Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

Doozergirl

Tipping the balance, Gen.

PasturesNew

Only click if you're generally a bit nosey and love data that's been updated and are into all that family history stuff ...

I found a website where a vicar in a tiny village in 1843 set out to visit every villager and document which house they lived in, how they lived their lives and what was going on in their household.

After he moved on the next vicar popped round again and added updated notes to the original work. Some years later it was chucked into the County Archives and forgotten.... in 1980 a villager dug it out and started publishing it in the local Newsletter ....

So, the next stage was for somebody to take that and update it to include Census data, further life information and photos of gravestones as well as genealogical information.

http://www.speculumgregis.co.uk/default.asp - just go to "Annotated Pages" from the top menu

A snapshot and update of a small English village from the mid 1850s.... with some really non-PC comments by the vicar; most households were either hopeless or drunk or both. Some fascinating snippets....

Some went to Canada - probably because the original vicar who started the work went on to become the first Bishop of Montreal in Canada.

Page 1, the first entry, is about a publican and he says

I refused to sign his petition this year - and should do so again - as a girl, his servant, complained to me of his improper treatment of her, and his character (entrè nous) is notorious in that line. His wife is a dawdle, and his children unruly.

Generali

Thanks all. I'm going to spend as much of the weekend as possible sleeping and watching the world cup.

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

Thanks all. I'm going to spend as much of the weekend as possible sleeping and watching the world cup.

All the best, Gen. Hope you can stack up some zeds. Is Sunday Fathers day in Oz like here?

And is it true that footie (the soccer version) in Oz is a bit like it is in the US?

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

All the best, Gen. Hope you can stack up some zeds. Is Sunday Fathers day in Oz like here?

And is it true that footie (the soccer version) in Oz is a bit like it is in the US?

Not here. It's in September.

Soccer is a combination of the two.

In the professional league there is no promotion or relegation. There are no central contacts and no draft though. The standard is poor. I saw Emile Heskey play last season for Newcastle vs Sydney FC and he was by far the best player on the pitch. I reckon the standard is about what would have been called the 4th Division when I was a kid.

The tackling is pretty robust compared to what goes on in the EPL. There is pretty much no away support which is really odd and singing is almost completely consigned to behind one goal. Bizarrely, the singing is led by a single fan with a megaphone who has his back to the game facing the fans. It's kinda like the Ultras they have in Italy.

The crowds are ok. At Sydney we hope to get 20,000 and probably average about that.

neverdespairgirl

lemonjelly wrote: »

Caffeine is one of the most addictive substances ever IIRC.

Are you sure?

I drink tea every day, and have done for a very long time. But if I'm out of my usual routine, and in a place where I can't do it easily, like hotels abroad of whatever, it doesn't bother me at all.

I found giving up smoking much, much harder; IME nicotine is vastly more addictive than caffeine, much harder to give up, and harder not to take up again.

chewmylegoff wrote: »

The first thing I did when we had moved in was to go to Homebase, buy a drill bit and some picture hooks and stick up our only piece of "art" on the wall, just because we could! We got given it at Christmas. Not something I would ever have thought about buying but it is growing on me!

Like your birds! Do you have a bed yet?

GDB2222 wrote: »

I've never been overly fond of Wedgwood. It's a nice powder blue, but all that stuck on decoration is not my thing.

Mil's kitchen is full of the usual stuff, but she did not keep kosher, so we can't use it. Somebody setting up home could save hundreds of pounds.....

I thought you could treat saucepans and so forth to make them kosher? Bury them in sand, or boil them, or something?

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

Interesting programme just started on BBC4 - Medieval Lives; Birth, Marriage and Death - looks at their beliefs and rituals.

I watched that, as Danny was being fussy and I was tied to the chair by him. It was interesting, but nothing much there that was new or detailed enough, I thought? And there was too quick a change from the Pastons (mostly 15th century) back to the Black Death (1340s) and then forward to the Reformation (1530s to 1550s) without enough clarity.

If you already knew most of it, there wasn't much to draw you in, and if you didn't know it, lacked clarity or narrative, a bit?

PasturesNew

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I watched that, as Danny was being fussy and I was tied to the chair by him. It was interesting, but nothing much there that was new or detailed enough, I thought? And there was too quick a change from the Pastons (mostly 15th century) back to the Black Death (1340s) and then forward to the Reformation (1530s to 1550s) without enough clarity.

If you already knew most of it, there wasn't much to draw you in, and if you didn't know it, lacked clarity or narrative, a bit?

I posted my original remark as it started.... and I quickly became unimpressed and disillusioned. I was disappointed that she switched to the Pastons, who needed no more than a quick mention ..... and when she said she'd spent 25 years of her working life studying their letters I thought "OMG ..... " you'd think after a few months she could have recited them inside out and known everything

I found the presentation style far too slow, and therefore boring .... and it was a fight to remember to stay focussed on it.

The programme introduction promised a lot ... and under delivered.

If you take the stance that "she's pretty good at what she does and what she knows" ... and "she's been picked for her skills in presenting information in an interesting way" ... and "it's been scripted and re-written, amended, tweaked for perfection" ... you can easily see why kids at school don't "get" history or find it interesting!

It was a bit more like some random thoughts of somebody on a self-indulgent weekend away round some history tourist spots.....

As for the changing dates.... I don't know in which order things happened... so didn't spot it jumped about (but, you don't learn history at school in a straight line either, or it'd be easier to follow) ..... and that might have also been because I kept forgetting to keep watching it as I became bored and upset/annoyed it wasn't delivering.

Rating: 1/10, load of self-indulgent nonsense.

vivatifosi

Morning all.awake following another cat vs fox showdown in the local gardens. Second morning in a row.

Gen, glad to hear you've got another one under your belt. Enjoy the World Cup.

DH, who doesn't watch football, got Spain in the office sweepstakes, much to the annoyance of the football mad person who started it and who pulled Iran.

GDB2222

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I watched that, as Danny was being fussy and I was tied to the chair by him. It was interesting, but nothing much there that was new or detailed enough, I thought? And there was too quick a change from the Pastons (mostly 15th century) back to the Black Death (1340s) and then forward to the Reformation (1530s to 1550s) without enough clarity.

If you already knew most of it, there wasn't much to draw you in, and if you didn't know it, lacked clarity or narrative, a bit?

It's the same for the science graduates here, watching BBC science programmes. These manage to be a combination of superficiality and taking ages to get through very simple concepts.