday even after I’ve ordered (even though I purposely gave her a laminated card with strict instructions on it many months ago, which she has on her hall table but never reads). Every single delivery (and every handover of a bottle of milk) she asks ‘how much do I owe you?’, no matter how many times I explain that I give a her a fortnightly bill to avoid her cheque book running out too quickly. And every time I hand over a delivery, she asks ‘will a cheque be all right?’, and so I explain it all again.
In spite of all that, she is a demon for ‘Use By’ dates. I arrange the milk in my fridge in date order, and since I know that milk is perfectly fit to drink as long as it hasn’t curdled I am happy to use it a week or more after the ‘Use By’. But she isn’t, even though I have explained it to her numerous times. Some deliveries only have a ‘Use By’ which is a day or two after the present, and she doesn’t even like that. To make matters worse, my dad – who is almost blind and is 93 years old – is usually the one who deals with her on the milk front, and no matter how many times I have told him that the most recent milk is on the bottom shelf on the right, he insists on giving her a bottle from the top shelf on the left (the oldest) when she comes round. So she will come back several times, which annoys him and causes problems. If he just gave her a bloody bottle from where I’ve told him it wouldn’t happen.
So on the one hand, buying Cravendale again – which is good for ten days when unopened, and seven once it is – is going to be good for me. But on the other hand, I am not looking forward to explaining it to the lady next door. Because I just know she will remain rigidly fixed on the concept of the previous 1L bottles and shorter shelf life every couple of days, and wont be able to adjust to 2L of much longer shelf life milk once or twice a week.
I originally published this article in 2010 during the last recession, when people had been finding the blog on search terms along the lines of “can I go bankrupt as an ADI”, and “can I become an ADI if I’m bankrupt”. I updated it in March 2020 when the Covid Pandemic started as a result of a sudden spike in interest – I have changed that part to italics in the post below (it is still valid but no longer current).
Bankruptcy is a legal process involving a person or business which is unable to repay outstanding debts. So, in short, if you can’t pay your bills then yes, you can easily become bankrupt as an ADI. If you are relying on self-employment to earn money the responsibility for success (and failure) lies entirely with you.
Technically, bankruptcy is intended to help both the debtor and the creditors. It takes away the debtor’s debts, and attempts to recoup at least some of the creditors’ outstanding money. However, by having been declared bankrupt, the debtor may find that life is harder in future. They will find it extremely hard to get any sort of credit, for example, and even opening a bank account might prove troublesome.
Unfortunately, it is usually the debtor who comes off worse. In the case of driving instructors, their business probably has very few assets with which to offset their debts (no buildings, factories, machinery, etc.) apart from their car. However, if they own a house, that is worth much more and might be at risk if things go that far.
There is no barrier to being self-employed (which 99.9% of ADIs are) whilst bankrupt, but you can’t be a director of a limited company. As a sole trader you won’t have any trouble though – but make sure you fulfil your duties to HMRC (the taxman) in accordance with your bankruptcy terms. Read up on this carefully.
For prospective ADIs, I would doubt that previous or current bankruptcy would affect your chances of being accepted on to the register of ADIs. In some cases, if your bankruptcy was a result of unscrupulous or even criminal activities, then it might. It is whether you are a fit and proper person that counts, and only DVSA can decide on that. I can’t tell you, and certainly none of the comedians on social media can, though they’ll have a fine old time trying to. However, being a declared bankrupt seriously affects your credit rating, and you may run into issues sourcing a car or even being able to sign up to a franchise (I’ve already mentioned the likely difficulty opening a bank account if you don’t already have one).
The short answer is yes, you can be an ADI if you are bankrupt – but it isn’t definite, and there may be other obstacles to contend with.
Now we come to the present situation. Once again, no one can tell you what is going to happen – there are still idiots claiming that this is ‘just flu’ and saying it will all blow over. To anyone who isn’t still swinging through trees and eating bananas as a career, though, it is clearly very serious, and there is every likelihood it will last for some time.
