Nice People Thread Part 9 - and so it continues

PasturesNew

I've got a knack for always doing the wrong thing - and being told off for it. But I'm sure it's weighted against me ... and whatever I do is the wrong thing.

So, just been out in the garden: Taken the free-standing hammock apart and brought the seat/pad indoors; Taken down the free-standing garden ornaments from the top of the walls, brought them inside to stand on newspaper.

Now, what should I have done? It can go two ways:

1] Do that and it's: I didn't want you to touch those..... why do you always have to interfere?
2] Not do that and it's: Why didn't you bring those in? I left you in charge!

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

My recollection in the Olden Days was that the way you'd make money from houses was to be a builder and do all the work yourself on the cheap and on the side.

Yes, it was tradespeople that did them most of the time.

Generali

How to put your clock back (SFW):

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've got a knack for always doing the wrong thing - and being told off for it. But I'm sure it's weighted against me ... and whatever I do is the wrong thing.

So, just been out in the garden: Taken the free-standing hammock apart and brought the seat/pad indoors; Taken down the free-standing garden ornaments from the top of the walls, brought them inside to stand on newspaper.

Now, what should I have done? It can go two ways:

1] Do that and it's: I didn't want you to touch those..... why do you always have to interfere?
2] Not do that and it's: Why didn't you bring those in? I left you in charge!

If you are looking after their house (for free?) then whatever decision you make is the right one.

Re gen and PNs comments on buying a fixer-upper - I wonder how Chewie is getting on with his offer....

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

20 years ago not many people ever got a new kitchen. You bought a house for what it was first..... and lived in it.

Friends just getting a new kitchen, again. They were talking about gloss finishings on cupboard doors and the need to get good quality because they will last for 20 years. I said they may as well go for the cheap stuff as they are bound to be changing their kitchen in a few years time!

Prompted by this article if anyone is interested.

LydiaJ

Generali wrote: »

Over here there isn't the same mindset about maximising value on sale beyond tidying up a bit and charging as much as you think you can get away with. I'm not sure why. You often see houses in the posh bit of town with 20 year old kitchen and bathroom and think that if they did the place up a bit they'd sell for a lot more.

Sounds much more sensible to me. Sell your own house without spending lots of money doing it up, buy one that hasn't been done up, and then you've still got your kitchen/bathroom money available to do the new one up the way you want. Otherwise everyone lives in places with brand new expensive kitchens/bathrooms that aren't to their personal taste, or rips out perfectly good brand new kitchens/bathrooms to replace them with ones that they like.

Spirit_2

vivatifosi wrote: »

As a lot of NPs live under the path of the storm, I wanted to wish you all a safe and secure day tomorrow.

I also have a question... for those people who are due to go to work, what alternative arrangements are you making? The reason I ask is that normally I leave earlier during bad weather, but if I do that, then the weather is forecast to be worse than when I normally leave. Not quite sure of best cause of action.

If we have a problem here it will be trees down which may block roads and take out power and phone lines ,so no internet.

Will follow traffic updates, role model getting in sensibly with no unnecessary heroics and to respond pragmatically.

My back up plan is just to see how it goes in the morning. I will charge my non work laptop today and use it to write a document to achieve some productive output if all else fails. For our essential staff there is emergency planning in place to provide beds for staff who cannot get home, harder position is for essential staff who cannot in and with likely increased demand for services.

michaels

Generali wrote: »

How to put your clock back (SFW):

Too true, DWs old watch I was forced to try and find an online manual to acheive it and never managed to do the 'dual time' country. With her new one I found that DST was off and the option to turn it on moved us an hour the wrong way. On the TV it happens automatically but apparanetly only when a network signal is sent - last year this didn't happen for a couple of weeks but according to Sharp (yes I had to email them as nothing in the manual) there is no manual override.

And the cooker - we have two matching ovens made by the same company, to set the time you have to power off the mains and then it comes back on in setting mode...except we have only ever figured out how to set one (the other one obviously works in a different way) so the only way of setting that one we have figured is to power it off and on at exactly midnight....

Doozergirl

LydiaJ wrote: »

Sounds much more sensible to me. Sell your own house without spending lots of money doing it up, buy one that hasn't been done up, and then you've still got your kitchen/bathroom money available to do the new one up the way you want. Otherwise everyone lives in places with brand new expensive kitchens/bathrooms that aren't to their personal taste, or rips out perfectly good brand new kitchens/bathrooms to replace them with ones that they like.

The oldies that bought our old house did that. Paid full asking price for the house, ripped out our 2 year old Mereway kitchen with quartz that wasn't to their taste and put in a nice melamine wrapped cottagey kitchen from Wickes with laminate wood effect worktops. They were going to give us our kitchen back until the fitters told them it was worth a bit.

They've also just painted over my Farrow and Ball Green Blue on the front door with lurid bogey green. And put a white plastic porch on the back.

neverdespairgirl

zagubov wrote: »

I thought the animal/meat division dates from the Normans. The Normans ate the meat which is why meat has French names, but the locals tended the animals which is why they have clipped Olde English names.

I threw some species names at my students and was surprised at what they knew ( and didn't know).
Sus scrofa
Oves aries
Gallus gallus
Bos taurus
Ursus arctos
Canis lupus
Saccharomyces carlsbergensis
Zea mays

Without google, how many look familiar enough to guess the common names?

I think that's mostly true, but in medieval times, no-one ate lamb (shockingly wasteful, you'd wait until it was mutton and had produced some wool, first). So that's why it's lamb / lamb, as opposed to mutton / sheep.

Purely guessing, no googling, from no scientific knowledge of names but a mix of GCSE Latin and things like star names:

Sus scrofa - no idea. Pass

Oves aries - sheep. don't know what type of sheep, but the "aries" is a giveaway

Gallus gallus - that's Latin for a !!!!, I think, so I'm guessing either chickens or some other egg-laying domesticated bird

Bos taurus - bull?

Ursus arctos - bear

Canis lupus - wolf

Saccharomyces carlsbergensis - pass

Zea mays - vague idea - is that corn on the cob?