What Really Grinds My Gears?

[Dr. Gonzo]

2 hours ago, Teso dos Bichos said:

😂 same here but its worst with snow/ice. 

I imagine ice or snow in San Diego would lead to absolute carnage on the roads, so many people would die lol. Rain, even just a little bit, makes traffic crippling.

[Inverted]

Being 20 and having basically no responsibilities in life, I know it's rich of me to criticise, but shite parenting does do my head in, and I find it very hard to ignore. 

I was at the pub most of Sunday watching the football with a couple of pals, and there was a big table with maybe 4 couples and there were 3 kids with them - two about 4 or 5 and an older one who was maybe 9 or 10. The parents were chatting away with a few drinks, the dads watching a bit of the football, and the kids were just running riot all around the place, playing tig between the tables. 

I found it a bit annoying because they were pretty distracting, but I felt even more embarrassed because there were older couples trying to have their lunch and all sorts, with these kids narrowly running past them, and even jumping up on spare chairs at some tables. 

Parenting is far tougher than it's possible for someone at my age to imagine, I know. But I like to imagine that if I had a child in the key formative years of its life, it wouldn't be spending its weekends running around a pub whilst I had a few pints with my mates. 

[Guest Cannabis]

Parenting is at an all time low at the moment. There are so many spackermongs out there too blinded by their own self important to notice that their children are acting like abortions.

[Honey Honey]

Some children just generally are unruly though. It doesn't always have to be someone's fault.

Jose Mourinho for example just wont give a rest, there's little his mum can do.

 

[RandoEFC+]

I remember a couple of years ago sitting in a pub. Two Mums were there with their kids, ladies dressed up for a night out (it was afternoon) and got through at least 3 bottles of wine between them while we were there while the kids played on ipads. Later went out for a smoke together leaving the kids inside. We're talking 8-9 year olds too not teenagers.

[SirBalon]

1 hour ago, RandoEFC said:

I remember a couple of years ago sitting in a pub. Two Mums were there with their kids, ladies dressed up for a night out (it was afternoon) and got through at least 3 bottles of wine between them while we were there while the kids played on ipads. Later went out for a smoke together leaving the kids inside. We're talking 8-9 year olds too not teenagers.

What did you think when you saw this?

[Stan]

20 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

What did you think when you saw this?

blatantly went to have a fag with the milfs  

[SirBalon]

4 minutes ago, Stan said:

blatantly went to have a fag with the milfs  

To be honest a lot does depend on how hot they were. Obviously they weren't all that great by the sounds of Rando's rant.

I've seen that sort of thing though, and much worse.

[Cicero]

The fact we now live in a generation where stupidity is celebrated and considered as entertainment. 

[SirBalon]

Now I'm gonna go onto something different, something I see a lot of and I just don't get!

It's an old theme but one that I think is a lot more far fetched these days than it was in the past...

I'm talking about wearing brandname clothes.

I haven't got anything specific against brandname clothing, although I do have something against spending more money than you're worth, than you've got, than you should be spending.

I see people in my area everyday that I know by face and that I know they don't have the money and yet are wearing clothing that isn't exactly cheap.  Infact the clothing they're wearing looks cheap but they've fallen into the trap and are spending stupid amounts of money.

I'm going to go back in time for a bit, not that far back mind you.  I'm going to go back to when I part owned my chippies and I was there one day visiting and sitting down having a beer...  In walked this early 30s guy with his young son who may have been about 9 or 10.  He asked one of my employees for a sausage and a portion of chips but then as the girl was preparing what he'd asked for he called her attention and asked how much a kid's portion of fish and chips cost...  She told him and he asked if she could make it cheaper because he wanted to give his boy some fish instead of shit processed meat (he didn't say shit processed meat, I'm saying that...  He said instead of sausage).  The girl looked at me because she knew I was there (I hate to think what they do when the owners aren't there) and I shook my head saying NO!

