OS Singlies - We Do It Our Way!

calicocat

I hit lucky I think....job done, socket in bedroom sorted too, priced for outside light, he's looking at new cooker head for me etc to quote for that.

In and out within half an hour or so. No 'speel', asked how I knew of him, told him i'd googled him to check he wasn't a cowboy. Seemed totally efficient....40 quid for today, 70 for outside light when they get the part needed....which I think sounds a fair price...?...not that I have a clue to be honest....but anything under 100 sounds good to me for small jobs....i think when you are single you always think you are going to be ripped off by people...like we have some tattoo on our foreheads saying "single and stupid"...when it comes to DIY stuff and cars anyhow.

He came with a mate who was a bit more 'vocal'....but the owner of business just got on with it really. Also I liked that I rang him this morning and he was here the same day to check the job out....i like instant movement on a project.


Yay....success at last I think/hope finding a decent sparky. He also said anything I need he can sort...plumber, tiler,joiner etc. If he turns out to be good with the next job...he may well be my man in a cupboard....just not actually in the cupboard but living a few miles away.



RE: school uniforms etc, I was always in detention for wearing a tie..or make-up(generally both)......us girls weren't supposed to wear ties, and we would never have won a battle for trousers in the 70's as it was an all girls school.



Edit....LB if your electrician messes you about I can give you the number of this guy, I mentioned you to him and where you lived etc and he' does work all over.

Byatt

Thanks for everyone sharing their stories, I think as a singlie, and not having someone to share the memories and day to day stuff with, that maybe I imagined my previous life, all a bit surreal at times...no-one to say to, "do you remember...?" :cool: Or even to talk about a past that now only I remember.

The chickens had to some extent attacked the pumpkin :T, the lid was decimated the smaller chunk was pretty much the same and the big chunk was pecked at, the innards and seeds had all gone.

Calico, sounds like your electrician/Jack of all trades will be quite useful. Maybe even promoted to "man in cupboard"...:D The amounts charged sound pretty reasonable too.

I know my mother only appreciated how much my dad saved her money, because he was a Jack of all trades, after he died and she had to get a man in for all the odd jobs. I assumed all men were the same as my dad, so was very disappointed to find that was not the case, when I got married. :cool:

Lizziebabe, I wore mini skirts (or belts as some people called them) in the 70's, but when I see girls now, wearing as little as I did, I'm like this :eek::rotfl:

moneyistooshorttomention

I think I've pretty much (fingers crossed hard) got the "man in cupboard" sussed. It's taking a bit of "management" and flattery:cool: but I think I'm getting it sussed.

We had to wear ties at school regardless until it all went liberal and school uniform was abolished. Fortunately, it was a mixed school. I've never attended an all girls school (thankfully). Make-up would have never got past my parents, never mind the school:rotfl:.

I'm definitely beginning to think I struck lucky with my old school anyway..once it changed to comprehensive..from what others say here. Some of the tales we got told about what our teachers got up to (sometimes by the teachers themselves) and what older pupils got up to were no odds to anyone...but I am thankful for the liberal heritage that they set up in my mind in that respect. Probably anyone ever trying to enforce unreasonable rules/personal opinion on me ever since hasn't been though:rotfl::rotfl:

Byatt

On a different note, this is a link to Age UK and their report on the crisis in care for the elderly. It's depressing reading, but as singlies, important to be armed as previously discussed.

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/home-and-care/campaign-for-better-care/

moneyistooshorttomention

Byatt wrote: »

Lizziebabe, I wore mini skirts (or belts as some people called them) in the 70's, but when I see girls now, wearing as little as I did, I'm like this :eek::rotfl:

I do know what you mean by this.

It's astonishing, in hindsight, just how high a level of pressure gets exerted on us by Other People and/or our own blinkin' hormones. From the standpoint of the age I have got to now, I often think "What WAS I thinking?" about things like that.

