IWLTS

[Smunder Woman]

[Marth]

I always associated not taking your shoes off as a sign of the upper classes, ie striding into your vast flagstoned kitchen after dismounting from Blaze, before heading to the oak floored study to pour yourself a whisky.
That shabby wealth.

Taking ones shoes off was for the 60s and 70s new breed of council estate working classes who had bought their first carpets on the never never and who were proud of their swirly shag pile.

Bling philosophy manifested in carpet if you will.

(We were the latter and I have a lot of empathy with that)


Now, I don't mind shoes on downstairs as there are no carpets downstairs, but not really if it's terribly wet or muddy outside. What I love about having a downstairs loo is that guests don't have to go upstairs to the carpeted areas at all.

ETA what does piss me off is people not wiping their feet on the conveniently placed door mat, just striding straight in.

I do a lot of home visits and always ask if I should take off my shoes (unless the floor is crunchy with mouse dropping/dried poo, which happens more that one would hope)

[wendy james]

IWLTS If you (primary school) are going to offer up the opportunity to your students to perform in a dance event, maybe inform parents before they sign up that they'll be responsible for getting their children from school and into a city 10 miles away for a 10 minute rehearsal during school time that's taking place right at school pick up time?

We're lucky that one of us can take the afternoon off to do it, but imagine if your employer is not so flexible, or you have younger children who need collecting from school while you're miles away? And you only find out after you've paid for the weekly dance lessons/costume, your child has been learning the dance for weeks and you've bought tickets for the performance. Muppets.

[Princess Morripov]

Ours did something similar for the Christmas concert - they put it on in a church in a completely different village, and then announced the day before there was no transport back to school after the concert and you could just take your kids home early, so A had to take Biggie from there, back to school to drop him back as he was booked into afterschool club that day because we were working and I had a 3pm, which had been working fine on the basis the concert finished at 2.30pm!

They never seem to think that parents work (see: 0 parking provision and expectations that you’ll all merrily walk your children to school!)

[wendy james]

Yeah, there's no parking at the primary school here either (just lots of news about nearby residents complaining), though I think you're a bit more rural than us!

Regarding shoes off/shoes on households, we are neither. P wears his trainers at all times, including putting them on when he comes downstairs. Me and the girls prefer indoor shoes/slippers, though we all will walk around in shoes if carrying shopping or we forget something and run back up the stairs for something. We don't ask others to remove their shoes, but lots of visitors do as they see all our shoes in the porch.

[Disco]

ETA what does piss me off is people not wiping their feet on the conveniently placed door mat, just striding straight in.

My porch was carpetted with a mat inside and out but I have watched so many people wipe their feet ON MY CARPET so many times I've ended up dorrmatting the whole porch floor.

[Marth]

ETA what does piss me off is people not wiping their feet on the conveniently placed door mat, just striding straight in.

My porch was carpetted with a mat inside and out but I have watched so many people wipe their feet ON MY CARPET so many times I've ended up dorrmatting the whole porch floor.

I am going to get a bigger mat

[Disco]

I am going to get a bigger mat

We're gonna need a bigger boat.

[sally maclennane]

IWLTS: are your members ok with their details being out there like that?

The beauticians that I go to had a fire last month. They have temporarily relocated to a sports club, using rooms there. I was there last night and the therapist mentioned that the car park can get really busy at certain times due to classes, kids clubs etc. I looked up their website later, so I could see when these are on, and avoid those times. They had a section entitled club calendar which I opened, assuming it would be a timetable. Its actually an Outlook calendar which has all their bookings so things like "Mary Jones 60th birthday party" and "George and Mildred Smith Ruby wedding party" ! Not sure that should be online for all to see.

[Lily]

Wow! I'd be tempted to say that!

[Ella]

Marth, I think you're right about the working class/council estate thing.like having clear plastic covers on the sofa

[Wiggle]

IWLTS - you do know the petrol pump has extra long hoses and you don't have to queue for a free pump on the side of the fuel cap?
Honestly the number of people who did exactly this when I went to fill up the car this morning was ridiculous. I might have felt their wrath as I manoeuvred past them and used a free pump.

[Princess Morripov]

You’ve got to park quite carefully though to win on the stretch though, right? I’d defo just wait and go for the side my cap is on :lol:

[Luce]

Never stretches for me, my car has quite a high roof and a big bum and too many times I’ve embarrassed myself by thinking it will stretch when it doesn’t!

[Wiggle]

Interesting, the cars in this case were not that big, so I would have thought they could have avoided the wait. Its probably due to me having no patience, wanting to get home as soon as possible and eat all the chocolate in the world.

[Kleio]

If you park far enough forward and close enough to the pump it'll normally stretch.

IWLTS It's so nice that instead of investing in your children you hoarded your resources like a dragon and as result have been mortgage free for years. Great that you can now afford to move into a huge house. I'm sure the children will appreciate that when then spend a limited amount of time with you. Hopefully you'll actually get your youngest son a bed when you move.

[emma_p]

OMG is this BB? Wow.

[Kleio]

Who else? He's told the kids for years that he was skint as he paid me all his money when actually he managed to pay off his mortgage in 8 years.

[Disco]

Oh Kleio. He never fails to show himself. Awful human.

[Lily]

He really is. I hope his house burns down and he isn't insured.

IWLTS you sneaky gits. I've just spent 17 minutes filling in forms for my dentist, and got so used to checking boxes I've just opted in for marketing. You have to go through the ins and outs of a cat's bum to unsubscribe. Bastards!