Nice people thread part 6 - thrice by twice as nice :)

kabayiri

PasturesNew wrote: »

...

The only free thing here today seems to be standing in the rain looking outside at some new Renault electric cars (so that'd be 10 minutes) ..... then walk a mile there and a mile back in the soddin' rain and you'd be drenched for a week.

Shouldn't be too hard, just follow the plug lead

I've never quite worked out how English rain manages to have so much wetness to it, down to the bones wetness.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

At the bottom end of the budget spending though I think you probably do still get more for your money in a PC.
Also .... I can't just go buying new PCs etc. Would you believe I am so hardware challenged that I get somebody else to choose my kit for me

So, when it is time for something new.... I'll be asking the NP to find the best one for me.

I asked, and then bought, from recommendations on the techie board. there is a long running thread on there on cheap laptops.

The shop of choice seems to be ebuyer.com

silvercar

zagubov wrote: »

Watched "The Thick of It". Pure comedy magic! On to iplayer to catch up on the episodes I missed.

After DD mentioned her halls had a TV room , I spent a lot of today thinking of when my parents dropped me off at uni - all of 36 years ago. Three TV channels, [STRIKE]no[/STRIKE] barely any local radio, and cinema only just starting to recover from being slaughtered by bingo halls thanks to blockbusters like Jaws. There were only three ATMs in the whole city. There was a Tesco Bank where we all cashed our cheques on Saturday. Some pubs didn't admit women and nothing but church was open on a Sunday.

Also, several NPs weren't on the scene yet!

I was only 6 year after you and we had load of ATMs and all the pubs admitted women.

silvercar

michaels wrote: »

On the tv now they are saying that more than half of families with kids are now not married. I am not making any moral call on this but more questioning how much it diverges from my personal experience locally. Not sure if it is because our kids attend an RC school but I think only 1 or 2 in each form have unmarried parents. Is it only because it is an RC school or is it actually that this is very much an income/class thing?

Elder went to a grammar school, there were very very few kids that didn't have married parents. The head said that the school was so competitive that anyone who had had a blip in their mere 10 years of life probably put them at a disadvantage at exam time, same for those only ever brought up by one parent.

silvercar

Generali wrote: »

I've been away for the weekend with the tribe, staying with a mate who has a holiday home next to the Hawkesbury River and am thinking about getting a place down there myself.

I was having a look on Domain (one of the 2 main Aussie houses for sale websites) and found this:

http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/Vacant-land/NSW/Spencer/?adid=2009415329

So what do the nice peeps think?

kabayiri wrote: »

I didn't really see the point of collectively owning a lakeside holiday property if I'm honest, especially one which seems to eat money.

But then when I visited my sister over in Canada, I realised everyone goes there at weekends. This is family; friends; friends of friends! If there isn't room in the house, people just pitch up a tent at the back.

I know friends who have holiday cottages in Anglesey, and the places are often empty. That seems a shame to me.

dinofabio wrote: »

Agree. Can't see the point myself unless you are letting it out all the time to other holiday makers, and take a few free breaks yourself throughout the year.

Then it becomes more of an investment than a holiday home.

We are taking a late summer break, skipping over to the second home, later in the week. Something we would never have thought of doing if we hadn't bought it. But the thought of dreary weather here, some leave OH hasn't used yet and it seems an easy option.

We now have internet set up there, so can even keep in touch with NP.

dinofabio

kabayiri wrote: »

But then when I visited my sister over in Canada, I realised everyone goes there at weekends. This is family; friends; friends of friends! If there isn't room in the house, people just pitch up a tent at the back.

I know friends who have holiday cottages in Anglesey, and the places are often empty. That seems a shame to me.

I could be wrong on this but my thoughts are:

In some countries people have a more sociable outlook on life (eg Canadians, Australians etc), and invites are passed around to every man and his dog, to come and stay over. Your home is their home attitude.

In the UK, we are far more reserved, and we tend to keep our homes to ourselves, and only invite close family to stay over if they live a long way away, and the only alternative for them is a hotel.

PasturesNew

kabayiri wrote: »

I've never quite worked out how English rain manages to have so much wetness to it, down to the bones wetness.

I've always tried to avoid going out in the rain because when you get home your clothes are dripping wet and it can take days for them to dry - and cause damp etc. Also, I''ve rarely had much heating in houses, so you come in freezing and stay freezing for days.

If I had a modern house with space (utility) for dripping coats and possibly a tumble drier - and if I walked into a warm house, with heating, I might feel different about it. As it is, I associate getting cold/wet with staying cold and wet for days.

lostinrates

dinofabio wrote: »

I could be wrong on this but my thoughts are:

In some countries people have a more sociable outlook on life (eg Canadians, Australians etc), and invites are passed around to every man and his dog, to come and stay over. Your home is their home attitude.

In the UK, we are far more reserved, and we tend to keep our homes to ourselves, and only invite close family to stay over if they live a long way away, and the only alternative for them is a hotel.

Is this so really? i'm not sure. 'weekend entertaining' for example is the subject of many cookery/lifestyle bos and is fairly historically embedded in our culture. I do think there has been a shift in redent times, but i think thats because in many places people cannot afford spare rooms or over sized houses and our weekends are packed with things like 'going to tesco/the tip/ do housework' where people who might have had time to go places might not have had to deal with mundanities at the weekends.

purch

vivatifosi wrote: »

Purch, have you been to the new Dali Museum since it moved? We're planning a trip and wondered what you thought. We visited its old home and liked that, but hear it's much better in the new building.

I think you might be confusing me with someone who is intelligent and cultured :eek:

When in St Pete you'll most usually find me in the Winghouse or at the Thunderdome

Actually no we haven't, although we have had it as a must do, as usual must do's often get shelved.

The building looks amazing from the outside, we have driven/walked past a few times, which would make a visit worthwhile on it's own, apparently it was designed by the same bods who do the sports stadiums like RJS (Populous/HOK) which is clear when you see the huge glass bulge at the front.

Dali was clearly 'bonkers' so he would no doubt approved of the design.

vivatifosi

lostinrates wrote: »

Is this so really? i'm not sure. 'weekend entertaining' for example is the subject of many cookery/lifestyle bos and is fairly historically embedded in our culture. I do think there has been a shift in redent times, but i think thats because in many places people cannot afford spare rooms or over sized houses and our weekends are packed with things like 'going to tesco/the tip/ do housework' where people who might have had time to go places might not have had to deal with mundanities at the weekends.

I wonder if a twin development is that of hotel as a utility. It's not that far back that hotels were very expensive places to stay and if you wanted to go somewhere cheaper, it was generally a pretty grotty B&B. Now there's a lot of B&Bs that have gone boutique, while there has been a growth of US style no-frills hotel. Both Travelodge and Premier Inn only date back to the 1980s. Roughly the same time that the minimum space standards for houses were abandoned and it was no longer straightforward to pop down to the coast and stay in your aunt's spare room. Realistically I don't think there's a correlation but it is interesting that the two commenced in tandem.