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

hjd

michaels wrote: »

Take for example teachers, a good teacher probably earns in the 40ks? When I was growing up teachers were probably richer than average but now even at the kids state school this would no doubt be a bottom quartile salary and yet is well above the median household income.

Teachers mostly earn less than £40k. To earn £40k in the state system you would need to have been teaching for more than 10 years and have progressed to the upper pay scale.
If you want to become a head teacher you could earn a lot more, depending on the size of the school, but most teachers prefer teaching to administrating.

michaels

hjd wrote: »

Teachers mostly earn less than £40k. To earn £40k in the state system you would need to have been teaching for more than 10 years and have progressed to the upper pay scale.
If you want to become a head teacher you could earn a lot more, depending on the size of the school, but most teachers prefer teaching to administrating.

Point taken, I was more thinking of teachers with similar experience as me which is many more years than I care to remember. Someone I know is working as an extra in a movie that includes the live aid concert, what is scarey is the number of years before she was born that the concert took place. Pretty soon I will be old enough to remember the war....

Pyxis

michaels wrote: »

Point taken, I was more thinking of teachers with similar wxperience as me which is many more years than I care to remember. Someone I know is working as an extra in a movie that includes the live aid concert, what is scarey is the number of years before she was born that the concert took place. Pretty soon I will be old enough to remember the war....

Which war?

LydiaJ

GDB2222 wrote: »

Is there a system for resolving disputes about the price? Apart from that, it seems a very good system.

Yes. You (or your estate) just get back the purchase price. The fact that they get to keep the capital appreciation is used to keep the service charge down to a reasonably affordable level.

PasturesNew wrote: »

(Not for me) - I visited a type of home that had individual rooms with "mini kitchens" in them - and downstairs there was a lounge and garden and a big dining room. The deal there was that you got your meals provided and the rent you paid was for your room including all bills and two hot meals a day. You can use your own mini kitchen to make your own breakfast and late night snacks.

https://www.abbeyfield.com

People were able to come/go and lead their lives, but could sit down to regular home cooked food provided by staff who were on-site all day just providing that food etc.

It was about £1000/month I think at the time (6 years ago) - and, for some, would have been a good lifestyle as you never had to worry about food shopping, cooking, clearing away, cleaning. They also provided a laundry service if you wanted. It was intended for "independent" people.

Intended for, say, 60s-90s or so, "bizarrely" there was also a small house just separate from the main building, where a family rented - a married couple and a mid-20s daughter... all on the same type of arrangement.

There are a few dotted around the country. Their properties are all different, but quite a few have that "studio flatlet" arrangement, with a communal lounge and meals provided.

That takes me back, PN. A friend and I used to visit a lady who lived in an Abbeyfield house weekly when I was about 14 or so. It was supposed to be the "service" element of our Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, but our school wasn't very organised about it, so we never managed to get the award. We enjoyed visiting our Mrs Gould, though. She had Alzheimer's, so she asked the same questions over and over again, but she was quite fun. There was another lady downstairs, who said she didn't want to commit to being in to be visited every week, but any time we turned up and Mrs Gould had forgotten to be in for us, we were welcome to see if she was in, and she happened to be there, she'd love to see us. We liked her, too. In that Abbeyfield I don't think they had any facilities for doing their own cooking at all. In fact, our extra downstairs lady moved out after a year or so to a different home that did have little kitchenette arrangements in the rooms, but it wasn't very far away, so we visited her there too.

Pyxis wrote: »

Lydia, I was thinking about your father yesterday, and wondering if he had moved in yet!

Not yet, thanks Pyxis. He should complete, all being well, at the end of next week. But he won't be ready to move by then. There are still lots of decisions to be made about what to take and what to leave, and anyway, I want to get the work done moving the radiators and fitting a shelf and extra power sockets etc while the flat is still empty.

LydiaJ

Pyxis wrote: »

Oh yes! I saw that yesterday........... Rosh Hashanah isn't it?

Having had my language button pressed, , I see it literally means 'beginning year' and that the biblical name was Yom Teruah meaning 'day of shouting/blasting' in the sense of blowing trumpets and making a lot of noise!
Sounds good to me!

Just so long as no walls come a-tumbling down!

I like that idea. My (admittedly not enormously well informed) impression of Jewish culture is that they're very good at having fun celebrating things. A day of shouting and blasting trumpets sounds great. Unless you've only just got the baby to sleep, of course. :eek:

Jewish NP - is there a phrase you're supposed to say to each other on Jewish New Year? In Hebrew, perhaps? It would be nice to wish you a happy New Year in the right language. Hope all NP who are celebrating at the moment are having fun, anyway.

michaels wrote: »

When I was growing up teachers were probably richer than average but now even at the kids state school this would no doubt be a bottom quartile salary and yet is well above the median household income.

