Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

Spirit_2

silvercar wrote: »

OH is having a mid life crisis - he wants a soft top (car).

I have hung onto my MG for many years envisioning a time when my daughter would drive it...well she is 25 now so I need to put it back on the road or she will have missed the boat....it has been sorn for teh last two years so will need a bit of work..and it has a bump in the boot where OH had someone run unto him..they did not see him.

Had teh little wheel 29 years this year aah. It looks so cute.

Spirit_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

I didn't know there was such a thing as an evening suit .... nor could I tell you what one is (unless I google it). I've never even met somebody that had one, knew about them.

Tom also comes from a posh family

I take it to mean black tie.

vivatifosi

silvercar wrote: »

But that is Hemel H. not St. A.

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's an RM search of StA + 1 mile.....

Re the £10k garage in Cuffley Court. It's probably about 1 mile across fields and burrowing under the M1 to a St Albans postcode. It's about 7 miles from St Albans city centre. I had a friend who lived in Cuffley Court many years ago. It wasn't nice then and I have no reason to think it has changed since. I'm amazed that you can get £10k for a garage there, absolutely gobsmacked.

vivatifosi

tomterm8 wrote: »

Mind boggles at the thought of someone whose social circle involves wearing evening suits enough to buy them. I wear one on average once every ten years.

LIR comes from a posh family

My husband owns both a dinner suit and a morning suit. That's not a posh alert though. He bought the dinner suit uber cheap at M&S in the sale because he's an uncommon shape so the big jacket for his coathanger shoulders and rugby chest went well with the tiny trousers. He's built like an upside down triangle. The morning suit was bought for our wedding because he didn't want to hire and give it back any more than I did with my wedding dress. Only unlike my wedding dress, his morning suit still fits:o.

LydiaJ

I think quite a lot of the men that I know own an outfit for "black tie" aka "dinner suit":



However, my youngest brother is the only person I know who actually owns the outfit for "white tie" aka "evening dress":



But then I don't know whether he paid for it himself. I think his shoes, and certainly his wife's dresses, and possibly some of his clothes, are all paid for by sponsors. His tailcoat has discrete little adverts for the sponsors sewn onto the lapels or breast pocket or somewhere like that. He's a rather successful (amateur) ballroom dancer.

I own one dress that is suitable to wear when the dress code is "black tie". I bought it 14 years ago, and have worn it about 7 times, I think. If people notice that it's the same dress each time, that's fine by me. I like it, it suits me, it's comfortable even if I eat too much at the event (it's fitted but the fabric is quite stretchy) and it fits (stretchy fabric again).

Generali

Almo wrote: »

Language change and historical linguistics is one of my great interests. It sounds like you might share that!

Funnily enough, split infinitives have never bothered me although I'll avoid them in formal writing. I think some avoidances sound worse than the split (to boldly go vs to go boldly) although I know it's familiarity as much as anything.

One thing guaranteed to get me on my soap box is 'utilise'. Almost without exception I want to scream 'USE! You mean USE!'. I also find incorrect use of the reflexive 'myself' irritating - Tony Blair was a frequent offender. Generally I wish people would just speak and write simply and not try and use big words (often inaccurately) to make themselves sound more intelligent.

This is jolly good if you like that sort of thing:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventure-English-Melvyn-Bragg/dp/0340829931

...which I do.

Returning to an earlier theme, it's generally the people that are insecure in themselves and their position that tend towards pompous verbosity IME, while often getting the meaning of the words they are using slightly, yet humourously, wrong. The lowest levels of middle management are usually the language manglers. That was what made David Brent so squirmingly, toe-curlingly accurate.

Other petty language annoyances as using the word 'gender' when you mean 'sex'. The word 'sex' isn't rude and words have a gender, people don't. People have a sex (in mitigation, perhaps HR got fed up with all the "yes please" answers to the question, "Sex?"). Oh and people who correct others incorrectly on the you and I or you and me thing. And people that needlessly correct other people on their grammar or syntax in general basically because they're whatsit heads.

In other news, I applied for my new passport today. They'd better get their skates on because I leave for the UK in 7 weeks. I've been quoted 3-4 weeks (we get better service from UK Government employees as well as better weather and prettier wives here in The Colonies):cool:.

I'll be in London for a bit around late June/early July. I might be off the booze though, we'll see.

All of a sudden, alcohol seems to be messing me about each time I have a drink. 1 glass of wine or a billion beers, it's the same. It's quite unpleasant, although not that horrible as ailments go.

tomterm8

Generali, I think if I were you I'd go to my doctor and get a set of blood tests worked up. The drinking thing really does not sound right to me.

PasturesNew

Glad I don't have a job. Had a horrid night and woke up groggy and upside down.

vivatifosi

You ok Pastures? What caused that? Hope you feel better later.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

Glad I don't have a job. Had a horrid night and woke up groggy and upside down.

Don't tell me about it, DDs found a frog in the garden yesterday and despite direct prohibition decided to sneak it into their bedroom where they promptly let it get loose. They then got in to a state about having a frog in their bedroom whilst trying to keep it a secret.

I eventually managed to catch it (they don't half move quick) but then spent the night with one or other DD screaming out every hour or so in a panic cos they 'saw/felt something move.

So very few hours of sleep later I now have a day filed with important meetings for which I am not fully prepared seriously un refreshed