Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

lostinrates

wageslave wrote: »

PN, I am almost tempted:)

Seriously, does anyone here have any experience of the foster system? I am not sure if I would be accepted

Try wageslave. You don't get to choose (you can specify ages and whether serious disability is something you would consider).

Dh ad I were advised we were 'too middle class'. Now I am less worried about babies and kids anyway I would really like teens or teenage mothers. Serious drama of course, but would be good to be helpful. I am actually thinking of becoming a prison volunteer if I can stay well enough, and for the kid thing dh and I have spoken about those schemes were one acts as a uk based guardian for a foreign child going to school here. You are there for hospital, legals and the odd exeat or half term and stuff. I think it would be HUGE fun.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

Top tip: If for tea you're having rice pudding and jam.... open the jam jar before you open the can of rice pudding. Can't get the soddin' jar open. Tried everything, both hands crippled with pain from trying ..... so no jam for me

Sharp tap can do the trick as it loosens the thread. When growing up parents had a solid fuel cooker with an always on hot plate and I used to just put the jar lid on that for a second - probably not recommended but I never had a jar shatter.

wageslave wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience of the foster system? I want a small(ish) girl with a shopping addiction

If you can cope with attitude then you are very welcome to DD1 (or DW for that matter).

DW looked in to this, you could do it via council or private agency and they had different rates, being near London we could also have London Borough children who paid even more. You could certainly make a living off 2 or 3.

silvercar wrote: »

I would never judge people as scum, just because they don't have much disposable income.

We have friends who never eat out because the budget doesn't allow. so we coffee at each others houses. We also have friends that can afford considerably more than we can.

We never eat out as budget doesn't allow but things may change after mortgage is paid off in 5 years but it seems very hard justifying spending more on one meal than we spend a week on food at home.

michaels

lostinrates wrote: »

Dh ad I were advised we were 'too middle class'. Now I am less worried about babies and kids anyway I would really like teens or teenage mothers. Serious drama of course, but would be good to be helpful. I am actually thinking of becoming a prison volunteer if I can stay well enough,

and for the kid thing dh and I have spoken about those schemes were one acts as a uk based guardian for a foreign child going to school here. You are there for hospital, legals and the odd exact or half term and stuff. I think it would be HUGE fun.

I would have thought under the Tories 'too middle class' would not be allowed to be trotted out as an excuse anymore.

The guardian thing sounds interesting, is there a web link?

I overheard one relative being interviewed for fostering and being asked about smoking pot which she readily admitted and she was still given a foster child.

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

We never eat out as budget doesn't allow but things may change after mortgage is paid off in 5 years but it seems very hard justifying spending more on one meal than we spend a week on food at home.

To me, eating out can be done for under £5. Toby Carvery! http://www.tobycarvery.co.uk/carvery/ - just choose to have it without the meat.

lemonjelly

vivatifosi wrote: »

I watch the voice but DH doesn't like it. I thought the Welsh woman last night - she sung in Welsh for anyone not watching - was amazing and haunting and that the language gave the song a mystical quality. It's such a shame that she didn't go through as the people who would have chosen her (Tom, Danny) had full teams.

I'm not a fan of the voice or other reality tv. That said, I appreciate the sentiment you make here. It's one of the things I love about Sigur Ros. They sing in a kinda invented language, rather than their native Icelandic. They label it "Hopelandic" which is a lovely name. Though I haven't a clue as to the words, I still love the songs and appreciate the use of the voice as "another instrument".

lemonjelly

vivatifosi wrote: »

I know you have written that tongue in cheek, but there are people without a lot of money who aren't scum and who can throw one heck of a party. One where you can have a stonking good time without a single posh alert. It's about the get together, the craic as the Irish would say, not status or cost.

In my family we've had a few parties where you get together to do a team effort, such as someone's garden or decorating a room, then in the evening you share some food to celebrate your good work. The host gets something done that they can't do themselves in exchange for laying on about a tenner's worth of buffet food and a few bottles of drink. It's a win/win.

Yup. Done this with friends repeatedly. decorating is the usual one.
Plus most people bring additional drinks etc anyway, so it becomes win, win, hic, win!:D

lemonjelly

PasturesNew wrote: »

There might be, but the cost of getting to know them, maintaining contact, doing other stuff with them, etc, soon adds up.

I'm struggling to find the right words.... but to be invited to parties at peoples homes means you usually have to have become friends with them first, then maintained that etc .... before you get invited round.

If you're not just like them, able to do all the stuff they do regularly with other people etc, they won't be calling you only to always hear "I can't afford it, have a nice time". You'd just be dropped.

You can't put a price on the benefits of friendship.
Being a friend costs nothing at all.

lemonjelly

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I'm off, taking Isaac and a school friend of his to the Tower of London for the afternoon. OH is finding something terribly urgent to do instead - watching paint dry, I think. Or perhaps washing his hair (-:

Other than the London Dungeons, Tower of London was my second favourite thing I did in London when I was there a couple of years ago.
The Jack the Ripper walk was good too.
And (terribly tastelessly touristy this one) the open top bus tour. mainly for the fella who was commentating, he was funny and interesting.

PasturesNew

lemonjelly wrote: »

You can't put a price on the benefits of friendship.
Being a friend costs nothing at all.

You can put a price on meeting people in the first instance.... I don't know anybody

lemonjelly

lostinrates wrote: »

I've never been

I think it's dreadful how many things we fail to do in our own country. A particular malaise of Brits I think.

Definitely. There's so many lovely places here to go.
That's part of what inspired mine & my friends annual holiday type things where we try visiting places we've never been to. That's pretty much the only rule.
Been spending time looking at Tenby today. Looks like it is a suitable venue for us. Weymouth doing well in the voting too.

Places for days out under consideration. We did Sherewood last year. Dovedale looks likely this year, as well as Bath, Leamington Spa and a few others. Trying to find somewhere interesting to go in Leicester (other than the space centre, which will be a day in itself).