Ancestry etc -worth it?

[fluffytail10]

http://www.noah.norfolk.gov.uk/default.aspx
http://www.archives.norfolk.gov.uk/nroindex.htm

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=home

There, I think those are the main ones, will add more later if I find them. let me know if they work.

When I first moved into our house I was standing at the kitchen sink when I heard the side gate slam open, and looked up to see an angry figure, storming past the window. thinking that we'd somehow upset one of our new neighbours, i called my partner for moral support and went outside to meet them..... no one there again of course. Odd thing was it seemed so ordinary, middle of the day etc. Also on several occaisions Ive assumed my partner was home from work as I saw them wandering past the kitchen door, only for them to come home later. again very ordinary, not spooky, as i really thought it was him. Of course as a highly trained scientist I don't beleive in ghosts at all, but it does make me wander how our imaginations work to produce such things :?

 

[JoceAndChris]

It's certainly odd. I don't see things - for example I'll look for the scissors for ten minutes and then see they're on the coffee table, where I've already looked repeatedly. But that's a very different experience, or faultiness of eye and brain, to seeing a figure right in front of you. I don't think there's a good explanation, yet, as I think we don't yet know enough about how the brain works - or goes wonky, sometimes.

And maybe "ghosts" exist - or some phenomenom that appears ghostly. But I can't believe in God, or life after death, or any of it really, so it's all very difficult.

 

[Feltwell]

I don't see things - for example I'll look for the scissors for ten minutes and then see they're on the coffee table, where I've already looked repeatedly.

Joce, that's usually a male preserve.

"Where's so-and-so?"
"In the kitchen" says Mrs F
"I've already checked there"

At which point Mrs F walks into the room and finds the item immediately, which is of course prominently and obviously on display.

I did once spend 20 minutes looking for my glasses - I was wearing them.....

I like to comfort Mrs F by reminding her that if I'm like this now, think what I'll be like as an old man...... :wink:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Yes, also remind her that as you'll be seeing her through the menopause you deserve a break.

Sometimes I think you boys pretend to lose things just for a bit of attention anyhow! :lol:

 

[Penners]

This ubiquitous male problem is the only form of supernatural event that I believe in. You put down a tool, glance away, and then when you look back it's dematerialised... completely gone.

It will only rematerialise when a woman walks into the room. I think it's something to do with pheromones.

Still, it gives Mrs P an opportunity to put on her "I'm being hugely patient about this" look. :roll:

 

[Feltwell]

[nerd mode on] Douglas Adams had it spot on about biros in the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

'The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ is a very unevenly edited book and contains many passages which simply seemed to its editors like a good idea at the time. One of these supposedly relates the experiences of one Veet Voojagig, a quiet young student at the University of Maximegalon who pursued a brilliant academic career studying ancient philology, transformational ethics, and the wave harmonic theory of historical perception, and then, after a night of drinking Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters with Zaphod Beeblebrox, became increasingly obsessed with the problem of what had happened to all the biros he bought over the past few years. There followed a long period of painstaking research during which he visited all the major centres of biro-loss through out the galaxy, and eventually came up with a rather quaint little theory which quite caught the public imagination at the time. Somewhere in the cosmos, he said, along with all the planets inhabited by Humanoids, reptiloids, fishoids, walking treeoids, and super-intelligent shades of the colour blue, there was also a planet entirely given over to biro life-forms. And it was to this planet that unattended biros would make their way. Slipping quietly through wormholes in space to a world where they knew they could enjoy a uniquely biroid lifestyle. Responding to highly biroid-orientated stimuli, in fact, leading the Biro equivalent of the good life. And as theories go, this was all very fine and pleasant, until Veet Voojagig suddenly claimed to have found this planet and to have worked there for a while, driving a limousine for a family of cheap green retractables. Where upon he was taken away, locked-up, wrote a book, and was finally sent into tax exile, which is the usual fate reserved for those who are determined to make a fool of themselves in public. When one day an expedition was sent to the spatial coordinates that Voojagig had claimed for this planet, they discovered only a small asteroid inhabited by a solitary old man who claimed repeatedly that nothing was true. Though he was later discovered to be lying.

 

[Flyfisher]

Never mind biros, I used to have the same problem with tape measures. Fortunately, through dogged purchasing persistence and no small amount of expenditure (though they are, thankfully, far cheaper than they used to be) I have very nearly reached the point where I can pretty much lay my hands on a tape measure within seconds. The real indicator of my success is Mrs FF asking why we have so many tape measures lying around the house.

As for the supernatural, entirely agree with Joce and I feel somewhat deprived of never having experienced such things, especially living in such an old house; what tales the ghosts would be able to tell! I have little doubt that people genuinely do have such experiences, though I cannot convince myself to believe that such experiences are physically 'real'. We construct a perceived 'reality' in our minds and it seems inconceivable to me that such a complex process would not, on occasion, suffer some sort of 'glitch'.

