Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

However bad things are, just bear in mind that a man aged 101 has been sentenced to 13 years in prison.

With good behaviour and parole he'll probably still manage to live and get out!

PasturesNew

Why is shopping so cr4p? I hate doing it, but there comes a time when you do it anyway.

I'd been bought some rubber boots for xmas last year and they've both split; hardly worn them. But, no receipt. I'd phoned customer services and they said if I took them into the shop somebody'd look at them and decide.

I'd also got on my xmas food list a particular nut roast, available at Holland/Barrett. It's "BOGO 1/2 Price" so I thought I'd get one of each of two flavours.

It's also "market day", so it made sense for me to put myself out and go into town.

First car park, I drove round twice, no spaces; second car park was OK and I found a spot. Great, I'm here/in.

Boots: Manager's not there today, it's her that looks/decides.

Nut Roast: Shop only had two packets - both the same flavour. So that's no good... didn't know if I liked it, so wasn't going to buy two (or one as I'd feel ripped off).

So that was shopping fail.

Then I popped into Budgens for a wander round .... and appear to have emerged clutching a huge pie (reduced/half price), two indian sides (75% off) and a twin pack of Chocolate Orange Mousse (reduced).... none of which I went in for, nor needed!

Lunch today was a pot of Chocolate Orange Mousse, followed by a fat slice of pie.

Freezer's getting tight, so I finally removed the leeks I froze months ago and nuked them to defrost them, then lobbed them into the slow cooker with 8 potatoes I had ... and some stock. And, when it's cooked.... I'll have to find soddin' freezer space for it, unless I eat it all (it's about 2 litres probably by the time it's cooked at about midnight).

michaels

Hmm...archduke assassinated in Balkans (sort of) and lorry attack in Germany.

I have to admit when the train stopped just outside london terminus this morning and driver announced a security alert ahead and we might want to take the tube instead I decided to wait on the train and see what happened.

zagubov

PN, you and I and the rest of the world could all cope with having a bigger freezer. I miss the giant one I had two houses ago; a really tall 9-drawer one that was as cheap as chips (but now I think back it was only a bit quieter than a pneumatic drill). Still I could buy any bargains and find room to put them away. I'd need a map on the freezer door to find them again.

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

I saw an episode of Heirhunters once where a woman had died without a will. They had to trace her family. All they knew was she'd died in a care home..... where she'd allegedly spoken of "her boys"....

It turned out she was an army wife, brought to the UK by her husband when he moved from India to England, then left in a flat with her three boys while he went away with his job again. Being a foreigner, in a foreign land, etc, she simply couldn't cope - so killed her three boys and was sent to Broadmoor. She was in there so long that when she came out the only appropriate place for her to live was a care home.

It was more "tragic wife left alone and couldn't cope" than "monster mum who went on psychotic rampage".

Just rootling it out: Marjorie, in 1953 she'd tried to kill herself and her three boys, but she'd lived. Upon release, lived in a care home in Hornchurch.

The programme even found her ex-sister-in-law (widow of the army husband's brother), who told them what she remembered of the day they found out. Father: John Hiett; uncle: Ron Hiett.

Ron'd gone into his office and one of the office girls showed him a cutting from the newspaper. He took the paper apparently and said "Oh, my God, this is my brother."

Her husband used to visit her at Broadmoor, but eventually divorced her and remarried.

Despite the fact that previous generations appear monstrous to us in their casual prejudices, it's eye-opening when we see examples of empathy revealed like this.

In the modern world, anybody who'd come through this kind of a family annihilation horror would have still divorced her but be too judgemental to visit her.

PasturesNew

zagubov wrote: »

PN, you and I and the rest of the world could all cope with having a bigger freezer. I miss the giant one I had two houses ago; a really tall 9-drawer one that was as cheap as chips (but now I think back it was only a bit quieter than a pneumatic drill). Still I could buy any bargains and find room to put them away. I'd need a map on the freezer door to find them again.

In the end I scooped it out about 10pm ... divided it between four 250gram margarine tubs. The four tubs are now stacked up in the fridge. I'll have to eat at LEAST two of those really, before I freeze the rest .... I don't even fancy it once at the moment to be honest

I will never, ever, buy leeks again. If I want leek/potato soup I'll buy a 65p can... it stinks in the kitchen and the pot's still in soak as I couldn't be bothered to wash it up yet. I probably "fancy" leek/potato soup usually about once every 3 years, if that!

Pyxis

michaels wrote: »

Hmm...archduke assassinated in Balkans (sort of) and lorry attack in Germany.

I have to admit when the train stopped just outside london terminus this morning and driver announced a security alert ahead and we might want to take the tube instead I decided to wait on the train and see what happened.

What did happen?

michaels

Googling suggested it was a technical problem (thameslink trains do just go bang sometimes) so I decided as it was a broken down train which is usually cleared fairly quickly I would wait but in the end it added 60 mins to my journey whereas taking the tube would only have added 15-30 mins. Still I had my book to read and a seat and no urgent meetings so no harm done.

vivatifosi

I used your train line to go into London on Sunday michaels. We came home on one of the new trains, which was lovely. However it made lots of really strange banging noises as it was being driven. Cue strange/concerned looks from the passengers, who obviously, given this is England, still didn't talk to each other. Much better to share a raised eyebrow.

Is this a design feature of the new trains?

silvercar

The only feature that the trains seem to have is that they keep getting cancelled!

Seems to be a terrible service at the moment.