Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

silvercar

My winter flask (new) has a socket with a lead that fits into the car 12v socket (do we still call them cigarette lighters?). Not tried it yet; haven't a clue how you know when your drink is hot enough but not boiling. Seemed like a good idea and it was half price due to its odd colouring.

SingleSue

PasturesNew wrote: »

Take a flask too - and have a wee before you leave.

I had to laugh at that....it sounded just like my mum!

Right, picked up the cakes today and am glad to see that the toppers look great on them although I only put the toppers on top of the boxes rather than on the cakes as mum thought it best to leave them in boxes for now for freshness (and completely beggering up my best laid plans/timetable), so still have to do them properly and time is running away with me!

Also had to take my parents up town for shopping when we had just got back from town as mum doesn't want to drive in the snow and although dad wants to, he is not allowed to...thankfully, they do have a blue badge, so we could park right in the centre of town (I was seriously lagging by this point and in need of my painkillers).

Relief though...the head dress arrived, as did the pull bows and crutch/sticks bows, just waiting for the tails suit now..fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Eldest has the day free tomorrow and comes up with the bright idea of swapping the bedrooms over and was rather surprised when I reacted badly...not sure he quite gets just how much I have to do this week on rapidly depleting spoons and time.

vivatifosi

silvercar wrote: »

My winter flask (new) has a socket with a lead that fits into the car 12v socket (do we still call them cigarette lighters?). Not tried it yet; haven't a clue how you know when your drink is hot enough but not boiling. Seemed like a good idea and it was half price due to its odd colouring.

I want one! Where from pretty please?

Arcaine

I want to come and join the nice people. This board is becoming a scary place.

Peace and Happy Christmas to all.

Arc

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

Class is maybe the wrong word. Different culture is another way of looking at it. I work with others who like me are partly from closed cultures. One is from a Water Gypsy family, another from an Irish Traveller family and I'm from a Romany family, we're all 2nd or 3rd generation. We've all more or less totally lost the culture. We might know a bit about it, we might have a better inkling of what it's like to be part of that culture than the average Joe (or country girl/gorgy), but we've all totally left it behind. Its similar for some immigrant communities too. Assimilation - which I'm personally in favour of - can feel like its killing off your history. This is particularly the case when people see your way of life as problematic or anachronistic. It is a very difficult issue.

I feel passionate about this. Its always been a feature of my life,my parents marriage, (and my sister's disgust at that) that my sister and I were Christened into different churches, that I'm a mongrel daughter of a mongrel....the stronger cultures in me are almost genetically programmed. I sometimes think as I head to frozen horses etc that if my pioneer stock ancestors did it, so can I. My titled female ancestors DID pull ploughs when needed, instead of horses or cattle. The pioneer thread is strong, and almost total decimation of a large family estate three countries in in the last two generations still feels raw to some of my family. Not least because we are a longlived people, all making into nineties, many making in into their 100s. I've danced with history while the old man told me stories of ''that wee thing'' my great grandmother while in his 1oos getting me to stand on his feet while he tried to teach me to waltz.

Assimilation allowing cultural memory to die is as tragic as being held prisoner by your culture. DH has the benefit of having lived in a culture not his own most of his life, sometimes his culture feels tentative and fragile, like now...as we launch into Christmas and DH feels the holidays as his own.

Both of us brought up as gypsies of another sort we've christmased in more countries and cultures than I can be bothered to type, but all of these have added to me, not degraded my own inheritance. ..they've added to the wealth I feel so very lucky to have inherited. There are bad things: pioneer meant land thief, but land owner also meant feeding whole swathes of a country in the war, providing shelter and employment. I claim it all.

edit: recently a new appreciation society was formed about one of my literary forebears. Its interesting to see how other people regard the family. its a bit odd really. I had thought about contacting them, but didn't know the person myself, though the relevant parent did they aren't interested. There is a whole gap n the knowledge, i.e. noone knows that that the wife was also a prolific unpublished writer. My aunt has all her unpublished handwritten works.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

How can you have no room for a shovel???

Cause there is too much other rubbish in there too. We made it make safely but it took a long time. weirdly at this train station just over an hour from london the car parks, bus stops and pavements and service roads are totally ungritted and ankle deep in slush and slip yet the gritters have done one of our village access roads. Prioritisation is really odd.

Davesnave

Some of us don't have much idea about our roots. My paternal family tree goes back to about 1894 and then there's an arrow that says 'Wales' At that point, with our surname, the genealogist gave up.:(

Haven't a clue where to start on the Scottish side. I have a nasty feeling that is complex.....rather a lot of 'aunties' who weren't!:o It was ten years before I found out that both my parents had been married before, and questions weren't encouraged.

Does it bother me? No.

In Wales and in Scotland I feel quite at home, particularly the latter. One of the great things about my 3 years house hunting in Wales was that it became familiar and comfortable. My parents never went there. More fool them.

silvercar

vivatifosi wrote: »

I want one! Where from pretty please?

Mountain warehouse in Hatfield Galleria.

silvercar

lostinrates wrote: »

I feel passionate about this. Its always been a feature of my life,my parents marriage, (and my sister's disgust at that) that my sister and I were Christened into different churches, that I'm a mongrel daughter of a mongrel....the stronger cultures in me are almost genetically programmed. I sometimes think as I head to frozen horses etc that if my pioneer stock ancestors did it, so can I. My titled female ancestors DID pull ploughs when needed, instead of horses or cattle. The pioneer thread is strong, and almost total decimation of a large family estate three countries in in the last two generations still feels raw to some of my family. Not least because we are a longlived people, all making into nineties, many making in into their 100s. I've danced with history while the old man told me stories of ''that wee thing'' my great grandmother while in his 1oos getting me to stand on his feet while he tried to teach me to waltz.

Assimilation allowing cultural memory to die is as tragic as being held prisoner by your culture. DH has the benefit of having lived in a culture not his own most of his life, sometimes his culture feels tentative and fragile, like now...as we launch into Christmas and DH feels the holidays as his own.

Both of us brought up as gypsies of another sort we've christmased in more countries and cultures than I can be bothered to type, but all of these have added to me, not degraded my own inheritance. ..they've added to the wealth I feel so very lucky to have inherited. There are bad things: pioneer meant land thief, but land owner also meant feeding whole swathes of a country in the war, providing shelter and employment. I claim it all.

Son has back from uni in argumentative mood. I'm going to discuss all you've posted with him. He keeps quoting clever bits of his course (sociology and psychology) and I need ammunition.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

In Wales and in Scotland I feel quite at home, particularly the latter. One of the great things about my 3 years house hunting in Wales was that it became familiar and comfortable. My parents never went there. More fool them.

I have Scottish/and Scandivian hair. we have a tartan but I don't totally get all the ettiquette about that so don't venture with it. And its not one of the very strikingly attractive ones. I love highland ponies though. And turnips. And men in kilts. And Scottish accents. Welsh runs strong too..lots of the ''english'' side have very welsh names!