Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

PasturesNew

There was an almost derelict house where I used to live. The houses were built just before 1900 or so and the neighbour next door to it told me that a couple had bought it brand new and they'd then 'adopted' their neice as her father was a ship's captain and away at sea most of the time. She never married and lived in the house her whole life, inheriting it when her aunt/uncle died. When I moved in (2000) she'd already been in a care home for 8-10 years and wasn't coming back. But, she didn't know she wasn't coming back and still thought her house looked like a palace. While empty it'd been broken into numerous times by thieves and tramps, all her silverware stolen and a lot of the house trashed. In about 2005/06 it finally went to auction and I saw/knew the guy and his dad who were clearing it out, but they wouldn't let me in to have a nosey around as they were there to document/take everything remaining. It sold for £200k and was then combined with the house next door, while being extended and chopped up into a variety of maisonettes/flats.

It had been a time warp.... and that's why I'd have liked to have looked round.

If somebody's got enough money to pay their care home fees without selling the house, houses can sit for years deteriorating until the owner dies and the relatives can put it on the market.

GDB2222

lemonjelly wrote: »

Soft tops - material style folding roof. Used to be manual, but mechanical folding roofs/rooves (in case generali/NDG are about...) have become more popular.


In recent years, hard top converstables have come onto the market for example:

I've always loved open top cars, ever since my MGB, which I had to give up when our first child came along. I've had both of those cars, LJ.

The MX-5 got written off by one of my sons. :mad:

Currently, we have the Volvo C70, which does take 4 adults although there's not fantastic legroom in the back.

The MX-5 is much more fun and much more economical to drive, but it's not terribly practical unless you have another car available for the family. As we've now cut back to one car between the two of us, the Volvo makes sense for us, but I'd rather have the MX-5!

I remember recommending an MX-5 for LIR before, but she came back with some boring answer about it not carrying enough hay and not being able to tow enough horses.

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

I!

I remember recommending an MX-5 for LIR before, but she came back with some boring answer about it not carrying enough hay and not being able to tow enough horses.

How awful of me.

Does it make you feel better if I tell you I have driven one before and did like it? It was the beloved car of a friend of mine, and we were at a posh thing together and she had refused to go in my car because it wasn't very smart at all, so we went in hers. Frustratingly she got terribly, terribly drunk and, ahem, pulled. This left me to drive her and her conquest home (her on his lap) in her car. I cannot remember how I got home from her place.....I do remember declining the sofa.


Edit: actually I have vague memory of having left my car somewhere in ascot or Windsor or somewhere like that. I must have got a train or a lift or something.

Edit again. At least I think it was an mx 5. It was green. Edit, or red.

bugslet

MX5 spacious!



Once driven,never forgotten...well, more likely never got out of. It took contortionist tactics to get in and out.

I'm feeling all nostalgic now:(

PasturesNew

I drove one once.... boss had one and something needed dropping off about a mile away so boss said "take my car". Uncomfortable - and tricky to see out of the windscreen.

bugslet

VX, PN? Sent one of my drivers to birmingham (100 ish miles each way), to drop off a jiffy bag in mine. All he did was complain for days after. Pfft! No sense of humour. I think it's the lack of suspension, you certainly learnt to spot potholes before they spotted you!

tomterm8

I think the human body is designed for at least some sun, so sunbathing is okay, what is not ok is to go salmon pink.

PasturesNew

I decided to pop down to a beach 3 miles along .... combined with a trip to a big supermarket and a cheapo shop to stock up on stuff (saves me going out for another week) ....

Found the place I wanted to be (identified previously by Google satellite view) .... parked, got out .... walked across some grass and realised I was at the top of a cliff without a path/steps.... and it was blowing a bit of a gale. So I got back in the car and drove another 300 yards .... and didn't even get out as I realised it was far too windy for me to go down to the beach for the reasons I wanted to today. As soon as the weather gets better I'll look again.

I do need to combine looking with another trip in that direction though as to go there/back costs 90p so can't be afforded just for that. Alternative would be to walk 3 miles along a rough beach, which isn't really going to happen

Edit: Just looked again at Google, I wasn't where I wanted to be - I just thought I was .... if I'd had a posh phone I'd have known that while I was there and might have made a bit more effort to get down to the beach as I'd have been sure I was in the exact right spot rather than just thinking I was.... I should have been 1/4 of a mile further along... where there are paths down.

tomterm8

I am now wondering what PN is gathering from the beach. And why.

PasturesNew

tomterm8 wrote: »

I am now wondering what PN is gathering from the beach. And why.

Sunken treasure of course!

Wouldn't it be great if there were an app for metal detecting....