Room 101

[porthesia]

Adverts that say "best Christmas ever".  Does that mean next years is not going to be good, last year's was rubbish.  It should be to have a lovely, wonderful, happy anything but best ever, in fact there are other instances of the "best ever" not just Christmas and they really wind me up, grrr.

[taxi4ballet]

Also - adverts or packaging with the words: "New improved recipe" or whatever.

 

Why? What was so wrong with it before?

 

(I think they actually mean cheaper ingredients so they can increase their profits, but then I'm a bit of a cynic!)

[Anjuli_Bai]

I am always amused that the stores forecast a greater sales volume for the current year over the last year  of 3% (or whatever number) for Christmas.

 

When that doesn't happen - it's only 2% - then they cry how "bad" the season was.

 

Well, where did they get 3% in the first place?

 

As for claiming something is new and improved - well, then why in the heck did they advertise the previous iteration as "wonderful"?  

[Thecatsmother]

I always think it's funny in a restaurant when they ask if you want 'fresh' black pepper. They devil in me always wants to say "can I have the stale version please".

 

The other thing which gets me is people in stores asking "how are you" when you know they have not the slightest interest. Sometimes I feel like giving them a lengthy answer documenting every aspect of my day to see how they respond.

[alison]

The other thing which gets me is people in stores asking "how are you" when you know they have not the slightest interest. Sometimes I feel like giving them a lengthy answer documenting every aspect of my day to see how they respond.

 

I've done that on occasion.  "Well, since you ask, ..."

 

Software manufacturers who assume that everyone has a marvellous, super-fast Internet connection at all times.  After my virus, I had to reinstall Firefox, and, knowing what the broadband's like here, I went to the library for an easier download onto USB.  What did I get?  A Firefox.stub.exe file. Seemingly the absolute bare minimum, and once that's installed it goes online to look for everything else.  Took a couple of hours and a couple of false starts here .  Plus I've just attempted to reinstall Adobe Reader, only to find that it failed because it couldn't get online.  If it had told me it wanted to go online I'd have switched the broadband on for it, but it didn't ...  Why can't these people just make it so you download the bulk of what you need and then go online for updates?

[taxi4ballet]

I am always amused that the stores forecast a greater sales volume for the current year over the last year  of 3% (or whatever number) for Christmas.

 

When that doesn't happen - it's only 2% - then they cry how "bad" the season was.

 

Well, where did they get 3% in the first place?

 

As for claiming something is new and improved - well, then why in the heck did they advertise the previous iteration as "wonderful"?  

 

It always amuses me to hear that inflation is falling... no it isn't, its is just rising more slowly!

 

And... a new film release is "The highest grossing film of all time"... well it would be, wouldn't it? The price of tickets is going up all the time. 

[2dancersmum]

Unsupervised children in restaurants

 

 

A child aged about 2 or 3 in a restaurant last week.  Apparently the manager was there off duty for a family meal. Her grandson was running everywhere in a very busy split level restaurant - very dangerous and annoying for the staff and quite a few customers were getting a tad annoyed when he kept coming to their tables and interrupting conversations.  He shouted rather than spoke to everyone too.  I heard staff ask him to go back to his own tables several times but he just shouted 'no'.  Parents and grandparents just igmored him but must have known what was happening.  I think that manager probably lost the respect of every member of her staff that day.

[LinMM]

How I agree with the above. I am totally amazed at how thick skinned some people can be with their own children. I would be so ashamed if they were mine!

Barring that the child is actually ill and sickening for something when I realise may be playing up because of this some children need to be better controlled. It's almost as if the parents think you are in on the contract to bring up their child!!

 

As a retired teacher I have to really bite my tongue sometimes and have been known to change train carriages......more difficult in a restaurant of course.

However it is such a pleasure when you do see children behaving so well and good interaction with the parents that I have to bite my tongue again so as not to sound patronising by saying something like "aren't your children well behaved!!!"

[alison]

Yes, and don't you dare say a word against their little darlings, who are of course allowed to do absolutely anything they please, regardless of the rest of society.

