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Post by Eddie on Jul 22, 2015 11:18:40 GMT 1
My mother is 92 and is plagued by scammers phoning her up trying to sell her stuff or persuade her to donate to charities. She must be on what they call a "suckers list".
The worst one was the company who actually cold-called her and sold her a gizmo to attach to her phone that they said would prevent cold callers!
I returned it and eventually got a refund after threatening them with legal action.
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Post by colin on Jul 25, 2015 23:16:18 GMT 1
Moving on from crap phone calls it seems to me my "e-mail" thing is always full of rubbish, all I ever seem to do with it is delete the junk about twice a week and occasionally read a purposful one....it seems to me that today's life is brimming with bullshine, fiddlers, scammers,twisters,fatheads, k###heads, pushie salesmen (and women!),five minute wonder shows and 900 channels of crap on the telly, the wireless isn't much better either, the poxy presenters are always whining on about some rubbish or another, whatever happened to the straight forward life of 40 years ago, 2p in a phone box, a smiling petrol pump attendant, Liptons the grocers, local butchers, bakers, decent beer pubs with a packet of crisps and a hard cheese butty? just for a few I remember.. the film SOYLENT GREEN springs to mind for the future......Ummmmmmm...Col.
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Post by Eddie on Jul 26, 2015 10:59:45 GMT 1
Well, I actually think some things have improved, especially beer in pubs. When I started going to pubs in the 70s (age 15!) all the beer was weak "keg" stuff - remember Watneys Red Barrel? At least you can get real ale in most pubs now.
And smiling petrol pump attendants? I worked at a garage in the 80s which must have ben the last round here to have a pump attendant, and I can assure you he NEVER smiled!
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Post by cardaft on Jul 26, 2015 12:29:42 GMT 1
Watneys Red Barrel, terrible stuff,even worse was the 'Party Sevens'never knew anybody that managed to drink a whole can,7 pints of warm stale beer,big danger, was at the end of a party, it was risky to still be drinking from the container as it was probably an ash tray by then! As part of the generation ,who have had the best of everything,the information revolution has left me behind, although I like a nice lap top and connection to the internet. I cannot understand my kids and grand kids need to be permanently 'connected', a phone on minimal battery charge or a lost phone is the end of the world.As said, because I was born at the right time, I had a choice of good jobs,favourable house prices and company pension, this has allowed me to relocate and generally opt out of the real world. I had a state of the art mobile phone,that has not been charged in the last year or so( it lives at the back of a drawer in the kitchen), I bought a £20 phone pay as you go job from a supermarket,spookily all it does is allow me to make phone calls, I only switch it on when I want to make a call,which is rare. So life is more complicated and younger generations are facing pressures I know little about. Was life better back in the day?probably yes,definitely more fun. On the Zodiac front,was passing a car accessories store(local independent one) yesterday ,they had a deal on batterys,so bought one for the Zodiac,been on trickle charge all night, I always do this with a new battery, as its supposed to increase its life and capacity?advised to do this,during my apprenticeship, by the supervisor in the battery shop,so who am I to argue? So will have a go at starting the old girl(and maybe the car) today. dr
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Post by michael on Jul 27, 2015 13:55:14 GMT 1
Soylent Green - could be scarily close to reality. I suspect, based on the 2012 Olympics, the food tablets would be stamped McD and the hydration ones CC! And we are already overcrowded - two of the last three weekends I have queued to get through Hockliffe on the A5 for no obvious reason other than traffic volume! Arrgh...
Have to agree with Eddie and Cardaft about the beer - also remember that a Double Diamond did not work wonders. Otherwise much of what you say is true Colin...
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Post by Joe on Jul 27, 2015 17:45:50 GMT 1
Double Diamond was/is on sale in the retro Tescos at Goodwood revival, I bought a four pack for old times sake and yes....... It is watery old Pi 55 ! Double " Dire mond more like (see what I did there)
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Post by colin on Jul 27, 2015 21:33:40 GMT 1
I suppose what I really meant was old fashioned decent pubs and not the usual Noshateria type of gastro joint that seems to be everywhere today and usually full of out of control srceaming kids, I often hanker back to a few "boilermakers", to the ill informed that's a half a mild and a brown ale mixed and in a good pub you'd get 3/4 of a pint of mild too, up north it was called a brown split, and a smoke of my pipe and a yarn in a pub full of adults, and a few games of darts, and wearing sail type flares, platform boots and a loud shirt!! before that in 1970 you used to have to be at least 14 to go in a bar and then it was usually the lounge with a glass of lemonade and a packet of crisps with your dad keeping a beedy eye on you(you will be quiet or else!), and of course now I'm completly left in the past, on balance it was definitly more fun and I reckon carefree, race you to the next pub!!!
