The problem of not being a bull or a bear

Cleaver

PasturesNew wrote: »

I can't get tables in EMPTY restaurants. One Saturday night a number of years ago I decided "I was worth it" - and would eat an indian meal in an indian restaurant, rather than picking up a takeaway to eat in my bedsit.

I tried every restaurant in a city in Devon .... nobody would give me a "table for one", even though they were all empty....

I have no idea if there's a secret/hidden rule about how to get a table for one.

I used to work away from home during the week and not once was I ever told that I couldn't have a table for one. And I worked in Torquay for four weeks and regulary had tables for dinner there, so I know that can't be the city in Devon you're referring to!

Mr.Brown_4

Cleaver wrote: »

I'd been doing DIY cr*p all day...

Maybe a new TV series in the offing for Krusty, etc. DIY Crap. Not Location, or Grand Designs - but the real story of our house owning democracy. Trips to B&Q, amateur fumblings with the latest Black n Decker accessory, and then you mistakenly test out the new shelf and it rips sufficient holes in the Barretts own brand plasterboard to see clear through to next door.

Sister series could include Gardening Crap, and Come Dine On My Crap.

edit: Also Crap in the Attic - we have loads of it.

Cleaver

Mr.Brown wrote: »

Trips to B&Q, amateur fumblings with the latest Black n Decker accessory, and then you mistakenly test out the new shelf and it rips sufficient holes in the Barretts own brand plasterboard to see clear through to next door.

I'm not in a Barrett, but the rest of this is a very accurate description of my DIY process. I'm a bit better now, but I'm not the most practical person in the world and when we bought our first house they must have known me by first name at B&Q.

Why do you spend months learning algebra at school when spending just a few weeks being taught to put up a shelf would surely be a lot more useful?

Mr.Brown_4

It's the attitude of my wife that I find hard to take. I am apparently no good at plumbing, electrics, bricklaying, landscaping, roof tiling, cement mixing - you get the idea with that. When we get someone in to do it she says "what a great job" and "why couldn't you do that". Well, because it's not my profession is my rather feeble answer. I feel inadequate because I don't know how to mix cement or whatever - ridiculous.

Mind you, I did once visit a DIYers house with a view to purchasing, and in one room after another he proudly showed off his efforts - mainly built in cupboards. Without exception, they were the most rickety, unfinished, lopsided efforts I have ever seen. The bedroom 'furniture' was a delight - you would have enjoyed it immensely. Before the days of Rightmove unfortunately otherwise we would have had a field day.

HammerSmashedFace

Cleaver wrote: »

We tried to go out for a meal tonight. I'd been doing DIY cr*p all day and Mrs C had been writing an assignment and we both fancied getting out the house. We wandered down our highstreet at 8.30pm and tried three restaurants, all of which told us they were fully booked and that we'd have between 40 minutes and an hour for a table. We were starving and we're also a bit new to the area so don't know many other places so gave up and ended up getting a takeaway on the walk home instead.

This leaves me with a problem. What story to tell?

The Bull Story
We went our to our local high street tonight and it was packed. Resturants with queues out of the door, no tables available and bottles of wine aplenty. Full of people enjoying themselves and spending money. We tried three different restaurants and couldn't get a table at any of them! These bears are trying to tell us that there's a recession on, but I see no evidence of this whatsoever, our local places are booming. If people are eating out this much I can only imagine that they would be buying bigger and bigger houses. Good times! I know it was our low-tracker mortgage that funded our night out. Brilliant.

:beer:

The Bear Story
We went to our local high street tonight and, in between closed down shops, we saw three restaurants full of people drinking wine, spending money on expensive food and generally ignoring the state we are in. I'm assuming most of these people are lauding it up on credit cards and are increasing their debt mountain. Yet more evidence of people not paying down their debt or taking control of their finances. It makes me so angry. Many of these people will start losing their jobs when the deflationary vortex takes hold and will bitterley regret these wanton nights of spending.