[Anna C]

Gah, there was a family with children like that on a cruise we were on a few years ago. We didn't encounter them until a shore excursion where the whole family (parents included) just talked over the guide. Eventually she asked if she was boring them - they said no - so she said "right, well could you let me speak, please". They were loud and rude all day.

 

A few days later we were laying on deck on a very breezy day. The poolside (outdoor) showers were out of action because the spray blew everywhere, all over the people nearby. That family's son kept running over to the showers and turning them on, soaking us with spray. His Dad was laughing and encouraging him.

 

After the third time, I glared at the little boy, wagged my finger at him and said "No!" in what my dd calls my "teacher voice". He looked uncertain, then took a step towards the shower button. I said "NO!" in my sternest voice. He looked so surprised at being told "no" so firmly that he obeyed me, then retreated back to his Dad. I expected ramifications - but oddly enough there were none. I get the feeling that a firm, simple "NO" was seldom heard in that household.

[taxi4ballet]

Hat-wearing drivers.

 

Has anyone else noticed how frustrating it is to be driving behind one?

 

They go at 39 in a 60-limit, and 29 where they should be doing 40. Braking when going round even the slightest bend in the road also seems to be compulsory, and so is the habit of suddenly speeding up the minute there is somewhere for you to overtake, (effectively stopping you from getting past) and then slowing down again for no good reason. They are also completely bamboozled by lane markings and come to a dead halt at mini roundabouts regardless of whose right of way it is.

 

I had the misfortune to be stuck behind one for miles and miles this morning....Grrrr

[along for the ride mum]

Can I add the hour change in the winter. It's so dark now????

I was just coming on this thread to write that very comment! Euggghhh, I hate it being so dark and dismal! I couldn't quite decide whether to post on this thread or the one about treats for the blues! I am definitely in need of a little something to cheer myself up. Missing dd and fed up with dark evenings and gloomy weather and neither situation about to change. I need to give myself a large boot up the backside and start planning ways to cope with both!

[Fonty]

My mouth is full of large fillings.  Some years ago I asked my previous dentist if it was because my teeth were not very good.  We had been at school together when younger (we didn't remember each other but our Mums did!) so of an age.  He said to me that his mouth was the same.  When we were young the practise was that no matter how small the cavity most of the tooth would be drilled out and filled.  Now the minimum is taken out.

 

 

 

And there was me thinking it was that NHS dentists at the time were paid by the filling, and therefore by filling every tooth they made much more money. 

 

I would like to send to the hottest hell possible my childhood dentist.  Because he knew our milk teeth would fall out eventually, he filled and filled and filled....the drill would be whirring before you had crossed the room and settled yourself down in the dentist's chair.  If he wasn't doing it for the money, he must just have enjoyed inflicting pain. 

[Anna C]

I have a new one for room 101 this morning - neighbours and/or neighbours' workmen, using masonry drills and angle grinders at 8.00 am on a Saturday. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

[taxi4ballet]

That's early - what a horrible noise to be woken by!

[Anna C]

I was awake from 6.15 to see dd off to London, but had such a headache I was considering going back to sleep when she and dh left. No bleedin' chance!

[Jan McNulty]

I have a new one for room 101 this morning - neighbours and/or neighbours' workmen, using masonry drills and angle grinders at 8.00 am on a Saturday. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

 

Sadly, as I discovered some years ago, 8am is considered a reasonable time to start noisy work. I don't think it's reasonable on a Saturday or Sunday when you are trying to have a lie in!

[chrischris]

People who confuse 'your' and 'you're'.

[Jan McNulty]

People who confuse 'your' and 'you're'.

 

I quite often find this is due to "autocorrect" and people (me included) who do not read back before they hit the "send" button.  I've got autocorrect switched off on my laptop but haven't worked out how to do it on my phone!  Another one that seems to creep in via autocorrect is "there" and "their", seemingly random!

[alison]

Sadly, as I discovered some years ago, 8am is considered a reasonable time to start noisy work.

