h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Heck of a weekend backlog! Happy birthday Jo anne , maybe I should have wroked out how to do the twiddly letters

Marv, glad you all got off relatively unscathed from you accident, got any spectacular colours on your knee yet?

Hyp, council houses were built by local authorities with money from taxation. People would apply for coucil housing and be granted a house or flat at a subsidised rent. Many of the houses were built on estates which often didn't have the appropriate amount of planning for infrastructure and services - some became sink estates where there were social and policing problems. Not all, mind you - I grew up on a very nice council estate. In the 80's Maggie decided that people should be able to buy their houses from the council if they had lived in them for a time (think it was two years but I can't remember), the asking prices for the homes were often well below market value, and below the cost of building a new house. The councils didn't replace the sold housing stock by building using the money gained from the sale. Now there aren't enough council houses to serve people in acute need. The whole thing is a mess.

Hello Beeble, pleased to meet you

I'm still cross about the incident on friday, and have decided that the particular colleague will not get any extra help from me to do his job. It is the most I can do (have told him I thought his comment was unfair) to express my disapproval.

k

The council housing problem isn't helped by the baby factories who have kids just because they've been told they'll get a free house (there's a lot of this in Swindon).

yup your right about shortage of council houses ,most of the thinking behind the selling of of the stock was many of those houses sold cost more to maintain ayear than what they brought in in rent
(the high maintainence cost being more administration fueled than work)

Also many of these estates being thrown up in the fifties and sixties with a shelf life of 20-30 years hence the term pre fab (fab not short for fabulous either), not forgetting the other advantage of shortage of
council housing lot more people to rent dilapitated house ,no need to say who owns most of these houses or who'es pension funds are being funded with high rents ,not going to point fingers at any particuler political party but several stories in papers are still fresh i minds

most MPs own more than one house some those that have moved constituencies several times in 20 or so years they have been in politics ,even two or three . so its obviously not to there advantage to have more council houses as the rental market would not give such a high return.

was going to rant about the misuse of grants and that but wont.
hope bebble fish is busy reading all the previous threads has i notice he has not asked for excemption pass ,lots of usefull stuff there.

English Genius:
100% Beginner
100% Intermediate
87% Advanced
88% Expert

Not bad for a SwedoFinn, eh?

Oooo... the return of a five-digit researcher!(<--green with envy, never did like the envy smiley) *waves at Beeblefish*

There are a few 5 digit researchers around here.

[Hati]

*collapses after the weekend backlog, waves at Beeblefish and greets J'au on her birthday (if it still is her birthday?)*

Hypatia's stupid patrons really do get better/worse. at the telephone woman.

On the language front I got 93% Beginner, 86% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 72% Expert which isn't bad, I suppose.

David

I'm a 5-digit researcher. Have court this morning, should be the last time I have to go.

I know that there are several five-digit researchers among the Salonistas. It's not often though that you see one returning after a lunch that long!

He must have been very hungry.

Oh! My awful memory! I have to confess that I don't remember Beeblefish! Terribly sorry, it's nothing personal, I'm just bad that way.

Matina, some ginseng tea please. Is that the one that's good for memory or is it ginkgo? I can't remember!

Don't most of us have ten digits? Or do toes count as well?

There is a big difference in the quality of public housing projects here, too. There was an infamous one in St. Louis that was finally demolished. The state spent millions to build it and within a few years it was a slum. More dangerous porbably than living on the streets. And there have been a couple of hugh complexes in Chicago that repeatedly made the news for subhuman living conditions and violence.

We have two subsidized senior housing projects in WC. And one apaprtment complex for families. They're kept up fairly well. The apartments are small, however. There are always waiting lists, even with this being a small town.

I hope one and all had pleasant weekends.

Kelli, I think they mean the digits in their user numbers (I'm a six digit researcher, for example)... unless, of course, there are several veteran Salonistas who have been involved in serious industrial accidents!

Yes, those researchers who joined hootoo early on have 5-digit U numbers. They form what Kurt Vonnegut would call a granfalloon.

I have lots of chores and client things today... *grabs a couple of hot cross buns and a cup of tea, and heads for her studio*

I am having a stupid day. I wanted to go into town, and then put all my trousers and skirts into the wash and found myself unable to go anywhere unless I went unclad from the waist down. I don't think Wimbledon deserves the privilege.