Now, before anyone judges me on this part and I suppose you know what's coming due to how I started this post, I said no because of one particular detail.  This guy was wearing a £400 jacket!  I got up and I approached the guy and I did what I never do which was to pre-judge because he could've been gifted that jacket or he may have bought it stolen and paid nowhere near that price.  Luckily for me the guy was as stupid as his actions which I pre-judged upon...  I asked him where he'd got his jacket from because I liked it and I wouldn't mind having one myself (I wouldn't be seen dead in that jacket but it served my purpose) and he answered me...  "I bought it in Selfridges.  Really! I exclaimed, how much was it?  £480 he told me.  WOW!  I responded once again...  I then approached him and whispered so his son couldn't hear "get out of here and sell your jacket so you then don't have to haggle for the price of fish you scumbag".  He reacted with a physical twitch as if to want to do something about it but then looked at his son and rushed off with his sausage and chips.

Just to say that I would've said yes in all cases of need in a situation such as that, but not then, never like that.

Going back to the brandname situation because I think a lot of it is tasteless.  I spotted some housing estate young men coming out of their road today wearing that horrible brandname called Stone Island with its disgusting label on the upper arm.  I thought to myself...  How much does that shit cost?  £150 upwards?  I'm talking about a sweater and not a jacket which I'm sure would've been over 500 smackaroos.  It's horrible and my question is...  WHY?!?  Why do people do this?  What's wrong with GAP for example on a sweater?  That's very good quality, it hasn't got an apparent brandname all over it and you're saving money.  There's other brandnames in clothes that make decent stuff and that fits into people's pocket sizes.

I just don't get it and it's the same as the £20,000 a year earner that buys a brand new Audi.  I don't get it!  I just don't understand.

[nudge]

I never used to buy brandname clothes until I moved to a country where it's manufactured in local sweatshops and sold for a tiny fraction of price they charge the fools in the West 

[SirBalon]

2 minutes ago, nudge said:

I never used to buy brandname clothes until I moved to a country where it's manufactured in local sweatshops and sold for a tiny fraction of price they charge the fools in the West 

How much does a £40k+ Audi cost there? 

[nudge]

Just now, SirBalon said:

How much does a £40k+ Audi cost there? 

Sadly, they do not manufacture cars here, I'd rather have it instead of brand name clothing too  

Due to high import taxes and duties, that £40k+ Audi would cost at least double that here   It's ridiculous, really. A 20 year old shitty car costs at least 4000$  

[Stan]

16 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

What's wrong with GAP for example on a sweater?  That's very good quality, it hasn't got an apparent brandname all over it and you're saving money.  

Isn't GAP a brandname? 

To be fair, I do like that it doesn't have an apparent brand name all over it

[SirBalon]

29 minutes ago, Stan said:

Isn't GAP a brandname? 

To be fair, I do like that it doesn't have an apparent brand name all over it

I knew someone would come out with that.  But I'm on about their stuff that doesn't have that which is most of their gear and there are other brandnames that don't cost an arm an a leg and are quality. The reason I quoted them was because it's quality clothing for affordable prices.  For example, it's not Primark.

[SirBalon]

34 minutes ago, nudge said:

It's ridiculous, really. A 20 year old shitty car costs at least 4000$  

That's mental!  But then again I doubt that in that society anyone spends more than they should.

[nudge]

Just now, SirBalon said:

That's mental!  But then again I doubt that in that society anyone spends more than they should.

Haha, owning expensive shit is a status thing, and status and showing off is a huge thing down here. You'd be surprised by a number of brand new Lexus, Porsches, Mercedes, Range Rovers, Lambos, Rolls Royces and the likes on the streets... In fact, I haven't seen so many luxury cars on a daily basis anywhere else in the world (at least not Europe anyway). Just like I have never seen so many Iphones anywhere else  

The main issue about this society is not poverty, it's inequality and corruption. 

