Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

SingleSue

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yes... CSE. There wasn't an O level in it was there. Choose typing and it had to be a CSE. My class was two CSEs though: CSE Typing and CSE Office Practice, so I at least got two of them. Although these days, with it being GCSE, it'd look like an O level

I too an RSA in office practice, no typing involved and got a distinction...mind you, anyone could pass that exam, there is only one place a description was going to go on an invoice.

I got a U in O level food and nutrition, we all passed the practical element but all of us bar one student, failed the written exam miserably...it was like reading an advanced chemistry exam! (The one who passed, albeit at the lowest grade possible, WAS a chemistry A grade student)

Prior to working in an office, I had never typed, I don't use all the fingers where they should be used apart from my thumbs but it works well for me.

PasturesNew

tomterm8 wrote: »

I wish I'd done typing at school. I never did, so I ended up the only two-fingered touch typist in the known world. Sometimes I am up to three fingers. Fast, but if I'd learned typing as a kid I'd have been much faster.

Instead they had me doing CDT, a subject I had no aptitude or interest in.

What always amazes me about those old manual typewriters is that writers like Silverberg used to write 50,000 word novels on them, in a week. Supermen.

50,000 words over, say, 7 days (an author'd be keen and in the zone....) is "just" 17 words per minute (7 hours/day) .... and mostly, as an author, you're typing up the words that are in your head so would probably be typing at 4-5x that speed anyway.

The hard bit is working out the plot/characters and what happens, rather than the typing.

I could easily do the quantity .... couldn't do the plot/characters/story etc

There used to be a healthy bit of money to be made doing typing of dissertations, or for small businesses and authors (I did one book for a locally famous author - and another book which was a diary of a prisoner of war that'd been kept secretly). Now people have word processors that work's not available... the typing is still there though, but online doing stuff for websites, or ebooks ... although voice to type technology will be killing it all soon.

PasturesNew

I used to type, through agencies, in my school holidays from the age of about 15. First pay cheque was for £27 take home .... I was paid £0.84/hour. LOADED I WAS!!!!

And talking of loaded... just had a scarey/ominous HMRC envelope arrive, I kind of figured I might owe them money but haven't logged onto my account because of what's been going on - and I thought there might be some "pay half your tax on 31 July" thing I was supposed to do ... and hadn't. So opened it, knowing it'd be a slap on the wrist and I should pay up today ... but it was a letter saying they'd bunged me a £2.5k overpayment into my bank. Cheers... and bank statement that arrived alongside it confirmed the money was in my account ... and had been for a month.

Takes the urgenicy and edge off my hunger for income though

PasturesNew

On the downside.... just logged onto Adsense to see my income... £1.20 today. That's my HUGE indicator something massive is wrong. Loaded my site ... uh-ho ... it's not there. So had to log into the server and kick it. All OK now/site up again. [1] Shame I didn't notice it 3-4 hours ago (must have been down since about 9.30) [2] At least I noticed it now and can 'fix' it in under 30 seconds.

tomterm8

PasturesNew wrote: »

50,000 words over, say, 7 days (an author'd be keen and in the zone....) is "just" 17 words per minute (7 hours/day) .

To be honest, i think it was a day job... they worked 5 days a week, and they wrote what would be called soft core erotica these days. They used to be paid the equivalent of 4 months rent per book. Finish one, then write the next.

Plotting skills not required, just intimate knowledge of body parts.

Those guys got rich, quick.

lemonjelly

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

It's odd how being seriously overweight has become normal - that girl is HUGE for 15 years old.

I'm suprised no-one has picked up on the 15 year old's mum, aged 30.

lemonjelly

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I'd love not being able to rely on it. I'm so not a morning person (-:

I'm not either.

I'm a wierdo in that I kinda struggle to get to sleep. I sort of avoid going to bed until I'm bordering on passing out, as if I'm awake I just lie there bored. Frequently it is after 1am when I manage to doze off.

Problem is, when I have dropped off, I want to stay there! I am a devil to get up in the mornings, & tbh I pity the times my mum had to keep re-waking me up.

We chatted about it recently. She used to call me allsorts of a morning, as I simply wouldn't get up til the last minute, & I'd wash & dress in a rush, amble downstairs & straight out of the house with a cheery "bye mum". Apparently, she used to get so wound up with shouting at me that almost every morning the cheery "bye mum" was almost enough to send her over the edge!

lostinrates

so....I think the meeting today went well and hopefully answered once and for all the questions about planning. 3 weeks we should hear in.

Sadly, that puts us too late to start any exterior work, because they can't do anything involving lime mortar if there is a frost. There is stuff we can do, presuming it all goes through, but nothing as urgent.

I saw my chicken that has gone feral again this morning. She looks skinny. Probably why she came by for some food. I had hoped she'd wander back with some chicks eventually, but no sign of anyone new with her, just her.

lemonjelly

PasturesNew wrote: »

I used to type, through agencies, in my school holidays from the age of about 15. First pay cheque was for £27 take home .... I was paid £0.84/hour. LOADED I WAS!!!!

And talking of loaded... just had a scarey/ominous HMRC envelope arrive, I kind of figured I might owe them money but haven't logged onto my account because of what's been going on - and I thought there might be some "pay half your tax on 31 July" thing I was supposed to do ... and hadn't. So opened it, knowing it'd be a slap on the wrist and I should pay up today ... but it was a letter saying they'd bunged me a £2.5k overpayment into my bank. Cheers... and bank statement that arrived alongside it confirmed the money was in my account ... and had been for a month.

Takes the urgenicy and edge off my hunger for income though

Nice to hear you have had a bit of good news PN.:)

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

So do mine .... as in "I bought them in the same decade"

Been wondering if M&S sell bras online. Last time I made the 40 mile round trip and went in to buy a few of their basic/functional bras they didn't have them (that's the trouble with M&S in this county, small shop/small range/never have what I need).

They do.....and they post out to you.