Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

I saw a sign down town today ... it would cost me £55 if I want to sleep rough in a square space just off the High Street....

You can doss down for the night if you make a donation, minimum £5 - and have sponsorship of over £50. Something to do with raising funds for some sort of homeless charity or something.

At £55 I couldn't afford to be homeless that night

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

I saw a sign down town today ... it would cost me £55 if I want to sleep rough in a square space just off the High Street....

You can doss down for the night if you make a donation, minimum £5 - and have sponsorship of over £50. Something to do with raising funds for some sort of homeless charity or something.

At £55 I couldn't afford to be homeless that night

You have to get sponsored for £50?
Is this for down and outs, or is it a publicity stunt for anyone to take part in?

If the latter, I'd have to be sponsored for a hell of a lot more than £50 to induce me to raise money by sleeping on the street for a night.
Would there be security people keeping an eye on you?

Plus I'd have to buy a first class sleeping bag, and a nice thick foam pad thing. That'd all probably come to more than £50 so would probably be simpler for me to just give them the £50 and save me from having a very cold and very achey night's sleep!
(Plus I'd probably need to go to the loo in the middle of the night. :eek: )

LydiaJ

Pyxis wrote: »

You have to get sponsored for £50?
Is this for down and outs, or is it a publicity stunt for anyone to take part in?

If the latter, I'd have to be sponsored for a hell of a lot more than £50 to induce me to raise money by sleeping on the street for a night.
Would there be security people keeping an eye on you?

Plus I'd have to buy a first class sleeping bag, and a nice thick foam pad thing. That'd all probably come to more than £50 so would probably be simpler for me to just give them the £50 and save me from having a very cold and very achey night's sleep!
(Plus I'd probably need to go to the loo in the middle of the night. :eek: )

I think it's usually young people that do that sort of thing. They're better able to tolerate sleeping on a hard surface than we are! They often go as a group with their friends and have a great time "raising awareness" as well as getting some sponsorship money. I believe security is usually the responsibility of the charity organising the event.

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

You have to get sponsored for £50?
Is this for down and outs, or is it a publicity stunt for anyone to take part in?

If the latter, I'd have to be sponsored for a hell of a lot more than £50 to induce me to raise money by sleeping on the street for a night.
Would there be security people keeping an eye on you?

Plus I'd have to buy a first class sleeping bag, and a nice thick foam pad thing. That'd all probably come to more than £50 so would probably be simpler for me to just give them the £50 and save me from having a very cold and very achey night's sleep!
(Plus I'd probably need to go to the loo in the middle of the night. :eek: )

It's a fundraiser for people with a home to raise money to go to the homeless - by sleeping rough themselves on one set night and getting sponsored to sleep rough.

Many fundraisers cost a lot of money + have a pre-set sponsorship amount you have to raise to take part.

Volunteering and "doing good" etc is definitely a "middle class income" activity these days. You can't simply rock up with a cardboard box and state that sleeping rough will swell the numbers of those "supporting" the concept .... they're not interested, they just want your money.

PasturesNew

Rich House, Poor House on in about an hour on channel 5. They're quite good.

Just a regular benefits !!!!!! programme on 5 right now.

Here's one: 6 boys from his 1st wife, 2 kids from 2nd wife. Total of 10 kids between this couple - the couple live in a 1 bed Housing Association flat and there's a constant stream of their 10 kids visiting them every day.

£1400/month for a couple and he says "it doesn't go very far". He's been on the sick for 15 years with a tumour ... and she's his carer.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

Parents: If your kids have balls, puncture them.... and/or never let them play outside going doof doof doof for more than 10 minutes once a month.

Rose bushes usually have the same effect and add a certain randomness too.

I actually enjoy rich house, poor house.

Observations: The rich lot seem to tolerate the small budget well, but struggle more with the lack of space. Social media observation seems to be that both families are nicer than pre-conceived ideas.

PasturesNew

I like that the posh people who live in a castle, with all their "posh ideas about food" .... on their first night opened a can of baked beans with sausages and served them on toast

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

I like that the posh people who live in a castle, with all their "posh ideas about food" .... on their first night opened a can of baked beans with sausages and served them on toast

I had quite forgotten that you could get things like that.

When I first moved into halls as a student they didn't have microwaves to cook with. Every corridor had a small room with a gadget you probably can't buy any more. It was an electrical single ring cooker (by Belling I think) but with no oven. There was room for a small grilling tray for a slice of bread to slide underneath the ring while you had a saucepan of beans etc. heating up on the ring above it.

You could make your beans on toast which was probably the culinary limit of many a student back in the 70s.

Also meant you could make a meal out of stuff that didn't need refrigeration ie loaves of sliced" wonderloaf" and tins of beans+ mini sausages.

PasturesNew

zagubov wrote: »

I had quite forgotten that you could get things like that.

I've always got 1-2 tins either in the cupboard, or about to be bought. What I call my "instant dinner" stash of tinned meals that are "a bit more than just beans on toast".

zagubov wrote: »

.... loaves of sliced" wonderloaf" and tins of beans+ mini sausages.

I think you'll find thousands of people across the country still eat this on a regular basis...

PasturesNew

Car parked in spot. Note stuck to windscreen. It's been there at least 1.5 hours so far.

EDIT: When I started typing that it was there.... by the time I'd posted they'd gone. I've NO idea which house they were visiting.