Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

Davesnave

We have a mole....or probably more than one.

Thinking I was a clever bunny, I put about 8 or 9 barrowloads of well-rotted pig manure into the trench for our new 'hide the neighbours' hedge. Then we planted 110 beech saplings. "Arr, they beggers will grow now!" I said in my best Devon accent. We'd dipped the roots of every one in some new-fangled fungus solution that stimulates root growth. Symbiotic.

Of course I'd blown it. I didn't think that in the manure were hundreds of bloomin' worms, all putting out some kind of mole-attracting vibes.

It was a matter of days before the new hedge had a four lane mole motorway down it. As I watered, great sections of soil collapsed and gallons just disappeared. It was like a miniature rift valley.:mad:

I was straight off to the country store and back again with the least humane mole trap I could find.

Needless to say, two or three weeks later, the mole trap is still empty, the moles seem to have vanished and I expect the worms are now molecules of mole. Green leaves are sprouting from the sticks we planted though, and already the trampoline next door looks a little less threatening.

SingleSue

Forgot to say earlier about the amazing present I received from my youngest son for my birthday.

He had made me a 4 min 30 second short film sequence using still photography and lego, carefully moving the pieces a tiny bit each time he took a photo (spent 5 weeks doing that and I almost ruined it 4 or 5 times when doing the housework as I moved his lego pieces), laid the photo's down into a fast moving sequence, added sound effects and music and then presented it as you would a film with credits, the lot.

He even had the lego men jumping and doing somersaults in the air, the light sabres lighting up and extending bit by bit and building exploding, god knows how difficult that was to put together, absolutely painstaking work.

He did it all by himself, no advice from school (his ICT teacher thinks he is still at the level of needing assistance to log on, let alone do anything else)...it was the best present I have ever received.

Now if only he would show the school what he can blooming well do, it is so frustrating!

vivatifosi

Blimey, I can't believe how much this thread has grown since I last checked in. That'll teach me to take a few days off for Easter! Some thoughts on the bits I've caught up on...

tomterm8 wrote: »

That certainly worked for Bradbury. He sold 11 novels, and 44 books of collected short stories. And dozens of plays. And film scrips. Heinlein, though, was productive... he sold 32 novels under his own name, and had dozens of pseudonyms.

I read your posts on this quite avidly tomterm. Very interesting. Bradbury still checks out regularly at our library, less so Heinlein. As a genre, sci fi remains very popular, though horror has dropped right off so you never see Stephen King or one of the Odd Thomas books by Dean Koontz go out anymore. Horror these days can only involve teenage vampires...

silvercar wrote: »

Must be similar for extensions. Round here I know of at least 3 people who are extending their kitchens by adding on a conservatory, getting it building regs signed off and then knocking down the wall between the kitchen and conservatory.

Round here the big doozy is roof conversions. Mil amused me the other day. Her next door neighbour is a lovely guy from Poland. He plans to convert his roof so that he can allow four Poles to live in it (this is not a big roof I hasten to add). Hasn't approached the council at all because that's not what they do in Poland. Mil won't do anything about it because she's not that fussed, but it will be interesting to see how soon after he puts a window in someone calls up the council. May even start running a book on it...

lostinrates wrote: »

This tesco talk makes me feel I'm missing out too PN....but I do live near enough a tesco and I just don't get it.

Honestly, I cba with it. Sorry peeps! I have a list of "stock" items that I use, generally things like shower gel, toothpaste, toilet roll, washing up liquid, washing powder. I know from doing this over several years that I can get all of these paying no more than 50% off providing I keep six months worth of stock because they are always available somewhere. I know I can save more with the Tesco scheme, but not much more, its intensely competitive, contains brands that I wouldn't choose and I'm still getting my bargains while people sound like they are about to beat each other into a frenzy with frozen legs of lamb.

michaels wrote: »

I'm not sure the theoretical/moral case can be made for fptp, av or pr.

Finally, on the subject of AV, I'm disappointed by the debate on both sides. I watched the election broadcast for the "yes" campaign and it was solely based on making MPs work harder, the "no" campaign is equally opaque. I'm disappointed that there's little coverage of how it works or the impact on issues such as tactical voting. I know how I will vote, but I think it is terrible to take an electorate into a vote where they have been given such poor information on which to base a decision. Both sides really are to blame for this.

lostinrates

Sue, your boys never fail, do they? what a super present.


