Life Spugs because...

[johnnystress]

Irish insurance companies have also jacked up their prices, their reasoning was that they predicted that their profits would drop.
So the question was , if this predicted slump doesn't happen do the customers get a refund..

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

So the question was , if this predicted slump doesn't happen do the customers get a refund..

Probably not, so it'd be best to drive recklessly to make sure ye get yer monies worth 

[johnnystress]

I'm off!
vrrrroooooom

[klute]

Because yet again ive reached the end of spaced season 2 everytime i watch it i wish for more

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I felt I should let y'all know about the current situation with the bigots building a bonfire on my work's premises.

We've rented some palisade-site fencing and isolated an agreed upon an area in which the bonfire shall be confined. The fencing cost £200. They are taking up 62 spaces (out of a total 342), for which we would normally charge £10 a day, each. So for the 12 days the are using the space for they should be charged £7440, not counting the time it takes to clean up after, or the cost of the fencing .

But the government is only giving them £800 for their highly disruptive piss-up (that's right folks, the Northern Irish Assembly* pays these people to ignore the rule of law and pesky legislation concerning private property**.), so the company I work for has to foot the bill for the entire thing. We're going to lose a shocking amount of business, no-one is going to park next to a bonfire.

I would never dream of denying anyone the right to a celebration of their culture, but people who actually work for a living should not have to foot the bill for it.

It's not all bad news though. I haven't taken my holidays yet, so I was able to take the week of the bonfire off. Not only that, my parents have rented a cottage in North Wales for the whole month of July. A cottage in North Wales. 20 miles from Portmeirion. PORTMEIRION. Where The Prisoner*** was filmed.

*Tribal Council
**That's before ye get into the whole business of the toxic fumes these things produce. They're chock full of tyres. Now, whenever you're replacing your tread in Norn Iron, you have to pay a fee to have the rubber recycled. If all the old tyres are being broken down and recycled, where are they getting the tyres for the bonfires?

***This show, along with Star Trek, Airfix and Terry Pratchett, are the main things me and my Dad bond over. He's not a big fan of 2000AD though, he insists Commando is better.

[vzzbux]

Enjoy your break pops. I spent 2 weeks in a cottage roughly 20 miles away from Portmeirion a few years ago and had a great time with the family. Some great views and there is loads to visit in the surrounding area.





V

[Dandontdare]

My friend's dad is a Prisoner fanatic - he goes to the annual convention and dresses up and everything. I've never visited Portmerion, but it's on my list of places to see sometime

[Emp]

Take a number.

[Albion]

I visited Portmerion last year on my way to the Judge Minty shoot. Really cool place and fascinating to see where the Prisoner was filmed.

[Tiplodocus]

Is it just me that thinks THE PRISONER was "Meh!"?  But Port Meirion looks lovely.

[Mikey]

It's not all bad news though. I haven't taken my holidays yet, so I was able to take the week of the bonfire off. Not only that, my parents have rented a cottage in North Wales for the whole month of July. A cottage in North Wales. 20 miles from Portmeirion. PORTMEIRION. Where The Prisoner*** was filmed.
...
**That's before ye get into the whole business of the toxic fumes these things produce. They're chock full of tyres. Now, whenever you're replacing your tread in Norn Iron, you have to pay a fee to have the rubber recycled. If all the old tyres are being broken down and recycled, where are they getting the tyres for the bonfires?

Wales you say? Any spare space? Please?

I got a puncture on the Newtownards Rd after the frolics last week. The road was a fuckin mess! And the tyres thing isn't just NI I think - and they get them from unsecure, or sympathetic (see turn a blind eye/don't want burned out/chancers), tyre yards.

M.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Is it just me that thinks THE PRISONER was "Meh!"?

It's not everyone's cuppa tea

[The Legendary Shark]

... today I had a spat with a kid on the park.

There's a playing field at the top of my road, right at the heart of my village. It's been there for donkeys' years and for donkeys' years it's been little more than an area of mown grass with a couple of swings in one corner. People walk their dogs there, play footie, sunbathe, hang out. Still, it was really rather under-used. A couple of years ago some kids had the idea of getting up a petition to put a skate park on the field and I gladly signed it. I was on the local Parish Council at the time and voted for it. (To be fair, many locals signed the petition in favour of building the skate park and the PC vote was unanimously in favour, so I claim no moral superiority or hip-with-the-kidsness by saying all this.) Recently, the skate park has been built and the kids absolutely love it. They're always there with their bikes and skateboards. In fact, they were so keen to get playing on the thing that they tore the contractor's temporary fencing down before it was even finished to have a go. Not terribly good behaviour, I grant you, but an encouraging sign that at last the kids around here were going to have something to do. So - all good stuff.

Now, along with the skate park the Parish Council also decided to add a spanking new playground with swings, see-saw, wobbly thing, thing to be climbed all over and whatnot. Also, a few trees were planted around the perimeter of the field and benches added. This simple thing has made many people happy. Of course, some the kids using the skate park have snapped some of the trees in half and introduced an entirely new level of litter but that's only to be expected. Young lads will snap whatever they can to impress young lasses and without Roman litter Time Team would be largely buggered. I am, I like to think, a fairly tolerant kind of chap. Thoughtful. Maybe even quite deep, on occasion.