[SirBalon]

6 minutes ago, nudge said:

Haha, owning expensive shit is a status thing, and status and showing off is a huge thing down here. You'd be surprised by a number of brand new Lexus, Porsches, Mercedes, Range Rovers, Lambos, Rolls Royces and the likes on the streets... In fact, I haven't seen so many luxury cars on a daily basis anywhere else in the world (at least not Europe anyway). Just like I have never seen so many Iphones anywhere else  

The main issue about this society is not poverty, it's inequality and corruption. 

Yeah but I would expect they can easily afford those products.

I can imagine the corruption is massive in places like that because it's big everywhere else although covered or painted in a fashion to make lesser intelligent people feel it isn't so bad.

[nudge]

Just now, SirBalon said:

Yeah but I would expect they can easily afford those products.

I can imagine the corruption is massive in places like that because it's big everywhere else although covered or painted in a fashion to make lesser intelligent people feel it isn't so bad.

Well... Those who buy luxury cars definitely have made enough dirty money to afford it. Other than that though, due to the high costs decent mid-range cars are pretty much unaffordable to the rest of population who are instead driving mopeds, usually with at least 3 passengers at a time  Same thing with Iphones, "normal" people actually take out bank loans to be able to buy one, or a family living in slums splashes out their entire savings to buy their kid one instead of using the money to feed themselves for a year or so. It's ridiculous, but this culture is extremely about status and bling bling.

[SirBalon]

12 hours ago, nudge said:

Well... Those who buy luxury cars definitely have made enough dirty money to afford it. Other than that though, due to the high costs decent mid-range cars are pretty much unaffordable to the rest of population who are instead driving mopeds, usually with at least 3 passengers at a time  Same thing with Iphones, "normal" people actually take out bank loans to be able to buy one, or a family living in slums splashes out their entire savings to buy their kid one instead of using the money to feed themselves for a year or so. It's ridiculous, but this culture is extremely about status and bling bling.

THIS is exactly what I'm talking about Nudge.

This was the essence of my original post because even though on the most and large scale we don't have that kind of poverty here at all, we do have the issues to which I was pointing at which is that people HAVE to own an iPhone or brandname clothes that cost quite a lot of money, much more than they can afford.  In many cases a lot of these people are on government benefits.

I know of one young lady (the sister of the wife of a friend of mine) that's living in a council flat paid for by the tax payer and every other benefit she's on that I have no idea about and she spends £300 every 3 months on hair extensions at the hairdresser...  All that and she kits herself out on brandname clothing.  Her daughter is financed by my mate in terms of proper food because otherwise she'll feed her processed microwave food or tinned shit.

[Stan]

when you go for a piss and 5 minutes later need a shit. why can't my body just let me to do both at the same time?

I suppose going for the latter means I can spend more time playing games on my phone keeping up to date with current affairs and still check work e-mails 

[SirBalon]

51 minutes ago, Stan said:

when you go for a piss and 5 minutes later need a shit. why can't my body just let me to do both at the same time?

I suppose going for the latter means I can spend more time playing games on my phone keeping up to date with current affairs and still check work e-mails 

On that note I have one too because the one I don't get is the morning "shit" where it's the best one of the day but for some reason you don't get rid of everything and a few hours later you get revenge and there's part II. 

[Stan]

16 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

On that note I have one too because the one I don't get is the morning "shit" where it's the best one of the day but for some reason you don't get rid of everything and a few hours later you get revenge and there's part II. 

morning shits can be wonderful. 

the best ones can also be the hardest - the ones after a night out full of alcohol and then the kebab stuffed down shortly after. Stores up overnight and that morning shit that follows can be horribly satisfying. 

[Guest Cannabis]

Can't beat a good dump, especially in work time.

[SirBalon]

9 hours ago, Cannabis said:

Can't beat a good dump, especially in work time.

I can proudly proclaim I've NEVER done a pooh in a public toilet...  Meaning never anywhere else other than the bathroom where I live.