Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

My mum worked, we didn't get free school lunches. In the holidays I distinctly remember mum quickly cycling home and dropping off a cheese roll and packet of crisps, I also remember chelsea buns and a chocolate wafer/caramel bar. We were being "minded" by my 15-16 year old sibling.... and the whole Street/adults keeping an eye out.

In the holidays nobody's going to have proper/structured "meals" midday - it'd just be jam sandwiches surely! Then tea at 5-6pm.

It depends how the question was asked really as to what the answers actually mean.

I guess though you were getting a proper dinner - the suggestion is that for many the school lunch is the good meal of the day with other meals being less relaible / more random...

Pyxis

ivyleaf wrote: »

Oi, Pyxis, we used to have a Ford Escort! in the early 80s, it was.

Re the SORN - OH was surprised because he used to work for DVLA, and he said it was fine for the car to be uninsured as long as it was taxed; sounds as if they must have changed to rules since he retired.

I was just thinking that there might be the odd rare case where not having insurance for a car, even if it is taxed, might cause a problem.

Supposing it was parked on your drive, and the handbrake slipped and it rolled forward and crashed into another car or person?

Insurance would be useful, then.

Doing SORN wouldn't stop that happening, but if you have followed the rules and SORNed it, you would have covered yourself.


I wonder if that scenario would be covered by your household insurance?

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

I guess though you were getting a proper dinner - the suggestion is that for many the school lunch is the good meal of the day with other meals being less relaible / more random...

It really needs to be analysed at an individual level:
- are you a rubbish parent, lying there with your coke-head spinning spirals through your mind all day, not knowing if it's morning or night?
- have you been "turned over" by the system on a short-term basis before you get back to being on an even keel?
- is your equipment broken, that could be fixed by a nice smiley volunteer?
- can you actually cook/have you got any idea what you're doing?

There's a difference between somebody who can't cook a sausage - and somebody who spent the sausage money on meth - and somebody who has the sausage but the cooker's broken - and somebody who expected wages/benefits that failed to appear so (this week) they can't buy the sausage.

Need to ask these ladies: Why are you not getting your sausage love?

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

It really needs to be analysed at an individual level:
- are you a rubbish parent, lying there with your coke-head spinning spirals through your mind all day, not knowing if it's morning or night?
- have you been "turned over" by the system on a short-term basis before you get back to being on an even keel?
- is your equipment broken, that could be fixed by a nice smiley volunteer?
- can you actually cook/have you got any idea what you're doing?

There's a difference between somebody who can't cook a sausage - and somebody who spent the sausage money on meth - and somebody who has the sausage but the cooker's broken - and somebody who expected wages/benefits that failed to appear so (this week) they can't buy the sausage.

Need to ask these ladies: Why are you not getting your sausage love?

Asking that might get you a smack in the face! :rotfl:

I think it's a combination of things.......
What food were they given while growing up? If they grew up with mostly convenience foods, that sets a precedence.

Learning to cook requires wanting to learn, even if it's only the very basic way to cook a casserole.
I did only a tiny bit of cookery at school, and remembered one thing that stood me in very good stead. How do make a basic white sauce, and from that, cheese sauce. It was for eggs mornay. When I went to Uni, that was near enough the only thing I knew how to cook, apart from the obvious like grilling bacon.

I tended to live on tins and packets until I had a boyfriend who pointed out that it was easy to make things from scratch, and after that I became interested.

However, if that interest or tiny bit of knowledge isn't there, it's easy just to buy a ready-made quiche, or pizza, or pie.

That starts becoming pricey, unless you buy the really cheap stuff with inferior ingredients and lots of fat and salt to compensate. The rot starts to set in.

Combine that with the ease with which you can find cheap, quick and easy stuff to give to the kids........ turkey twizzlers and oven chips, etc. , and good eating is doomed.

Then .....along comes the internet and Facebook and other social media sites, and suddenly cooking tea becomes an interference, so it's shove something in the oven or microwave that cooks itself.

So, a combination of not knowing how, the ease of plentiful convenience food, and other 'more interesting' things to be doing, and you're on a hiding to nothing.

PasturesNew

I don't bother "cooking" in the traditionally recognised sense ...

I eat food ....

Today I "made" mash (not hard is it, cook a spud and crush it) ... I opened a tin of beans ... I opened the freezer and got out some cheapo fishcakes I bought yesterday (12 for £1 at Iceland). Two of those were nuked; one was grilled.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

I don't bother "cooking" in the traditionally recognised sense ...

I eat food .... I find random food and heat up what I fancy, when I fancy it, in the microwave.

I like pies.



Today I "made" mash (not hard is it, cook a spud and crush it) ... I opened a tin of beans ... I opened the freezer and got out some cheapo fishcakes I bought yesterday (12 for £1 at Iceland). Two of those were nuked; one was grilled.

Actually, proper mashed potato and beans aren't bad at all, especially if you left the potato skins on!
Re the fish cakes.....I suppose it all depends how much fish was in them! Otherwise it's just more mashed potato!

But then, it's not the individual meal that matters, it's the overall weekly diet, and, at the end of the day, you're not a growing child, so what you eat on a daily basis has a bit less impact!

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

.... you're not a growing child.....

Fishcakes were 41% fish - and I did think "that's just more potato then", but what the heck. Today I picked the skins off after they were cooked.... some days I don't bother - depends on the skins and how I feel that day as to whether I can be bothered.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

It appears many 10 year olds are taller than me!
I spotted one in a news story that was 5'4" just last week! He'd tower over me!

Fishcakes were 41% fish - and I did think "that's just more potato then", but what the heck. Today I picked the skins off after they were cooked.... some days I don't bother - depends on the skins and how I feel that day as to whether I can be bothered.

Ooh! Do leave them in! All the nutrients are in the skins! There's some vitamin C at least, and they also provide roughage.




By the way! I've solved the mystery of the huge price hike in the cost of the printer inks. Do you remember? They'd zoomed up to £70!

Well, I was in Sainsbury's today, and lo and behold, the price was back to near enough the 'normal' price, but with a big red 'reduced' sticker on! :mad:
So, this was one of those ploys to raise the price in a few selected stores, for the statutory minimum time, just so that they could then say they had been reduced, and seem like a bargain! :mad: :mad:

Even though the reduced price was the same as they had been before the hike. :mad:

Despicable.

Talk about treating customers like moronic sheep. :mad:


I had actually emailed Sainsbury's twice about the price hike, using their 'contact us' facility on their website, but both times it didn't work.
I am going to have to try harder, now, to contact them. They will get a piece of my mind.

Pyxis

Do you know, instead of doing National Service, it might be better if every 18 year-old had to live on NMW in a shared flat somewhere, for 6momths.
For some people it might be a step up, (!), but for a lot of others it would be an eye-opener.

(No freebies from parents allowed, during the six months!)

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

Do you know, instead of doing National Service, it might be better if every 18 year-old had to live on NMW in a shared flat somewhere, for 6momths.
For some people it might be a step up, (!), but for a lot of others it would be an eye-opener.

(No freebies from parents allowed, during the six months!)

I can't see the hardship in that to be honest. It's not a lot different to how a lot of full-time working people are living.

And, when you're doing something for X months, you know one day it'll stop if you're not enjoying it .... so you'd either love it, love the cash, love the freedom after home, or, just think "it's only 6 months" so it doesn't matter much ... and those with more wealth would get crafty top ups by some method.