Anyway, this afternoon was bloody gorgeous and so I took my puppy for a walk. On the way I got talking to a good friend of mine who asked me to take their dog and granddaughter, Chloe, along. Chloe is only 12ish and their collie is too strong for her, so I took the collie and gave her the puppy. So, we had us a walk in the sunshine on the park watching the kids playing on the skate park and folk sat enjoying the sun and it was all grand and lovely and like what life should be like. Then, on the way back, I saw this kid grinding his bike along the back of one of the new benches, splintering it to buggery.

"Hoy!" says I, trying to be all reasonable like. "Don't do that, kid, you're ruining that bench!"

The silent treatment. Teenage force-field of dumbness emanating from him and his mates. But that's okay. Like I said, I'm a fairly tolerant kind of chap. Calm. Maybe even cool, on occasion.

"Look," I said, demonstrating the splintery damage to the brand new wooden bench for the teen and his disinterestedly interested mates with my finger. "It's buggered, look. Brand new bench, buggered."

"It was a dog," the teen said, "it jumped up and chewed it..." (I shit you not, this is exactly what the spotty little Herbert said.)

Have you ever experienced one of those moments when your train of thought isn't just derailed but jumps the tracks altogether, vaults the safety railings and plunges 200ft into the sea? This was that. Calm? Me? Get the f...

"A dog? Do you think... Are you... I saw you doing it. You saw me watching you doing it..." I rather fancy that then I made a sound like the Churchill Insurance bulldog for the teens began to chortle and the arch teen was showing off. He was trying to snap something to impress the teen-lasses. Me.

"Just use the bloody skate park, you pillock." I managed to say rather than scream.

"It's shit," he said, allowing the bike to roll slowly towards me at precisely the speed of indolence. "It's for children."

So, when he got close... I kinda' pushed him and said he should feel at home on it, then, being a child himself. Yes, I know. My own subconscious at this point put its head in its hands and sighed.

"I'm only 13," the teen squealed, changing tactics. "Make you feel a big man beating up a teenager, does it?" The little...

How the Hell did I get to this point? I'd come out for a nice walk and ended up nearly in a fist fight with a 13 year old. Suddenly, all I could think about was how distasteful it would be getting all that puss on my fists and, further, whether punching him in the face would feel and sound like punching bubble wrap.

"Look..." Conciliatory. Palms raised. Scowling, though - that seemed important for balance. "Just use the bloody skate park and stop ruining the benches like a child, okay?"

"I'm not a [spoiler]fucking[/spoiler] child, you old pervert!"

"Well, you ride your [spoiler]fucking[/spoiler] bike like one..." Shit. Saying that was a mistake.

"Yeah? You wanna' show me how it's done, granddad?"

"Just think about other people, will you? Start thinking like an adult, not like a child," (and keep walking, just keep walking away and try and keep this [spoiler]fucking[/spoiler] mad collie under control at the same time. Please don't let him leg me up, please don't let him leg me up...) "The village spent a lot of money making this place nice for everybody, so show it some respect." And... into the exit and clear. Chloe is half way home. There is a grinding, splintering noise from nearby.

And now I'm really miserable and ashamed because I like to think I'm a tolerant man. I like to think I'm a peaceful man. A thoughtful man. Intelligent. Maybe even wise, on occasion.

I'd approached the situation fully expecting the errant teen to see the error of his ways and impose upon himself the sanctions of contrition. In my head, it was going to be like a scene from an old Ealing comedy where the local good-natured buffoon would shoo off the local good-natured scalliwags in a good-natured kind of way. But, when it came down to it, I was just an ape in a cap shouting "Hulk smash!" at someone smaller than me. Dogs barking at one another; the old puppy and the old grizzler. It's a story as old as life, I guess, but I still feel like a complete tosser.

[TordelBack]

Troubling subject matter aside, that was a great story well told, TLS.  They opened a kids' playground in our estate 2 years ago, and closed it 6 months later because of vandalism and insurance -  now it sits there chained up behind a fence and the only people who get to use it are teens burning holes in the equipment with their lighters. 

You did what you had to, and pusface did what he had to.  It's pretty much your job as a responsible to call kids on this kind of thing, if you didn't you'd be condoning it, and you know it's wrong, and to everyone's detriment.  Anyway, they expect it.  Remind me to tell you about the time I stopped my car to confront a yob beating his dog.  Oh dear.

In the words of Sinead Whenshewasactuallygoodandslightlylessmad O'Connor paraphrasing W.B. Philandererinjectingmonkeyglands Yeats:

"Being what you are/ There is no other Troy/ For you to burn"

And you didn't actually clock him.

[The Legendary Shark]

"Being what you are/ There is no other Troy/ For you to burn"

Ooh, thank ee, kind sir. I've never heard that one before - it's definitely going in the memory bank. 

Hey, looks like the whole thing's not been a dead loss after all!