My blissful marriage is suffering a litle hiccup this mirning because DH decided it wasn't safe for me to have my passport in my hand bag..he has put it ''somewhere safe'' and he can't remember where and I didn't even now it was gone. I didn't even notice it was missing, because that's not how my mind works, it works that I have a set store of safe places and I look through them...but dh hasn't chosen any one of these safe places.

silvercar

lostinrates wrote: »

Sue, your boys never fail, do they? what a super present.


My blissful marriage is suffering a litle hiccup this mirning because DH decided it wasn't safe for me to have my passport in my hand bag..he has put it ''somewhere safe'' and he can't remember where and I didn't even now it was gone. I didn't even notice it was missing, because that's not how my mind works, it works that I have a set store of safe places and I look through them...but dh hasn't chosen any one of these safe places.

We always have these conversations:

me: "I've put it in a safe place"
OH:"any idea where?"
me: "um, somewhere safe.."
OH:"gone forever then".


Best remedy is if your DH was putting it in a safe place now, where would he put it?

Doozergirl

My sister in law puts stuff she really shouldn't in the bin. Her husband has previously retrieved a diamond ring and £2000 in cash :eek:

I should be doing my accounts. I'm just looking at the folders. Every year I promise I won't do this and every year I leave it to the last minute. And every year I have to retrain myself to use Sage, and call them for my log on details because I forget.

PasturesNew

Still not found my camera.... that will have been in a bit of a safe place. It's something I'd have looked after and put away properly..... but it's gorn!

SingleSue

lostinrates wrote: »

Sue, your boys never fail, do they? what a super present.


My blissful marriage is suffering a litle hiccup this mirning because DH decided it wasn't safe for me to have my passport in my hand bag..he has put it ''somewhere safe'' and he can't remember where and I didn't even now it was gone. I didn't even notice it was missing, because that's not how my mind works, it works that I have a set store of safe places and I look through them...but dh hasn't chosen any one of these safe places.

They try their best....the reason youngest did his film is because he is desperate to get a reconditioned Ipod touch (approx £70), so is saving all his pocket money and he worked out that if he purchased me a card and a small present, it would put his saving back by 2 weeks.

So he did some out of the box thinking and came up with the film idea...no financial cost to him and he knew it would make me happy (I always say to them that if you cannot afford a present, use your skills to make one - it is not the cost, it is the thought and effort).

Anyway, after a lovely weekend away, it was bang down to earth this morning.....middle son got very OCD about something, refused to get ready for school and then got violent. I am now nursing a very sore thumb where he tried to break it (I knew there was a positive to being very hypermobile apart from the pain) and a sore chest from where he punched me several times....and am expecting a text any minute because all the boys were late for school by 15 minutes as a result.

It was something eldest really did not need this morning as one of his 6th form colleagues died over the weekend.

LydiaJ

Oh Sue. I'm so sorry to hear that.

I wish there was something I could do or say to make a difference, but at least please pass on condolences to your eldest.

tomterm8

vivatifosi wrote: »

I read your posts on this quite avidly tomterm. Very interesting. Bradbury still checks out regularly at our library, less so Heinlein. As a genre, sci fi remains very popular, though horror has dropped right off so you never see Stephen King or one of the Odd Thomas books by Dean Koontz go out anymore. Horror these days can only involve teenage vampires...

.

I'm not surprised horror is out of fashion, it's never really been in fashion. Occasionally it has big names, like King, who make a fortune... but the average horror writer doesn't do so well. They can make a good living, but not a great one.

Fantasy has always been the most successful of the niche speculative markets... it satisfy the nostalgia itch.

The Science Fiction that does well also is often light SF. Heinlein never really did that well in the UK. The reason that he did so well in the US was his prolific short story output. He wrote well over 7 million words of published short stories in the pulps. Most of those words never came across to this side of the atlantic. And, generally, his shorts were better than his novels.

When you get that kind of exposure your novels sell. Even if you are not as good as Philip K !!!!!!, Asimov or Bradbury.