bloodandsand 
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I think he's on his best behaviour because he wants you to drop your guard and then he'll pounce! He's carrying a torch for you, Lesley. Let him down gently, let him know you've got a brand new lamp :)
Reply #3521. Sep 22 11, 12:31 PM
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daymare
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If he pounces, Lesley, you may have to sacrifice the lamp to show him the light.
Reply #3522. Sep 22 11, 12:36 PM
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| lesley153
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Oh dear. I tried very hard to believe that he is a changed person, but it's so hard to keep believing it.
Probably not a good idea to tell him I have a new **bedside** light in case he wants to see it. :(
Thank you all for keeping my feet on the ground! |
Reply #3523. Sep 22 11, 2:28 PM
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| lesley153
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He rang the doorbell this evening. Did I have the Thursday free paper? No, not yet.
"Oh well, sometimes it doesn't come till Friday."
Would you like me to save it for you?
"Yes please. And the Sunday one?"
Are you still not getting the Sunday one?
"No, I don't get them delivered any more. I've got a notice on my door, No Free Papers. For some reason, they set off my burglar alarm. I wouldn't care, but the neighbours..."
So there's me thinking he's not getting them because deliveries are erratic, or because he lives outside some delivery zone, but no. He's asking me for them, disturbing me so he doesn't have to disturb his neighbours.
I've always wondered how my postman manages to get the biggest letters and packages through the letterbox, and other people struggle to get a piece of paper through. So know the question is, why doesn't his postman set his burglar alarm off? why is it only the free newspapers?
Wishful thinking dashed to the ground. Nothing changes. |
Reply #3524. Sep 22 11, 4:46 PM
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| lesley153
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Tomorrow, Jonathan has his first appointment with his new GP, and then he has to enrol at his new college. He will also need to present himself for security clearance at the places he'll be working in. He's spent a lot of the last few weeks sorting out paperwork, and trying to get money out of three concerns who have owed him various amounts for a few or many months, and still do.
He even managed to get a phone installed in his flat, in spite of BT's insistence that his address didn't exist. They eventually agreed to recognise the address, create a record and install a phone line.
Next week he has a two-day induction course, and then lectures starting on Thursday. After all the running around he's been doing recently, it'll probably feel like a rest cure. |
Reply #3525. Sep 22 11, 6:43 PM
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MarchHare007
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If wishes were newspapers Merv might be buried Lesley....
Reply #3526. Sep 22 11, 8:44 PM
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MarchHare007
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Lovely to see Jonathon settling into a 'new' year.
Very enjoyable to watch as our sprogs begin to connect the dots. :)
Reply #3527. Sep 22 11, 8:45 PM
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| lesley153
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I believe that shredded newspapers make good mulch or compost. Now, if I were to feed a newspaper into the shredder while Merv was still attached to it, would the compost be much improved? I would very much like to try.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jonathan described the practice - big, comfortable chairs in the waiting room, and spotlessly clean, with a touch-in screen for registering your arrival, although you can still share a smile and a greeting the receptionist: a TV showing the rugby, and a banner above the telly with messages, including when it's your turn to go in. The time with the GP was well spent, discussing his medical history. He is impressed and we are both relieved.
Home for pizza and a few odd jobs in the flat, then out again to enrol at his new college, and at the hospital he's working for.
The dots are all coming together very nicely and, best of all, Student Loans have paid him the money they owe him, and it's only taken them seven months!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Now, where did I leave my garden shredder? |
Reply #3528. Sep 23 11, 5:42 AM
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| lesley153
|
The journey to London on Wednesday was uneventful, but there was entertainment on the train. On one side was a young woman who sounded like the female equivalent of Gap Yah, sorting her life out on the phone. Within half an hour, I knew what car she drives and why she despairs of her garage: her name, date of birth, mobile phone number...
On the other side were two boys somewhere near the end of their university careers, showing off about all the things they'd done - I've been a dep rep, a year rep, a blah blah blah... - and both talking about networking and being desperate to be financial advisers when they grew up. Isn't that sweet!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
On the way home, there was a man opposite, eating. I asked him to pass round the chips... When everyone else had got off, he started yawning, and I said Not yet! He said he travels all over the world as ops manager for a company specialising in bio-medical devices - Jonathan's degree subject. He has friends who are senior scientists at CERN, and tell Jonathan to keep an eye on CERN, because there will be medical spin-offs from the research.
There's all sorts of stuff going on there - like is it possible to travel faster than the speed of light? *head explodes* We have always been taught that you don't get colder than absolute zero, and faster than light.
Look at online news Thursday morning, find this:
"Puzzling results from Cern, home of the Large Hadron Collider, have confounded physicists because subatomic particles seem to have beaten the speed of light."
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15017484
Makes mental note to talk to people on trains more often. |
Reply #3529. Sep 23 11, 5:58 AM
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daymare
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Husband often tells about those on the train who disclose all sorts of personal information...either on their cell or to a companion. One girl broadcast her home address and the guy sitting next to husband said "is she advertising, being foolish or expecting company later"? They both had a bit of a laugh. Considering the majority of conversations are at a level the entire train can hear, is it by accident or just to be noticed...the world will never know...lol
Reply #3530. Sep 24 11, 9:04 AM
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| lesley153
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Perhaps they think it doesn't matter, because the people around are strangers. I'm not even prepared to announce my home address at pharmacies. This is apparently regarded as the best way to prove your identity and your entitlement to the medicine. I refuse to stand in a shop and tell everyone 1. this is where I live and 2. I'm not at home!
