Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

vivatifosi

Have had a splendid weekend. Have been to the final two days of the UCI World Track Cycling competition. Today was an absolute treat to see both Laura Trott (from Inner Herts no less) and then Cav and Wiggo win gold. If I thought the cheers for the first one were loud... the second burst my ear drums!

CKhalvashi

Doozergirl wrote: »

Ditto. sometimes anyone can across the wrong way without meaning to. I'm still feeling incredibly blessed at obtaining my free valet, despite being a bit of a minion and not driving a 5 Series.

I'm still sorry Doozer. The point I was trying to make was one of customer service on BMW/Mini's part, and I still (not so) secretly like the Mini, but as I explained it comes down to cost, and that is where they're not cheap at all for my situation.

I appreciate I could have chosen the wording better, but that's life.

silvercar wrote: »

We miss you on here, it is a shame that difference of opinion made you re-evaluate your involvement with the thread. FWIW I think you massively over reacted, they are entitled to their views as much as you are to yours.

I agree that everyone is entitled to their view, however if LiR feels upset about something then that's her choice entirely, and it's not right to judge on that basis.

It is a bigger shame that what you posted has made lots of regulars feel the need to try and recall if it is what they said that upset you. Would have been nicer for you to just pass through and say hi, rather than dredge up old business.:(

If it's me, I'm sorry

Doozergirl

CK, I was just jesting this time. Apology accepted! I'm sorry now!

Generali

Cripes. Well this turned into the Herts Festival of Sorry while I slept!

In other news:

1. It's 30C today.
2. It's bonus day

Actually, more accurately it's remuneration at risk day today. The way we've been told to think about it is that you have a part of your pay which is held until the end of the year and is paid to you about Easter time. You should expect to get half of your remuneration at risk. I got 80% which I was pretty bloody chuffed with. Next year my rem at risk doubles as a result of my efforts this year.

In other other news, I for one like PN posting about the banalities of watching TV and eating spaghetti sandwiches.

SingleSue

I had a posh meal out today.....I say posh, the hotel was very posh at one time and still retains that feeling of quality and service when inside but it has fallen out of favour to a good proportion of the locals for the more fashionable and contempory (and expensive) new restaurants that have opened recently.

I love it, youngest loves it and after today, my parents love it. The meal was amazing, the service very attentive and best of all, it didn't cost the earth...unlike the now ultra fashionable restaurants.

Old school service standards most certainly beats pounding music, poncy menus and being stacked in like cattle.

Generali

The downside of the nice summer we've been having in Sydney:

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/arachnopolis-now-perfect-conditions-prompt-a-boom-in-sydney-redbacks-huntsmen-and-golden-orbs-20160306-gnc3bz.html

Sydney is in the midst of a spider boom, with "perfect conditions" leading to more offspring than usual surviving and resulting in many plants and other objects being draped with silken webs, according to the Australian Museum.

David Bock, who manages the museum's Search and Discovery section, said the warm, moist start to summer had triggered a surge in many insect numbers - such as moths and butterflies - which were now providing abundant food for spiders and other predators. While female spiders often lay 50-100 eggs with only a few offspring surviving, many more were doing so, producing second and third generations in the season, Mr Bock said.

<<half-hearted cheer smilie>>

Actually I've not seen much in the way of horrid spiders this year. Last year I saw a redback and the 2 years before that I saw funnel webs. This year we have had a smallish huntsman in the house so far this year (a big huntsman has the body the size of a small mouse with massive, hairy legs so these things are relative). We probably have redbacks under the house (almost all Sydney houses do so there is nothing special there).

I wouldn't mind so much if I could eat the damn things.

vivatifosi

That's one thing I've always wondered about Aussie houses Gen. If you know the answer, I'd love to know. I get that certain houses, e.g. Queenslanders, are built to reduce risk of flooding. But why have a house with crawl space, when that space will inevitably be occupied by poisonous spiders? It would be just as easy, at least for new houses, to build on a solid base. I'm guessing it is the same reason as tin roofs... cheap and utilitarian.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

That's one thing I've always wondered about Aussie houses Gen. If you know the answer, I'd love to know. I get that certain houses, e.g. Queenslanders, are built to reduce risk of flooding. But why have a house with crawl space, when that space will inevitably be occupied by poisonous spiders? It would be just as easy, at least for new houses, to build on a solid base. I'm guessing it is the same reason as tin roofs... cheap and utilitarian.

Exactly right. Building on a slab rather than on piles makes the house more expensive to buy (although a lot cheaper to run in NSW & VIC at least) however there are plenty of people that think the cost of a house (or car or washing machine) is the ticket price not the lifetime cost of ownership.

Nobody puts in new tin roofs except in the country. They work well out bush but that's because the embers from bush fires just bounce off. Even then it's not normal to have a tin roof in rural NSW these days.

GDB2222

Tin roofs - my first thought was that they must be bloody noisy when it rains. My second thought was that it probably doesn't rain much where they have tin roofs.

PasturesNew

For Aus, somebody needs to invent a small, battery/solar powered, self-docking, miniature spider hunter/killer. It'd sit on the floor of your living room, or even outside, and as soon as it spotted one it'd track/chase it, then aim/fire and kill it.