Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

I love marmalade

I've never had much marmalade.... just some traditional Robinsons stuff in the 60s as dad ate it.

PasturesNew

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

She has a round in Kent of people who buy it, and some goes to school & church sales.

My mother's marmalade is quite thick and fruity, it's lovely. Her jams tend to be lighter and supply alternatives.

Maybe she could set up a small/cottage industry of Mail Order to NPs.

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

These things have always been for the middle classes/above. They are always priced high and full of expensive goods/foods.

I went to the Royal Cornwall Show one year - that's pricey (got talked/forced into it by my sibling) .... you just walk around and see some nice sheep and other animals, then there's row after row of tents filled with foods ... "organic this..." "award winning ...." "bespoke handmade...."

All middle class stuff. I think in Cornwall it's really that "you have to be seen to be there" both as a business and as a visitor. If you're middle class you can't say you're not going - and then, of course, you have to buy (expensive) stuff just so you can take part in the "what you bought" conversations with the other ladies who lunch.

This really isn't posh though, it's just expensive.

That's one of the differences between Australia and the UK: skilled working class jobs pay pretty much what middle class ones do. You simply don't get that premium for being 'posh'. A decent plumber, car mechanic or train driver will earn the same as me.

The food at the Easter show is corn dogs and burgers and those spiral chip things not 28 day aged beef and organic hummingbird milk.

The whole posh/not posh distinction simply doesn't apply to Australia.

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

skilled working class jobs pay pretty much what middle class ones do. Y.

Wages in the UK have been kept low since the NMW was invented. There's even been a recent report about this - that NMW is now the "norm" that employers adhere to. In 1997 I got a job at £17-18k and that same job is still paid at £17-18k in that firm.

As stuff has become poncier/posher in life, this has meant that the poorer bands are priced out of more than they used to be. It's in a lot of things. Look at the cost of getting into a National Trust/English Heritage place, or hiring a beach hut, or getting into County Fairs .... even the price of B&Bs. Everything became "poshed up" and a higher price tag was affixed.

Latest addition to that is Stonehenge .... I think they built a posh/new Visitor Centre (1 mile from the actual stones) and the entry price has now doubled..... so rather than tramping across a field for free (which I'd have done), or paying a couple of quid to tramp along a path (which I'd have done), it's now a whole/posh Visitor Experience at a price I won't be shelling out for.

The other one is pub grub ... you used to be able to walk into a pub, have a half a cider and order a slice of quiche/chips or pie/chips and still get LOTS of change from £5. Now you've a choice of hand-pressed ciders and a gastro-pub menu and struggle to walk away with any change from £20 ... so there's another activity that's priced out.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never had much marmalade.... just some traditional Robinsons stuff in the 60s as dad ate it.

I've nothing against it, but unless you've a specific reason to buy it then you can't go round buying lots of random things "to try" in case you don't like them. I'd use marmalade in bread/butter puddings and/or just on toast. As it is, there's no need to buy things for these purposes because [1] I never make B/B pudding [2] I have a jar of jam/year for toast that I have to "get through before it goes off", so wouldn't be adding a 2nd jar to the collection


For me, two shelves IS the fridge.

Jars of jam in the fridge don't go off. Regardless of dates. Use a spoon not a nasty buttery knife, and they last sort of indefinitely. If jars went off how people said they would we wouldn't have two shelves of them. Certainly some things have been dipped into since the fridge arrived a come of years ago.

Unopened jars in a cupboard also store well.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

These things have always been for the middle classes/above. They are always priced high and full of expensive goods/foods.

I went to the Royal Cornwall Show one year - that's pricey (got talked/forced into it by my sibling) .... you just walk around and see some nice sheep and other animals, then there's row after row of tents filled with foods ... "organic this..." "award winning ...." "bespoke handmade...."

