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

silvercar

Pitch black outside at midnight last night. Hertfordshire Council have decided to save money by switching off the street lights on minor roads from midnight to 6am.

It looked very strange, I'm surprised that street lights provide so much light to the sky in general, rather than the immediate area.

I'm also quite annoyed about it. Surveys show (surprise, surprise) that it doesn't add to the crime rate, but it makes me feel less safe.

Generali

silvercar wrote: »

Pitch black outside at midnight last night. Hertfordshire Council have decided to save money by switching off the street lights on minor roads from midnight to 6am.

It looked very strange, I'm surprised that street lights provide so much light to the sky in general, rather than the immediate area.

I'm also quite annoyed about it. Surveys show (surprise, surprise) that it doesn't add to the crime rate, but it makes me feel less safe.

Can you see the Milky Way? That would be more than recompense for me.

silvercar

Generali wrote: »

Can you see the Milky Way? That would be more than recompense for me.

The trick and treaters took the last one!

Davesnave

silvercar wrote: »

It looked very strange, I'm surprised that street lights provide so much light to the sky in general, rather than the immediate area.

I'm also quite annoyed about it. Surveys show (surprise, surprise) that it doesn't add to the crime rate, but it makes me feel less safe.

We can see the faint glow from a small town 10 miles away, and there's another where Exeter is, though that might be Crediton too.
It's not enough to blot out the Milky Way, but I'd prefer not to have any glow.

No street lamps here. A few in the village, but I don't think there'd be much complaint if they went out at midnight. Not much moves here after that, until around 6am.

silvercar

There is a house near me going to auction today. It needs work. Quantity surveyor friend is looking at buying it. I reckoned it would need 30k to bring it up to standard, he said 70k! Just shows what you don't know.

I said kitchen, bathroom, boiler, re-wire, decoration, double glazing. He added on relevelling and containing back garden, internal doors, flooring, radiators, driveway, etc

It's a probate sale and the family want 250k. Done up it could be worth 280-310k. So realistically they are only going to get 200k. Not sure if there is a reserve.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

Can you see the Milky Way? That would be more than recompense for me.

I choose sytars over street lighting 100% of the time. We can choose to light with sensors outside our own homes (and infact, I have wondered recently if it will make the investment in security lighting MORE worthwhile and effective...). The lights from our nearest (small and low income) town we don't see at all, but the bigger one it almost joins up too are bright and offensive, from some miles away. so ruining the sky view in that direction. Shows what also, our local villages have street lighting (which feels really odd to me, but just shows the differnce between tiny villages and small villages compared to bigger villages!) and while its not enough to really ruing the sky it is a waste of money (felt by the village as a whole) in some places e.g. the road out of village to the recreation ground...which kids shouldn't be using after dark. Our local travellor camp (permanant residents) also has council provided street lighting.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

A few in the village, but I don't think there'd be much complaint if they went out at midnight. Not much moves here after that, until around 6am.

It does here, but we and our farmer neighbours take the radical step of .....using our own lighting and a orch as needed.

lostinrates

grr...forgot to put the rest of the toffee chestnuts away and the sugar has gone all sticky/slimy. YUCK. DH doesn't mind and is stuffing them down with coffee....after eating kippers and eggs. Sometimes he makes as good a scrap processor as the dogs. Hopefully, he'll get today ''off'' a bit more and then goes back.

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

There is a house near me going to auction today. It needs work. Quantity surveyor friend is looking at buying it. I reckoned it would need 30k to bring it up to standard, he said 70k! Just shows what you don't know.

I said kitchen, bathroom, boiler, re-wire, decoration, double glazing. He added on relevelling and containing back garden, internal doors, flooring, radiators, driveway, etc

It's a probate sale and the family want 250k. Done up it could be worth 280-310k. So realistically they are only going to get 200k. Not sure if there is a reserve.

This is how surveyors work out the prices, but if there are any end-user buyers around they will bid more as they tend to underestimate the cost of the works. Can you let us know what happens, please?

GDB2222

Generali wrote: »

Bad form to quote yourself but I don't care.

A bunch of us went out for lunch from work a few weeks ago. We testicled up the bill and ended up with $20 too much.

Good sense prevailed and we put it on France, Australia and NZ to go through to the semis in the RWC. Obviously that went pretty well.

A bit was shaved off for an ill-advised punt on a mixture of EPL, horses etc so we decided to save the remaining $85 for a punt on the Cup today and we had a winner! A friend of a friend is a bookie and suggested a complicated 650-way bet. That landed us about $600 from our $85 stake.

Now the question is do we punt on or go for another lunch...?

I hope you go for lunch. Otherwise, if you continue at this rate, you and your friends will own the entire world in a couple of months.