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

ivyleaf

Pyxis wrote: »

Re. Father Brown, I watched all the repeats last year. Hadn't seen it before.

The latest policeman really, really annoys me. He's a terrible actor, plus the constant antagonism is wearing. At least with previous policemen they did acknowledge Father Brown's assistance.

I can't take him seriously as a copper anyway, because every time he appears onscreen i think "Oh, it's Marty from Shameless!"

GDB2222

ivyleaf wrote: »

Oh silvercar, how awful i take it his death was sudden? I am so sorry.

Lydia - I've just had an email from my sister-in-law (wife of my brother who died in November). She lives in Germany, but my brother was British and had worked full-time in UK for over 40 years.
When he died, she rang DWP and was told she would be entitled to a lump sum (which she is still waiting for) and then £100 per week until she reaches what would be her State retirement age if she lived in the UK. (Like me, hers would be this July, so she wouldn't receive it for long, but of course it would be a huge help.)
She has now been told she was misinformed and that because my brother died after 6th April 2017, she will get only £100 per month, not per week I am ashamed of our government.

The government is looking for ways to save money, so they keep changing the rules. It's impossible for the staff to keep pace with the rate of change.

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

The government is looking for ways to save money, so they keep changing the rules. It's impossible for the staff to keep pace with the rate of change.

All this cost-cutting is driving me mad.

I wish they would just put taxes up and be done with it.





It's like those stupid biscuit companies.
Reducing the size and number of biscuits in a packet in order to keep the price the same, and thinking we wouldn't notice.
Just put the price up if costs have gone up!

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.:(

silvercar

Pyxis wrote: »

Oh how sad.
What happened?

More details in the other place.

vivatifosi

I saw a t shirt today that made me chuckle:

If at first you don't succeed

Skydiving may not be for you

Pyxis

vivatifosi wrote: »

I saw a t shirt today that made me chuckle:

If at first you don't succeed

Skydiving may not be for you

My eeyore mentality made me roar with laughter when someone I know sang me this song that she wrote.............

"If at first you don't succeed,
Then try and try again,
And again, but then again
If you still don't succeed,
Just......give up!"


It sounds better sung, and the tune is in a minor key, but not sad!

LydiaJ

Scary how unreliable memory is...
I was doing something (can't now remember what) online the other day, when I came across a name of an author. I recognised the name immediately, and was quite sure I had read and enjoyed her books very much in my 20s. I looked her up, and found she'd written quite a lot of historical stuff, but her most famous work was a series of several books set in the 20th century, and published over the period when I was 17-25, so it would have been "all the rage" when I was the age I think I remember being when I read it. The historical stuff didn't ring a bell - I was quite sure what I'd read before had been set in what was, at the time, the current century, so, having failed to find any electronic form available, I ordered a second hand paper copy of a double volume of the first two books in that series. It came, and I started reading it. I've read the whole of the first novel without recognising anything in the slightest. Every single plot twist caught me by surprise, right to the end of the book, even though several might have been supposed to be memorable (or even guess-able) because they were of the sort where you think "Ah, I see what she was doing, setting up storylines A and B to join up like this."

If I was as enamoured of her books in my 20s as I'm sure I was, I certainly wouldn't have omitted the first book in the series, even if it wasn't the one I came across first. So what have I forgotten - am I mistaken in thinking I liked her stuff so much back then, or has what I read back then been completely erased from my memory? It's weird. I've had other experiences of reading books that felt new until I came to a bit that made me feel "oh, I've read that before" or "I think I know what's going to happen next" and realised that I had read them decades ago and forgotten most of it, but never this total blank of a book I was sure I'd previously read. I also have the kind of memory that is generally very good at stories, anecdotes, plot lines and that sort of thing, but consistently useless about names.

Definitely weird.

Pyxis

LydiaJ wrote: »

Scary how unreliable memory is...
I was doing something (can't now remember what) online the other day, when I came across a name of an author. I recognised the name immediately, and was quite sure I had read and enjoyed her books very much in my 20s. I looked her up, and found she'd written quite a lot of historical stuff, but her most famous work was a series of several books set in the 20th century, and published over the period when I was 17-25, so it would have been "all the rage" when I was the age I think I remember being when I read it. The historical stuff didn't ring a bell - I was quite sure what I'd read before had been set in what was, at the time, the current century, so, having failed to find any electronic form available, I ordered a second hand paper copy of a double volume of the first two books in that series. It came, and I started reading it. I've read the whole of the first novel without recognising anything in the slightest. Every single plot twist caught me by surprise, right to the end of the book, even though several might have been supposed to be memorable (or even guess-able) because they were of the sort where you think "Ah, I see what she was doing, setting up storylines A and B to join up like this."

If I was as enamoured of her books in my 20s as I'm sure I was, I certainly wouldn't have omitted the first book in the series, even if it wasn't the one I came across first. So what have I forgotten - am I mistaken in thinking I liked her stuff so much back then, or has what I read back then been completely erased from my memory? It's weird. I've had other experiences of reading books that felt new until I came to a bit that made me feel "oh, I've read that before" or "I think I know what's going to happen next" and realised that I had read them decades ago and forgotten most of it, but never this total blank of a book I was sure I'd previously read. I also have the kind of memory that is generally very good at stories, anecdotes, plot lines and that sort of thing, but consistently useless about names.

Definitely weird.

Weree films made of the books? That may have been the memory.

Or it may just be that they weren't the right books, and you haven't found the ones she wrote that you read before.

Or you may be conflating two authors in your memory, and the name you recognised wasn't the author of the books you've just read.


I once had an interesting experience that made me realise the power of imagination and mind-pictures.

At one point I was doing a lot of motorway travelling, and someone lent me me CD of Stephen Fry narrating one of the Harry Potter books.
At the time, I hadn't seen any of the films.
Anyway, that brightened up a couple of motorways no end.

Quite a long time later, the film of that book came onto the TV, and I was convinced I'd seen it before, but I hadn't. (I mean I thought I'd actually seen it, not just recognised the story!)

Then I realised that I had seen it....... in my mind! Wow!

LydiaJ

Pyxis wrote: »

Were films made of the books? That may have been the memory.

Or it may just be that they weren't the right books, and you haven't found the ones she wrote that you read before.

Or you may be conflating two authors in your memory, and the name you recognised wasn't the author of the books you've just read.

I once had an interesting experience that made me realise the power of imagination and mind-pictures.

At one point I was doing a lot of motorway travelling, and someone lent me me CD of Stephen Fry narrating one of the Harry Potter books.
At the time, I hadn't seen any of the films.
Anyway, that brightened up a couple of motorways no end.

Quite a long time later, the film of that book came onto the TV, and I was convinced I'd seen it before, but I hadn't. (I mean I thought I'd actually seen it, not just recognised the story!)

Then I realised that I had seen it....... in my mind! Wow!

Nope, no films. And I'm sure it's the right series. Imagine an author whose most notable series was set in the context of, say, London banks, or international tennis, or something distinctive like that, while all her other writing was in other contexts. I remember the name of the author, and the nature of the context in which the books were set, so I'm sure they're the right ones.

It's possible, I suppose, that what I remember is lots of people I knew going on about how wonderful they were, but that I never actually read them myself, but it seems unlikely.

Pyxis

I just asked Siri "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood", and he referred me to "The Woodchuck Getting Started Guide"!