The two loud boys (whose burning ambition was to be financial advisers) were deeply engrossed in their boasting and may not have realised or cared that they had an audience - or perhaps they were showing off to the audience too!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A casual conversation this week made me think more carefully about a remark I've heard many times but not taken any real notice of:
"It's not what you know - it's who you know."
If you get an opportunity, or a job, simply because your friend or relative is running things, that's wrong and doesn't do anyone any good.
Alternatively, it is possible that you are exceptionally well-equipped for this, and the person running things knows that you are capable, competent, reliable, whatever traits are required. The "who you know" remark is then trotted out by people who don't know what you can do, and haven't considered that other people *do* know what you can do.
All this proves is that my brain has been seized up for longer than I realised. It needs sleep. |
Reply #3531. Sep 24 11, 5:23 PM
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| lesley153
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Tired, forgot to mention, how many people don't think anyone will know the people they know. -
A few years ago, a friend I sometimes went to concerts with told me that she couldn't go with me to an upcoming one because she was going with her dear friend Dot. I thought it was a fairly bizarre reason but didn't argue. I spotted them and realised that Dot was someone I'd only ever known as Mrs Carry. I went over to greet her. My "friend" nearly fell off her chair when Dot, who was used to seeing Jonathan and me in the audience, asked me "And how and where is your son?" (Answer - tonight he's in the orchestra.) And no, that's not her real name!
It's happened a few times recently. The more people I know, the more I find that they know each other.
I was waiting around in my ex-GP's waiting room, and I heard one of the receptionists on the phone, asking for someone because she had her test results. I knew the person she was calling. (I made sure I didn't hear the results.)
It's odd how so many of assume that we're the only person who knows whoever it is. Is it arrogance, stupidity or innocence? |
Reply #3532. Sep 24 11, 5:37 PM
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| lesley153
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Annoyed with Merv's revelation about the newspapers. Contemplated telling him to take the "no free papers" notice off his door and desensitise his burglar alarm, and get his own expletive papers. Was I overreacting? Jonathan thought I was. Thinks...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Nice day today. Jonathan phoned at twenty to nine, coffee in hand, walking to first of two induction days.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lunch with friend - always good.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Merv came for the papers. Looked at me and said "Ooh eye make-up - you look almost glamorous."
As he gathered the papers up, I told him I had a theory. I reckoned he could so easily remove the notice and desensitise his burglar alarm, but he's chosen not to, because he wants an excuse to see me. He's distraught at the prospect of not seeing me at least once a week. He agreed with me, at length and with deep sarcasm. Sorted.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jonathan rang well after six.
Have you only just finished?
"No, we went for a beer."
He's had an interesting day but is happy because he's just met a whole load of really nice people. What a relief. :) |
Reply #3533. Sep 26 11, 7:40 PM
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| trojan11
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"Ooh, eye make-up - you look almost glamorous."
Almost? The unmitigated swine - bounder - cad - mountebank!
Consider him soundly thrashed, lesley.
Reply #3534. Sep 27 11, 6:51 PM
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| lesley153
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| Thank you, kind Sir Trojan. Your white charger suits you. :) |
Reply #3535. Sep 27 11, 7:40 PM
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| trojan11
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Yes, it does rather. But I do so wish that it cease dumping right outside the door to my apartment.
Reply #3536. Sep 27 11, 7:54 PM
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| lesley153
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| Good for the roses? Keeps vampires away? Saves shredding too many Mervs? |
Reply #3537. Sep 27 11, 8:09 PM
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| trojan11
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I really wish that I hadn't mentioned a horse 'dumping' outside my front door. We quite often have cattle wandering up and down the street....and yes, this morning right outside my door lay several fresh, deep, cowpats. Whilst such are known to be effective insect repellents, I hesitate to smear myself with the stuff. The colour is quite off-putting.
Reply #3538. Sep 28 11, 12:32 PM
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| lesley153
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So do you think you tempted providence by mentioning them? Not nice... but it reminds me of my childhood in in Norf London, with horse-drawn milk floats, brewers' drays, coal merchants. The streets of London are paved with free fertiliser.
I've just stumbled upon a fourteen-year-old news item about road rage directed at horses. A brewery in Wandsworth, that's used horses to take out beer for 400 years, says it is no longer fair on the animals to subject them to abuse and danger from motorists.
The article described the chaos that resulted when a motorist took a chock and hit the horse with it. It ended with: "The motorist who attacked the horse was later taken to court."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/brewers-dray-horses-fall-victim-to-road-rage-1256697.html
I hope the selfish irresponsible impatient thoughtless moron who attacked the horse was banned from driving for fifty years and beaten to death with the same chock he used to hit the horse.
If the deliveries were being made by van, would the cretin have taken a wheel off and hit the van with it? Probably. People get angry when they're held up by ambulances, and attack the ambulance crew. There aren't many surprises now. |
Reply #3539. Sep 28 11, 3:20 PM
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| trojan11
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Oh, I didn't mind so much, Lesley. They often wander about on the pavement. Lots of nice greenery and they stop by for a nibble.
Nasty piece of work, whoever it was that beat the horse. Might not a good idea have been to force him to drag the cart himself for a full day? :()
Reply #3540. Sep 28 11, 6:57 PM
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