Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

PasturesNew

I don't even know what that means ... "the hosts of Eurovision". All I can think of is Terry Wogan. Don't know anybody else that's anything to do with Eurovision.

CKhalvashi

PasturesNew wrote: »

I don't even know what that means ... "the hosts of Eurovision". All I can think of is Terry Wogan. Don't know anybody else that's anything to do with Eurovision.

He used to be the commentator for the UK.

The host is the person from the host broadcaster that, well, hosts the evening before all the commentators are there.

CK

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

vivatifosi wrote: »

When my neighbour was burgled they cleaned the house. Apparently it is harder to realise what is missing if there isn't a ring of dust where something should be standing...

Genius.

I'll have to remember that for next time my house looks suspiciously clean. :rotfl:

Re: cleaners, when we lived overseas, we had a full time domestic for the most part. You could leave anything out, cash, jewellery, electronics, whatever, and it would be absolutely fine.

Here in the UK, we've had cleaners steal, or attempt to steal, on a regular basis. We now only allow cleaners in the house when we're home to supervise.

Sad state of affairs.

zagubov

Friends were working in a communist country. They had to live in a district full of westerners and they noticed their cleaner seemed realy well-educated. Their company warned them that there was a good chance she was spying on them and that all the domestic servants they would be able to hire would be infiltrated with security service types.

It wasn't that difficult to rumble them as they were clearly overqualified for their work (plus the most professional agents were stationed overeseas).

CKhalvashi

zagubov wrote: »

Friends were working in a communist country. They had to live in a district full of westerners and they noticed their cleaner seemed realy well-educated. Their company warned them that there was a good chance she was spying on them and that all the domestic servants they would be able to hire would be infiltrated with security service types.

It wasn't that difficult to rumble them as they were clearly overqualified for their work (plus the most professional agents were stationed overeseas).

Bear in mind that the union of countries I'm originally from still (20ish years after communism ended) has one of the highest levels of graduates in the world.

Someone was looking at dating in the country directly North of where I'm from, and was amazed at the number of doctors, teachers etc available.

You do get the professional conwomen though (in fact, the number of young women driving Range Rovers in the richest cities, that are technically economically inactive and don't obviously have husbands) is rather large. It's not the capital, either.

I read a story once, from someone who wrote to the (then) president, and got a personalised letter back stating that there were attempts to sort the corruption in this area of the country.

Those who know me will be able to guess where this is, but I don't want to say too much, as I don't want to be shot

CK

GDB2222

zagubov wrote: »

My first car was made by this firm and I drove it for a couple of years around many a road that Nikkster might recognise .

Its unreliability immunised me against ever spending a penny on one of their cars ever again.

Having said that i've no bias against cars from either of our other two former Axis enemies and currently have one from each.:)

Don't forget to use auctionsniper though, if you do go for it.

I'm also anti-Fiat, having owned one. Having said that, £900 is not a lot for what looks like a reasonable car.

CKhalvashi

GDB2222 wrote: »

I'm also anti-Fiat, having owned one. Having said that, £900 is not a lot for what looks like a reasonable car.

The London regional fleet director from this company is banned from our offices, as a result of problems we had with some Automatic 8 seat taxis.

I'm not a fan either.

CK

zagubov

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Bear in mind that the union of countries I'm originally from still (20ish years after communism ended) has one of the highest levels of graduates in the world.

Someone was looking at dating in the country directly North of where I'm from, and was amazed at the number of doctors, teachers etc available.

You do get the professional conwomen though (in fact, the number of young women driving Range Rovers in the richest cities, that are technically economically inactive and don't obviously have husbands) is rather large. It's not the capital, either.


CK

CK, don't get me wrong - I was talking about a currently -communist country (with strong market sectors) rather than a formerly-communist one.

I never heard of a communist country that didn't take education incredibly seriously. Their education systems were second-to-none. I recall that Albania had no personal cars but thirteen orchestras.

Slovenia only had two million people and still ran a nuclear power plant.

In the 1980s Yugoslavia counted as the West for defecting purposes. I knew people there who used to work in the tourist industry who used to play "KGB agent bingo" AKA "spot the KGB agent". They kept an eye open for any tour group member who seemed over-educated or who the other tourists seemed to be wary of/deferred to.

CKhalvashi

zagubov wrote: »

CK, don't get me wrong - I was talking about a currently -communist country (with strong market sectors) rather than a formerly-communist one.

I never heard of a communist country that didn't take education incredibly seriously. Their education systems were second-to-none. I recall that Albania had no personal cars but thirteen orchestras.

Slovenia only had two million people and still ran a nuclear power plant.

In the 1980s Yugoslavia counted as the West for defecting purposes. I knew people there who used to work in the tourist industry who used to play "KGB agent bingo" AKA "spot the KGB agent". They kept an eye open for any tour group member who seemed over-educated or who the other tourists seemed to be wary of/deferred to.

I'd gathered that, I was just mentioning that being well-educated working in a low role isn't uncommon in some countries.

CK

Spirit_2

GDB2222 wrote: »

I'm also anti-Fiat, having owned one. Having said that, £900 is not a lot for what looks like a reasonable car.

I would advise thinking about the running costs not just the initial outlay. My daughters first car was a FIAT. We paid £2000 or so for it in 2006 (when she was 18). It looked good,was low mileage and we had personalised plates so it was not obviously a W reg car.

It was reasonably reliable for most of the time she had it but the running costs were relatively high as it had a few garage trips, by 2011 it lived up to the Fix It Again Tomorrow reputation. It was not high mileage and I still think it looked good - it had just got to the end of its useful economic life mechanically. She p/x'd it - it was a token sum value but saved us the hassle of disposal.

Her current car is an I10. Bought second hand but still had 3 years of the warranty to run (they have 5 years from new). Not the most comfortable ride but neat, relatively cheap purchase cost, low cost Tax (£20 or £30 per annum), low insurance, good fuel economy and the warranty make it very cheap for her to run. This was a key consideration as she is a post grad student and had to finance her own running costs.

For her it was a more certain financial decision than a lower initial capital outlay and unpredictable/higher running expenses. We lent her £2500 towards it and she pays us back at £100 per month. Her other option was to buy outright a car for about £2-2500.

I would not usually advocate getting into debt - but a smallish loan repaid over a couple of years is not a bad thing if it is affordable, 'fixes your costs' and enables you to reach your job.