90% off today, she said smugly :)
So now the sitting room floor is cluttered up with chipboard kitchen units and more interestingly a fine collection of chrome racking, three large drawers, a kitchen sink and a bling kitchen tap
Anna
Yeah. You do. Believe me.
Exactly. One time, on a bus going to work, a young bloke has on ne of those walkman things. Everybody else on the bus could hear the music from his little headphones. How the hell that young lad could hear anything else when he took the headphones off, beats me. Anyway. With all the dead pan faces, me thinks "break the ice hear" so turns to face the young music head and says out loud "Do you mind if I shove these headphones up your arse?" O f course, the young lad can't hear a bloody thing I said, so lifts out one the ear plugs and says "What?" I said "Would you mind awfully turning down the music young man, please?".
Everyone on the bus was rolling about laughing because I asked this young lad if I could shove his headphones up his jacksie, but he didn't know what the hell I'd said. The following morning the young lad gets on the bus and starts a conversation. Much better way to pass the time than blowing your brains out with load music. Good guy he is. Still give him a shout on the passing as well. :-)
It could be worse mate. She might have asked to come back. :-)
Old folks here are the same, but I blame the TV for the fear they have of young folks. When you consider that it is only half a percent of young people that cause or create troubled areas, who is telling the story about the other 99.5% of young folks who have no malice in the blood at all. Surely the TV News folks could tell us about the rest of them, but no. It's only the bad that gets publicity. As usual.
Told ya' Salt of the earth mate. You're the salt of the earth. We all need you to keep us going. Wear it proudly.
Very true. At least they know you are there, and you know they are as well. That's all it takes. If they move away, no matter if it is just a nod on the passing, you miss them after a while.
That's the one. Were we all danced naked in the forest, with the oak twigs sticking out our orifices. :-)
Is it age? Na. Is it life? Yeah. :-)
Money. Some say it is money that is the root of all evils. But it is actually the "want" for more money that creates and nurtures evil.
You better catch Woolies, before it shuts. :-)
up to 50% off today. Got some xmas lights for 70p, reduced from £1.
Owain
There is fat chav from Dewsbury who will not be putting her uotdoor decorations up this year :-)
All the rest of the council estates seem to be well lit in Yorkshire.
Adam
Ok, but no more than many other people? Funnily I've always been someone keen to help. As a kid I can remember helping people carry their bags / suitcases home from the train station on the push go-cart my Uncle made for me (like some did in those days). No thoughts of me running off with their belongings and often the 'reward' (not that it was my goal) was a small chocolate bar or a piece of home made cake (and I was perfectly happy with either). ;-)
I'm a firm believer in the "What goes around comes around" or "You reap what you sow" etc. I'm no angel mind so it doesn't always go to plan. :-(
LOL! I'm not sure I'd have the bottle to do that, especially these days.
What amazes me is how people can turn away when someone is in trouble. The bad boys do sometimes meet their matches though and justice prevails but I think the pendulum has swung way too far in favour of the offender. Was it Jason on '8 out of 10 cats' said the other night re the extra risks to people with weak hearts may be under if hit with a Police Tazar .. that they had better make sure they behave themselves then (or similar). ;-)
That harks back to the day we would get a clip round the ear by the local Copper and another from our Dad if he ever got wind of it. If you chose to cross the line to waved goodbye to your rights and respect.
[..]
Well, when we were going through our 2 year separation she wanted to go out for a meal with my then girlfriend now wife. I had no issues with that as there was nothing withheld from either of them but apparently after a few Gins she said that she still loved me and I would take her back if she asked (luckily my girlfriend knew otherwise) ;-)
Good points. Not nice for our daughter though, guilty till proven innocent etc. :-(
. One thing I can thank my Ex for, weeding out those people who were taking me for a ride, taking advantage of my willingness to help (a familiar tale for many here no doubt). They would turn up with a broken telly asking me to have a look at it as it's their old Mums and when I did so (often for a few beers) it transpired it was one they'd bought from a boot sale and were then selling for a profit!. After that, the next time they turned up she'd tell them to f off (and take their $hite with them!) ;-)
And sometimes there are back-story's. Like one newish neighbour wire, they moved down from some troubled area 'up Norf' and because they are quiet people she learned to keep herself to herself. She's slowly learning that there are (many) nice people out there. ;-)
Pah, and you just get the oak these days eh!
;-)
Cheers, T i m
p.s. Daughter felled a few more trees today, got some supportive / encouraging words from her instructors (not fast but doing it neatly and safely / by_the_book etc) and sounds like she's generally enjoying the whole thing.
I treaded us to one of those desktop parts washers today to make it easier for her to clean these power tools I hope she will be working on soon (especially now I also have the service manual for the Stihl leaf blower / power head). There are some nice people out there aren't there! ;-)
Well it can that's for sure.
Luckily I've always been in the position to be able to pay my way and afford some of the (smaller) extra things in life [1]. Never offered myself for any overtime though (I've done it when asked, all hands to the pumps etc) but my life started at 5pm not 9am and I always valued my (family) time over any wages.
T i m
[1] Something that confused many people at the time. "How can you afford to do X on your wages?" The answer of course was I didn't pay anyone to do anything, doing all of it myself.We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:
Not that I've really noticed.
Oh yeah. It is. There is no more frightening sight than a person desperate for ready cash. Some look shifty and deceitful. Others look wild and tormented. But both types have that evil look, when the cash is just out their reach, and they want it badly. It's the most evil sight you'll ever see in your life.
I've seen it far too many times not to be able to recognise it from a mile away.
