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

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

...

I'd kip in the car, I'm small, it's big enough ... and it's better/safer than inside a bit of material.

I never have to go to the loo in the night, so that's not a concern.

I'll admit none of it is ideal, but, for those who really wished to do something, who had the right sort of vehicle to kip in and who had the spare cash to splash about, it's an alternative option to sleeping under a bit of nylon... because, if you can fit in the car, it's going to feel "more secure".

Until there are issues with nutters/campsites, so long as you're not at a rough gaff, the people there are mostly fine/normal. There is a vulnerability when you're lying on the grass, with invisible guy ropes holding it up - and you know "next door" are approaching in the dark in their car..... especially when "next door" only arrived a few hours ago, have tiny tents so will be "young lads" and this will be the first time they're driven there in complete darkness. I was in a big tent though, high/wide/obvious.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd kip in the car, I'm small, it's big enough ... and it's better/safer than inside a bit of material.

I never have to go to the loo in the night, so that's not a concern.

I'll admit none of it is ideal, but, for those who really wished to do something, who had the right sort of vehicle to kip in and who had the spare cash to splash about, it's an alternative option to sleeping under a bit of nylon... because, if you can fit in the car, it's going to feel "more secure".

Until there are issues with nutters/campsites, so long as you're not at a rough gaff, the people there are mostly fine/normal. There is a vulnerability when you're lying on the grass, with invisible guy ropes holding it up - and you know "next door" are approaching in the dark in their car..... especially when "next door" only arrived a few hours ago, have tiny tents so will be "young lads" and this will be the first time they're driven there in complete darkness. I was in a big tent though, high/wide/obvious.

Well, if I wasn't put off before, I am now! :rotfl::rotfl:

michaels

chris_m wrote: »

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.

Outsourced to Capita - 'nuff said.

It appears there are two sorts of people in the world, those who camp and the rest of us normal, sensible people.

Pyxis

michaels wrote: »

It appears there are two sorts of people in the world, those who camp and the rest of us normal, sensible people.

'Ere you! 'Oo you callin' normal and sensible? :mad:

zagubov

I'm not sure I've been camping since well the 70s. There weren't many music festivals back then and the UK never had the weather for it.
Spain and France did have good campsites but in the 80s hotel holidays got so cheap you could have a holiday with running water and leccy.

We just got used to having more. I noticed when the kids were looking at uni halls, they're getting more and more luxurious with lifts, en-suites and in-house laundromats (well outside London they are).

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

We just got used to having more. I noticed when the kids were looking at uni halls, they're getting more and more luxurious with lifts, en-suites and in-house laundromats (well outside London they are).

In-house laundromats were standard in Oxford when I was a student in the late 80s and early 90s. I think there must also have been one in the hostel where I lived in my gap year, because although I don't remember it, I definitely don't remember having to go to a public one, and I think I would have remembered that, or at least feeling that the college one was an improvement the following year. It was a hostel for scientists - students on "sandwich" courses, recent graduates and the occasional gap year student like me - working at a bunch of labs in the area: Harwell, Rutherford-Appleton, Culham, NRPB etc.

En-suites were becoming all the rage in Oxford around 1990ish - because the colleges wanted to be able to use undergraduate rooms for conferences during the holidays, and conference delegates expected en-suites. No sign of them in any post-graduate rooms back then, because the post-grads are there all year round, so their rooms never get used for conferences. Lifts are probably something to do with access for people with mobility issues, I imagine.

SingleSue

chris_m wrote: »

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.

After my brother's divorce he moved out into a flat on his own. He didn't have a television as he couldn't afford one, so if he wanted to watch anything he got mum to record stuff and he would watch it around theirs.

He just would not be believed so in the end he invited one of them in and asked how on earth they thought he would be able to watch the telly with not only no telly but no actual aerial or tv cable either and with the non working old port stuck behind a blooming great, heavy cupboard that had to be taken apart to be moved.

They left him alone after that.

vivatifosi

LydiaJ wrote: »

In-house laundromats were standard in Oxford when I was a student in the late 80s and early 90s. I think there must also have been one in the hostel where I lived in my gap year, because although I don't remember it, I definitely don't remember having to go to a public one, and I think I would have remembered that, or at least feeling that the college one was an improvement the following year. It was a hostel for scientists - students on "sandwich" courses, recent graduates and the occasional gap year student like me - working at a bunch of labs in the area: Harwell, Rutherford-Appleton, Culham, NRPB etc.