I'm confused. How can something be a bottom quartile salary and yet be above median household income? Doesn't the median always have to be above the bottom quartile? Or have I misunderstood what you were trying to say?

michaels wrote: »

Point taken, I was more thinking of teachers with similar experience as me which is many more years than I care to remember. Someone I know is working as an extra in a movie that includes the live aid concert, what is scarey is the number of years before she was born that the concert took place. Pretty soon I will be old enough to remember the war....

I remember Live Aid. And the Falklands. And although I don't remember WWII, when I was growing up all the stories that my parents told about their childhoods were during WWII, so I feel I know the period much better than people whose parents' stories were later.

Also, when I think of teachers, I think of teachers with more than 10 years' experience too. I have 20 now. Although only 5 were full time.

Pyxis

LydiaJ wrote: »

I like that idea. My (admittedly not enormously well informed) impression of Jewish culture is that they're very good at having fun celebrating things. A day of shouting and blasting trumpets sounds great. Unless you've only just got the baby to sleep, of course. :eek:

Jewish NP - is there a phrase you're supposed to say to each other on Jewish New Year? In Hebrew, perhaps? It would be nice to wish you a happy New Year in the right language. Hope all NP who are celebrating at the moment are having fun, anyway.
.

:rotfl: I can just see Maureen Lipman, in a Beattie-type sketch, saying "Now no more trumpet-blasting, Malcolm, the baby's only just got off to sleep."

As for the greeting, is it Shanah Tovah?
Meaning "(have) a good year".

According to Wiki, you an also say Shanah Tovah Umetukah, meaning "A Good and Sweet Year".

I like the idea of a sweet year!

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

,... I don't think they had any facilities for doing their own cooking at all. ... a different home that did have little kitchenette arrangements in the rooms, but it wasn't very far away, so we visited her there too.

I probably misrepresented that. By mini kitchen I really meant that there was a cupboard in the corner of the room, containing a sink with a drainer and cupboard underneath it - there was room for a small fridge (for milk for coffees etc) and there was a small table. There was a cupboard over the sink. So there was room for somebody to keep a couple of plates and mugs and a bit of cutlery and room for a toaster and a kettle, so they could make themselves some toast, or cereal and a drink and sit at their little table. That is, rather than it just being "a bedroom with a bed and wardrobe and a sink for brushing teeth and washing hands".

PasturesNew

Talking of teachers' pay, when I left school, the Headteacher there was very "posh". Born in India (so posh parents out there), he did the whole WW2 thing and ended up with an MBE (I think his son is now a CBE - more nepotism). After retiring he kept busy-bodying about locally, being a Councillor and having an assortment of local buildings and roads named after him .... I bet many breathed a sigh of relief when he finally popped off as he was one of those "annoying, patronising, pompous, arrogant 'toff types' who just felt he was always right". Even 20-25 years after he'd retired from the school he wrote to the latest/new Head to 'welcome' him, but that had his "stamp of personality" all over it in a passive aggressive manner... "I've left, but I'm watching and I have clout, so watch what you do" style.

Despised that man.

A very over-bearing manner, who sucked people into licking his 4rse simply because he was tall and spoke very poshly and had been around "for decades"... social climbers loved him. A very passive aggressive and manipulative way of speaking and dealing with people.... which some people can see, but without the clout/skills you can't take them on.

SingleSue

My headteacher at primary school was (and still is) lovely. He and his wife lived on our road and they would throw themselves into the resident things (street parties, BBQ etc).

He eventually gave up being a headteacher as he missed being in the classroom saying he didn't train to be sat in an office, he wanted to teach and after he retired, he got bored and went back into schools as a supply teacher.

He had to admit to feeling old though when he taught some of my (and others in my cohort) offspring as a supply teacher....

Pyxis

I was wrong...... it wasn't Malcolm with Beattie. It was Antony.


Malcolm was the Vicks Sinex spray mother's boy.


Funny though, I'm sure I can hear Maureen Lipman saying 'Malcolm" in something, though.




Talking of Maureen Lipman, I wish they'd do another series of Plebs. I really liked that series, because despite its deliberate anachronisms, it depicted Roman life really well.
Ryan Sampson, who played Grumio, was brilliantly awful!

I alsways thought that Tom Rosenthal, who was one of the leads in Plebs, must be a relation by marriage to Maureen L., but it appears not. At least if they are related, it's not mentioned in their Wiki profiles.