All middle class stuff. I think in Cornwall it's really that "you have to be seen to be there" both as a business and as a visitor. If you're middle class you can't say you're not going - and then, of course, you have to buy (expensive) stuff just so you can take part in the "what you bought" conversations with the other ladies who lunch.

Cheapest way to go to a show always will be to enter a cheap class. Something like a rabbit or a chicken. Don't know how much it is to enter a craft class but you probably only get one ticket. With a pony you get, or used to, up to three passes.


I personally wouldn't exhibit a rabbit or a chicken. I am not saying I wouldn't consider entering one though. . I recognise this is very unsporting. I suppose it could enter the kiwi somewhere.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Wages in the UK have been kept low since the NMW was invented. There's even been a recent report about this - that NMW is now the "norm" that employers adhere to. In 1997 I got a job at £17-18k and that same job is still paid at £17-18k in that firm.

As stuff has become poncier/posher in life, this has meant that the poorer bands are priced out of more than they used to be. It's in a lot of things. Look at the cost of getting into a National Trust/English Heritage place, or hiring a beach hut, or getting into County Fairs .... even the price of B&Bs. Everything became "poshed up" and a higher price tag was affixed.

Latest addition to that is Stonehenge .... I think they built a posh/new Visitor Centre (1 mile from the actual stones) and the entry price has now doubled..... so rather than tramping across a field for free (which I'd have done), or paying a couple of quid to tramp along a path (which I'd have done), it's now a whole/posh Visitor Experience at a price I won't be shelling out for.

The other one is pub grub ... you used to be able to walk into a pub, have a half a cider and order a slice of quiche/chips or pie/chips and still get LOTS of change from £5. Now you've a choice of hand-pressed ciders and a gastro-pub menu and struggle to walk away with £20 ... so there's another activity that's priced out.

Stonehenge was always quite expensive for what it was I think, it wasn't free before, far from it. ( unless like me, you could drive past it on the way home ). Now we cannot drive past it and its more expensive, but it might still have been the right thing to do I think.

Its ruined my drive home though, made it longer and less nice.

silvercar

Generali wrote: »

That's one of the differences between Australia and the UK: skilled working class jobs pay pretty much what middle class ones do. You simply don't get that premium for being 'posh'. A decent plumber, car mechanic or train driver will earn the same as me.

Similar in Israel; plumbers and electrcians are prized, doctors are everywhere and often need to work 2 jobs to make ends meet.

Doozergirl

Generali wrote: »

This really isn't posh though, it's just expensive.

That's one of the differences between Australia and the UK: skilled working class jobs pay pretty much what middle class ones do. You simply don't get that premium for being 'posh'. A decent plumber, car mechanic or train driver will earn the same as me.

The food at the Easter show is corn dogs and burgers and those spiral chip things not 28 day aged beef and organic hummingbird milk.

The whole posh/not posh distinction simply doesn't apply to Australia.

Even in the UK, there are incredibly expensive things that aren't posh. Alton Towers seems to be the most expensive place on earth, and it's nasty.

Or people that save all year to blow their money at Butlins, giving their kids money to put in the arcades and eat really dodgy food. It costs more than a decent cottage and eating in proper restaurants, which in turn costs more than a half decent holiday abroad, yet that's where people set their sights.

And Disney on Ice. Prepare to be stripped for every penny.

PasturesNew

Doozergirl wrote: »

Or people that save all year to blow their money at Butlins, giving their kids money to put in the arcades and eat really dodgy food. It costs more than a decent cottage and eating in proper restaurants, which in turn costs more than a half decent holiday abroad, yet that's where people set their sights.

I think with holiday parks it's because they're buying into the "everything on one site" concept. Chuck the kids out of the caravan and they can't get into too much trouble as they won't get past the gate guards. With a cottage you're stuck with the cottage/it's garden - and nothing to even sit and look at unless you go out.

Of course, once you're there stuff costs money ... but in a cottage you'd have to go out to find things to spend money on .... and you can't pop back to the caravan for a change of clothes etc if it rains/gets hot/whatever.