MakemineVanilla

18 hours ago, nick76 said:

Biden list…

 

A very interesting list - although "ending America's longest war" just falls short of Nixon's infamous "peace with honour".

Birmingham's council tax is forecast to rise by 21% over the next 2 years.

However Birmingham is still to host the European Athletics Championships.

1 minute ago, nick76 said:

Real scoop of an interview although the topics of discussion were fairly vanilla in nature

Usually it's the ice-cream holding the flake, not the other way round!

23 hours ago, Xela said:

Well, I bet someone does @sidcow

The vexed question is whether a garage becomes a shed depending on what is kept in it?

1 hour ago, Seat68 said:

My days of keeping a really nice box have gone as I enjoy a tip run and a really nice box is an excuse for a tip run. 

 

 

 

Keep the monthly tip booking talk till next week, we have just had it. 

I've been doing an audit of possessions in recent weeks but despite counting stuff I've not thrown much out.

I recently revealed the number of books I possess to someone who turned out to be a minimalist, and they gave me a very funny look.

I had actually understated the actual amount.

I guess the world is divided between anal retentives and anal expulsives.

1 hour ago, bickster said:

As long as you want. There can be no expectation that you keep a box to send an item back anywhere

That's the quandary, as the box in question is for a recently purchased monitor.

2 hours ago, rjw63 said:

Til the guarantee runs out

That's what my electronics engineer brother-in-law says.

2 hours ago, sidcow said:

In our house at least 10 years after the electrical item has gone to the tip because "you never know" or "it's a good box" 

I've still got the box my Gateway 2000 PC came in (1997) - it really is a beauty!

2 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Depends if it's A Really Nice Box or not. 

You understand me perfectly - other people don't seem to.

How long should I keep the cardboard boxes my electrical purchases arrived in?

34 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

How many people in ‘77 could have dreamt of owning a Range Rover, or a telephone?

There is a very different attitude to credit now, and more people thinking they have more disposable income. So the relatively limited supply means greater competition and higher prices.

I guess, as my theory.

Used cars have got a lot cheaper as the number has increased and you can get something decent for 20% of a median wage.

Electronics have got a lot cheaper and the on-line gizmo I used, calculated that a hi-fi amplifier bought in 1971, cost the equivalent of almost £2k back then.

21 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I don't think there's any great mystery there. The modern game is much more inclusive and family friendly, and heavily pushed in the media.

They've spent a fortune on rehabilitating football's image to bring in the middle classes, increased demand and pushed up prices, no matter how shit the teams are.

I watch quite a bit of football from the lower divisions and even Europe, and they seem to have half empty grounds.

I'm convinced that the Premier League has a special allure and seems to be defying trends I see in other divisions and leagues, even though the average product doesn't seem much better.

I wonder if the punters are just seduced by the brand and hype.

With the economy in trouble it will be interesting to see if the Premier League will suffer.

42 minutes ago, sidcow said:

The one I used says £415 today. 

I don't know how much a season ticket is in The Trinity now but I'm guessing it's easily double that? 

In 1977 Villa finished 4th, when Andy Gray scored 29 goals (25 league).

It prompts the question as to what was it, that increased demand to such an extent that they can now charge much higher prices?

Sky?

Or, has it since become a game for an older age group, who have more money?

Sorting through my Villa archive the other day, most of which was donated, I found a Villa season-ticket book for 76-77, which cost £46 for a seat in Trinity Road B4 zone.

I ran it through an on-line gizmo to find the equivalent cost in 2024.

£334

21 hours ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

The 1932 Emu War. 

In 1932 the Australian Government decided to conduct a cull of emus. They wanted to cull 20,000 in order to reduce damage to crops.  They sent in the army with heavy machine guns.  

The army reported that emus were exceptionally difficult to hit once the first shot had been fired.  Even when hit by several shots the emus just ran away.  

