SHOPS AND SERVICE STATIONS SHOPPING AS NORMAL IF YOU've been eaten out of hose and home over the festive season, one of the first things you'll want to do in the new year is some shopping. food manufacturers,distributors and supermarkets throughout the country have been working hard to beat the MB, and are confident that you'll find their shelves well-stocked and all essential food and groceries will be available. millennium opening hours all the major supermarkets will be open on new year's eve. 31st december 1999. the majority will close to allow most staff to join the celebrations on sat and sunday and will open again on monday 3rd january 2000. many local shops will be open for much of the weekend but check with them nearer the time. filling up the car petrol companies also say it will be business as usual over the new year. many will offer their customers normal opening hours on both new years's eve and new year's day and their forecourt shops may be especially useful for those last minute items. beating the bug as long ago as 1996, a batch of tinned corned beef with the use-by date of 00 was rejected by a computer which wrongly assumed they were 96 years out of date and refused to deliver the tins. this incident prompted the industry to accelerate their own year 2000 programmes well ahead of time. equiptment from production through the warehouse to the checkout has now been programmed to recognise the year 200. look around a supermarket today and you'll find plenty of long-life items with a 00 use-by date. HEALTH health services at the ready for health care services, sorting out the MB has been an urgent priority. everywhere, from your local family surgery to large city hospitals, health service professionals have been working hard to identify possible year 2000 problems. and thanks to early diagnostic work which identified some problem areas, the nhs is now well on the way to receiving a clean bill of health. for instance, work is being carried out on medical equiptment,computer systems and patient records to make sure they are free of the MB. and plans are in place to make sure chemists , pharmacists and hospitals have the necessary supplies of drugs and medicines over the period. in the autum, the nhs will be publishing further updates on progress with the MB and how to make the best use of services over the millennium period. care at home if you use medical or disability equiptment in your home,ranging from kidney dialysis machines through to enviromental controls for disabled people, there is very little likelihood of any year 2000 problems affecting this equiptment. the nhs and social services have already made arrangements to check the safety of electronic equiptment they have supplied. if you have any concerns, however, contact either the professional who arranged for the eqqquiptment to be provided or the company that maintains it . if you obtained the equiptment privately, you should contact the supplier. TRAVEL holidays the MB is a global problem so it is a complicated one for the travel industry. when you think how many seperate systems in different countries need to talk to each other to produce just a single package holiday, you'll see why they have taken the MB very seriously. working together, the travel industry-including travel agents,tour operators and airlines-have carried out tests on their UK systems to make sure they are ready for the millennium. work is now continuing with overseas destinations to minimise any disruption to your holiday, but you should be prepared to expect some inconvieniances if you are travelling over the millennium period.# FICTION "you shouldn't fly over the millennium period because the MB will cause plans to fall out of the sky" FACT "the civil aviation authority and the government say that planes will not be allowed to fly to, from and within the UK unless saftey is gauranteed. at all times saftey is a primary concern for airlines, so they are carefully checking all their systems. some plane manufacturers have even been tested their planes in flight. they took off with the clocks on their on-board computers set to just before the millennium and flew over the date change. all systems functioned normally. TRAVEL TIP always take a number of methods of payment when travelling overseas-a combination of local currency,travellers cheques and credit cards is ideal. INSURANCE The Association of British Insurers has stated that there should be no major changes to insurance policies due to the Millennium Bug, other than the exceptions described below. When your renewal policy arrives, however, it's worth checking for any changes to your cover and, if you have any worries, speak to your insurance company. TRAVEL INSURANCE If you have a claim arising as a result of a Millennium Bug problem, foe example, you are prevented from travelling, your journey is delayed for any reason or your baggage is lost either temporarily or permanently, most travel insurance policies will not cover you. It's likely that the medical benefits from your travel policy will stay the same but check with your insurer. Above all, make sure you understand exactly what you are covered for and the implications of this before taking out a policy. HOME INSURANCE Although insurers won't cover home appliances that are affected by the MB, there are generally no other exceptions to your cover. OTHER INSURANCES Many extended warranty policies will not provide cover for products, particularly computers, that fail due to a MB problem. Check with your insurer. Legal expenses insurance will not cover you to fund legal actions against suppliers of non-compliant goods or services. However, death or personal injury claims will still be covered, whether or not the cause was related to the MB. Insurance Tips Ask your insurance provider to point out any MB clauses. These vary from insurer to insurer and it could be well worth shopping around, especially when buying travel insurance. But remember always to read the small print.

Utilities Keeping everyone switched on Many of us will need a good strong cup of coffee the morning after New Year's Eve. And after we've revived ourselves with a hot bath or shower, we may want to phone a few friends to wish them a happy New Year. The utility companies have been working hard to ensure we can do all these things. By the end of 1998, most of our essential services like Gas, Water and Electricity had completed their year 2000 programmes, and the Telecommunications sector had almost finished theirs. Since then, they have all been testing their systems. The industry regulators OFGAS, OFWAT, OFFER, OFTEL and OFREG have commissioned further independent assessements. The good news is that in most cases the work carried out by the individual companies has been certified and where potential problems have been identified, remedial plans have been implemented. As with every other year, disruptions could occur, but this is far more likely to be due to severe weather than the MB. In addition the telecommunications industry has been working with other telecoms providers around the world to test international services. But because not all countries are equally prepared, you may experience problems calling some destinations - please be patient. UTILITIES TIP It's a good idea to keep copies of the bills, statements and meter readings you receive from the utilities for your own records.

Making sure we're ready The information in this booklet has been developed in conjunction with some of the UK's major industries and service provides who also form part of Action 2000's National Infrastructure work. The National Infrastructure The National Infastructure is the collective term used to describe the essential services upon which theid nation relies-from power supplies,telecommunications and finance to transport,emergency services and healthcare. for the last few years,millions of pounds and hundreds of thousands of work-hours have been committed to ensuring no material disruption due to the MB in any of these services. each sector's preperation is independently assessed and color coded as follows: BLUE assessment has not identified any risk of material disruption ORANGE some risk of material disruption but agreed rectification and containment plans are in place. RED severe risk of material disruption there may not be enough time to rectify. a report using the color coding was published in may, showing the progress of each sector in its preparation towards achieving "blue2 status. as could be expected, very few sectors were found to be"red" and remedial plans are now in place. the next report from action 2000 will be published in national newspapers during july updating of the status. SMALL PRINT ON THE BACK OF BOOKLET THIS BOOKLET PROVIDES GUIDANCE AND ADVICE ABOUT THE mb. BECAUSE OF IT'S GENERAL NATURE, NOTHING YOU READ HERE CONSTITUTES LEGAL OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE.THIS MEANS THAT YOU, OR ANY ORGANIZATION YOU WORK WITH, ARE ENTIRELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY PREPERATIONS YOU MAKE TO DEAL WITH THE MB. IN OTHER WORDS WE ARE ALL UP A CREAK WITHOUT A PADDLE. SORRY IF THIS HAS BEEN POSTED UNDER DIFFERENT HEADINGS BUT I'M STILL LEARNING. THANK YOU FOR READING.

-- Graham hyslop (Bob@ghoward-oxley.demon.co.uk), June 14, 1999

Answers

And, BTW, you are entirely "on your own".

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), June 14, 1999.