Ollie

Insist the installer shows you where it's set and how to change it. Some lock it in the commissioning menu and you'll never touch it again.

Slightly contrary view, 70% merino means 30% something else, and if that's nylon it should be more pill resistant, but if it's viscose or acrylic it'll be worse. Check the label. Acrylic pills form hard little beads that don't shed, which is why they look so bad so fast.

Insurance angle worth checking: in Ontario insurers are required to offer a discount for having winter tyres fitted, and the discount is small but it runs every year. Whether all-weathers qualify depends on the insurer, so ask yours directly before you decide, because it changes the maths slightly in favour of a proper winter set.

Had the crank one for two years. Its virtue is that it never breaks - there's nothing in it to fail. But there are no presets, so with two target heights you're eyeballing it every single time. I stuck a strip of masking tape down the leg with two pencil marks on it and that solved about 90% of the annoyance for free.

Shoulders fit is the whole ballgame, everything else is negotiable, so buy it. Sleeves shorten from the top (at the shoulder seam) when there are functional buttonholes, because cutting from the cuff would destroy them. That's a harder job than a cuff shortening and you're looking at maybe $60-90 rather than $25. Ask specifically whether they can shorten from the sleevehead, a lot of dry-cleaner tailors will say no.

Right - they open the armhole, pull the sleeve up, re-set it and re-do the lining. Two inches is on the edge of what's safe because the sleeve tapers, so the cuff opening ends up slightly wider than intended. On most blazers you'd never notice.

Straddling two financial years is actually the best case for a short runway, since the annual limit resets. The mistake I made was assuming the whole balance of my super was in scope, only the eligible voluntary contributions and their associated earnings come out, and my determination was far smaller than my mental figure.

Secondhand changes this maths completely. Wool coats are one of the few garments where the used market is genuinely good, because people buy them, wear them six times and give up. £400 buys one excellent used coat and one decent used coat with money left for a tailor.

The finding I keep coming back to: ergonomic pads and vertical mice measurably change wrist position, but in people who already had carpal tunnel syndrome they did not reduce carpal tunnel pressure. Position and pressure are not the same variable. That doesn't make the accessories useless, it means don't expect a foam pad to treat something.