living on nothing programme

23rdspiral

geordie_joe wrote: »

as as for spending 15 minutes on the internet and finding a complete stranger who lived within walking distance of where he was, and who was willing to give him a home for a few day. Well yeah, any homeless person will tell you that happens every day!

yeah, they kinda misrepresented "couch surfing" didnt they?

its more of a 'free holiday' exchange website. you need somewhere to kip in one town, in exchange for being nice and offering a spot on your couch in return to someone else... kind of a big karma experiment. i dont know anyone, perhaps sadly, perhaps not, who would offer their couch to a genuine homeless person. unless they had really good feedback, by which time they'd be a 'fulltime' couch surfer anyway!

Rowan9

I switched it off. Very annoying man -no wonder the guys sleeping on the street were angry with him - I think he was maybe filming them?
Ah well.
w

geordie_joe

Caterina & Teapartymum, DianaMattos described it perfectly in only one sentence!

Basically, he goes to Bath with nothing but a sleeping bag and jimjams. Spends the night in a park, next day he finds 2 chocolate biscuits on the ground, eats them. Drinks the dregs of someone else's coffee in a cafe.

Spends the next night in a squat then goes to an internet cafe and scrounges 15 minutes of someone elses time. This results in someone offering him a sofa to sleep on for a few nights.

Next week he's living in a palace and has a job!

Bath, where the streets are paved with gold and even humble TV personalities can better themselves :rotfl:

Oh, and just to fill out the program there was a bit about an old couple who pick up coins in the street and give them to charity, a bit about a man who lives off the land and another bit about a man who finds whole loaves and brand new clothes/shoes in bins.

carolbee

How lucky to find a bike like that! you wouldn't get anything like that at our recycling centre.

I agree about the biscuits being planted - and how convenient to get those 15 minutes free internet time, and in that time get a free bed.

wish they followed a 'real' homeless person, that would be much more accurate!

(He also looked very close shaved for someone with just a toothbrush?)

geordie_joe

23rdspiral wrote: »

yeah, they kinda misrepresented "couch surfing" didnt they?

its more of a 'free holiday' exchange website. you need somewhere to kip in one town, in exchange for being nice and offering a spot on your couch in return to someone else... kind of a big karma experiment. i dont know anyone, perhaps sadly, perhaps not, who would offer their couch to a genuine homeless person. unless they had really good feedback, by which time they'd be a 'fulltime' couch surfer anyway!

Yep sad me had a look at the web site. Although it said it had 100 members in Bath, when I narrowed it down to those offering a couch it reduced to 17.

One person had loggin in within the last 2 hours, and reply to 100% of her messages, but most others hadn't logged in for days, weeks and even months. Some had only replied to 30% of messages.

I seriously doubt you could get a couch in Bath in 15 minutes, no matter how your feedback was!

Teapartymum

Right..... I see !!!!!!!!!1

geordie_joe

carolbee wrote: »

How lucky to find a bike like that! you wouldn't get anything like that at our recycling centre.

You would at ours, but you would have to pay for it.

I think it was a plant, next week he's on his bike looking for work, and find a job! There's something distincly eighties about that !

carolbee wrote: »

(He also looked very close shaved for someone with just a toothbrush?)

Well he did do his ablutions in the women's toilets, maybe there are things in there we men don't know about

sweetserendipity

I watched tonight & did feel it was a bit staged.
Another thing that bugged me (sorry, PMT!!) is the fact that "he heard about" so many things!! He heard about an empty house, a soup kitchen etc. etc.!! Who did he hear about them from?!

geordie_joe

sweetserendipity wrote: »

I watched tonight & did feel it was a bit staged.
Another thing that bugged me (sorry, PMT!!) is the fact that "he heard about" so many things!! He heard about an empty house, a soup kitchen etc. etc.!! Who did he hear about them from?!

Not from the real homeless people he came across, they were snuggled up in their sleeping bags, but when he came near them and spoke they came out fighting and he ran like h*ll.

I think that was the only real part of the program. it showed that even though they were snuggled up in their sleeping bags, the thing that was uppermost on their minds was getting a kicking from passing yobs. The first sign of a stranger coming near them and they were up and ready for a fight.

sunshine38_2

Hi All

Just wanted to add my twopenneth, if that's ok?

Why is it called "Living without money" if it then goes on to follow how he gets a job? Is it an unpaid job and he gets board out of it .

I too found it strange that "someone" pointed him in the direction of a house for the night - why didnt he pop back to those other homeless people and tell them that he'd found a roof for the night. I found it strange that he managed to get 15 free minutes on an internet site and get a result from his search ...

Anyway, I watched it, for what it was worth.

Thanks

Sunshine