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 Author Thread: Killing Of Soldier in Woolwich
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 20 (view)
 
Killing Of Soldier in Woolwich
Posted: 5/24/2013 4:42:19 AM
I know where you are coming from there lightstar1

I did the shoeboxes to Afghanistan thing this year. Joined a FB page and sent several shoeboxes full of treats etc to two soldiers for a few months till their tours finished in April. It seemed a nice idea at the time but the more stuff I read on the FB page from other people sending shoeboxes.....the more the system seemed lacking.
When you got allocated a soldier you got a list of things you could/should send.....and a list of things that were forbidden.
That was fine......but I went into it thinking I'd be sending chocolates, crisps, sweets, magazines, etc. Just treats they'd not be able to get over there and stuff to help pass the time.

But then there were posts all over the FB page from people getting mail/calls back from soldiers and from the parents/families of soldiers......saying the soldiers were desperate for gloves, beanies and thermal socks to keep them warm. For anything they could add boling water to, to make a hot drink or a hot meal. For fleece blankets and safety pins so they could fasten the blankets inside their sleeping bags to keep them warm at night.

Surely the government should be able to supply soldiers on tour with enough kit to at least keep them warm!!!!!!!
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 11 (view)
 
POF in UK
Posted: 5/21/2013 2:34:14 PM

How bad is the intimate encounter like messages for women in the UK? I know from the administration side the UK is by far the most pervy of any country.


I for one did get fed up with both sleazy messages from guys....and the messages from guys in their 20s and 30s. I tightened up the age restrictions to get rid of the messages from men too young but still get the occassional sleazy message.

I am glad the chat box is gone. That seemed to be just another excuse for men with no profile pictures to want to start talking filth within a few minutes.

I personally have no problem with the new age restrictions.......just think 14 years is maybe a bit too tight. 20 years might not have so many people up in arms.

I also know couples who have met on here. :)
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 286 (view)
 
Message Restrictions
Posted: 5/21/2013 3:19:07 AM
Yes people should be able to send/recieve messages from any age........but I'm laughing here at the double standard some are spouting.
Let me get this right.....you are saying that women should use the age restrictions available on their profiles to block messages from men who are considerably older or younger..........just so that you gentlemen don't have to put up with age restrictions?

I used the age restrictions option when I started getting more nuisance mail from men in their 20s and 30s than mail from men my own age. It annoyed me that it had got to the stage where I was fed up enough to block all contact from people under/over a certain age just because of the sleazes.

So nothing different here....except now everyone else seems to be in the same boat I have been in for months.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 10 (view)
 
Safe Dating? Would You Think Me Out of Order?
Posted: 5/20/2013 3:41:44 AM
I take it OP that you had already seen picture/pictures of him and you wanted the newspaper picture so you could check the pics you had already seen were not wayyyy out of date???

If that was the case, then yes I do think it was a bit out of order.
If you have been chatting to someone for a few weeks on the phone and by email......and you want to meet them....and they have told you that their photos are fairly current then there comes a time when you have to bite the bullet, take them at their word, and just make sure you arrange to meet somewhere safe.
If they do look 10 years older than their photo then you say thanx but no thanx and leave. And then just put it down to experience.

Asking someone if their photos are up to date is fine. Asking for proof and expecting them to photograph themselves with a current newspaper....after weeks of emails/pnone.....calls is insulting.

IF someone asked me to do something like that before a first date then the first date would not happen. Not because I have anything to hide, or because I look any older than my photos.....but because I'd worry that anyone who expected me to jump through hoops like that before a first date might be the type who would suddenly turn into a KGB interrogator if he thought I'd spent too long in the ladies room on the second or third date.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 14 (view)
 
Interpretation and Translation
Posted: 5/19/2013 8:30:24 AM
I shy away from any profile containing the "I wear my heart on my sleeve" remark.

Probably shouldn't but I always picture them being clingy, over emotional and high maintenance..........and me having to walk around on eggshells watching what I say for fear of hurting their feelings.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 144 (view)
 
tattoos a turn on ? or turn off ?
Posted: 5/19/2013 7:14:52 AM
^^^^^^ whoops...that'll teach me to use spellcheck.

Thanx resownrose. I will bear in mind the fading thing. Cracking on a bit age wise though and the inside of my wrist won't see loads of sun so the colours might last long enough......well hopefully long enough for dementia to kick in and for me to be past caring if it's faded anyway lol.

