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Room 101


taxi4ballet

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Taxi, yet another useful tip regarding unwanted callers - going to use that one as well.  Before we bought this house I used the perfectly legitimate excuse that we were tenants and not the owners.  That gets rid of a lot of people from the door step.

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Builders and scaffolders who seem to have suffered such hearing loss that they only communicate via shouting. Hearing always seems to be worst first thing in the morning.

 

Call centres where it is impossible to speak to a 'real' person.

 

People who seem to have no spatial awareness and choose to sit right next to you in an empty restaurant or cafe.

 

Shops which pretend that Christmas starts in Sept/October.

 

People in shops who ask how you without ever wanting to know the answer. Sometimes I feel like giving a lengthy response about my whole day and my emotional/physical well-being.

 

Spam- the food and email variety.

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People who seem to have no spatial awareness and choose to sit right next to you in an empty restaurant or cafe.

 

Or trains.  Or buses.

 

Fox's biscuits.  I have just opened *another* packet, over 2 months before the "Best Before" date, only to find that they're just starting to go soft.  I've lost count of the number of times this has happened.  I wrote and complained a few years ago, only to get a letter back explaining that I couldn't possibly expect biscuits not to start deteriorating after they were produced.  Duh - yes I can.  That's why they call it the "Best Before" date.  Because they are at their best.  Not starting to go stale.  They're allowed to start going stale after the BB date, but not before it.  Why Fox's think they're exempt from the definitions that everyone else operates by I do not know :(.

 

Sorry, /rant.

 

Oh, and actually they're one of the worst offenders for downsizing packet sizes, too.  It's ridiculous how small their packets are getting, and of course the price isn't.

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Builders and scaffolders who seem to have suffered such hearing loss that they only communicate via shouting. Hearing always seems to be worst first thing in the morning.

 

Call centres where it is impossible to speak to a 'real' person.

 

People who seem to have no spatial awareness and choose to sit right next to you in an empty restaurant or cafe.

 

Shops which pretend that Christmas starts in Sept/October.

 

People in shops who ask how you without ever wanting to know the answer. Sometimes I feel like giving a lengthy response about my whole day and my emotional/physical well-being.

 

Spam- the food and email variety.

 

 

No, no, no........Christmas really starts in August. 

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Shops, at least the large ones, need to start their Christmases after the summer sales - they have to find an immediate use for space and staff previously employed in summery departments such as gardening or garden furniture. I'm told that last year Harrods even managed to open theirs in time to catch the Olympic visitors of early August. Glad I managed to avoid that one, though.

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Harrods have been starting their "Christmas" season particularly early for some years now.  I had a feeling that it had something to do with their Arab clients: possibly some Islamic festival later in the year which gets in the way of them shopping?

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Eid: happening right now, I should know as the large number of Asian men who live in the flat below me saw fit to celebrate it until 3.30 am this morning and I'm writing this with bruised knuckles after banging on their door above the racket to get them to shut the **** up.

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You misunderstand, I'm not planning on banning anything, my post was a response to Alison's.

 

Harrods have been starting their "Christmas" season particularly early for some years now.  I had a feeling that it had something to do with their Arab clients: possibly some Islamic festival later in the year which gets in the way of them shopping?

 

 

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Ah yes I hadn't seen the Eid bit was referring to the festival Alison had mentioned!! I thought you had put it in room 101 apologies MAB

 

Because of my ex job have celebrated a number of Eids with the most wonderful food and lovely people.

But if anyone is celebrating into the early hours especially on a week day it is common courtesy to tell neighbours and at least tone it down a bit after midnight!!

 

Suffered from various people's birthday celebrations in this way when lived in Islington.....especially annoying on a wed night or something. But I kept gritting my teeth and and thinking thank God that's over for another year!!!

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Eid: happening right now, I should know as the large number of Asian men who live in the flat below me saw fit to celebrate it until 3.30 am this morning and I'm writing this with bruised knuckles after banging on their door above the racket to get them to shut the **** up.

 

I could have sworn someone said that Eid finished the other week, which is why I was vague about which celebration it was.  Mind you, there are two Eids, aren't there?

 

And either way, advance notice when close neighbours are planning on partying is always courteous.  That doesn't mean it happens, of course.

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The Eid al Fitr which is the one most have heard of to end Ramadan was in August

 

This must be another Eid(which just means celebration) could be al adha which is something to do with Old Testament story of Abraham willing to sacrifice his son.

