Nice People Thread No. 14, all Nice and Proper

PasturesNew

Doozergirl wrote: »

I need a dog-proof bin.

Put the dog in the bin, put the rubbish in the dog's bed.
Sorted.

Doozergirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

Put the dog in the bin, put the rubbish in the dog's bed.
Sorted.

vivatifosi

Re bins Doozer, but when my parent's dog worked out how to open cupboards and help herself to food they found that child locks worked.

I've also heard of these working (not currently stocked at this location but will give you an idea what it is), even the reviews refer to using them to keep dogs out:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/simplehuman-30L-Lock-Round-Pedal/dp/B000BI7NPQ

ETA... can't remember, is yours a labrador? They are mares for this type of thing.

SingleSue

I've never had the money available to take part in the Amazon black Friday deals....although I did have fun spending some of dad's last year on presents (from him) to mum on some of the deals.

silvercar

We once went to New York on black friday. Didn't know what was going on when we saw 20 police cars outside macey's to control the crowds.

CKhalvashi

Black Friday is a clever marketing tool, and we've picked up some good bargains in the past with it. Not had a look this year yet.

Managed to do a Waitrose shop for 4 for less than £40 for the week this evening, and currently sat with Captain Happy (see below) and my co-director, debating what we're going to do with the company. She knows what I want to do, and is dictating a lot of the terms, so definitely a useful person to have around......

Will catch up when I'm home

(Don't quote photo, will delete)

Generali

silvercar wrote: »

How does the Australian school system compare to UK? Particularly the split private/ state. Do they have state grammar schools?



Inner Hertfordshire and the price of a house may dictate more when they bought it than whether they have money. Even if they bought recently, it may have left them poor in cash flow terms. With the wealth of choice of decent private schools around, it could well be that all their money is in property rather than disposable.

Primary school runs for 7 years from Kinde (5 years old roughly) to year 6 (12). Almost all Aussies go to state primary school at first. Some go private in year 3 but most that go private do so in year 5. Going private in many ways means removing your kids entirely from the local community as they are expected to play sport for the school at the weekend, not for the local team.

There are basically 4 types of state High School: wholly selective, partly selective, non-selective and school of the air (these days done via internet).

Selective schools can select on the basis of general educational attainment or something else like ability at drama or science. Partly selective schools will have a general cohort and then a group, normally half the students, who are selected. Selection is done using a standardised set of tests AIUI. Non-selective schools will generally have special provision of some sort for outliers in achievement levels at the upper and lower bound (thick kids and bright kids get extra classes).

School of the Air is basically schooling via Skype. It's for kids who live in very remote places that can't or don't want to go to boarding school. It's very Australian to say the least.

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yes. There's some national holiday they have on the Thursday ... so many people book the Friday off work to make a long weekend... and so the marketing crews jumped on it as an ideal opportunity to start the Xmas Rush.

It took off due to marketing and people being available/off work and looking for things to do.

Thanksgiving. It's known as Black Friday as (supposedly) it's the point in the year that shops start to make a profit. How all sectors of retail manage a RoE that is exactly the same as every other and is the same regardless of trading conditions, rates of interest and so on I leave you all to ponder.

GDB2222

Doozergirl wrote: »

I need a dog-proof bin. We've changed the house around and for some godforsaken reason decided to arrange it so the dogs have their own seating area off the kitchen.

Doozerdog thinks its great to raid the bin. I have to empty it when it is half full, but now, with time he can get right into it and then spread the contents and vomit across the floor. He does it on occassion when we are home anyway but it's worse at the moment.

We can't have a pedal as he can use that, can't have one that you 'clickclack' as that is what we have and he just headbutts it and it opens.

I don't want one where you have to lift up the lid yourself as I don't want germs from hands all over the handle.

I did have it in a cupboard but the tumble drier is there now.

Am I doomed?

I don't know how big your dog is, but, how about getting a really large bin, say 50l if you need 30l of usable space. Fill the bottom third with bricks, then insert your bin bag. The idea is that it's too heavy for the dog to overturn. It's also tall enough that he can't reach in, even if he can open it. That obviously works better for medium sized dogs than huge ones.

Generali

mystic_trev wrote: »

So, if it's known as the Fremantle Doctor in Perth, what do you call it in Sydney? The Botany breather

It's just the cool change in VIC & NSW. It sounds rather like something a menopausal woman would look forward to. It came through later than advertised in the end at about 6am. I'm knackered as a result. Am off work today and a snooze is well up my To Do list.