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

PasturesNew

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

... tried to get the tent set up ...

I went on the basis that I'd not be required at all to be involved in any of the upping and downing. As luck would have it, I did manage to be useful at a couple of important moments when two hands are better than one. It was nice to not feel "bullied" into "doing a fair share" of stuff that you've no idea about.

There are now some that put themselves up, and take 1 minute to come down (then 7-8 minutes of rolling up/into the bag)... saw one of those. There are couple of rods to assist/hold shape but they're quicker/easier than one others using just rods that bend.

I'm not "keen" to ever go myself and get any kit, or accompany somebody where I feel obliged (roped into) to undertake tasks I feel inadequate at, but my companion is very competent alone, so my presence wasn't a necessity, but I happened to be a bit handy.

Many inviters have a nasty habit of hitting you with the bad news they had lined up right after you accept what seems a straight forward offer. e.g. "Do you fancy ....?" "Yes" ... "Oh Good, you can do the [insert random hard job] then" - and suddenly you're committed to a deal you didn't say "yes" to at all!

The way they should've asked, without conning people, would be to say "If you don't mind doing [insert random hard job] then you can come to ... do you fancy that?" ... "No" would be the usual answer.

I try to pre-qualify all offers before accepting.

Pyxis

Th only time I ever went camping was as a thirteen-year-old Guide.

That was sleeping bags on a mat on the grass.
After the first night I started to get asthma, but I managed to struggle through the next day and night, but then it was so bad I had to ask to be taken home.
I was allergic to grass pollen. (Inter alia).
This was in the days before ventolin, or any meaningful inhalers, really.


As an older teenager, I went to stay in a friend's caravan. That was a lot nicer! It was a little mobile caravan, but of course had all the mod cons, excepting a shower, but including a tiny portable (b/w) TV.
I just loved the gas mantles!

vivatifosi

I went camping with my parents when I was about 10. Can't remember where exactly but it was somewhere on the Isle of Wight. It rained, and rained, and rained until the ground was totally sodden.

Then, for good measure it rained some more. The river near which we were camping burst its banks and flooded the tent at 2am. Thankfully after that they bought a touring caravan. Bliss by comparison.

LydiaJ

Grrrrr! :mad:
Am spending the day helping Aged P with notifying all and sundry of his change of address. This is not very urgent - he'll still own the house for some time to come, and it's near enough that he can go back there quite often to check for post - but we want to get on with it. It's all made so difficult, though.

Take TV licences, for example. This should be easy, because he's over 75 and qualifies for a free one. Also, he never watches the TV anyway - he just wants to feel that if he chose to watch something on the iplayer in his flat, then he could, although he almost certainly won't.

He has a letter from the TV licence people addressed to the "current occupier" at the address of his house. This makes me suspect he has already notified them that he's now living in the flat, because otherwise why would they have cancelled the one at his house and be addressing letters to the current occupier? But I thought we'd better check. It says you can log in to these things online. However, when you go to the website to log in, you need the licence number - which is naturally enough not on a letter saying "this address doesn't have a licence". Oh well, I thought, plenty of time to make sure he's got a licence at the flat, at least I can do the thing where you tell them a property's empty so they can stop sending threatening letters to tell the hypothetical occupier that they ought to get a licence. Tried to do that online, but you can't unless you can fill in the date when the property will be occupied. Well, who knows??? It's anybody's guess how long it will take to empty it, and then how long it will take to sell, and then how long the new owner will take to make it habitable before they move in.

Gave up. Stuck a post-it on the letter saying what needs to be done over the phone once it's not a bank holiday. It will probably languish in the flat for a week, and get done by DB#2 who is arriving to spend 5 days with Aged P next Tuesday.

chris_m

Our family holidays were always camping - I think I must have been around 2 when we started going down to Cornwall, then when I was about 8 or 9 we started going to France instead. After a series of frame tents we got a caravan, but a 4 berth van is still cramped for 4 so I still preferred to use a small tent.
Other than holidays, when I was 8 I was off to Cubs, where about half the "camps" were under canvas, followed by Scouts where all bar one each year were.
I then spent my own holidays for many years camping, usually in Snowdonia but also wherever we took the Scouts, me being a leader by then.

Haven't been camping for some years now, but I've still got all the gear - wherever I stashed it when I moved here, that is.

chris_m

LydiaJ wrote: »

Grrrrr! :mad:

Take TV licences, for example. This should be easy, because he's over 75 and qualifies for a free one. Also, he never watches the TV anyway - he just wants to feel that if he chose to watch something on the iplayer in his flat, then he could, although he almost certainly won't.

He has a letter from the TV licence people addressed to the "current occupier" at the address of his house. This makes me suspect he has already notified them that he's now living in the flat, because otherwise why would they have cancelled the one at his house and be addressing letters to the current occupier? But I thought we'd better check. It says you can log in to these things online. However, when you go to the website to log in, you need the licence number - which is naturally enough not on a letter saying "this address doesn't have a licence". Oh well, I thought, plenty of time to make sure he's got a licence at the flat, at least I can do the thing where you tell them a property's empty so they can stop sending threatening letters to tell the hypothetical occupier that they ought to get a licence. Tried to do that online, but you can't unless you can fill in the date when the property will be occupied. Well, who knows??? It's anybody's guess how long it will take to empty it, and then how long it will take to sell, and then how long the new owner will take to make it habitable before they move in.