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Post by cardaft on Jul 28, 2015 10:06:24 GMT 1
Most of the socialising was around pubs or discos (discopubs?) only place to meet the ladies,breathing beery fumes over some poor unfortunate female. Yep, when I had hair, it was long ,layered and feathered,(remember that?) I was a sight to see (I thought so). I preferred Oxford bags,although almost became a social outcast, when I couldn't get them wide enough to cover my big feet,especially shod in my triple sole platforms,solution was to have the 'bags' made to measure,expensive, but had to be done,remember the panic when round collar shirts went out of style over night,money had to be borrowed from dear old mum so you could be a 'player ' again,like I said, I was a sight to see,over 6 foot on platform shoes, under the influence,how I managed to walk ,let alone drive, still amazes me? Yes DD was particularly nasty stuff, I had erased it from my mind. My dad used to stand me outside the pubs,probably in the same spot,his dad put him,remember the 'big' bag of crips with the blue salt bag,the twisted one, not the flat one,also lumious green lemonade,wonder what was in that. Another thing that amazes me is, why has my Anglia shrunk? it seemed bigger back in the day. I recon we should bring pub racing, or racing from pub to pub, back .Biker chaps build their cafe racers,Anglias, Cortians and even Z3s built in the 'Carlos Fandango' style,can you still buy that chequered tape? Dr
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Post by michael on Jul 28, 2015 13:43:53 GMT 1
The first few pubs I went into (I was underage but over height so got away with it) had public bars where you could talk bands, bikes and cars without interruption by any phone - unless someone rang the landlord to send their other half home for supper!)
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Post by michael on Aug 19, 2015 17:55:01 GMT 1
My girlfriend has had a couple of worrying symptoms recently. As a result we spent most of today at a nearby hospital as she underwent tests. The staff were all excellent and could not have done more. What gets me is that the car park was half empty as services within Hertfordshire as ever more centralised on Watford and Stevenage but it costs £2/hour or part thereof. Quite shocking when a few years ago £6 would cover 24 hours...
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Post by michael on Sept 22, 2015 13:44:07 GMT 1
It is a little while since I have had a grumble so here goes. The area I live in is well served with cafes and restaurants. However their lemming like behaviour really irritates me. Because of shift patterns, etc. the best (and really only) evening for my girlfriend and I to go out is a Monday. We thought it would be a good idea to go out for a meal last night. However on a Monday evening bar the pseudo-Italian chains and Chinese and Indian ones (I can’t do MSG and struggle with spices) most are closed on a Monday. When I rang one and got the same reply I commented on this and got “Everyone needs a day off” but could not answer me when I asked “Could you not arrange a rota between yourselves to close on different quiet days between Sunday and Wednesday”.
The problem with the cafes and coffee shops is bar the chains like CostaLot and Café Dearo is they all close about 4:00 pm (chains 6:00 pm), and TBH they are full of ankle biters in the two hours before. We used to have one that stayed open till 9:30. Unfortunately they closed because of the usual rent/rates issue. They did a steady trade and it was quite handy if you were late back from London, or elsewhere, to have a cup of tea and a bite to eat (from beans on toast thru to something like shepherd’s pie). Again why can’t they have a rota for late opening?
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Post by colin on Sept 23, 2015 1:28:20 GMT 1
This sounds very similar to a situation we have in Ryde on the preverbial Isle of Wight... we have three pubs witin two hundred yards of one another yet every Friday, Saturday and Sunday they all have good tribute bands on yet are never more than half full, this is because there is not enough money and or folks to go round to make either of them profitable for any of the nights, so now they're all up for sale... DUH!!! Soon we shall all be going to our out of town cornershop and buy cheap wine and phone the local...6 or so Chinese Chippys for an indoor feast, then they wonder why Supermarkets,takeaways etc, are taking over!!!!Oh, and then I took my new aquasition to the local Classic Car Show and because I was half an hour late got told... "because of 'elf 'an safety YOU CAN'T GO IN"...so I said "BOll###S to you then I'll park it in my mate's driveway round the corner and all of us won't be so generous with the collection box!!" so that told them, and we proceeded to have a good look round only to find plenty of spare space and numerous others who had been given the same treatment...what the F####ng hell is the matter with these people? All sense of genuinallity and commonsense seems to have disappeared under a cloud of CRAP!!! Is this what life is going to be like if not already, in the not too distant future??? GRRR!!!...Old Col....!
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Post by michael on Sept 23, 2015 13:33:19 GMT 1
I had a similar experience some years ago. A friend was a member of the Rover P4 OC but his car was off the road. He was meant to attending a British Classics Show so I drove him over in my Zodiac. I was not allowed in, not because it was not the car entered but because Mr Idiot Jobsworth at the entrance was insistent it was an American car. We had to use the public car park but as we walked around we saw some British cars that were made in mainland Europe (like a Renault Gordini)...
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Post by michael on Sept 25, 2015 13:17:32 GMT 1
We have run out of coffee!!! Going to be a long afternoon!
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Post by joe90 on Sept 29, 2015 1:52:09 GMT 1
Thinking back maybe 25 years, as a member of the ZZOC of Wellington, we used to have fairly regular club outings, maybe once a month. As the cars are getting older , some of them get a bit rougher too. There's always ONE in every club who's on a bit of a power trip and wants to spoil things for everyone else.
So the new idea was that cars had to be up to a certain standard otherwise they were't welcome at club outings........that was the idea of one and only 1 person but they managed to get the idea accepted. Guess what that did to the club? As it was it was only a small club with maybe 10 or 15 regular members.
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