Good post mate, my views nowadays have little to do with my personal circumstances, so I just gather as much info as I can on a given subject and form a view. My bearish viewpoint on many topics is solely formed on the facts as I see them out there.

Does anyone truely believe that the economy is growing on it's own steam in a productive manner ?, does anyone believe that this recession will end in 5-10 years of growth like in previous recessions, ignoring the obvious energy crunch that is coming our way, which incidently is being pedaled with the 'man made global warming' headline.

The facts in the short term look quite grim (artificial growth with borrowed money, which has to be paid back, with interest). The difference this time is they are quite grim in the medium/long term too, for reasons I've already mentioned.

Joe Public in general just seems to be unaware, which means not having any foresight or preperation means that it's likely to be worse than even I anticipate.

Cleaver

Mr.Brown wrote: »

It's the attitude of my wife that I find hard to take. I am apparently no good at plumbing, electrics, bricklaying, landscaping, roof tiling, cement mixing - you get the idea with that. When we get someone in to do it she says "what a great job" and "why couldn't you do that". Well, because it's not my profession is my rather feeble answer. I feel inadequate because I don't know how to mix cement or whatever - ridiculous.

It's the little things I struggled with. My Dad isn't a particulary practical man either, so it wasn't as though I grew up watching him tinker with cars or fixing boilers etc.

When I decided to put up shelves for the first time, I went and bought a drill. When I got back I couldn't actually drill in to the wall, so returned to B&Q and the person advised that maybe buying a battery drill meant that I couldn't drill through brick, so a corded drill would be better. I bought one (which came with drill bits), went home and spent a frustrating hour still not able to drill in to my wall. Again, I went back to B&Q where a more helpful fella asked "are you using the drill bits that came with the drill? Oh, those won't be any good, you need some propery masonary drill bits, they'll do the job." How silly of me, assuming that the drill bits that came with a drill would be good for drilling holes. I bought the masonary bits, went home and was able to drill holes.

But this process would be repreated for every little job. I'd have issues with the rawl plugs, so would have three trips to B&Q, various holes in the wall with rawl plugs hanging out, pliers trying to pull them, having to hammer ones I couldn't get out right in to the wall, then having to go back out and buy putty to fill the holes I'd made. Then the shelf would finally go up... but I've put it on upsidedown... I could spend a weekend putting up one shelf and the wall would end up looking like an external wall of a house in Gaza.

I'm better now (put up two shelves in about 30 minutes yesterday with no trips to B&Q and no swearing) so maybe it's just something you have to go through to learn what you're doing. My missus also used to mock, but never seemed to fancy having a go herself.

HammerSmashedFace

Mmm, I won't be buying a house of you mate, all those nasty holes hiddened behind the wallpaper. I'd find a nice place to hang a mirror, get me 5mm drill out, start drilling and it suddenly turns into 25mm hole, as i drill into one of your old holes....... mmm sounds a bit dodgy that hey.:D

StevieJ

Cleaver wrote: »

but I think it's fair to say that most threads are started by a 'bull' or a 'bear'. When the economy is bad there are more started by bears and when things aren't going 'well' the bears start most of the threads.

You sound like a bear there

Cleaver

HammerSmashedFace wrote: »

Mmm, I won't be buying a house of you mate, all those nasty holes hiddened behind the wallpaper. I'd find a nice place to hang a mirror, get me 5mm drill out, start drilling and it suddenly turns into 25mm hole, as i drill into one of your old holes....... mmm sounds a bit dodgy that hey.:D

It's the body of the previous owner encased in the concrete foundations that should be your primary concern.

wageslave

I have looked round more houses with ill fitting laminate flooring, ceramic tiles falling off walls and upside down wallpaper than I care to remember.

Dedicated DIYers are a blight on the bliddy nation and I would no more buy one of their little "palaces" than I would attempt to build a garden wall with no foundations (my neighbour, two years ago. Needless to say it was interesting to watch).

I don't think I have ever actually been inside B&Q. I did buy a bin in Homebase once.