I do think we might be doing succeeding generations a huge favour to teach them to think for themselves and not get dictated to by Other People and/or their hormones. It's up to them (meaning their minds...NOT their hormones) and them only how their lives should be and I'm feeling thankful again for what I learnt from that school ethos in latter years and tend to think that point cant be emphasised enough and that if I had listened even more closely to that message that I would have been the one deciding all along in my life (rather than Other People or my "hormones") and my life would have been all the better for it.

Charis

Sorry, hope this doesn't sound like a lecture, , just that it gives a background to my parents' generation. Not saying all parents thought like that, but mine did.

So did mine. I'm a few years older than you Byatt and my father believed that education was wasted on a woman because she would only go off and have children. I'd had too little experience of life to go off to Uni, I would have been overwhelmed. We had such narrow little lives then, we trusted those in authority and didn't argue because the rules had all been worked out before we appeared on the scene. I remember the strikes at Fords, couldn't believe the women had caused the whole company to grind to a halt. They were very brave because the men were angry and the whole local economy depended on the Fords workers.

I married in 1972 and had to have my husband's written permission to be prescribed contraception.

Charis

Byatt wrote: »

Thanks for everyone sharing their stories, I think as a singlie, and not having someone to share the memories and day to day stuff with, that maybe I imagined my previous life, all a bit surreal at times...no-one to say to, "do you remember...?" :cool: Or even to talk about a past that now only I remember.

I've spent most of the day remembering my schooldays. I've been persuaded to write a book about living through the fifties, sixties and seventies for my grown up children. They get little bits now and again and say 'Mum, you should write this down!' I tend to forget that for all practical purposes we have lived in two quite different worlds. It's amazing what comes back to you when you take a sheet of paper and write down all the things that happened in just one decade. It's also my chance to tell it like it really was, for me at least. It beats daytime TV on these miserable winter days.

BookWorm

Good evening all

Well it's almost the weekend. Can't come soon enough for me....

Just catching up what I've missed today. I've been enjoying the posts about the way things have changed over a short space of time. When you put it the way some of you have, if you didn't know better, it's hard to think we are in the same country! I have to say that I think I prefer things how they are now!

Calicocat - well done for finding a sparky. I think that is often they way if you can find a good one - they usually know of other good tradespeople too.

Byatt - re: the chickens and the pumpkin. I love the idea of them all having a pow-wow about it!! lol

Byatt

Charis, thank you for sharing some of your story. You are spot on about trusting those in authority, and as our parents had authority we were expected to trust they knew what was best. My growing up was often akin to a Victorian upbringing, really, I find it hard to talk about because it upsets me too much. It was my mother who said about getting married though, and I never have been able to understand how a woman could not prepare their daughter for a future which did not involve a man!

I have no-one who would want to read my story, but if your children would like to read yours, then yes, go for it! :T

MTSTM, I was just thinking yesterday, after seeing some lads and a couple of girls in school uniform, who were eyeing each other, and thought, there should be a lull in education, a bit like a gap year after uni, except longer, where youngsters get "it" out of their system, boys/girls whatever...not let them make major decisions based on hormones, and then go back to education when they've calmed down/got through puberty! :rotfl:We expect them to make major, life changing decisions when their bodies and minds are going through immense change.

edit: BW, chickens are such funny characters, I can watch them for hours, the mutter away, and get really excited over some foods. The raspberries I gave them last year went down a storm! LB has a funny tale, which I hope she will tell you.

mum2one

lizziebabe wrote: »

This made me chuckle. When I was at school in the 70's I started a petition for us girls to wear trousers. We won :T

Nowadays I see the girls wearing such short skirts you can almost see their :eek::eek::eek:

totally agree - I was lucky at priary school it wasn't uniform but in secondary (82/87) we were not allowed to wear trousers, even with snow...

We live near school some of the skirts - if you can call them that - look more like belts.

Bless her DD school they can wear trs and when she goes to secondary. xx