Most ADIs will be extremely concerned, and worrying how they are going to manage.
The most important thing is not to sit back and do nothing. You need to contact your creditors – whoever they are – and ask for help and advice. Do that as soon as possible. Remember that they are fully aware of the situation, and contrary to what those swinging through the trees will tell you on social media they are not trying to destroy you or your business. Frankly, and I’m thinking well ahead now, if any do refuse to help, just plan for when all this does end so that you can sue them into oblivion (or at least have the satisfaction of telling people what they were like on social media and review sites)!
Every conversation you have will be different. Don’t be confrontational, and work to a mutually acceptable payment plan. If you can do that, you’ll stave off bankruptcy. It’s when you can’t pay anything at all that the likelihood of it happening increases. Propose a suggested payment scheme, and bear in mind that they all know what the situation is right now and will probably surprise you with how accommodating they are. So don’t panic.
Another option is to use a debt management company, who can handle all of this for you. Ignore people on social media who tell you to avoid them – this is bankruptcy we’re talking about, which is never to be taken lightly, and you need all the help you can get. When I lost my previous job all those years ago I had a lot of debts (almost £30,000), and it was such a company who got me through it without declaring bankruptcy (and this is just the one I used, so there are others you could consider). It is also worth nothing that at the time, my credit rating was almost zero, whereas now it is as high as it could possibly be. You can survive, and you can recover. But not if you listen to people on social media. Remember that the clue is the word ‘social’ – you’ll be getting a collective opinion, most of which is wrong in the first place.
A word for the future. Being self-employed is always high-risk when situations like this arise. It’s not just when epidemics, the like of which no one has ever experienced before come along, but personal illness and injury. The cash flow can stop in an instant, putting your home and other assets at risk.
I survived the Pandemic, but many didn’t and gave up instructing. I’ve written about this elsewhere, but far too many instructors assume that every penny of their lesson fee is theirs once they take fuel costs off it. It isn’t. For every £25 an ADI takes (assuming a 30 lesson week), probably only around half of that is his once his business overheads are covered. And then, about 20% of what’s left belongs to the tax man. But far too many spend that £25 as if it’s all theirs.
Apparently, there was a South Park 25th Anniversary show in the USA. It was a two-night event, and on the second night there was a surprise appearance by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.
It’s great to see them together again. I really hope they work together, but as Lifeson poignantly says:
We had such a great history and did so much great stuff together, it’s not really a big deal if, for the rest of our lives, we’re just best friends.
About a month ago I was rear-ended by some idiot at a pedestrian crossing. As a result, my car went in for repair and I had a replacement/courtesy car supplied – which was totally different to my normal car. It took me a few days to properly figure out how it worked (absolutely everything was controlled from a touchscreen system). It scared some of my pupils shitless.
I had one pupil whose test was approaching. She was away with the fairies as far as lane discipline was concerned – she simply had little or no awareness of them when she was driving. But we’d already postponed her test once as a result by over six months, and to be fair I had managed to improve her a lot. But I still wasn’t 100% happy.
But she didn’t like the substitute car. She texted me and told me she was going in her own car as a result. I fist-pumped and shouted ‘yesss’ when I got that text. We did a few more lessons and I made sure she had everything she needed to give it her best shot. And she only went and bloody well passed! Quite a high number of driver faults, it has to be said, but at least my badge wasn’t involved.
Then, I took on another pupil. He’d been taught by his parents and his driving was outstanding – seriously good. The only significant issue was the manoeuvres, none of which he had been taught, and his theory test (which he hadn’t done). So I got him to book his theory, and started covering manoeuvres with him. We did four lessons, during which he passed his theory first time, and then I got him to book his practical – which was in November.
I got a text a couple of weeks ago and he’d got a cancellation date. But it coincided with another test I had booked (ironically, I turned up for that one today and then discovered DVSA had cancelled it and moved it to August), and it was at a test centre outside of Nottingham, which I didn’t cover. So we agreed he would go in his own car with his mum. My only concern was we hadn’t polished the manoeuvres, but I pointed out that apart from that he had a bloody good chance of passing.
