Nice People Thread No. 14, all Nice and Proper

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

Do/would you REALLY play £165's worth of table tennis??

I've never played it (never had access to a table).

Is the surface anything special? You could just get yourself a cheap Xmas table cloth (plastic) for £1, turn it over (so it's blank) and draw/paint the lines on it, then tape it to your existing dining table with some masking tape. Then just buy some bats/balls for about £5.



I think Santa would put his head in his hands if he can read this idea that he should get that down the chimney.

Plastic cloth won't work as the ball won't bounce properly on it and the masking tape will cause problems.

One advantage of a butterfly style table is that one person can practice by leaving one wing up and one wing down.

Good idea to find a table tennis club, my youngest went to 2 local clubs.

michaels

If it is anything like the rest of the clubs the kids do it would be £60+ per kid per term - 3 kids 1 term and a table is cheaper plus it is unlikely that they would all be able to go at the same time which will mean trying to fit 3 more activities into an already crowded week.

Kids activities cost more per month already than all our bills except (probably) the mortgage - way more than gas/electric, council tax, running the car etc.

At the moment there is 10% off Argos using a Nationwide card, 1.5% quidco and 10% as we know someone with a staff discount - plus is there still a £10 voucher back if you spend over £100?

vivatifosi

Do you already have bats and balls?

I had a table tennis converter growing up (as they were available in the dark ages). It fitted on top of the dining table and was fine. If a) you have the space, b) you haven't got the breakables in there and c) the kids don't play at competition standard and need exactly the right space and equipment it should just fine. I wouldn't be spending a fortune though, especially if it is just for leisure use. Nothing on eBay? I would have thought it's the sort of thing that people would bore of and therefore cheap second hand.

Sorry, misread original post and thought you were putting in garage.

zagubov

michaels wrote: »

If it is anything like the rest of the clubs the kids do it would be £60+ per kid per term - 3 kids 1 term and a table is cheaper plus it is unlikely that they would all be able to go at the same time which will mean trying to fit 3 more activities into an already crowded week.

That's true but if you only let them play in your garage, they'll only be playing against your neighbours' kids (I presume) and/or thier existing friends but if they go to a club they've a chance to develop a wider circle of friends.

michaels

DS has the fewest outside school activities, he only has 5 a week. There are already evenings where I need to be home by 6 so that DW and I can be in 3 places at once....

Spirit_2

All of the extended family/friend's Christmas presents bought ...and
wrapped. OH has had a wrapping marathon last night and today, I do not have enough fine motor skills so my job was writing the labels.

I will ask dd or her bf to help me wrap my husband's presents, and OH will wrapp daughters gifts when we have split them into Christmas and Birthday heaps.

Had a fab night on Friday London Philharmonic at the Albert Hall, Classical Spectacular. Popular tunes ,well played, bit jingoistic but flag waving was fun. Behid us were a group of teenage boys who looked like they had got lost on their way to a 1D concert but they joined in and seemed to have huge fun with union jacks and balloons.

Supper was in formica tabled hovel in china town...it was delicious.
Stayed at the Cavendish, on the corner of duke/jermyn.It was really lovely and I felt quite spoilt.

OH saw some boots in Barkers but was undecided, they were£290, so we looked elsewhere, the next pair he found that he liked were £995 so it helped him make his mind up and we went back to Barkers. He will be in quebec in January and he said he would have been tiptoeing about trying to protect his boots in deep snow if he had spent a fortune ( to us)on boots, then on to Corders where he bought an overcoat with the change. A lovely Donegal tweed. He tried a jacket on under the coat to check the fit and no surprises he bought the jacket too.

His clothes last him for ages and he is a pretty constant shape and size so he reflected he will still be wearing these items in retirement.

Feeling quite christmassy here. DD has made marzipies today.

silvercar

michaels wrote: »

If it is anything like the rest of the clubs the kids do it would be £60+ per kid per term - 3 kids 1 term and a table is cheaper plus it is unlikely that they would all be able to go at the same time which will mean trying to fit 3 more activities into an already crowded week.

Kids activities cost more per month already than all our bills except (probably) the mortgage - way more than gas/electric, council tax, running the car etc.

I was never into all that kids clubs. If they were really interested in something there was usually a club at school they could join. They did cubs, then never wanted to move up to scouts, so that was when they started guitar. DS2 toyed with karate at one point, then table tennis. So they never had more than 2 evening activities at any one time and it was usually one or none.

As it happens the table tennis clubs were all mixed ages and mixed ability, so at least yours can go together. I remember thinking it was cheap and you could pay per session and no uniform required.

Generali

LydiaJ wrote: »

This I can understand.



This makes no sense to me. If someone doesn't like having the house at 18C in the winter, why would they want it to be 18C in the summer?



We had a table top version when I was growing up. My brothers got a lot of use out of it and enjoyed it a lot. The one downside was that when balanced on top of the dining table, it was rather higher than a standard table, so as I was the youngest (by 6 years) and obviously shortest, I was at more of a disadvantage than I would have been otherwise. I wasn't really tall enough to use it comfortably until I was 12 or so, by which time my brothers had all gone off to university and there was nobody to play against. So my advice is to think carefully about the height of the table on which you intend to balance it, and the heights of the children you hope will use it. If those calculations work out OK, it could be a great option IMO.

It makes no sense to me either. No matter how hot the weather is she always puts the heater on in the bathroom when she has a shower. Even on a 40C day.

Nuts.

Spirit_2

silvercar wrote: »

I was never into all that kids clubs. If they were really interested in something there was usually a club at school they could join. They did cubs,

My DD did brownies but dropped that when she got her first pony.thereafter no time for clubs except pony club. Piano and Maths tuition, swimming were the only extras until she was 11 then they went too. She never enjoyed groups and protested loudly at our attempts to cajole her into "improving" activities. She was always fit and active though so we just allowed her pony to be her past-time.

Doozergirl

I won't say what happened to the table tennis that the in-laws purchased four years ago. It would have been nice to have been warned that something that size was arriving!

As it was, the space has been available. It was purchased because DS had table tennis tables outside at school and was into it, but table tennis was played and is played at school, really. He tells me he is some entirely fabricated but incredibly cool adjective at it. (I think it's *peng* as *peak* is a bad word and *merk* is what you do to the opposition).

I have sent the kids to school where extra curricular activities are numerous so I collect them later. It helps us all as I can work more than five hours a day when I need to .

I have to take DS to the rugby club once or twice a week and county training. DD has trampolining club one evening and a tutor who comes to us.

This conversation has taken place before but, imo, children need to find their own amusement and be happy in their own company as an essential life skill. And parents need their own life. Where does a relationship fit into all of that?