What does it matter? Provided he has a licence at the address where he is currently resident then he's covered. If they want to waste their time sending their increasingly bullying series of letters, let them.

Even if you tell them that the property is unoccupied they'll still send the letters anyway because they cannot get it into their thick heads that it is perfectly possible for a property to not have a TV, whether or not it is occupied.

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

...

For those with a suitable car, e.g. 4x4 or MPVs, you can get stand alone awnings that attach to the car when it's parked alongside... so, for small people, alone, with the right car and the motivation to "invest" £160-£300 in one of those, it's possible to "camp for wusses", sleeping either in the attachment, or in the vehicle and using the attachment as a living room. Lot of money though for an "idle whim/idea" that one might do it if only one bought that add-on. And, of course, you still have to pay for a pitch and fuel there/back. So, on balance, it does all add up.

Pyxis

LydiaJ wrote: »

Grrrrr! :mad:
Am spending the day helping Aged P with notifying all and sundry of his change of address. This is not very urgent - he'll still own the house for some time to come, and it's near enough that he can go back there quite often to check for post - but we want to get on with it. It's all made so difficult, though.

Take TV licences, for example. This should be easy, because he's over 75 and qualifies for a free one. Also, he never watches the TV anyway - he just wants to feel that if he chose to watch something on the iplayer in his flat, then he could, although he almost certainly won't.

He has a letter from the TV licence people addressed to the "current occupier" at the address of his house. This makes me suspect he has already notified them that he's now living in the flat, because otherwise why would they have cancelled the one at his house and be addressing letters to the current occupier? But I thought we'd better check. It says you can log in to these things online. However, when you go to the website to log in, you need the licence number - which is naturally enough not on a letter saying "this address doesn't have a licence". Oh well, I thought, plenty of time to make sure he's got a licence at the flat, at least I can do the thing where you tell them a property's empty so they can stop sending threatening letters to tell the hypothetical occupier that they ought to get a licence. Tried to do that online, but you can't unless you can fill in the date when the property will be occupied. Well, who knows??? It's anybody's guess how long it will take to empty it, and then how long it will take to sell, and then how long the new owner will take to make it habitable before they move in.

Gave up. Stuck a post-it on the letter saying what needs to be done over the phone once it's not a bank holiday. It will probably languish in the flat for a week, and get done by DB#2 who is arriving to spend 5 days with Aged P next Tuesday.

Lydia, I had this problem when a property I had was unoccupied for quite a long time. I didn't know when it would be occupied again.

I just filled in the date as 3 or 4 month's ' time, and I did that each time they sent a letter to the 'current occupier'. I hadn't intended for it to be unoccupied as long as it was, otherwise I'd have put a greater number of months down.
At the end of each 3or 4 months, they sent another letter, so I just put the same thing down.

You could put 6 or 9 months on it. Or even a year. If they don't like that, then they'll ask you why, I suppose.

To be honest, they just want a response, I suppose. No response might be likely to trigger an investigation.

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

To be honest, they just want a response, I suppose. No response might be likely to trigger an investigation.

To be honest, they just want people to cough up. As far as they are concerned no property cannot possibly have a TV, therefore every property must have a licence, and they will carry on their bullying tactics ad infinitum.

Even if they get a response advising that there is no TV at the property they'll start the string of letters again within a few months.

When I moved, I transferred the licence to my new address - in just the six months it took to complete the sale of my flat they'd already sent three threatening and, frankly, insulting letters, all of which were filed accordingly

If they want to investigate, it's their time they are wasting and, at least, it's keeping someone employed to go knocking on doors of empty properties.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

For those with a suitable car, e.g. 4x4 or MPVs, you can get stand alone awnings that attach to the car when it's parked alongside... so, for small people, alone, with the right car and the motivation to "invest" £160-£300 in one of those, it's possible to "camp for wusses", sleeping either in the attachment, or in the vehicle and using the attachment as a living room. Lot of money though for an "idle whim/idea" that one might do it if only one bought that add-on. And, of course, you still have to pay for a pitch and fuel there/back. So, on balance, it does all add up.

No thanks!

It's still either 'sleeping in a tent' -the awning, and I wouldn't want to sleep in my car. :eek: I can't see that that would be comfortable!
I've only slept in a car once, when I was 24, and that was an estate car, and I didn't like it even then!

Then there's the needing to go to the loo in the middle of the night.

Then there's the security aspect. What's to stop people coming into your tent when you're asleep? Or when you're out somewhere, fo that matter?

And apart from that, I'd never, ever camp on my own, even if it were a Sheik of Araby type tent!


Crumbs! I even balk at the idea of a hotel room without an ensuite these days! :rotfl:
Or a single bed! :rotfl:

No, I'm well entrenched in my wussdom! :rotfl: