Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

poet123

PasturesNew wrote: »

I have never understood why menus say "soup of the day" and don't tell you what it is. Invariably, nobody knows and has to go and "ask the chef".... so then there's a wait ... and it's awful when they come back and tell you it's tomato or mushroom ..... they should KNOW as the bolts are undone on the front door what the s0ddin' soup flavour is today ..... even better would be to say what it is on the menu somewhere.

I agree, I am always disappointed when it turns out to be Tomato, but I must be an optimist as I always ask!

If they stuck to Monday for x soup, Tuesday for y soup etc, they would know what it was without that panicky look you get when you ask.

neverdespairgirl

tomterm8 wrote: »

I honestly think that a lot of the expense of raising children is about expectations... for example most kids these days expect to have a shop haircut, new (fashionable) clothes, days out, and huge quantities of toys.


The main cost is probably childcare, or lost earnings, but a lot of those costs are actually provided for by the state one way or another.

Depends - our main expense is definitely childcare (which is more than our mortgage) and not only does the state pay absolutely nothing towards it, it's out of taxable income, too.

It's the thing which annoys me most about tax. If I decide to spend £10k on a Georgian desk for my room in Chambers, I can claim it off my tax bill. Not a hint of a problem. £10k on childcare? Not a penny of it is tax deductable, and it's an awful lot more crucial for work than an antique desk is.

Isaac's not expensive in other ways. He wears comfortable, easy-to-wash-and-dry tough clothes that keep him warm / dry / not sun-burnt as appropriate for the time of year. They aren't expensive, though. Days out are mostly cheap; he loves all the big London museums, and they are mostly free entry.

neverdespairgirl

tomterm8 wrote: »

It's certainly true that University is far more expensive, but if you go back thirty years almost no one went to university.

So, I'd put it down to expectations (not just the individual or families, but society expects people to be more qualified than they really need to be for a lot of jobs)

My parents (now in their early 60s) were the first generation in their respective families to go to uni - my mother's older brother went, my Dad's older brother didn't. But it didn't actually cost much for their parents, because of grants and fees paid and all the rest of it. The financial penalty for my paternal grandparents in particular was that they didn't have their younger son working from 15 or 16 and bringing money into the house. Most of their friends expected and experienced their children earning and contributing from that age, and my Dad didn't.

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

This New Year's Eve malarky - who is in and who is out tonight?

Strangely enough ... my diary seems unusually empty, so I am "in".

In. With my parents and Isaac. We're still in Kent.

I loathe going out on New Year's Eve, and having a child is a cast-iron excuse not to!

lostinrates

Some one we know (but obviously who doesn't know us that well) booked a table for us at a restaurant for tonight with their party. We told them as soon as they told us 'no'. DH and I have a tradition of spending nye alone together.

Everyday they have called to double check, even the days we didn't answer the phone because we weren't answering the phone to anyone.

Its funny when people don't take no for an answer.

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

I had one of those Big Fat Gypsy programmes on last night - seen it before, can't remember which one it was.... but one of the things they did was moved onto land, then were moved off again ... and in the drive around when they were in a convoy looking for an opening to park up the mum gypsy was in the back of the car without a seatbelt on - and her toddler was free-range messing around on the back seat doing acrobatics/somersaults etc.

No seatbelts going on there.

I've only ever had one friend in a car accident - she had a show-off boyfriend who had a sports car. He went into a spin on a slip road, car spun round and hit the wooden fence, fence post splintered and went through the passenger door and gored her. She was a hefty mare and lived as all her fat rolls protected her.

There was a place in America which tried to ban new drivers from driving with passengers unitl they reached a certain age. They reckoned that's how all the accidents happened- one teenager in a car- they behave sensibly. Two teenagers in a car -recipe for trouble.

chewmylegoff

Nikkster wrote: »

I'm out, but in tonight Going to my friend who lives near Harry Potter. If its like least year it'll be just us (plus a cat) and we'll eat and drink lots of nice things whilst nattering with the TV on in the background.

You are aware that Harry Potter isn't real?

CKhalvashi

PasturesNew wrote: »

This New Year's Eve malarky - who is in and who is out tonight?

Strangely enough ... my diary seems unusually empty, so I am "in".

We're out tonight with a large group of Georgians/Armenians involved in the music industry in some way in Tbilisi; came back across the Georgian border (from Russia) about 2 hours ago and just got back in.

Vake seems unusually full, especially as we're staying on Paliashvili, which is usually really quiet.

chewmylegoff

we are out but in as well, round a friends' house just us and them - we've done that for the last 4 years in a row so it's a tradition now. quite a few of our friends hired a house somewhere in devon so a bit disappointed to be missing out on that as would probably be fun, but expect i will be crashed out and asleep by 10pm anyway so not missing out on much!

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

There was a place in America which tried to ban new drivers from driving with passengers unitl they reached a certain age. They reckoned that's how all the accidents happened- one teenager in a car- they behave sensibly. Two teenagers in a car -recipe for trouble.

Interesting idea. But one wouldn't want to stop teenagers driving with responsible adult passengers, presumably? How would they learn to cope with, for example, motorways, or driving in snow, or anything else that they hadn't covered as a learner, without being able to try it out with mum or dad or an instructor or similar in the passenger seat?

To avoid the recipe for trouble, you'd want to say that a teenage driver could drive either alone, or with passengers including at least one person over 25, or something like that. But complicated rules like that can be bothersome.