Mundane News

[Mad Doug Biker]

A neighbour keeps knocking at the door and I have a pretty good idea of who it'll be, except I am pretending I am not in.

It'll be the elderly neighbour asking me to go buy her Cigarettes, except, I have no intention of going out.

Am I being bad?

 

[Rocky]

A neighbour keeps knocking at the door and I have a pretty good idea of who it'll be, except I am pretending I am not in.

It'll be the elderly neighbour asking me to go buy her Cigarettes, except, I have no intention of going out.

Am I being bad?

It sounds so much better when written by Robbie Burns:

There comes a rattle at the door,
A lassie I’ve heard a time before—
Wi’ weary guess, I ken the knell,
It’s Mistress Jean, I ken her well.

She’ll seek a hand, as oft she will,
Tae fetch her smoke frae ower the hill.
But I, wi’ stealth an’ breath held tight,
Sit dumb and still, hid oot o’ sight.

Nae coat I don, nae keys I seek,
I let the knock gang past, sae meek.
Nae errand this cold nicht I’ll dare—
I’m warm, an’ aye, I dinna care.

Am I a rogue? A heartless brute?
For lettin’ her plea turn destitute?
Or just a soul, wi’ waning grace,
That wants a nicht in peace and space?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

It sounds so much better when written by Robbie Burns:

There comes a rattle at the door,
A lassie I’ve heard a time before—
Wi’ weary guess, I ken the knell,
It’s Mistress Jean, I ken her well.

She’ll seek a hand, as oft she will,
Tae fetch her smoke frae ower the hill.
But I, wi’ stealth an’ breath held tight,
Sit dumb and still, hid oot o’ sight.

Nae coat I don, nae keys I seek,
I let the knock gang past, sae meek.
Nae errand this cold nicht I’ll dare—
I’m warm, an’ aye, I dinna care.

Am I a rogue? A heartless brute?
For lettin’ her plea turn destitute?
Or just a soul, wi’ waning grace,
That wants a nicht in peace and space?

Nice, I like that, but she's hardly a 'lass' as she must be about 85 if she's a day. Also, the shop is down the hill, not over it! 🤣

Urgh, I feel guilty now and it's not as if I have the "it's for your own good" standpoint - If she was going to have health issues from the smoking, then it probably would have happened by now and what years does she have left anyway? She might as well be happy.

That said, where's her family? 🤔

 

[Rocky]

Nice, I like that, but she's hardly a 'lass' as she must be about 85 if she's a day. Also, the shop is down the hill, not over it! 🤣

Urgh, I feel guilty now and it's not as if I have the "it's for your own good" standpoint - If she was going to have health issues from the smoking, then it probably would have happened by now and what years does she have left anyway? She might as well be happy.

That said, where's her family? 🤔

Perhaps you could buy her a big tin of tobacco and some rolling papers and teach her to roll her own?

 

[Mike_P]

Made sure the ebike behaved itself with the use of two sets of three cable ties fastened around the battery. Occurred to me that by crossing them over the go pro helmet mount stuck to the end of the battery for the Varia would also be held in place, has shown signs of coming unstuck on a couple of occasions.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Perhaps you could buy her a big tin of tobacco and some rolling papers and teach her to roll her own?

But then she'll just ask me to go and buy those instead.

It's "20 of Club", that's what I've been told to say, as I am no smoker and they are at £14.30 a pack.
Where she has the money, I know not, but she doesn't seem to care.

 

[VinSumRox]

New shiny tripod garden stepladder delivered, must go and trim some bushes.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Took Beautiful Daughter to visit the local Gymnasium (Grammar School) to see if it is for her. She really likes it, so now we have two possibilities.

Local state schools are very different from the local schools I went to in Manchester and the West Midlands in the 90's. For one thing, they look pleasant: Architects seem to have been involved in the planning, and the building was light and airy and fitted into the hillside.

It also appeared to have been repainted in the current century.

