The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

ukmaggie45

Pyxis wrote: »

Aren't they going to penalise diesel cars, though?

Not in the next 3 years I suspect. And I think it'll be mainly the older ones even then. We may keep next car for 5 years, as I suspect our mileage will be low enough for Motability to allow us to do that... We kept the Renault for 5 years, though it has to be said the last year was a PITA as we had so much trouble with it. The VW Touran hasn't got reliability figures yet as it hasn't been out for long enough yet. But I'm sure it'll be better than Renault!

This is a leased car, so we only have to keep it for 3 years.

Edit: Motability seems very keen on diesel - far more choice of them than petrol cars, at least in the cars that I'm looking at.

silvercar

Oh, heated seats may seem an odd thing to choose a car on, but most of the year I can't cope with anything over a very local journey without heat on my back.

Ckeck that they do heat your back, not just your seat.

GDB2222

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/28/pelvic-mesh-victims-disgusted-at-suggestion-of-sodomy-as-solution?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I think I may have spotted an antipodean doctor with Asperger's!


At the very least, he makes my worst efforts look positively tactful.

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never heard of free tickets, you must know somebody to get those. Yes, people pay.... or, if you're me, you simply don't go.



I refuse to pay entrance fees to enter a space for the chance to buy something (that's probably overpriced anyway).

It's a ploy to keep riff raff like me out I suspect.

Here there's one Food Festival that's simply the High Street closed down and the public open spaces with food trucks and entertainment - no entry fees, all completely free to wander around. I've been to that. Around that event there are "ticket only" events of cooking demonstrations and "special meal deals" at super-pricey venues.

There's another, in a "hired field" that's cheese/chilli and they make a charge ... so I've never been.

There's a "Thai" festival to showcase thai culture/music/food, which is on common space and then fenced off, with an entry fee... two years ago I and 100 others stood outside of the fence looking in muttering "wouldn't pay to go in there, you can see it all from here anyway" .... and by early afternoon they'd stopped trying to charge people to go in (it was dire/run by amateurs though). All a bit comical in its quality of entertainment and whoever was running it on the microphone. All a bit "give the mic to a random person and get them to bluff it, without any talent".

You'd think that getting free tickets would involve knowing the right people, being on the right lists, perhaps having the correct handshake. But no! It involves looking on the freebies page at HotUKDeals.

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/free-entry-to-the-foodies-festival-at-alexandra-palace-2774095



I got free tickets to a film preview of Victoria and Abdul with Judi Dench in it as Queen Victoria, too. Despite not being an A lister. Or even a B, C, or D lister. I'm now on the rentacrowd list.

Not all that many people at the foodie festival, but I saw someone pay £32 for two tickets, which chuffed me immensely. I'm pleased I hadn't paid that, as it definitely wasn't worth it!

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

Ckeck that they do heat your back, not just your seat.

I bought our car when it came off lease, and it had all sorts of extras that I wouldn't have bought. Far too gadgety and self-indulgent.

Heated seats are great, especially with the roof down!

ukmaggie45

silvercar wrote: »

Ckeck that they do heat your back, not just your seat.

Thanks Silver. Been in several cars with them, including OH's current Hyundai. All of them the heat has gone as far as lumbar region, which is what I need. Would be surprised if the Touran only heats yer b*m. But will watch out (or feel out!) when we do test drive.

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/28/pelvic-mesh-victims-disgusted-at-suggestion-of-sodomy-as-solution?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I think I may have spotted an antipodean doctor with Asperger's!


At the very least, he makes my worst efforts look positively tactful.

After I read that, I started humming "Any Dream Will Do" (from "Joseph......."), but paraphrasing the title line.........:D :eek: :eek:

Pyxis

Oh dear :rotfl: :rotfl:

I'm crying with laughter now.

There are some very funny threads in DT at the moment, some with people making outrageous assumptions based on half-baked, sketchy newspaper articles, and in particular one on global warming which has turned into a discussion on the flammability of human farts. :rotfl:

You couldn't make it up! :rotfl:

silvercar

Don't quote, will be deleting all the***** posts.

