The whinge thread

[Bunnylump]

Oh goodness, the thought of sorting out that lot makes my head hurt. There are some very hand mathsy people on this site, you know... (I am NOT one of them, I hasten to add.) Good luck with all of that!! (Oh yeah, and remind me not to upset you ever... I like your style, though!!)

[LAT]

Oh goodness, the thought of sorting out that lot makes my head hurt. There are some very hand mathsy people on this site, you know... (I am NOT one of them, I hasten to add.) Good luck with all of that!! (Oh yeah, and remind me not to upset you ever... I like your style, though!!)

What's hand maths? Is it counting on your fingers? I can do that.

[katsmom]

Finger counting! Doh! No wonder I couldn't get to 96. Last time I checked I only had 9. ( make that 10)

[giraffe]

Using your fingers for units and toes for tens you should be able to get up to 100.

[LAT]

That's a bit like using an abacus!

Do they still have them in lots of shops in HK Katsmom?

[giraffe]

No it's exactly like using an abacus.

[Bunnylump]

Oh dear. I did of course mean handY maths people. Christ, this is when I HAVEN'T been drinking...

[Redfraggle]

I hadn't even noticed Bunnylump

[katsmom]

Loads of shops still use them. Always the Chinese Medicine men anyway. The bug took a course to learn how to use it quite a few years back-she was too young and of course hated it. Now she wants to try again. Of course, we can't find one now can we

[clvrlad]

strange i can count upto 1023 on my fingers....

[Bunnylump]

Are you a mutant? Anybody knows that tin dogs don't have fingers.

[clvrlad]

no its just binary....dont forget you can put a finder up or down........ two possible states
11111 11111 =1023

[Wulfruna]

Having seen the lovely picture of Kingsley and not begrudging her the thrill of the ball....

However, I am a bit cautious about the awful hype given to School "proms" these days, as a result of thinking that we have to imitate what goes on in America all the time.
Ok, so even in my day in the distant historical past, we had a 'school dance' (why change a perfectly good English name for this - as if the Americans were the first people to think of it?) for the leavers (18 year olds) - which was generally pretty much of a bore (especially for the poor lads who were dragged in as ostensible boyfriends....).
I should perhaps mention that this is actually the same school that Kingsley attends now and it sounds as if things may not have changed much at this all-girls institution .

But seeing the pictures from our own local Community College, with the girls all dolled up (literally looking like dolls in some cases) and plastered with dreadful makeup - often at what is obviously huge cost - and then rolling up in stretch limousines for those who can afford it and want to show off, makes me a bit sad. It has all gone a bit over the top.
And what is worse, is that instead of this being a special thing for the school leavers, it now seems necessary to extend it to all the younger kids as well, sexing them up out of all recognition. It is even happening in the primary schools - some of the pictures of those little 11 year old kids are nightmarish

[giraffe]

I completely agree. Nasty American idea. Neither of my schools had a dance of any sort in all the time I was there. They were both girls' schools and the only time boys set foot on the premises was one year the school play was Cinderella, and they imported a couple of boys for the ugly sisters from the boys school down the road! K was offered a ride in a stretch limo last night, but at nearly £35 per head we turned it down. It wasn't her friends that were going in it, but a bunch from another class and she was offered a seat. In the end the limo was cancelled, I think several families must have decided it was too expensive.

K has now left that school, so it was a nice way to say goodbye to her friends and one or two who had left along the way, due to family moves, were invited back to join the fun.

[clvrlad]

we had several disco's
me being a completely inept dancer and shy didnt really work with discos

[Bunnylump]

I must say I do agree with you Wulfruna. Why does it have to be called a "prom"? If you want to make it a posh do, then surely it's a "ball"? And I for one think that those stretch limousines are just the nth degree of tackiness. There is unbelievable pressure on parents who can't necessarily afford it to spend out huge amounts of money on ballgowns, hairdos, make-overs (even including ridiculous things like spray tans and nail extensions ) and dinner suits for the boys. But I did go with the flow with my kids, because I didn't want them to be the only ones who didn't do it. I did draw the line at the limo, spray tan and nail extensions though.

Mind you, as I recall, my son went to his end of year 11 do resplendent in his dinner jacket, bow tie and CRUTCHES!

My daughter has now been to:
Year 11 "prom"
Year 13 Leavers' dinner dance on a boat on the Thames
First year uni ball
Second year uni ball
Leavers' dinner dance
PGCE "prom".

Her mother, on the other hand, has NEVER in her life been to a ball of any description, and has NEVER worn a long dress!! The height of excitement in my social calendar is my best friend's 50th birthday party in a few weeks. That promises to be a few crisps, lots of wine, and pogo sticks!!

[MBH]

we had several disco's
me being a completely inept dancer and shy didnt really work with discos

SNAP!

I was painfully shy in those days while at the same time being very individual in all the wrong ways (didn't drink, didn't smoke) - and although I technically could 'dance', I'm no good at all without a set of steps So disco = torture.

I'm glad I'm not a kid these days - horrible American imports [which always seem to turn into disasters in the Movies].

[giraffe]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

[Bunnylump]

Errr...everything ok, Giraffe?

[giraffe]

No. I'm having a wallpaper hanging crisis. Bl**dy paper is tearing all over the place. I only need 6 strips of the patterened one, and so only bought two rolls, but the pattern repeat is really wasteful and I'm only gettting 3 strips per roll, so I have no spare. The first strip tore in 3 places, so I had to patch it together. 2nd strip, being really careful tore in 2 places so more putting it back together. 3rd strip, being really really carfeful. I got onto the step stool, only to find the bottom two thirds fell off and I was left holding a piece less than 2 feet long! It's like trying to hang toilet paper. It's feels nice and thick and strong, but seems to disolve when you add paste.

As I said before AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!


I don't know whether to rip it all off and go and try to buy some different paper or just carry on sticking it back together. At this rate it's going to look totally awful when I've finished. I've been hanging wallpaper since I was a teenager and I did my bedroom at Mum's house, I've never seen anything like it.


edit: And another thing, it's stretching all over the place and unevenly, so I match the pattern at the top and a bit lower it is too high and then a few inches below that it's too low, and so on all the way down. It's out by quite a lot in places and I daren't try to move it around too much incase it rips again.