 

Legally, too, I believe .  I quite agree that anything before 9 am at the weekend is anti-social.

 

Mind you, if I lived in Germany I wouldn't be allowed to mow the lawn on Sundays at all ...

[Thecatsmother]

Why is it that most builders are not able to communicate without shouting even if they are standing next to each other?

[Anjuli_Bai]

Why is it that most builders are not able to communicate without shouting even if they are standing next to each other?

 

They're deaf from all the noise.

[Anna C]

Well, as I predicted they had finished by mid-day. Having wrecked my morning. Grrrrrr.

[Thecatsmother]

I did also discover last week that decorators tend to lose their sense of smell.

[alison]

What, like ballerinas losing their sensitivity to touch/ticklishness round the waist?

[Thecatsmother]

The decorator said it comes back after a few months. Good point re dancers. Does that come back when you stop?

[Thecatsmother]

Call me Scrooge but can I add Xmas decorations and adverts on TV. They should be banned until at least 1st Dec. I hate mulled wine but can be tempted by the odd glass of winter pimms.

[Anna C]

You may indeed.

 

Although I did have something in my eye when watching the John Lewis ad. ;-)

[Fonty]

Call me Scrooge but can I add Xmas decorations and adverts on TV. They should be banned until at least 1st Dec. I hate mulled wine but can be tempted by the odd glass of winter pimms.

 

I hate it when the Christmas decorations go up in towns in October. 

 

And by the time I get to the third week in December, I really do not want to see any more wholesome familys sitting grinning as they open their presents.

 

However, I have to say it does amuse me when stores start to decorate their windows, and start to put tinsel around very inappropriate things such as vacuum cleaners or tins of household paint.  With the suggestion that a battery charger would make a nice stocking filler. 

[taxi4ballet]

Talking of ads on tv - those advertisements for payday loans... Daylight robbery, preying on the vulnerable.

 

I can't believe they can get away with charging interest at over 2,000% and I'm glad the government has finally noticed. Hopefully they will do something about it.

[Fonty]

I put this originally on the Le Corsaire casting thread, but I think this is a more appropriate place.  I can't delete my original post, maybe the mods can?

 

I went to the O2 in person to buy a ticket from the box office, and they had a notice stuck to the window saying all  tickets purchased at the box office were subject to a booking fee!     I think it was £3.50, although I might be wrong.  And there was also another £7 odd slapped on for "facilities use" or some such phrase.  I was wondering what "facilities" they meant.  Toilets perhaps? Seats?  Air you breathe?

 

So, that means that all tickets were actually £10 more than the advertised price. 

[LinMM]

Grrr!!

[alison]

I put this originally on the Le Corsaire casting thread, but I think this is a more appropriate place.  I can't delete my original post, maybe the mods can?

 

I went to the O2 in person to buy a ticket from the box office, and they had a notice stuck to the window saying all  tickets purchased at the box office were subject to a booking fee!     I think it was £3.50, although I might be wrong.  And there was also another £7 odd slapped on for "facilities use" or some such phrase.  I was wondering what "facilities" they meant.  Toilets perhaps? Seats?  Air you breathe?

 

So, that means that all tickets were actually £10 more than the advertised price. 

 

Right, I've moved my reply over, too: 

 

That's disgraceful.  Last year, when I bought a ticket to the tennis (via Ticketmaster) I was disgusted enough that I had to pay something like £5 or £6 on top of a £20 ticket that I decided not to go this year.  Then along came an offer from Viagogo for tickets for £15, saving 58% on the normal price.  I thought about it and thought about it, and was pretty annoyed that there was a £2.95 transaction charge plus Viagogo's normal £5.95 guarantee etc. charge (they are major ticket resellers, so it covers the cost of guaranteeing that the resold ticket will be valid and supplying another ticket if it isn't, but that didn't apply in this case).  I eventually gave in (most unusual for me), and to their credit when I went to pick the ticket up I got a token for a free drink at the bar plus a £20 Viagogo gift card.  That's beginning to sound like quite a bargain in retrospect.