Please feel free to skip the next bit. I've got rather a lot on my chest, but it's only family ing. Not important.



Wedding preparations have hit a snag. We went down to my Mum's for the weekend, so as to get on with said preparations, and I spent the weekend cooking things to freeze for the big family dinner AFTER the wedding. I did not get my hair or makeup sorted out at all, nor my jewellry neither. My Mum was either being busy or dealing with sisters' assorted crises with boyfriends and husbands and infants. I do not understand how it can get to the weekend before my wedding, explicitly set aside especially for the hair and adornment planning (for S as well, as he has hair hanging half-way down his back), and I somehow spend the entire weekend being ignored. It's as if there is a kind of radio antenna in one sister's mind - if she senses, even from a different house, that I am getting attention, she is compelled to rush madly up the road to us and steal the attention back. She even had everyone styling her hair into china bumps for her, while I was trying to get Mum to help me decide a hair strategy for me for the wedding day. Normally I live with it, but it's my ing wedding on Saturday! Surely my turn for attention! Just for a couple of weekends! Then she can have it all for the rest of the year if she likes. To my immense self-annoyance, I ended up in floods of tears last night when we got home. I knew I minded, but hadn't realised just how much I was minding all this sabotaging. S noticed it before I pointed it out to him, and got rather cross about it himself (but then he thinks my sister is a very selfish person. And alas I cannot in all honesty stick up for her). Though not as selfish as her husband, who is a world class leech (for example, he thought my Mum would pay for him to have a bespoke suit made. Why? Because he wanted a suit and couldn't afford it. That's the only reason he gave, anyway. My Mum already houses the pair and pays for most of their groceries). So I am feeling very down. Any good tips on how to put a great deal of fluffy hair up singlehanded, by the way? Or it'll be ballerina bun. It's the only one I can do.



I think I shall just go and beg Matina for some and and a couple of aspirin.

* for Ag.*

I think it's a sister thing in general. Mrs. D's sister is very much a centre of attention type. She was well dodgy at various points leading up to the wedding, but I'll leave it up to Mrs. D as to whether we actually share any of this.

Just remember one thing. For all it's worth you and S could marry wearing potato sacks, the most important things are the vows and the registry. The rest of the wedding is really for the benefit of other people (I learned this little gem shortly after my own and am passing it on to all those who are having pre-nuptual panics).

>>The council housing problem isn't helped by the baby factories who have kids just because they've been told they'll get a free house (there's a lot of this in Swindon).

Outrageous and can't go unchallenged. I'm not saying it *never* happens...but there's no evidence that this is a significant factor in many women's reasons for having children. On the whole, it's a Daily Mail myth.

Imagine you are a young woman from a severly disadvantaged background, living with her parents on a soul-less estate, with little hope of escape. What's your fantasy? Well...if only you could marry Jason, have his baby and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Jason is also a victim of his circumstances, has difficulty in providing you with the stability you crave and soon buggers off.

Or...your self esteem is so low that the prospect of having an ickle wickle baby to give you unconditional love seems attractive. After all, it worked for Mum (32) and Gran (48).

But actually cynically playing the system by having a baby just to get a house? Would there not be certain disadvantages to this? Have you ever heard of anyone doing it? Outside of the Daily Mail, that is?

Sometimes you have to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. At very least you'll be a mile away from them...plus you'll have their shoes. White stilettos, probably

Aw, thanks Mr D. Very wise and comforting words. Must remember to maintain sense of proportion. Must remember to get first dibs at the champagne, should it appear, as well. (Channel ferries completely disrupted, Dad's plan to go booze-cruising for the champers on Thursday obviously scuppered (ha), but hey, I am now maintaining a sense of proprtion. We will after all have beer and cake).

Trust me, Swindon is full of girls who are either too stupid or too lazy to use contraception (Catholics notwithstanding). I have actually overheard pregnant teenage girls boasting about the free house they're going to get.

Swindon is a s**thole.

Mmm... beer and cake .

*Now has visions of Ag wondering around the reception in a potato sack with a pint in one hand and a big bit of cake in the other.*