OT Can people not do mental arithmetic or use a calculator any more?

[Richard]

42 It is always 42

[critcher]

those trolleys are usually the pick ups from around the store where the customers have dumped them.

[ARW]

Doncaster Royal Infirmary toilets - photo taken a couple of weeks ago.

[ARW]

And it's not that difficult if you try.

I have done it.

The first rule is not to waste anything.

[ARW]

If I gained entry to a WMC I could have cheap beers - but I am barred from joining one.

And that letter barring me was sent even though I never applied to be a member.

[soup]

I have told you a million times stop exaggerating. :O)

That line "buying lager at nine in the morning" is very much illegal indeed I know of no shop that will do it, Secret shoppers etc have made even wee corner shops afraid (for their license) to do it (though I am sure their are some very isolated incidences of it), makes your comment about eating breakfast delivered by just eat suspect too.

I can agree there are some ridiculous incidents, but not all people on the breadline are there because their mobile bill is so high and they can't cook from scratch etc etc .

[soup]

There are several charities that will provide transport to and from hospital. There is even a service (here in Edinburgh) where St Johns ambulance will provide transport (pretty much in a glorified minibus) for mobile passengers called "patient transport". However this is pretty much a pain in the 8888, as they will pick you up, possibly two hours before your appointment, then drive around the city picking up others then after your appointment you might wait a couple of hours to get transport home again. So last gasp but it is there. I have no idea how they plan the route or who is on each bus/sitting ambulance

[Fredxx]

As usual, you have no regard for people who are not fortunate as yourself.

You are plenty stupid to realise there might be circumstances outside of your control that could leave you destitute and penniless.

[ARW]

I would be more interested in what you would do/cook if you had to do it.

I have done it.

[NY]

I have always been very poor at mental arithmetic (apart from trivial examples) because I can't visualise the units, tens, hundreds etc digits, together with any carry digits. And rounding up or down (and then correcting afterwards) (*) gets me confused as well - I lose the thread (as well as the will to live!) half-way through.

Give me a pen and paper and I will laboriously go through the arithmetic process and eventually get the right answer - but that's because I can see all the digits, make a note of any carry digits from units to tens etc, and add them all up. Doing a running total as each number is given (27+35 = 62,

62+18=80, 80+33=113 etc), remembering all this as each number is read out - forget it: instant stack overload!

I wish I was better at mental arithmetic. I wish I could perform all the little simplifications such as rounding to the nearest ten and then applying all the corrections without losing my way very quickly. But having (almost) got to 60 years old, I don't think I'll suddenly start to find it easier.

My wife used to work in a bakery as a Saturday job when she was in her teens, and she found it very easy to keep track of "three doughnuts at 17 p each, plus two jam tarts at 7 p each, plus five (no, maybe I'll have six) flapjacks at 13 p each", without even writing down the sub-totals for each type of item. She only entered the final total into the till, whereas I'd be entering every item (or at lest every sub-total) and letting the till do the grunt work.

(*) As in 27+48 is 30+50-3-2

[Max Demian]

I don't think there are any laws stopping supermarkets selling alcohol any time they are open. One convenience store I recall wasn't allowed to sell alcohol before 8am.

Why wouldn't a delivery service deliver breakfast?

[NY]

I was lucky that my parents took an interest in what I was learning at school, and both my dad's parents were primary school teachers so they worked their teaching magic on me whenever I went to stay with them. There was only one downside to this: I could read fairly well by the time I started school, and the teacher could not handle the concept of a class full of children who barely knew their alphabet, and one bright bugger who was way beyond the graded "Tip and Mitten" books. She did not believe me when I took back each book after reading it for a few minutes, even though I proved that I could read the sample sentences that she asked me to read. So I was consigned to the "library" at the back of the classroom (and made to feel a nuisance) and I missed out on some of the social interaction with my classmates and on some of the handwriting lessons - consequently my handwriting was spectacularly bad (spidery, uneven) until I was about 12, when I took myself in hand and practised writing neatly. Nowadays I can write neatly or fast - but not both at the same time.

[Robin]

The space between the "l" at the end of "urinal" and the full stop suggests someone was taking the piss.

[Owain Lastname]

Have you tried the Conservative Club?

I think they let anyone in.

Owain

[Owain Lastname]

Still got 6 left! And a dozen stewed steak. :) :) :)

Owain

[alan_m]

A supermarket is often allowed to sell alcohol during their opening hours. Long gone are the times when the alcohol aisles were roped off outside of the restricted licencing hours. Scotland may be different.

[Richard]

Your circumstances are not relevant. Fuck off rod.

[ARW]

The only place I have not had a drink in in Filey

[ARW]

opens at 7am and has no time restrictions on selling alcohol.

You probably ought to go to Wetherspoon's at 9am to see what happens.

[ARW]

Scotland may be different.

It is.