coffindodger

22 months for me, all I know is that if you want to quit you have a far better chance of succeeding than if you don't. I was lucky, I really wanted to quit, and I'm sure that I won't start again. I recently lost a parent and never had the inclination to light up, that was a 100% cigarette moment, and it never entered my head. Good luck to all.

No mate, the BMW X3 and AUDI A3 sleep there.

No I didn't, I meant that the only people to have such gadgets in those days were the crew o0f the starship Enterprise. Of course the poster wished that in his case that mobiles had been around, my mum never had one, up to her death last year. The nightclubs of the 60's usually had one payphone, I can't recall ever using one, if I needed a taxi I walked outside and hailed one.

But I haven't got a job, I'm a dirty rotten scrounging pension drawer, I've also got a nice detached house in a decent area paid for, who's arse am I licking my young Leninist friend?

You just beat me to it, also Conrad Kempka's butchers, almost opposite Abbeydale cinema, although of Ukranian parentage, he stocks loads of Polish food, he's a bloody good butcher and a very nice guy.

I feel even better about drawing my state pension this year after reading that rubbish. The wife and I worked for 48 years, didn't have the university experience or gap year, never claimed any form of benefit and when we turn up our toes will leave enough for our son to retire early, what more do you want from us? When we started paying off our £11,000 mortgage, we were on a joint salary of around £6,000, which is equivalent to a couple earning a joint salary of £40,000 paying off a mortgage of £73,200, and we had to put down a deposit of £3,500, which would be circa £20K these days. The cost of your education appears to have been wasted.

I can't convince myself that the state pension is a benefit where people who have worked all their lives are concerned. For me who has paid in hundreds of thousands of pounds in tax and NHI over the years, without taking anything back, it's bloody pay back time.

A bit like footballers wives then.

Tenant farmers have been leaving estate's like Chatsworth in droves for many years, big is the order of the day, huge is best. However I do know of so called small farmers, who keep the very minimum of stock in able to benefit from generous EU grants. But having said that, the Chatsworth estate has reduced it's sheep flock from 6000 to 2000, and has a small herd of Charolais, they might be doing exactly the same.

I generally park at my son's place which is literally a few yards, out of the Sharrow Vale restricted parking area. He has an apartment with a garage and hard standing, it was valued a while ago at £15K less than a similar apartment in the same block without any private parking, the agent said that garages and parking weren't worth anything. Beware of idiots who purport to be professionals, these unrestricted areas are parked up from 8:00 am by people who work in the city centre. My son has had cars parked on his hard standing blocking his garage, all you get is strange confused looks if you manage to spot anyone doing it, and attempt to explain.

:hihi: You can be my expert summariser any time.

A very good point, I wouldn't attempt to patronise you, but I hazard a guess that your dad wouldn't have caught a mobile phone, had it been thrown at him.

Because they are currently the most powerful nation in the world, only a guess, but I reckon that I'm in with a shout of being correct.

One of my best mates died three years ago this April, he inherited what then was a lot of money circa 15 years previously. He then spent the next 15 years drinking himself to death. I recall many times trying to tell him what he was doing to himself, standing at his grave on my own, calling him everything from a pig to a dog was an obvious waste of time, but I felt the better for it. What I am attempting to say is that I had a vested interest in being annoyed about the way he conducted himself, and feel great sympathy for the family and friend of Whitney Houston.

Born 1947, was still at home until 1971 when I bought a brand new 2 bed flat on Park Grange Croft. It cost £6,500, I put £1,000 down, fitted carpets were something like £120, infact I furnished the whole thing (including 19" Hitachi colour tv, cost was £220) for circa £500. I bought a nearly new oven for under £20, a brand new fridge for £30, a cracking Swedish made suite for £50 and some of that Winchmore white wood furniture from Coles, that I painted white. I remember buying a drop leaf table and 4 chairs for next to nothing and I had 2 beds and all the pots and pans, crockery and cutlery given me. I sold it three years later for £9,000.