I'm a bit past worrying about a visable tattoo ruining my career chances too. I'm looking for a 2nd job doing a little bit of bar work atm and doubt a small tat would affect that.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 141 (view)
 
tattoos a turn on ? or turn off ?
Posted: 5/19/2013 3:16:39 AM
@ Nottinghamfellow. It's a rough as guts type tattoo.....means"All Coppers Are Barstewards".

I have been tempted to get a tattoo for a few years and eventually decided a few months ago what I wanted. I'll only be the size of a 50 pence, just inside my left wrist and will be just colours...no dark blue at all...and half hidden by my watch anyway.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 55 (view)
 
Home Bargains
Posted: 5/19/2013 3:03:52 AM
Never actually been into or even seen a Home Bargains store around here.......so I used the Store Finder to find our nearest one.
Seems Home Bargains miles are about the same as POF miles. According to the Store Finder the nearest one is 12.8 miles from here.....but it's actually in a town just over 20 miles away.

We do have a Poundland, a Tesco, an Aldi, a Waitrose and an M&S. Our M&S has it's own carpark. 50 pence for an hour but you get the money back if you spend over £5.
Very high percentage of the M&S customers don't seem to know how to park their car between the white lines though. I look at the some of the cars parked in their and wonder if the owners are maybe too old to be on the road anyway........or just too up themselves to care about anyone else but themselves lol.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 105 (view)
 
Do men on these sites actually want a relationship or just sex?
Posted: 5/18/2013 2:16:58 AM
I did read somewhere lately......can't recall where (maybe FB.....maybe a book....maybe even on a thread on here....so if I am pinching this from someone else I apologise) that what men actually want is to have sex.

And that if the sex is good.....and the chemistry is there....and the right buttons are pushed...and the right boxes are ticked....then he might just want to have sex with that person for the rest of his life.

Seems it's not an exact science :)
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 17 (view)
 
Changing sites. Have you found it better, worse or just different?
Posted: 5/17/2013 2:27:57 AM
If anything the pay sites are worse.
A lot of the same faces......but.......
The way the pay sites promote themselves they get people to "join free" then once they have gone through the process the people realise they can't send messages or possibly even read messages without paying.
There is god knows how high a percentage of the profiles on them are people who haven't paid.
So....you pay their fees....you see someone you like....you send a message. But you have no way of knowing if the person you sent the message to has paid.......and can even read the message let alone answer it.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 83 (view)
 
Does someone having kids put you off
Posted: 5/13/2013 1:36:55 AM
Someone with kids wouldn't put me off........but then again that's only because any man around my age is unlikely to have a really young child.
A few I have spoken to have had teenagers.....and as I have one of those myself, another one in the picture wouldn't put me off.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 14 (view)
 
Words I learned on POF
Posted: 5/13/2013 1:24:03 AM
Solemate.............It must be a real word. I see it on here often enough.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 8 (view)
 
It's Saturday - what are you up to?
Posted: 5/11/2013 11:14:32 AM
Stopping in tonight......but as I share my home with a couple if family members I won't be alone.

I was out round the pubs with friends last Saturday night....and I go to a Pub Quiz every Sunday night....so not complaining at all.
What I really should be doing though is getting off my laptop and having a clear out in the spare room. Got young relatives coming to stay for a few weeks and I should try to make room in the drawers for them to unpack their suitcases while they are here.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 11 (view)
 
Questioning the mentality of some on here
Posted: 5/11/2013 7:29:44 AM
After tightening up the message restriction on my profile i can easily go a couple of weeks without getting a message.....then suddenly get several messages in a couple of days.
I think it has a lot to do with how high up the rows of profile pictures you are on those "New Matches" emails that POF sends out........or if the weather is rubbish and people are stuck indoors........or even if there's nowt on the telly.

And yes I remember dating was much more fun during the Thatcher regime. I recall that for a few years of it I was working in a Nite Club AND racketing round the countryside in an old Cortina with a local Young Farmers group.
Two ponds to fish from......those were the days.

I miss that car too....there was something broken under thedriver's seat and the whole seat would shoot forward when I drove down a hill....and then slide back again when I drove up the other side.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 23 (view)
 
If you are really remorseful for murder, do you deserve some compassion?
Posted: 5/11/2013 5:33:10 AM
I really can see where Pandora is coming from with the remorse/compassion thing. And although I feel no compassion for Hazell or Philpott...........I can think of a few instances where I would feel compassion for people who have murdered.