And he passed with a clean sheet! Zero faults. In a place he’d never driven before.
His parents are singing my praises and have already referred someone to me as a result. I’m happy with that, of course, but I am quick to point out it was his parents who actually taught him (and the whole family is really nice) – I just polished a few rough bits, aided immeasurably by the fact he was an outstanding driver. And he’s going to do Pass Plus with me.
So, apart from not getting official DVSA credit for the passes (especially the clean sheet), I’ve avoided the higher faults of one against my name, and got what is likely to result in a lot more work from the other.
Someone found the blog on the term ‘what bank should I use as an instructor’?
The answer is simple: It doesn’t matter who you bank with.
All you need to be able to do is pay money in and get it out when you need it. As a sole trader, you really don’t need a business account (which usually has a monthly fee of attached to it, and extra fees for depositing cheques), but if that’s what you want then it’s up to you. Some banks will try to insist you have a business account if you bank with them, but my advice would be to find another one unless you’re happy to be charged for something most will provide to instructors and sole traders for free,
Personally, I bank with Halifax, and all my money goes into and comes out of the same personal account. The vast majority of my driving instructor income goes in either via my card reader or as cash deposits. Slightly less often, it goes in via bank transfer or via a direct PayPal payment. I never accept cheques as lesson payments now.
This article was originally written quite while ago, and at the time cheques were the only source of payment problems I ever had. I can’t ever remember any ‘bouncing’, but how they were filled in quite often meant they weren’t honoured by the bank and I had to get a replacement (creasing, smudging, and incorrect or incomplete information were the usual culprits). This was made worse by the bank’s Victorian efficiency, which meant failed cheques might take weeks or months to get back to you, and you’d have to chase them up. In at least one case, the pupil had passed their test and was no longer with me. It created annoying administrative issues getting it sorted, and cheques have no immediate value until you have banked them. Nowadays, the banking apps let you scan them, but they still get rejected if the signature is smudged, and the three working days to clear if they’re accepted.
About 10-20% of my turnover is still cash, and I can easily accrue as much as £1,000 in my wallet, so I still have to physically pay money in occasionally.
I have to be honest and say that Halifax is utterly crap at branch level. For a start, there aren’t many branches left, and those that there are will be located in busy pedestrian areas. You have to find somewhere to park, and in West Bridgford that means having to pay (the traffic wardens hunt in packs, ready to pounce on anyone whose ticket has a crease in it or is placed crookedly on the dashboard). In Arnold, you might find a roadside parking space, but otherwise you have to pay there, too. West Bridgford town centre during the day is like a geriatric village of the damned, and even if the car park has spaces, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to get to any of them because of elderly and disabled drivers blocking the road waiting for a disabled bay to become available, or trying to avoid buying a ticket while they wait for their partner to come back from shopping. In the afternoon, mummies in Chelsea tractors do the same as they pick their kids up in the car park, or wait for a space nearer the shops instead of driving 20m round the other side where there’s lots of empty places.
If you do manage to park and get into the Halifax branch before it’s random early closure on random days, the size of the queue at the till (and the complexity of the transaction each member of it is trying to complete) is inversely proportional to how big a hurry you are in. There’ll be women with pushchairs whose kids are running around screaming, people with bags of coins, those making withdrawals as if they’ve never heard of a cashpoint, and several elderly people with bank books who behave as though they’ve never done this before when they get to the till (and who immediately go straight to the cashpoint to make sure the money has gone in, and often to take some out again).
The number of cashiers on duty is not proportional to anything. They only ever have one unless the number in the queue is approaching three digits. Then they still have one. But sometimes two, although that isn’t proportional to anything either.