The army ran out of their alloted ammunition having killed only 986 emus.  The cost of ammunition (10,000 shots fired) far outweighed any reduction in crop damage and the total number of emus remained the same. 

The emus won.  

 

 

 

 

It always seems like Australia are fighting a perpetual war against invasive species on numerous fronts, whether they be cane toads, rabbits and whisper it, feral cats.

Villa were impressive for long periods of the game and less so at others.

Bailey's cheeky nutmeg to set up Watkins for his tap-in, started the party, but Villa's failure to defend a corner properly, energised Forest to fill Villa with doubt, and Nuno's instructions to his forwards to start their runs behind a couple of yards deeper, set the cat amongst the pigeons.

The loss of Torres at the break began to look fatal for Villa, but a Watkins-Bailey combination finally proved a knockout blow for Forest's hopes.

Once again VT's voters got it exactly right, with Bailey clearly man of the match, with very strong outings for McGinn and Luiz being not far behind.

Villa weren't great but controlled the game from start to finish, despite my doubts at times.

I'd like to see the incident which I thought was a penalty, again, because I don't think the defender played the ball.

I couldn't see how Moreno or Bailey was interfering with play, but VAR is obviously there to reduce the number of goals, to keep them at a premium, while managing the outcome to suit the richer clubs.

Watkins took his goals well but despite having a patchy game, Tielemans' assist for the second was quality.

Torres was superb and a constant concern for Fulham - I am sure if he played for a Yorkshire team they would call him T'Pau!

The defender's foot was nearer the goal than Moreno's arse, so how can he be offside?

On 14/02/2024 at 21:40, Marka Ragnos said:

Conventional wisdom: “Gen Z’ers have it considerably harder than previous Gens.”

No, they don’t. They have it considerably easier.

Isn't life rather like the fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea, where the more pampered you are the more sensitive you become to minor discomforts?

5 hours ago, rjw63 said:

I used to sel a certain fanzine outside the ground, Mikey would appear and spend twenty minutes talking my ear off.

H&V?

19 minutes ago, Genie said:

When I warra lad me and my mate worked the restaurant bar at a fairly big place. The waitress puts the food and drink orders in the till, then our printer prints off the drinks order. We put it on a the tray for them to collect and take to the table.

Not once did any waitress ever give us a penny of the tips they got from a table.

I think the waiting staff see it as compensation for having to deal with the public.

Someone told me that they once had a customer order a t-bone steak and then complain that it had a bone in it.

2 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

I’m not sure I think there has been a change in the rules because yes, some restaurants were taking the piss. it’s right the old girl washing the pots gets a slice, not so good when ‘the man’ is getting in on the action.

I think the best thing about being a Brit, is that unlike Americans, we don't live in dread of being branded as a lousy tipper.

5 minutes ago, bickster said:

I don't expect tips when I'm out in the cab, I think we charge a decent rate that balances competitively cheap with perfectly good income for the driver vs cost/time. People still insist on giving me extra though, well those paying by cash do, its much rarer for those paying by card

I'm not a big fan of tip culture anyway but I do tend to do it in the pub I go to regularly but that's about it

Somehow I never imagined you as a schmoozer.

11 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

 

I had a real issue with this about a week ago.

We went to some franchise place called Bill’s. The food was perfectly alright, I’d go back, I don’t want to rush back. But it cost quite a lot of money for what it was, I think the bill for four of us was well over £100 which should have meant a £10 or £15 tip. But I didn’t feel I’d been given any exceptional service or exceptional food, and elsewhere in the same area when I sit in Chan’s and have a bowl of ramen for a fiver, or I get coffee and a toasty from the coffee shop, I wouldn’t even think about tipping the staff. So I didn’t, and it sort of bugged me for a few hours.

Are restaurants still allowed to pool tips and use the money to subsidise their wage bill?

Carluccio's used to do it if I recall correcty.

11 minutes ago, Xann said:

GDP is a shit method of rating the success of a country.

Are we happier?

Not on here we are not!