En-suites were becoming all the rage in Oxford around 1990ish - because the colleges wanted to be able to use undergraduate rooms for conferences during the holidays, and conference delegates expected en-suites. No sign of them in any post-graduate rooms back then, because the post-grads are there all year round, so their rooms never get used for conferences. Lifts are probably something to do with access for people with mobility issues, I imagine.

DH spent time at Rutherford-Appleton during his PhD and loved it. I dropped him off once and there were loads of fire engines leaving, not what you want to see at a nuclear facility, but there had been a fire in the kitchen, phew!

Pyxis

SingleSue wrote: »

After my brother's divorce he moved out into a flat on his own. He didn't have a television as he couldn't afford one, so if he wanted to watch anything he got mum to record stuff and he would watch it around theirs.

He just would not be believed so in the end he invited one of them in and asked how on earth they thought he would be able to watch the telly with not only no telly but no actual aerial or tv cable either and with the non working old port stuck behind a blooming great, heavy cupboard that had to be taken apart to be moved.

They left him alone after that.

You see, I can 'sympathise' in a way with the Licence people. (Please don't beat me! )
(Oh, I'm all right, this isn't DT, it's the NP thread! Phew!)

The reason being that I would imagine the percentage of people defaulting on paying for a licence far outstrips the percentage which doesn't have a television.
The latter must be a very, very small number indeed, maybe similar to the number of people who don't have an inside loo! (Unoccupied properties excepted).

The big problem these days is that it's all complicated by the rules regarding what you can watch on catch-up type things or on computers.

Personally, I think that the BBC is worth every single penny of the licence fee. And more probably. The quality of progs on BBC4 is outstanding imo.

I don't have anything Sky or cable. I can't keep up with stuff I want to watch on terrestrial channels, let alone adding more to the mix....... the cost is far too great, I think.

The only stuff I have missed is Game of Thrones, after the first series which was on terrestrial, and possibly some of the old serials on Gold. Those certainly don't justify the expense of signing up to Sky or a cable channel.

Which reminds me; I'm going to have to buy the boxed set of Thrones.

As regards the 'threatening' letters, well, to innocent people, they may seem a bit heavy-handed, though not that much, but to someone who is skiving, they may provoke a response.
But then, I've usually responded and told them the position. Now that you can do it online, it's quick enough to do. It was more of a pain in the past when you had to post the form off.

The only letter I got which was a bit heavy was when I hadn't been to the flat for a while, so hadn't had the first letter; it was a bit more alarming than the first one, but tbh, all you have to do is respond to it!

After all, people like me, who pay for their licence, are subsiding people who watch TV and don't pay for a licence, so I can't really have sympathy for those people!


Edit.....as regards the frequency of the letters, well, to be fair, the TV situation in a property can change overnight, so it's understandable that they need to keep asking.
If the property is unoccupied, you give them a length of time for it being unoccupied, and then you don't hear from them again until the end of the stated period.

Pyxis

LydiaJ wrote: »

In-house laundromats were standard in Oxford when I was a student in the late 80s and early 90s. I think there must also have been one in the hostel where I lived in my gap year, because although I don't remember it, I definitely don't remember having to go to a public one, and I think I would have remembered that, or at least feeling that the college one was an improvement the following year. It was a hostel for scientists - students on "sandwich" courses, recent graduates and the occasional gap year student like me - working at a bunch of labs in the area: Harwell, Rutherford-Appleton, Culham, NRPB etc.

En-suites were becoming all the rage in Oxford around 1990ish - because the colleges wanted to be able to use undergraduate rooms for conferences during the holidays, and conference delegates expected en-suites. No sign of them in any post-graduate rooms back then, because the post-grads are there all year round, so their rooms never get used for conferences. Lifts are probably something to do with access for people with mobility issues, I imagine.

Yes, it's definitely the vacation period conference trade that brings in the money if you can offer ensuite facilities.
Plus, with the availability of those pods that come complete, it's easy enough to install them in existing buildings, and new buildings plan them in.
They probably pay for themselves after the first conference season.

I once attended a special music thing at Oxford, and stayed in a Hall. It was quite interesting, being back in a student room!

To be honest, I would have liked to have been in one of the old buildings, even though they aren't en-suite, just for the experience!
It would have been one of the very few times I would have been prepared to toddle off down the corridor in the middle of the night, hopefully having remembered to pack a dressing gown!

Breakfast was in an old refectory, which was nice. The long benches at the refectory tables were a slight challenge, if you weren't on an end, but they did warn you about that! Purposeful movements were the key!

One thing that did annoy me a little bit was that the attitude of the refectory staff and of the Porters was still geared up for unruly students, which given that the average age of my group was probably 50, was a bit irritating!