On the now-rare occasions I have used the cashier, the simplest possible act of paying cash into your account takes five minutes. This, too, isn’t proportional to anything. It just takes five minutes – possibly a bit longer if you have a lot of cash and what they count isn’t the same as what you counted. The vast majority of that five minutes is taken up by their printing device, which takes nearly that long to chisel your receipt on to small clay tablet of a non-standard size somewhere between a business card and a coaster.
Of course, there is the Fast Deposit machine. This miracle of technology does exactly the same thing as the cashier, and it even takes exactly as long as the cashier. All without involving the cashier at all. Brilliant. Except that Halifax branch staff have been encouraging as many people as possible to use it to try and keep the queue for the till inside the building, and this also meant training people how to use it. Christ, the first time I used it I did it with no help and just followed the instructions. I was also in possession of the knowledge that anything with rollers (like scanner and photocopier feeders) tend to respond badly to staples and paper clips, and this thing would be similarly vulnerable, so the clear warning label not to put staples and paperclips in it was unnecessary. However, people are stupid, and the machine is not working at least half the time because some prat has got a staple jammed in it, and the branch staff can’t fix it themselves and have to call in an engineer (which takes a week).
But even when it is working, if there’s more than one person waiting to use it, you’re no better off than standing in line waiting for the cashier. It was that which led to my last ever visit late last year.
I went in, and there was the usual queue of at least eight people for the single cashier. There was only one person at the Fast Deposit gizmo, but it quickly became clear he was having a financial discussion of some sort on his phone. He had several cards and a thick wad of cash. He wasn’t actually using the machine, but he was going to, and the supernumerary cards suggested the money wasn’t all going into the same account. So he was effectively three or more people – all of them f***ing stupid – all by himself. I stormed out – I swore audibly – and when I got home began looking for another bank.
If I’d have calmed down a bit, I would have realised that it was going to be the same whoever I banked with if I needed to visit a branch. Years ago, while I was with HSBC, I went into the now closed branch in Keyworth, only to get stuck behind a local farmer who was paying in hundreds of pounds in coins! And whenever I used to go in NatWest or Barclays, the cashier getting up and disappearing in order to deal with whatever the idiot at the front of the queue was trying to do would make my blood boil. But it was while I was angrily looking for a new bank that I discovered I was now able to pay into my Halifax account at the Post Office (several years earlier I’d checked, and at that time I couldn’t).
At first glance, this might not seem the panacea it has turned out to be. The kinds of people who frequent Post Offices are typically a hundred times more stupid than those queuing at the bank branches. I mean, I recently got stuck behind someone in a Post Office (Clifton) who was apparently an eBay seller, and they had at least 30 small packages, each of which had to be individually bagged and labelled for some unfathomable reason, even though most would have readily fit a Post Box opening (when I sell on eBay, I bag and label at home, and only use the Post Office as a drop off if they won’t fit in a post box). Another time, in a different branch (Farndon Green), the elderly Postmaster-cum-village-shop-owner was having a chat with an elderly customer. They both stared at me as I entered, and carried on with their conversation. I nearly walked out. And another time, in still another branch (Tollerton), I went and stood at the Post Office counter whilst the shopkeeper (and his wife) dealt with customers at the shop counter. It became clear he was conducting the Post Office from the shop counter, and more people had come in. As I went to walk out, he said ‘can I help you?’ I replied ‘no, it’s OK’ and left. I will never go in that place again. But the major advantage of Post Offices is that there are a lot more of them than there are bank branches, parking is usually a doddle, and there is always one either very close to home, or along the route as you are driving between lessons. And paying cash or cheques in at a Post Office is quick – I am usually in and out in less than two minutes.
Why don’t you accept cheques?
There is no need. Anyone who uses cheques to pay for stuff will have a cheque guarantee card, and these days those things are chip & pin cards. Since I can take card payments, a cheque is a pointless complication. The only possible benefit is for someone who wanted to defer payment by however long it takes for me to bank it, plus however long it takes my bank and theirs to process it. If I didn’t pay it in immediately, there’s an increased chance that they will be skint again by the time I did. For me, there is no benefit at all, since it forces me to risk a rejected cheque and all of the hassle that follows.
Other instructors take cheques
That’s because they can’t take card payments, meaning that unless they get paid in cash (including driving the pupil to a cashpoint to obtain it), or do it by bank/PayPal transfer, a cheque is the only alternative. Getting pupils to pay by bank or PayPal transfer is a hassle in itself, as is driving to cash machines a lot of the time (especially when they’re out of order or there’s traffic). When mine do it by transfer, I often have to keep chasing them because they ‘forget’. I’ve got better things to do,
What if people can only pay you by cheque?
That’s a complete non-issue these days. The number of people in the entire country who are truly in that position could be counted on the fingers of one hand. If they can write cheques, they will need a cheque guarantee card, and that doubles as a chip & pin – which I can accept directly. If the bank won’t give them one, there is probably a damned good reason for it, and I have no desire whatsoever to find out why by accepting non-guaranteed cheques from them.
I can handle cheques. I choose not to as a routine method of payment because there is no good reason for them except to delay money leaving someone’s account.
Why bother with a card machine?
It’s quick, and I get paid immediately. There’s no chasing, and no risk of loss to me. Since I started using such a device nearly I have taken several hundreds of thousands of pounds with it (and yes, it all gets declared when I do my taxes, as does any cash I take). It also means I have good records for tax purposes. Frankly, I wish everyone would pay by card, but it isn’t uncommon for people to have their own reasons for insisting on cash – even if it involves as much as £700 for a complete course!
Isn’t it illegal to use a personal account for business transactions?
No. You only need a business account if you are a limited company. Sole traders – such as ADIs – are operating perfectly legally if they use a personal account. The only reason for choosing a business account would be that it is separate and might keep things simple for when you do your tax return – but it isn’t that hard in the first place for instructors.
Note also that some banks don’t like it if you use a personal account this way and will expect you to open a business account – and close your personal one if you don’t. That’s between you and the bank’s policies, and not a legal issue.
HMRC will audit you if you use a personal account
That is completely false. I’ve been doing this job for a long time and I have never been audited. I wouldn’t be worried if I was, because my accounts are clear (and true). HMRC are far more interested in you if your numbers don’t add up properly – if your profit ratio isn’t what it should be, or if your declared turnover doesn’t ring true, for example.
I’ve not written about Covid in a while, though I have had to deal with many situations involving it in working as an ADI.
I’ve explained previously, but I am carer to my two elderly parents, both of whom have age-related health issues which put them in the ‘extremely vulnerable’ group as far as Covid is concerned. I make it absolutely clear to all my pupils that they must tell me if they test positive, and I explain clearly why. And all of them have done so.
Two weeks ago, a pupil who is pregnant got it. So we cancelled for ten days. Although it may not be related (though evidence suggests it could be), she is now suffering from pre-eclampsia and has been in and out of hospital with high blood pressure and the other symptoms. I hope it works out for her and her baby.
But that is an aside. I got a text from a pupil this morning cancelling her lesson tomorrow because she has just tested positive for Covid. I also got a message from another pupil – who is a work colleague of/referral from the first – cancelling her next lesson on Saturday (she also had one Sunday and Monday, as her test is coming up).
I casually texted back that her friend had tested positive, and would she do a LFT before our Sunday lesson, and she came back with ‘yes, I know. She caught it off me’!
The penny didn’t immediately drop, since she told me she was back at work tomorrow (Thursday). But once it did drop, I asked her when she tested positive herself. Saturday – less than five days ago! And she has symptoms – she’s all croaky – and yet her employer (she’s a teaching assistant) wants her back tomorrow.
If you have COVID-19, you can pass on the virus to other people for up to 10 days from when your infection starts…
You should:
try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days
avoiding meeting people at higher risk from COVID-19 for 10 days, especially if their immune system means they’re at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19, even if they’ve had a COVID-19 vaccine
This starts from the day after you did the test.
I spoke with her this evening and she fully accepts the need to suspend lessons for the 10-day quarantine period.