Many years ago a gentleman I knew of killed his wife. She was an alcoholic and apparently quite a nasty one too. People in the street testified that they would often hear her screeching at him and he was often the one looking after the kids.
I don't know what went wrong the night that he beat and killed her.....but medical reports stated afterwards that her insides were so badly damaged by the years of alcohol abuse that she could have been killed by much lighter punches than it would take to kill a healthy person.
He was of course found guilty and went to jail. He is out now and as far as I know is living somewhere else. For him and for people like him I do feel compassion.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 12 (view)
 
If you are really remorseful for murder, do you deserve some compassion?
Posted: 5/10/2013 3:54:33 PM
He gets no compassion from me. I don't think he is showing any remorse at all. His letter is just about HIM.

All he is whingeing about in his letter is how this is affecting HIM. How HE has no money and no fags and no hope....how HE is looking at 15-18 years....how HE wants to kill himself....how HIS whole world has collapsed.

No sympathy for the poor young girl who didn't get to grow up. No "Sorry" for her parents. Instead he complains HIS whole world has collapsed.....when what he is going through is nothing in comparison to what Tia Sharp's parents are going through.

15-18 years for him?????......against a life sentence for Tia's parents. He's getting off lightly. Let him rot in jail.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 2 (view)
 
Tone of voice
Posted: 5/9/2013 2:11:56 AM
Yeah....chap rang me one night and had a terrible slow irritating drawl to his voice. Swear to god he made John Wayne sound hyper. I wanted to reach through the phone, shake him and tell him life was too short.

I can be a bit over sensitive to tone of voice in other ways too. If someone at work or around me seems to be in a s*itty mood or irritated it'll keep me on edge and I'll be walking on eggshells incase I do something to p*ss them off further.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 10 (view)
 
My first POF date - a Steep Learning Curve
Posted: 5/6/2013 6:22:53 AM
I have had two men in particular who were insistant that I travel to their town although both times I offered to meet them somewhere about halfway.

The first seemed to play a nasty little mind game over it......and when he didn't get his own way he totally ignored me for a couple of days. Then he sent a message early on the afternoon of the day we had been taking about meeting.....asking what time I was going to arrive at the pub near where he lived. And telling me I should park at his house so I could have a few drinks.
I reminded him that I had only actually agreed to meet at a town halfway between us.........and got a really nasty message back saying that I obviously wasn't ready for a serious relationship and to get in touch with him when I sorted myself out. Pr*ck.

The other one (a Scottish bloke) was quite funny. He gave up gracefully at the time and we never did meet.....but I got a message a few weeks later saying "Are you still up for some naked cuddles?" I sent a message back saying he must have me mixed up with someone else......and got the reply "Och aye xxx". Never worked out quite what he meant by that and never heard from him again.

They do say God loves a trier lol
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 3 (view)
 
Cycle Path or Dog Path ?
Posted: 5/4/2013 3:49:48 AM
I lived many years in a seasde town in Australia. The boardwalks along the beachfront are apparently meant to be shared by cyclists and pedestrians and I have seen some close calls there with cyclists narrowly avoiding pedestrians.
Cyclists riding two and three abreast.......and families with kids and grandparents wandering aimlessly along admiring the view and not hearing the cyclist's bell till they were almost on top of them.
There were no rules up anywhere and I often thought that someone would get seriously hurt there one day.....especially on a weekend afternoon when the place was crowded..
I just googled the name of the town and the word boardwalk.......and found these guidelines.

Most of the city’s bike paths are shared with pedestrians. To ensure all
users enjoy these community facilities in safety, just follow the simple
rules below.

Hints for cyclists
Always give way to pedestrians
Obey all road rules
Make your intentions clear with hand signals
Always wear a helmet
Keep to a safe speed
Carry a drink bottle with you
Check your brakes and tyres
Keep left at all times
Ring your bell when approaching pedestrians
Dismount at crossings and signalled intersections
Lights must be used at night

Hints for pedestrians
Stay left and do not block the path
Allow enough room for cyclists to pass you
Don’t suddenly change direction or stop on the path
Keep young children and pets close by your side

Looking at that one anyway......three of the four rules for pedestrians relate to the OP's "dog's shouldn't be on a long lead" problem.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 12 (view)
 
People who Inspire you or you admire ?
Posted: 5/4/2013 2:54:45 AM
There are loads of people in the history books whom I admire......once I started writing the list would be almost endless.

Loving though I admire the major celebrities who use their names and money to start foundations and fund charities. Especially Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.....who apparently do a lot more than most donating money and time for humanitarian causes and wildlife centres, Doctors without Borders among many other charities. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans Brad Pitt started a foundation to help rebuild an area of New Orleans putting up 5 million dollars to get things started.

