Indoor Market?

28 February 2012

The old Woollies site here in Dorktown is supposed to be taken over by Poundland at some point.  Right now we have no idea as to when it will happen because the layers for the council - who owns the building and Poundland's lawyers are still falling out over the details according to the News.  And while all this going on the largest vacant retail space in town is lying unused.  The town used to have a small indoor market but it got closed for some reason and there's a couple of shops there in its place.  But the Woollies site would make a make a great indoor market.  There it is, a two story building right slap bang in the centre of town, with ample space for an even bigger indoor market than we used to have.  I have to wonder if this option had been thought about by the council before Poundland showed interest?

Dorktown chippies have been given a seal of approval after local Trading Standards officer did a check to see if any where selling cheaper fish but claiming they were cod.  It's good to now know that when we fill our faces with high calorie fish n chips, at least we're getting the real deal.  My main moan about the chips are the portion size.  By that I don't mean we get too little, I mean that we get far too much.  The times I've seen people throw away half of what they buy because it's too much is staggering.  I rarely eat a full fish and chip take away and I find it all far too wasteful.  Talking of which ...

Who is the tightest, money grabbing person you have ever met?  For me it was guy I knew in the 1960s before I joined the Army.  George was extremely tight!  At the lunch break he would buy a cheese sandwich and a slice of bread and butter.  he would split the sandwich and the bread and butter, arrange the cheese evenly on the two half's of the beard and place the bread and butter on top of it.  That way he got two cheese sandwiches for 6d less than buying them.  Not finished with George yet ...

One afternoon another of our gang of workers was short of a penny for his afternoon cuppa.  George loaned him the penny.  That Friday when we got paid George was there after his penny - and even had all the change he needed up to a £10 note.  Still not finished with George yet ...

We sat talking one day when someone said that he was going to try this new instant coffee.  George said, "We only have instant coffee in our house because there's no waste with it.  Don't believe the crap about tea leaves being good for garden, they're not and I will not waste things like that by throwing them away.  Someone then asked what was on telly that night and again George spoke up.  "We won't be watching it.  Our cat has had kittens and we will watch them play.  That doesn't cost us anything, you don't have to plug a kitten."  And I'm still not finished with him ...    

As he drove to work one day he noticed a house up for sale just across the road from the factory.  One of the guys suggested that he buy the house because he would save on petrol money by walking to work.  We all laughed because it was said as a joke.  He worked out how much difference his mortgage would be, how much saved in not driving to work and he did in fact buy the house.  We all laughed at his being so tight-fisted but he saw it as being normal to save money where he could.  I wonder if he argued the price of his funeral with the undertaker ;-)))

Did you see Panorama on the BEEB last night?  It was about the cost of child care.  It's staggering how much is costs.  Councils are closing nurseries all across the UK to save dosh but one guy on there says that there are lot of them acting illeagally by doing so.  They have a statuary obligation to keep these services running.  I wonder how many other such services are closing down illegally.  Then there was the couple who moved to Norway and are both now working at well paid jobs but their daughter is in full time nursery and paying less than  half the price they were being charged here in the UK for a part place.  Rip-off Britain is still alive and well it seems.

So now I have to find another photo ... right, this one today ... 

Now don't blame me, this was apparently a work of art.  I scanned this shot from a magazine photo some years ago.  The story that went with it was that it was one of Hurst's works.  It got in the mag because a cleaning had seen it and put the lot in a bin bag and threw it out.  The gallery was angered, Hurst laughed but in reality only the cleaner saw it what it really was!

From the note book ...

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which may be why so few engage in it!