What astonished me personally, apart from the amount of glass, and none of it boarded up, was the almost complete absence of graffiti: I couldn't find any anywhere, not even scratched into the tables or the oak (oak!) benches in the corridor. In my school there was hardly a desk where you could see the cheap melamine surface through "Cheryl 4 Barry"; and "Spurs United city are tossers" or drawings of human anatomy. Here the only graffiti was in the art classroom.

In short, it looked like somewhere you might actually want to go to every day.

Also, the head teacher (who had a sense of humour, egads) actually seemed to grasp that there was a social part of being in school. The school had built a concept around the idea that some afternoons were there for students to socialise in a semi-formal environment.

What really threw me, was the teacher saying goodbye in the middle of the school; inviting us to "have a look around for yourselves" and leaving us there.

If you need me I'll be getting over the culture shock...

 

[Mike_P]

Evening Aldi trek primarily for apples, Braeburns 6 for 99p.
Decided the navy jacket was not such a good purchase. Overlooked the size of the pockets, the inner pocket takes the wallet only so the mobile has to go in the rucksack while the front side pockets are challenged by anything beyond one key.

 

[biggs682]

Evening cuppa went down well earlier with a chocolate digestive
Green recycling and brown garden waste bins are kerbside

 

[dicko]

We have checked out of the hotel and because our flight is in eight hours time they packed us up with a big box of pastries which is too much for us so we distributed them amongst the city street beggars they were very much appreciated.

 

[rockyroller]

been busy at work. who's to blame for this!?

 

[classic33]

A neighbour keeps knocking at the door and I have a pretty good idea of who it'll be, except I am pretending I am not in.

It'll be the elderly neighbour asking me to go buy her Cigarettes, except, I have no intention of going out.

Am I being bad?

Yes!

Next question...

 

[Andy in Germany]

A neighbour keeps knocking at the door and I have a pretty good idea of who it'll be, except I am pretending I am not in.

It'll be the elderly neighbour asking me to go buy her Cigarettes, except, I have no intention of going out.

Am I being bad?

No.

Her cigarettes are her responsibility, not yours. You could argue it's a valuable learning experience, either helping her learn to live without cigarettes, or organise herself to make sure she has what she needs and not demand things from others at a moment's notice.

Also, you can set your own boundaries: if you don't want to go out, you don't have to.

 

[rockyroller]

Took Beautiful Daughter to visit the local Gymnasium (Grammar School) to see if it is for her. She really likes it, so now we have two possibilities.

Local state schools are very different from the local schools I went to in Manchester and the West Midlands in the 90's. For one thing, they look pleasant: Architects seem to have been involved in the planning, and the building was light and airy and fitted into the hillside.

It also appeared to have been repainted in the current century.

What astonished me personally, apart from the amount of glass, and none of it boarded up, was the almost complete absence of graffiti: I couldn't find any anywhere, not even scratched into the tables or the oak (oak!) benches in the corridor. In my school there was hardly a desk where you could see the cheap melamine surface through "Cheryl 4 Barry"; and "Spurs United city are tossers" or drawings of human anatomy. Here the only graffiti was in the art classroom.

In short, it looked like somewhere you might actually want to go to every day.

Also, the head teacher (who had a sense of humour, egads) actually seemed to grasp that there was a social part of being in school. The school had built a concept around the idea that some afternoons were there for students to socialise in a semi-formal environment.

What really threw me, was the teacher saying goodbye in the middle of the school; inviting us to "have a look around for yourselves" and leaving us there.

If you need me I'll be getting over the culture shock...

fwiw - we were lucky. our kids got "socialization" from other sources besides school. sports & their religious congregation's events. also had mentors besides Mom & Dad & Teachers. good on that school of yours for seeing the value

side note, I just remembered a near death experience for our Son. while at a gym or recess gym session, the kids were playing some game where they kicked a rubber ball, like the size of a soccer ball but not a soccer ball. anyway, 1 kid kicked the ball, it flew up & struck a big heavy lighting fixture directly above our Son. everyone looked up at it & then it dislodged immediately & came crashing to the floor. fortunately our Son jumped out of the way. it was enormous, surely would have killed him. someone has to double check those ceiling light attachments!!!