But even more admirable in my mind is someone like Jeff Fahey who is not so well known and makes no-where near the sort of money the A listers do.......but gives time instead of money.
You may or may not remember him from movies such as The Lawnmower Man, heaps of B grade movies, and the odd TV series like Lost.
He supports an orphanage in Kabul in Afghanistan and often works there (I think he helped build or establish it too). He has helped build other orphanages in third world counturies.....when the producers of the TV series Lost rang him to offer him the part in the series, he had taken a break from acting and was on a mountain top in Venezuala, having just opened an orphanage there.
And between actings jobs the last few years has also been back in Afghanistan helping establish the American University of Afghanistan there and also working to support womens rights and a woman's refuge there. And as if that wasn't enough he has also been to Algeria and the Sahara looking into the refugee problems there.....and then to Washington to advocate for the rights of Warehoused refugees.......some of whom have apparently been in refugee camps for over 30 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxLZkchkAXY
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 12 (view)
 
IE .......We Have Contact !!
Posted: 5/4/2013 12:53:27 AM
I got a first message last week from someone local saying simply. "Let's shag ourselves silly".
On his profile he describes himself as "mischevious".........I'm guessing he thinks that will excuse him being a cretin.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 53 (view)
 
Badger Cull - good idea?
Posted: 5/2/2013 5:40:58 AM
Maybe 18 months ago I was driving home from a nearby village pub and saw a badger legging it up the left side of the road ahead of me.
I slowed down thinking my car headlights might eventually spook him (or maybe her?) enough that he'd veer off the road and into the woods so I could safely get past him.........but no he kept lolloping along the road just ahead of me.
After a few hundred yards of this I pulled over to the wrong side of the road to overtake him......and as I drew almost level with him he turned his head to watch me drive past.
I drive that same road at night usually a couple of times a month at least and always hope to see him again.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 29 (view)
 
Another star arrested
Posted: 5/2/2013 2:19:13 AM

Isn't it just classed as underaged sex, if they're 14 or 15, but if they're under 13 then it's statutory rape?


The statutory rape rules are very grey.....and vary hugely from country to country and in places like the USA and Australia they vary greatly from state to state.

I don't know what the rules are in the UK......but I do know that in other places a lot depends not just on the age of the minor......but also on how large a disparity in ages there is between the minor and the adult.
For instance in some countries a 15 year old having consensual sex with a 16 or 17 year old is fine. But a 15 year old having sex with someone a few years older is classed as statutory rape. In Canada I think it is 5 years older. In Queensland Australia it is only 2 years older.
So in Canada a 15 year old and a 21 year old could be classed as statutory rape.....even if the sex is consensual. In Queensland Australia it'd be a 15 year old and an 18 year old.

As I said I don't know what the rules are here in the UK. But I am sure a 15 year old and a 30-35 year old whould be seen as a deftinate disparity in ages. And even if there was no force or threat of violence involved (or even if the minor instigated the sex).....it may still be classed as rape.

I wonder too what the laws were regarding statutory rape 45 years ago........and if they were stricter than they are today. And does someone who supposedly commited a crime 45 years ago get tried based on today's laws or on the laws as they stood when the incident happened?
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 4 (view)
 
Another star arrested
Posted: 5/1/2013 6:44:18 AM
I think that the line is getting blurred between the actual very few celebrities who have a serious problem and have targeted children.....and the celebrities who had too much to drink at parties and misbehaved with underage groupies who were dressed to the nines and caked in make-up and looking a lot older than they actually were.

That having been said William Roache did himself no favours by bragging that he has had sex with over a thousand women and supposedly saying that there was a time when he had no control over his sex drive.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 15 (view)
 
School hours and hols...
Posted: 4/29/2013 1:31:21 AM
I do think that most teachers are wonderful. Mostly they have gone into the profession for the love of it and do the best they can with the resourses they have.
I do think the system has a lot of flaws though.....and teachers have to deal with a lot more aggravation, a lot more work, and a lot more expense than they maybe realised when they first chose it as a career.

I had seen my stepson struggle and fall behind at school so by the time my own son started school I could see he was having the same problems as his older brother.
Not wanting him to fall behind like his brother had.......I tried to get ahead of the game.
I made sure each time he changed schools.....that each school had copies of all his records and assessments and the family history of dyslexia. Yet it still took till he was in Year 9 for him to come home one day and tell me he'd had a test a couple of weeks before and had just been told he was dyslexic.
Another 6 months down the track he came home totally fed up saying they were doing exams and the kid who kept falling asleep in class was getting extra help.....but that he himself wasn't getting any extra help even though he was dystexic.
I rang the school and was told that if he really was dyslexic I would have been notified.

The same woman rang back an hour later....full of apologies saying he had been diagnosed as mildly dyslexic earlier in the year and she couldn't understand why I hadn't been notified. BUT she had sent someone to help him with the exam he was having that afternoon and he would get more help from then on. When he came home he said the lady who had come and sat down next to him to help him had not helped him with the questions. She had just sat there and told him word for word what to right down for the answers.
Two days later an assessment arrived saying he is severely dyslexic.

THEN......last year at the College Induction day he had to sit bog standard numeracy and literacy tests to guage what level he needed to be in at college. The literacy test was 72 questions and he got 68 right!!!!!! Go figure.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 11 (view)
 
No longer desirable/dateable
Posted: 4/28/2013 11:54:29 AM
@ SoGud it Hertz
Oi you........don't be waving the "60" thing around. I think I might be developing a few "issues" about that number lol :-/
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 6 (view)
 
No longer desirable/dateable
Posted: 4/28/2013 11:15:39 AM
OP....I'm a year older than you and no-one has been cheeky enough to say that to me. And if they did they'd likely get blocked. Ignore them.
@happynewstart.....yeah there are plenty of men on here that sort of age.......I think a good percentage of them are holding out for someone 10 years younger than them though.
Before I put in age restrictions I'd get wayyyyy more messages from 25-45 year olds than from men around my own age. Go figure lol
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 60 (view)
 
PERSONAL HYGIENE!!
Posted: 4/28/2013 8:43:01 AM
All the talk about men "leaving the seat up" is one thing........when actually, at home everyone should put not only the seat....but also the lid down before they flush.
Apparently, not putting the seat down before you flush will result in airborne bacteria floating around the bathroom.....and if your toothbrush is within 6 feet of the toilet some of that bacteria will land on it.

What creeped me out though was the Continental Market that visits our town about twice a year. They are usually there Friday and Saturday. I didn't realise till I worked in a shop right next to the Market Place that the stall holders left everything set up on the Friday night. All they did was zip down the sides of the stalls and then they'd sleep the night in the stall with the food.
Soooooo.....for instance the pick 'n' mix sweet stall with their long boxes of uncovered sweets. Those sweets have been open to the air all day Friday with crowds milling round them and breathing on them and dust landing on them....then spent the night still uncovered and trapped in a small space while Mr and Mrs Stallholder and their two kids slept (coughing and snoring away) in sleeping bags on mattresses on the cobblestones. Then they zip the sides back off the stall showing the sweets still uncovered......pack their bedding away under the tables........and start selling again.
No idea how they go about using the toilets or having a wash between 5:00 pm and 9:00 am either because everything except the pubs is locked up.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 105 (view)
 
Wierd dreams
Posted: 4/27/2013 4:42:09 AM
I remember when my marriage was breaking up I had a really vivid dream one night where we were driving along the road and cars were crashing ahead of us and there were cars and tankers rolling over and over......but just missing us as we drove along......kinda like that scene from "Twister" but with flying cars instead of the flying cows.

Not hard to interperate that dream.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 24 (view)
 
Work, friends, families and fitting it all in...
Posted: 4/26/2013 9:20:07 AM
OK. I don't see the OP as selfish. He is right. It is his life to live. His parents gave him the gift of life and he owes it to them to "live" that life.

My son still only 16 and is at college doing a course that will see him qualified to do what he wants......work in a Zoo, Wildlife Park or Animal Sanctuary.
He is only 16 though so his long term plans change every few months.....from working with Kevin Richardson (The Lion Whisperer) in Africa.....to spending a few years living with the monks in Tibet (too many Jackie Chan movies there I think)....to opening his own Wildlife Sanctuary (god only knows where).

At the moment though he plans to go and work at Australia Zoo. And much as I hate the idea of either being on the opposite side of the world from him.....or selling up yet again and heading back to Australia myself to be near him.....there is no way I would discourage him from living his dream and seeing the world. It is his life to live.

I will admit to being a somewhat slightly overprotective mother lol.....but it would be very very very wrong of me to give a child life......spend years making sure he gets the skills he needs to do what he wants with that life......and then have my age/ill health stop him from living the life he has been given to the full.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 16 (view)
 
Work, friends, families and fitting it all in...
Posted: 4/25/2013 9:08:04 AM
OP I don't see my life as being so compartmentalised (is that really a word?) as you put it. Some parts of my life overlap with other parts and it all just works somehow.

The last few years both my parents lived with us until we lost my mum two and a half years ago. My Dad is in the next room (it's a big house) as I type this.
In the house at the minute I also have my 16 year old son who spends half the week "in halls" at college and half of it at home. and atm I have my 26 year old nephew on holiday here from overseas. His girlfriend will join us in a couple of weeks when the work she is doing down south finishes.......and hopefully they will both stay with us (in between sightseeing trips) for a couple of months.

My sister and one of my brothers are very family orientated like myself.....my other two brothers are not....and we rarely hear from them. So the lack of attachment you talk about is not neccessarily an "only child" thing.

This is the bit I don't like........

I agree, it just gives me a sense that some people are unwillingly to fly the nest, finding purpose in family to bubble themselves away from being independent and secure enough to make decisions on their own that could involve not seeing them in the short or long-term.

I am independant. I lived on the opposite side of the world from my parents and closest family for years at a time. I have run my own business. I have bought a home on my own, been married, been a step-mother then a mother and also been divorced. I have sold everything and moved overseas to start afresh again twice in my life.

And a few years down the track I will look back on these past few years and be glad of the time that my parents lived with us and be pleased that they didn't have to spend their last years in residental care waiting week after week for family to visit. And I'll be glad of the time that I got to spend with them.
And I still mostly get out a couple of nights a week....I'm off out tomorrow to spend the day with a friend. I could also stay out overnight anytime I wanted.....between other family members and the fact that these days they all have mobile phones.....I could get someone to check on my Dad within a few minutes if I was worried about him.

@ lightstart......just btw.......I'm a caring daughter who does have time for a family and also a relationship........I'm not "an arms length apology for a bloody social worker" as you so tactfully put it.
How do you think married couples manage to juggle kids, parents, jobs, etc and maintain a relationship?
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 12 (view)
 
'Showrooming' - Fact of life?
Posted: 4/22/2013 5:18:34 AM
Pushy sales staff are alienating customers in some big firms. I should know because until a year ago I was one of them. And as most of our customer base were elderly people I thought the whole thing was horrendous and I hated it.

We were instructed that no customer should leave the store without at least 3 items in their bag.
1. The item they came in for.
2. The item you sold them to match it.
3. The add-on you sold them at the till point.

We were instructed that when someone entered the store we were to make eye contact and greet them with a smile, a"hello", a "lovely day today isn't it?" etc etc.
Then we were to leave them alone till we saw "buying signals". Buying signals are when someone looks at the price tag, touches and feels the item, holds it up in front of them, looks at sizes, etc etc.
Then we were supposed to approach the customer and ask them an "open" question. A closed question is "Can I help you?" or "Were you looking for something in particular?" etc because they can say "No" and close the conversation.
An open question starts with "Who?", "What?", "Why?", "When?" or "Where?"...."Who are you shopping for today?", "What are you looking for today?" etc etc.

And we never knew if any perticular customer might be a "mystery shopper".........and if you didn't go through all that crap...and the person DID turn out to be a mystery shopper....then the whole branch would fail and the staff member concerned would get dragged over the coals and threatened with "retraining".

Where I work now, we do a lot of customer feedback on behalf of supermarkets/retailers.......lots of very unhappy customers out there fed up with being made to drive out to retail parks to buy their groceries, or fed up with pushy sales staff trying to sell them extended warranties and add-ons even when they have already said "No thanks" several times. No wonder more people are using the internet.

Or in the case of elderly people who don't have computers and can't shop online.....left stuck shopping in half empty town centres. Because although the supermarkets have put on free buses to the big new retail parks......they haven't factored in that elderly people often can't carry a week's worth of bags of groceries back home on the free buses anyway.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 6 (view)
 
Supermarket frustrations
Posted: 4/19/2013 2:38:22 AM
I do my main shop on a week day to avoid the worst of the screaming kids and the bad tempered husbands looking like they'd rather be anywhere else in the world.

What annoys me most though are the families who have obviously just run into friends/relatives they haven't seen in a while and decide to stand around on a busy corner having a good catch up on the latest gossip.......and the dozy women who seem to be in a dream world and leave their trolley diagonally on across the middle of the aisle while they are reading the back of some cereal box or fruit juice bottle several feet away........oh, and nearly forgot about the ignorant twits behind me at the checkout who have no clue about "personal space" and insist on standing right next to me with their recyclable shopping bag at the ready while the machine is not even ready for my pin number yet.

