Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

hjd

Pyxis wrote: »

I agree for the most part.

My biggest bugbear is fruit.

It almost always seems to be lacking in flavour or tastes sourish.

I've given up buying plums completely. They taste like cardboard. Very rarely find a nice sweet pineapple either. Usually end up throwing most of it in the compost.

Even keeping up ripe fruit on the windowsill doesn't seem to work any more. It just goes dry or bad, not ripe.

Even British apples in supermarkets are insipid. Coxes lack the bite they used to have, and my favourites, Russets, which I used to be able to depend on, have gone the same way.

Another favourite, Worcesters, I haven't seen for a few years.


I don't live near any hedge veg places, otherwise I'd prefer to buy stuff grown in people's gardens, maggots and all!

At least with the odd maggot, you know it's not covered in chemicals!

I totally agree re the taste of fruit.
Don't have any trouble getting Worcesters in season - Waitrose have them certainly.
I live close to Wisley, and often go down there in the autumn when they have loads of different varieties of apple/pear for sale, and will cut you a slab to taste of any you fancy.
Coxes - I'll eat them very early season when they still have some bite, but not after that.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

Annoyed. Just got stiffed by Sainsbobs and I think it'll be "tough titty".

Went in and bought 2 items, £2.75, started to grovel about in my coins and then decided to hand over £10 instead as he was waiting for me.

But I didn't get any change (£7.25). I know this because I have so little money in my purse/bag that it'd be obvious if I had it.

All I have is the coins I started with.

Now I am double checking receipts etc I am noticing an error (in the shop's favour) at least once a fortnight that I am having to correct.

Lidl are good. I phone them up, they give me a reference number and I take the receipt back and they just hand over the money. I expect Sainsbobs will tell me to do one.

EDIT: Off to customer services who will "sort it out" apparently. Back in a bit.

I guess if the till is out you will be ok, if the money is in the cashiers pocket then less so....

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

I find Aldi the most similar to old style supermarkets. You have lots of "ingredients" like fresh veg, meat, dairy, etc. Bread products as good but basic selection, same with tinned goods. They don't have a big selection of ready meals. Though of course they are very different from a traditional supermarket in terms of their unusual non-food offering.

In NSW we have a chain called Harris Farm Markets which is basically a huge serve yourself greengrocer that sells meat, cheese, tins and so on. It sells almost no ready meals just a handful of pies, some pizzas and (I think) soup.

It's a funny mix really. It sells 'class 2' veg very cheaply and normally has peppers, aubergines, spuds, tomatoes, carrots and a couple of things in that section depending on what's available (last time I went in it was lemons, apples, asparagus ($4/kg!!!!!) and oranges. It has a great range of top quality fantastic fruit and veg which ranges from the cheap and seasonal to Fairy Berries hand picked by naked virgins and washed in organic Minotaur sweat.

The meat is the same. They have a solid range of the cheap stuff and then also organic unicorn chops. There's always a really nice bit of red meat on a great special offer, say a whole beef fillet for $15/kg (£3.40/lb) which I can make into roast beef and some stir fry and some sandwiches or beef salad. Plus they do a range of 'unusual cuts' (things like hanger steak (Google it, it's yum) and skirt) pretty cheaply.

The cheese range is the same, always something awesome on special and then a really good range of stuff at all price levels.

They don't sell washing powder and bog roll and all that stuff but I buy that in bulk from Costco so it doesn't matter to me.

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

If that was happening to me, I would get a full structural survey done on my place before they started building work. Just to establish a base line.

They need to appoint a party wall surveyor, apparently.

vivatifosi

Good luck Pastures. The till drawers are often assigned to an individual so they know who has what till and what it would be out by. In the event of theft, afaik they aren't allowed to take money onto the floor, so it would be strange for them to have cash about their person.

It is most likely an honest mistake. Many supermarkets have their checkout staff on cctv. Pocketing money is dangerous and not worth losing a job over.

You expect the till to be right every day. When something like this happens,it is easy to check. At the end of each session, you run the totals and these can be checked back. Till total minus float should equal total.

ETA...
Oooh, you got back before I finished posting... glad it all turned out ok.

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd be utterly rubbish on a modern till. I used to have a Saturday job in a CoOp and would go on the till - old fashioned one where you pressed the "typewriter keys" to input the amounts. No vouchers, no nectar cards, no debit cards, no PINs. Just the amount and the change.

I've used both. I prefer the modern ones tbh... It's just a matter of getting used to them, though my mental maths is not as quick.. My old till didn't work out change, etc. It is full on working in a store, but there us generally an evidence trail, so worth checking back.

silvercar

GDB2222 wrote: »

They need to appoint a party wall surveyor, apparently.

That would be to agree the work that they want to do and ensure it isn't encroaching on your land.

I would find a surveyor friend and see if it is worth doing a structural survey on yours. Third hand experience would say it most definitely is, but I'm no expert.

A year after your neighbour has their new basement, what happens if you get cracks in a wall near to them? They will say that they have building sign off on their property and that the party wall surveyor signed off all the work. With no prior survey (other than when you bough decades ago) how do you establish that your property was fine until they started digging for gold?

Generali

silvercar wrote: »

That would be to agree the work that they want to do and ensure it isn't encroaching on your land.

I would find a surveyor friend and see if it is worth doing a structural survey on yours. Third hand experience would say it most definitely is, but I'm no expert.

A year after your neighbour has their new basement, what happens if you get cracks in a wall near to them? They will say that they have building sign off on their property and that the party wall surveyor signed off all the work. With no prior survey (other than when you bough decades ago) how do you establish that your property was fine until they started digging for gold?

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What she said. Definitely.

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

That would be to agree the work that they want to do and ensure it isn't encroaching on your land.

I would find a surveyor friend and see if it is worth doing a structural survey on yours. Third hand experience would say it most definitely is, but I'm no expert.

A year after your neighbour has their new basement, what happens if you get cracks in a wall near to them? They will say that they have building sign off on their property and that the party wall surveyor signed off all the work. With no prior survey (other than when you bough decades ago) how do you establish that your property was fine until they started digging for gold?

One of the jobs of the party wall surveyor is a schedule of condition of my property.

Anyway, it's a bit early to get this done, as the next door house has not been sold yet. If they suddenly turn up and start demolition without serving a party wall notice, that will certainly get interesting, but there's no reason to believe that will happen.

GDB2222

I thought Canada is covered in snow and full of lakes. How come it has caught fire?