But I cannot believe her employer wants her back while she is still unwell.
As most people will know, aluminium cooking foil has a shiny side and a dull one. This is not deliberate, and is simply a result of the shiny side being in contact with smooth rollers when it is manufactured.
Personally, I prefer the shiny (smooth) side to be in direct contact with food because it seems logical that the smooth side is likely to stick to food less than the dull (and rougher) side. I have no evidence for this, and I am not claiming it is true – because it quite possibly isn’t. It just makes sense to me as a Chemist.
Another thing that makes sense is that if the dull side is rougher, then it has a greater surface area, so contact with anything acidic might result in more aluminium getting into the food.
I immediately thought that this was nonsense. If you are placing something in a metal tray, and lidding it with more metal, radiant heat is not really in the equation while cooking it. Yes, the shiny side will reflect more radiant heat than the dull one, but you are only using radiant heat to a significant degree in the oven if the food is uncovered and directly facing the flame or heating element. The rest of the time you are using conduction and convection heating – mainly the latter. There is certainly no radiant heat (as infra-red waves) trapped inside your foil parcel.
Incidentally, you can purchase non-stick foil. This has a coating on it which reduces sticking to food. Interestingly, they put the coating on the dull side – presumably because it sticks better to the rough side during manufacture of it. The packaging for this product specifically tells you to use the dull side against the food solely because that’s the side with the coating on it.
The funny thing was, I was listening to Planet Rock this afternoon and I heard Darren Redick ask Wyatt about this and they didn’t know. They asked people to email in with the answer, but I was just about to start a lesson so didn’t get to find out what had been said. Though I can guess.
The answer is that it doesn’t matter what side you have facing the food as far as cooking and heating is concerned. However, the shiny side might be less sticky and react slightly less with acid foods. And with non-stick coated foil, the side with the coating should be in contact with the food.
I’ve mentioned this topic before, but you have to laugh at some of the ‘reviews’ for online recipes.
I was scrolling through a few the other day – you have to scroll, because standard food blog technique is to write about 6,000 words on how your grandmother used to catch mackerel by hand whilst blindfolded and swimming naked under pack ice, and only give the recipe in the last 50 words – and found one for Crab Cakes in an air-fryer. It calls for fresh Crab meat, Red Pepper, Spring Onions, and a few other bits and pieces.
Someone right at the top in the comments had added Cayenne Pepper and an egg white – and those are not in the recipe list as written. And another had used ‘imitation crab legs’ (i.e. not crab at all), green pepper instead of red, plus a totally different seasoning blend. Whatever it was they had made was apparently worth a five-star rating. Others have left out ingredients because they ‘didn’t have any’ and still rated it as five stars. Another had had a power cut and didn’t get to cook them, so used the raw mix as a sandwich filling instead – and still given it five stars. And another states he uses different ingredients in his recipe for Crab Cakes, but still gave this one five stars in spite of never having made it.
Another had used waxed paper in the air-fryer instead of the stated parchment paper and then complained about the cakes sticking to it. And someone else had apparently almost had a fire when they put the parchment paper into the air-dryer and tried to pre-heat before adding the Crab Cakes to hold it down.
Amazon Prime Day is 12-13 July 2022 and it is great time to bag some bargains.
If nothing else, it can give you some ideas before you shop around to see if you can get a better deal somewhere else (which I often do myself, even though I have Prime for the next-day delivery option if available).
I originally published this article in 2010 during the last recession, when people had been finding the blog on search terms along the lines of “can I go bankrupt as an ADI”, and “can I become an ADI if I’m bankrupt”. I updated it in March 2020 when the Covid Pandemic started as a result of a sudden spike in interest – I have changed that part to italics in the post below (it is still valid but no longer current).
Sometimes you couldn’t make it up.
As most people will know, aluminium cooking foil has a shiny side and a dull one. This is not deliberate, and is simply a result of the shiny side being in contact with smooth rollers when it is manufactured.