Rant over :)
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 15 (view)
 
Sleepless nights - how do you cope?
Posted: 4/18/2013 1:23:44 AM
I turn the TV on.....leave it with the volume pretty low.....and set the timer to switch it back off again in an hour.

The noise of the TV in the background breaks my concentration so I can't lie there mulling stuff over and trying to set the world to rights at 4:00am.....and I usually soon drift back off to sleep.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 95 (view)
 
All I want is good conversation...
Posted: 4/13/2013 6:07:37 AM
Ooops.....have we been sent to Coventry? Left to talk amongst ourselves? Okay...own up....who mentioned "popcorn" this time?
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 14 (view)
 
while im in a rant mood - ages on here
Posted: 4/11/2013 9:12:16 AM
Actually....clean forgot. Maybe 4 years ago I saw a very nice 44 year old fella a few times. Last time I saw him was just before his 45th birthday.
Anyway he showed up in a friends search criteria on here last month......and guess what???? Four years later he is miraculously still only 45. He could be Sean Bean's twin brother though so I doubt he gets too many complaints.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 9 (view)
 
while im in a rant mood - ages on here
Posted: 4/11/2013 8:20:43 AM
Local bloke has his age down as 56....then halfway through his "about me" he has written something along the lines of....."Oh and I'm in my 60s by the way, pressed the wrong button oops. But at least now you know I have a sense of humour".
No idea how being a liar is supposed to show you have a sense of humour.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 77 (view)
 
Thatcher is Dead
Posted: 4/9/2013 9:49:59 AM

READ the rest of the post and see who agrees with you, NO-ONE, toodle pip :-)

Actually don't count me in with that either. I'd agree with most of what Rose said....and a lot more besides.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 73 (view)
 
Thatcher is Dead
Posted: 4/9/2013 9:06:40 AM

I'm not altogether sure what difference her dying now makes to anyone other than her family and friends. What happened happened and can not be undone. She did not rule alone and was elected three times by the British electorate. She was doing her job, however much you may hate what that was. Public celebrations and dancing on graves are unnecessary and distasteful. An eye for an eye? I don't think so. The time for protests has long since passed along with her political career, even if her legacy lives on in your opinion. Condoning terrorism of any kind is quite beyond me. She had her supporters along with her enemies and they should have the right to mourn her as you would wish to mourn those you admire.


Well said.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 5 (view)
 
Take bare boobs out of the Sun
Posted: 4/9/2013 5:32:17 AM
Ahhhhh so not a community awareness thread about the dangers of skin cancer after all......... >>>>>>> quickly exits the conversation again. ;)
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 56 (view)
 
Thatcher is Dead
Posted: 4/8/2013 2:05:59 PM
R.I.P. Maggie.
The first time I ever voted in my life I voted for her. Mostly in the hope that a woman would get in....and she did get in.....and then again and again. I did regret voting for her eventually.....especially when I moved to Australia got a summons delivered to me there for 4 weeks unpaid Poll Tax I still owed back here (with added court costs by then) whoops....lol.

Still.....love her or hate her.....today a bit of respect wouldn't be out of order.
People dancing in the streets chanting about her death....spewing hate.....very very wrong.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 4 (view)
 
Long/short hair for the mature ladies
Posted: 4/8/2013 3:03:51 AM
Apparently at an age when everything is starting to fall prey to gravity..........long hair can emphsise the fact. And as started in another thread just a few weeks ago can make you look a bit like a witch or a crone (someone elses opinion not mine).
This doesn't just apply to women and would have the same effect on a man as a woman. But not so many men in their 40s and 50s wandering around with long hair anyway.

A shorter fuller hairstyle is apparently more flattering because it "lifts" your features and in theory makes you look younger.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 61 (view)
 
SCARY STUFF ,,, VERY SCARY !
Posted: 4/7/2013 10:47:38 AM
and something-or-other project, where some men "re-materialised" halfway through the hull of some ship. (For some reason I keep thinking "Manhattan Project", but I don't think it was...>)


That'd be "The Philadelphia Experiment" JoVan......I don't read a lot of these conspiracy theories but there was a fairly good movie of the same name based on it and starring Michael Pare so I did read that one.
A very impressionable young Uni student who was at the time obsessed with the TV series "Lost", did try to tell me one day that "The Philadelphia Experiment" had been real and claimed the same technology explained the mysteries behind the dissappearing/reappearing island in the TV series "Lost".
Poor lad.......luckily he was just doing some kind of Film/Media thing at Uni and not anything scientific.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 48 (view)
 
The unfairest High Jump????...
Posted: 4/7/2013 10:04:43 AM
^^^^^^ Hexham Racecourse is just up the road from here. They were thrilled to have the winning horse's owner and jockey at Hexham today.
What a difference 24 hours can make.