 

The big one for most Muslims is the Al Fitr one which is sort of their equivalent to our Christmas as gifts are exchanged.

Of course the date changes slightly each year because of the moon etc

And hear endeth the lesson!!!

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Another one for the wrong season... people letting off fireworks late at night on any old random occasion. No warning, nothing, and no time to get your pets to safety indoors.

 

Drives me potty.

 

I'm OK with Nov 5th, the nearest Saturday to Nov 5th, New Year's Eve, Diwali - and 4th July (if you happen to live near a US air base).

 

That's it.

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On Wednesday 9th October an elderly, large, well kept Mercedes car parked outside our house.  I appreciate it is open road but it means that I can only just get my car parked without blocking our neighbours run in and it is the same situation for the neighbours on the other side (to put it baldly, the car is blocked in when both I and my neighbour are parked).  It is really inconvenient to say the least.

 

Last Sunday, my niece noticed that the front driver's window is open a couple of inches and she wondered if the car had been abandoned.

 

On Thursday the lights started flashing on the car, as though as silent alarm had been activated.  I rang the police who asked me if the car had a valid tax disc.  It has - until 28 February 2014!  The car has not been reported as stolen or as having been involved in any crime so the police can do nothing.  They suggested I contact the council, who basically said the same thing!

 

I was away on Friday when my niece rang me to say that an audible alarm had been going all day. Unfortunately she didn't ring me until after the council offices had closed for the weekend.  Fortunately by the time I got home on Saturday the alarm had stopped (presumably the battery has gone flat).

 

We are potentially in the situation of having that car outside our house until 1st March 2014, when the tax disc has run out!!!

 

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

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There is a law in most USA cities that I am aware of which does not allow a car to be left unmoved on a city street after a certain lenth of time such as three days.  After that it is tagged and if still there - removed.

Edited by Anjuli_Bai
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Janet, do you live near public transport that gets you to an airport, or anything like that? 

 

My old flat was within 5 minutes of tube and bus links to two of the major London airports.  And we found that people used our road as a free parking spot for their car when they went away on holiday.  Perfectly legal, of course, but it did mean that parking was very difficult to find if you actually lived there.  In the end, the council brought in the dreaded "residents' parking." 

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I had a look at our local council's website, and they mention on their 'how to spot an abandoned vehicle' section that one of the signs to look for is the car having broken or open windows. Also it says if the car has been in the same spot without moving for 14 days, then it can be reported. (Try balancing a small pebble on the top of one of the wheels - if it is still there in a fortnight, then the car can't have been moved or the pebble would have fallen off).

 

The website goes on to say that if a vehicle is reported to them as abandoned, then they have a duty to investigate, so your council probably has a similar set-up.

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More specifically a needle-thin sliver of bamboo stuck under the skin of my thumb. Won't come out.

 

Try putting a thick paste of magnesium sulphate on it covered with a padded gauze dressing - it should draw the splinter out.

 

Magnesium sulphate should be available from most pharmacies, do give it a good stir before using and apply with spoon handle/lolly stick.

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Sorry Taxi in my dumb sort of slow to react way I was trying to associate splinters with fireworks!! Thought it might be a new one I'd not heard of!!

 

Yes splinters can be very painful hope it gets sorted!

 

Actually Ive come to room 101 to put something in it......and ironically it's also associated with you Taxi!!

 

It's hospital car parking it should be FREE!!!

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Lin,you don't know because you weren't on this forum at the time but my poor father broke his hip earlier this year. He was in hospital for ten days and it cost us a fortune for parking. I know hospitals need money but surely they shouldn't make it out of the sick and their loved ones? :(

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Exactly. It's stressful enough coping with what's going on for our loved ones without worrying about parking....finding right money ....having to remember to renew....and so on.

I'm sure there was a day when it was free. When did hospitals start charging?

 

When my dad was ill with Emphysema and a certain level of dementia it was difficult as I had to drop him at the entrance because he couldnt walk that far by then and then hoped he would be alright while I tried to find a parking space!!

 

And now here in Brighton the car park is usually full so you have to negotiate the streets......and it's invariably raining.....twice so far when had to rush partner to A and E for a condition he had then. So I got soaked running in and out to repark the car in another street and ended up at the hospital for 12 hours!!

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