Fair enough but I do think you are overestimating the strength of the ferals. Has to be a car.

LydiaJ

GDB2222 wrote: »

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/28/pelvic-mesh-victims-disgusted-at-suggestion-of-sodomy-as-solution?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I think I may have spotted an antipodean doctor with Asperger's!

At the very least, he makes my worst efforts look positively tactful.

The article says that while the complaints quoted are from Australian women, the doctors in question were French. The problem doesn't seem to be specific to any one country, anyway.

It's an interesting article in some ways, but I think it's ludicrous to suggest that doctors/surgeons are particularly callous about psychosexual side effects in women. I imagine that there are plenty of doctors who do care - but they may not be aware of how bad or how prevalent the side effects are, as the article noted when it discussed the limitations of the process for gathering statistics without including side effects only reported to GPs and not resulting in hospital readmission. And while obviously there are some doctors who are callous, I'm sure not even all of those are specifically callous to women. Even in this article, mention was made of the painful effect that this device can have on patients' male partners, but that didn't get the device banned either.

Before Viagra was discovered (by researchers who were trying to develop a hypertension treatment, not one for ED, because nobody was bothering much to try to find a treatment for that) men were generally just expected to keep quiet and do without if things weren't working well, just as much as women.

It's likewise risible to suggest that women suffer more stigma for psychosexual disfunction than men do, too. I read in the news a while ago about some poor chap in his 20s who took his own life, and it was only afterwards that anyone found out, from the note that he left, that he'd had complete ED since having mumps or something in his teens, and just couldn't live with the shame of admitting it to girlfriends, or face the embarrassment of seeing a doctor. The stigma is real, and it's horrible, but it's not uniquely female.

Can't the valid points be made without bringing in all this "nasty men are horrible to poor suffering women" dynamic? Castigating the "other side" as some kind of enemy doesn't make progress towards equality.

Why not look at it this way: This device causes an unacceptably high rate of extremely distressing complications. The procedures for gathering stats on devices are pathetic compared with the procedures for gathering stats on drugs, and need to be toughened up to be much more like what happens with drugs. The device needs to be withdrawn and the women who have been injured deserve help. Some surgeons tend to see their patients as cases rather than as people, and need to be re-educated. See - the main points made, with no man-bashing required.

silvercar wrote: »

Fair enough but I do think you are overestimating the strength of the ferals. Has to be a car.

Ferals with a sledgehammer - maybe. Ferals without tools - I doubt it, unless there was something terribly wrong with the construction standards of the wall.

In other news, I have successfully hosted a family of 6 for supper in my house, making 9 altogether with me, DS and DD. The 2 visiting adults plus me, then 3 teenagers (DS, DD & visiting 13-year-old) and 3 littlies (two 9 and one 5). I am feeling very pleased with myself, although I didn't do much. We had some Mr T pizza bases and a selection of toppings designed for both child and grown-up palates. Everyone got to put what they wanted on their bit, and then when they came out of the oven we ate them in the garden, since the weather was beautiful. I followed this with a selection of hand-held ice creams - mars, dairy milk, cornetto, etc. So, very little work for me, but all the children were happy with what they got to eat, and the grown-ups didn't feel they were stuck with kids' food. DD did a sterling job of keeping the little ones entertained, beginning with the trampoline and ending with Just Dance on the Wii. Didn't even create enough washing up to fill the dishwasher!

And the tester pot patches of paint on the walls really do distract from the disgusting state of the carpet. The adults commented on the test patches as soon as they came in, asking which we'd decided to go for. I pointed out which, and then said what colour carpet I was going to get. "Oh," they said, "so are you going to recarpet as well?" I just pointed to the worst bit and said "well, look at it!" Then they could see why getting rid of that carpet is essential, but they really hadn't seen it while they were looking at the walls. Even when I pointed it out, I still felt I could hold my head up as an example of "woman in the process of redecorating" rather than merely "woman with disgusting carpet".