» Debt pron

My mum as well
The wife and I have a mortgage and credit cards but its not unmanagable, we're both working so we'll be OK in the long run. My mum's a bit different though.

Like scentless_apprentice, I too had a few afternoons hiding from knocks on the door in my youth and finding demands of payments in the washing pile, so I suppose I should have seen it coming.

My dad died suddenly 9 years ago when I was 24, and it hit us hard. As he was working, he had various pension schemes / trust funds etc. to provide for this eventuality. The mortgage on the house was paid off and we think my mum then got around £250,000 to set her up for life. She could have invested it, bought property, divided some between the kids (there were 5 of us) or just put it in a bank and lived off the interest for life. I don't know the full story as my mums unable to tell the truth, even to solicitors and advisors.

Basically the money pissed through her fingers. Spending on meals out became weekends out with 'friends'. Loans of £200 became £2000 and providing a new kitchen to a couple that we know of. Christmas for the 3 grandkids was like walking into a toystore and she'd spend her early days addicted to QVC and buying anything and everything from it. Some stuff is still stacked in boxes in the front room. We think most of the cash went when she was spending 4 years working for a one man applicance centre, when she wasn't taking any wages and supporting the business herself which was hemmoraging cash, which we only found out after it closed down because my mum had run out money.

I'm not upset that we didn't get any money (it would have been nice) but at the fact that she had no self control whatsoever, covered it with lies, pretended all was OK and more than happy to help out others rather than her family, or more specifically my dads children. My dad spent 30 years of his life working so hard, up at 6 and biking to work, where as my mum had part time jobs getting taxi's to and from work. When the money dried up, so did the friends, and genuine frieds that tried to talk to her about it got shut out.

Now she's broke on a state pension living out her twighlight years doing a few hours cleaning for a fiver an hour, providing her with enough money to buy 2 litre bottles of wine to numb the pain each night that she spends alone in front of the telly.
(Fri 24th Nov 2006, 10:34, More)

» In the Army Now - The joy of the Armed Forces

I used to be in the air cadets
until some kid a few years younger but above 'rank' told me to clean my shoes. I thought I'm not having some young kid telling me what to do, and that was the end of my RAF career.

Anyway, I know a few people in/been in the RAF, and here's the bits I know of.

The planes are about 30 years old and are falling to bits. Constantly breaking down and very expensive to repair. The mismanagment would put even the NHS to shame. Even the brand new cutting edge eurofighter is about 12 years old. Thats why everyone in the RAF is an air frame technician, i.e. stop the plane from falling apart in mid-air.
And it all comes out of the defence budget.

Do not turn up late. Ever. By all means turn in at 10 to 9 still pissed or hungover, but arrive sober at 9:02 and its a big black mark.

Officers are mainly postgrads with a bit of training. You don't get promoted from bullet catcher to officer, hence officers know knack all about the job.

The drinking games. Getting trollied on a daily basis quickly leads to boredom, so games help the days along. Someone shits in the middle of a table. A tray is placed on the shit, then everyone places their chins on the edge of the table. Someone else punches the tray as hard as possible. The person with the most amount of shit on their face buys the round and can load up the next tray.
Understandable if its a way of coping with the horrors of war. Not really understandable with your mates at a camp in the UK.

And lets not forget the MOD covering up the institutional bullying and murder at say...Deepcut.
As it said, these are the defenders of our nation.
/cynicism
(Fri 24th Mar 2006, 17:13, More)

» Posh

Posh?
My fiance Tones actually gets out the bath to have a piss.
(Thu 15th Sep 2005, 14:07, More)

» Messing with the Dark Side

back when we were younger
my sister and I developed a plan to scare her friend for a laugh. We were only about 13 and we rigged a piece of cotton to a candle, threaded it round the back of the bed and all the way up to me. When I pulled the cotton, the candle fell over. Simple.
Evening came, she came round and my sister and friend were sat round candle, and I was further away 'conducting the seance'. After setting the mood and lots of "Is there anybody there" nothing happened and she was disappointed, but the atmosphere would have made Derren Brown proud.

So we tried 'harder'..."give us a sign"..."we call to you oh spirit world".."Give us a sign!". With a pull of the cotton, the candle fell over, room went into darkness and cue two screaming girls leaving the room. My sis said that even though she knew it was faked, it still really scared her.
Good - getting a peek of her puffy nipple through the top her nightie.
Bad - seeing the girl a few years later, and she'd turned into a bible loving god person. I think I may have had something to do with it, for which I am most ashamed.
(Thu 20th Apr 2006, 12:23, More)

» Misunderstood

when I worked behind a bar
A young girl and her friend came upto the bar.
"Scuse me, can I have a cork"
I said "A cork? We don't sell them"
She said "no, I want a cork"
*me thinking you stupid cow*
I said "We use them for the wine" and speaking to her like a child "we..don't...sell..them"

Her non-yorkie friend then speaks in nigh-perfect english "Oh I think she means a coke"
:|

apoblogies for no plug
(Fri 7th Oct 2005, 12:26, More)