That's the clever way to do it. There ain't nought wrong with the stuff made by your own hands. It's a fact of life that a paid job is a great feeder and provider, but the most satisfaction you can get, is by building your own luxuries.
I've been in business for almost 25 years, and the guys still ask me why I'm doing the tools along with them. My only answer is, it's because I can't stop doing what I like doing. I learned my trade at my fathers side, so it's in the blood now. If I thought I had to give it up, that's when I'd lay down and crock my last breath. I pay other people to do things I hate or can't do, so why should I come off the tools? It was the tools in my hands that started the business they now works for. When they can come to me and say they have done the same, I'll shake their hand and wish them good luck with it.
I'd much rather get the materials and build what I want, than go out and buy a thing that someone else has put their sweat into. At least I know I get my one right. :-)
Congratulations to that man. He's a winner, folks. :-)
And it doesn't have to be a stoner after his next fix, I've seen this look in (what appear to be) civilized members of society. Don't get me wrong, I've got no issues helping someone and knowing I'll get some sort of treat at the end of it but it's generally not *why* I do it. Many a mate has borrowed me, or me and my car / tools / trailer for the day on the threat of money but it they are real mates, just being with and being able to help is a nice thing, reward in itself (corny though that sounds). But maybe that can happen because we don't have any loans or debts (bought this place 15 years ago) and therefore haven't put ourselves in a position where money is quite so critical. A bit of an entrepreneur mate of mine was trying to get me to put my house up as collateral, get some money and start buying to rent etc. BIL has done such and currently has about 10 places in his portfolio. But, it only needs a couple to turn nasty (as he currently has, 1 defaulted for 6 months, gone to court, court sided with tenant!) and all of a sudden you can afford bread. No, I'll never be a millionaire but if I was I'm not sure it would make me any happier. ;-)
Sfunny, when I first really started making / repairing things it was more out of necessity than choice. First bike found in a ditch, handed to the Police and collected 6 weeks later, ebuilt and ridden to school for two years. 1st moped bought off a school teacher for a fiver, repaired and ridden to college for 18 months. Next moped given to me in a wheelbarrow, rebuilt, ridden to college / work / girlfriends for
2 years. 1st car, Morry Minor van, bought for 25 quid with only 1st and 4th. S/H gearbox fitted at night, in the car park, in the rain and for a fiver. Driven daily for 2 years etc etc. Even to the building of the kitcar nearly 20 years ago now (and it's still running ), it just never dawned on me to do anything other than to do these things myself (and still do whever possible).Similar with this house ... new floors, re-wired, re gassed, re plumbed, removed chimney breasts etc etc. Mostly done on my own and I was 20 ish. Working for BT as an Electronics repair Tech meant I wasn't on brilliant money so the only way I could afford to buy a 3 bed house on my own, work on it and have some sort of life was to do the work myself. Hard work, took quite a while (I like to do things right and once) but I got there in the end. A sad twist to this was my Dads mate was a solicitor and he did the conveyancing on this place for me. He advised an endowment mortgage but I simply couldn't afford it. I paid for this place when I was 40 and he's had to come out of retirement to find the shortfall of his endowment. :-(
What a nice place to be. ;-)
I was the same. At the time it felt like a chore, sitting on various bits of wood while he sawed them, or being forced into awkward spaces with fiberglass resin fixing backing pads for fixtures on fiber glass boats etc. Even did building of stuff with my Uncle (like the go-cart I mentioned or helping him build / repair a shed) all subconsciously setting me up for what was to come.
Exactly.
Absolutely. Sfunny isn't it. Some folk are very protective of their trade or skills but I've always been happy to pass that info across if people are interested. "Give a man a fish and he can feed his family for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he can feed his family for ever" ... sort of thing. The reason I was happy to lose the work is there were always 1,000,000 other things for me to do (and still are!).
I'm afraid I've fall into the 'easy' trap more these days (especially as things are so cheap by comparison). Like this little parts washer,
40 quid from Machine Mart when in my mates garage is the much larger one on a cabinet with 2 x 25l reservoirs underneath that I made 20 years ago just needs a suitable pump to make it a far better solution than the one I've just bought! :-(Ah, now that is one of the biggest reasons I still choose to do the things I do myself. What frustrates me is how often, when talking to the 'professionals', the only justification they have for doing the crap job they (often) do is because their way is 'quick and cheap'. What has happened to doing something 'properly' and with pride then? Nope, they now only know quick_and_cheap, the way of most things that are now managed by the poxy bean counters anyway.
Quick and cheap is rarely cheap but may (luckily) co-inside with our current need to dispose of something before it's worn out, simply because it's gone out of fashion or isn't lifestyle'.
ie, I have two twin flouros in the kitchen because they are the easiest and most efficient way to illuminate that space. I don't have down lighters, under / in cabinet or mood lighting because it's a kitchen and we use it to cook food in, not display works of art! Most of the other rooms are no better, the do what they need to the most efficient way they can, and always have, long before anything we chose became trendy. The thing is, this is somewhere we eat and sleep, we live our lives outside of here, be it cycling, camping, sailing, motorcycling, clay shooting, archery, power kite flying, racing RC cars and any other mad idea we or our mates come up with (and that's all of us, Mrs as well). ;-)
Luckily our daughter realises how lucky she is and how she could take what we do for granted (but doesn't), certainly in comparison with many of her mates for whom a holiday is two weeks burning in the sun and 'living' is drink, drugs and sleep. But how are they to know any different, it's exactly what their parents do? (She's booked a week in Bulgaria next year with a bunch of mates because it's cheap, cultural and different). ;-)
T i m
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