A spokesman for the Great North Air Ambulance told the BBC: "Mr Mania has received neck and back injuries. He came off the horse at high speed and may have been hit by another horse while he was on the ground.

"He has been given extensive painkillers and is currently in a stable condition."
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 34 (view)
 
The unfairest High Jump????...
Posted: 4/6/2013 5:51:07 AM
Just out of interest(genuine question as I don't know the answer) if whilst ambling around the countryside a horse steps in a rabbit hole and breaks its leg what happens to it? is the leg set by a vet and it left to heal or are they given the same treatment as a race horse?


I think it depends how bad the break is......how valuable the horse is (does it have a good pedigree and will it still be valuable put out to stud or as a brood mare).....and if the owner can afford the vets bills considering it's a fairly long road to recovery.
Also the way a horse is designed is a major drawback.....and the amount of weight it carries.....plus the fact that they don't usually have clean breaks. The bone is lightweight so usually bends before it breaks.....and shatters rather than breaks cleanly. They have very little flesh on their legs too so most breaks the bone protrudes through the skin. All in all it's rare to be able to save one after a broken leg.

I grew up on working dairy farms both here and in Australia. I apparently had two Shetland ponies when I was young. The first one I vaguely remember....the second one apparently proved to be too bad tempered for 5-6 yr old girl and was sold on.
Two of my brothers rode horses in Oz to bring the cattle in and get around the farm.....and they both rode bareback....and often with only a halter and no bridle.
These days I have several friends who ride.....and a close family member who runs a working saddlery and owns a horse.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 25 (view)
 
The unfairest High Jump????...
Posted: 4/6/2013 3:44:19 AM
If you think The Grand National is bad........think about the American rodeos. Terrible cruelty there and the horses don't get spoilt between events either.

This is pretty bad.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmp8pkbU03I

Before seeing that I had actually been to two small rodeos in Australia. The first was OK.....pretty staid.....nothing cruel. The second was a complete sham. The horses were so jaded by the whole thing that they had tied sacks and pieces of tarp on ropes to their tails.
So they were running with something trailed behind them........in a vain effort to make them buck.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 3 (view)
 
Is it me or are there double standards here?
Posted: 4/4/2013 8:17:14 AM
Send one back to her saying only..........."Hi"
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 14 (view)
 
Mick and Mairead Philpott
Posted: 4/4/2013 3:56:34 AM
Personally I'd like to see all three of them deported to the tent city jail in Arizonsa. I am sure Sherrif Joe would be willing to take them in. He just pitches another army surplus tent out in the Arizona sun when he runs out of cells.
The UK government would have to pay him to keep them of course.......but apparently Sherrif Joe has cut all luxuries and has costs down to about 40 cents a meal....so I'm sure it'd be way cheaper than housing them in a UK jail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-elr83achs
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 5 (view)
 
cant send message?
Posted: 4/4/2013 3:43:42 AM
Some other site a few years ago....can't remember if it was a Facebook app like Social Me or Z**sk or what it was.....but they had the "Meet Me" thing too.
They encouraged people to use it and claimed that the more you used it the better an idea it gave them as to what your tastes were......and the therefor the more suitable the "Matches" they sent you would be.

I think POF just use it as another tempter to get you to upgrade....saying if you upgrade you'll show up on there first. It seems mostly pointless other than that.
 Jacknher
Joined: 11/23/2011
Msg: 32 (view)
 
Stop the world, I want to get off!
Posted: 4/3/2013 10:54:54 AM
Thanks mainly to an Australian comedian named Nick Giannopoulos the term "Wog" in Australia is now more a term of affection than a racial slur.
But over there it refers more to people of Italian, Greek, Spanish etc descent.
Nick Giannopoulos wrote and starred in several stage and TV productions........The Wog Boy, Wogs out of Work, Acropolis Now, The Wannabes, Kings of Mykonos-Wog Boy 2....all hugely popular comedies. The humour in them was very much along the lines of the humour in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" so not anything offensive about it at all.
And the likes of Vince Colosimo (actor soon to be seen in The Great Gatsby with Leonardo Di Caprio), Alex Dimitriades (actor The Heartbreak Kid), Rebekah Elmaloglou (actor Neighbours), Gia Carides (actor Strictly Ballroom and My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Natalie Imbruglia (actor/singer)....are all Australians who proudly call themselves "Wogs".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Nqgsa5i74
 
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