 

[Penners]

Never mind biros, I used to have the same problem with tape measures.

What about socks? You put a pair into the wash and only one comes out. I've never lost a complete pair of socks - only ever one. :evil:

Mrs P says that I should always buy black socks, so that odd leftovers can be paired up, but how does a chap express his unique individuality if he can't change the colour of his socks from time to time?

Life is but a vale of tears.

 

[Flyfisher]

Socks are, indeed, the classic example. I would suggest that individuality can be expressed not merely by changing the colour of one's socks but by actively mixing them, thus harnessing the quirks of washing machines. However, given the prevalence of such quirks, real individuality might be better expressed by going to the trouble of finding a truly matching pair. :wink:

 

[Penners]

Oh dear - I do find conflicting advice so confusing.

Now you've given me yet another dilemma: do I wear matching socks of a stylish colour, thus demonstrating my disdain for contrived eccentricity, or do I wear non-matching socks, thus proclaiming my whacky individuality?

I think you've just added a good ten minutes to my getting up time, each morning.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Chris is very lucky and I pair up his socks as well as organise his dry cleanng, match and mend his outfits, help select new ones, and fit ties to freshly ironed shirts. I'm afraid the black ones he bought have all gone in the bin as it's far too difficult to see which black sock matches which black sock. You'd think they'd all be the same, but the blighters aren't.The best kind of sock in my view is a very bright one as it shows up against the Aga or laundry basket or tree.

The colouring of scoks should be echoed by pocket kerchief or cravat.

 

[Flyfisher]

I think you've just added a good ten minutes to my getting up time, each morning.

You mean you don't just put on your socks from the previous day?

Alternatively, how about going without during the fine weather?

Speaking of sartorial elegance, and having now revealed its complete absence in my life, I discovered this weekend that FF junior must be following my sort of attention to detail when it comes to dressing up. Last week, he had to make some presentations of his work at uni and discovered that his suit trousers - unworn since leaving school, it seems - would no longer remain at waist height without the aid of a belt (I was, of course, glad to hear that the starvation-level living allowance we're giving him is clearly working well :wink: ).

Realising that his only belt was not really suitable for a formal occasion and running too short of time to borrow a suitable one, he showed the sort of creative genius that will hopefully stand him in good stead throughout his life . . . . . he stapled his trousers to his shirt. :lol:

 

[Penners]

Chris is very lucky and I ... fit ties to freshly ironed shirts.

Whooooaah! You FIT ties to his shirts? That sounds very suspiciously like aggravated use of a clip-on tie, with malice aforethought. You could (in fact, should) get ten years for that.

 

[Penners]

You mean you don't just put on your socks from the previous day?

No, my daily discarded socks make their own way into the laundry basket. From there they apparently migrate to the washing machine, whence they return dried and rolled to my sock drawer. It's a mysterious process, that I've never quite managed to fathom.

how about going without during the fine weather?

Oh, now that's going too far. I'm not foreign, you know. :evil:

FF junior... discovered that his suit trousers - unworn since leaving school, it seems - would no longer remain at waist height without the aid of a belt ...he showed the sort of creative genius that will hopefully stand him in good stead throughout his life . . . . . he stapled his trousers to his shirt

He's clearly a chip off the old block when it comes to resourcefulness.

Since retirement, I've tended to suffer from the opposite problem. I wear a suit about once every two years or so. Each time I've finished with it, I carefully put it away in its zip-up bag in the wardrobe. Two years later I take it out...and find to my horror that it's shrunk!

I suspect a faulty wardrobe.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Hear hear, Mr P.

FF Junior sounds great.

 

[Flyfisher]

I wear a suit about once every two years or so. Each time I've finished with it, I carefully put it away in its zip-up bag in the wardrobe. Two years later I take it out...and find to my horror that it's shrunk!

I suspect a faulty wardrobe.

Yes, I have the same problem with my wardrobe. I don't know the etymology of 'wardrobe' though I suspect it would be something along the lines of 'the incredible textile-shrinking machine'

 

[Carol]

Is FF junior is an engineer or possibly a mathematician! When I first met my OH all his trouser hems and some pockets were stapled up as he decided it was better than learning to sew.

On the ghostly topic, I was a complete sceptic until we noticed our cats would frequently watch something enter the door of our sitting room and follow 'it' up to the ceiling level with their eyes. They didn't seem bothered, just mildly interested so we just thought it a bit odd .... until a visiting beam expert 'discovered' a hidden opening from when the room was an open hall, this was where a ladder would have accessed the small upper room. Exactly where someone would walk if they were going upstairs before the remodelling of the house in the 1480s. Would love to know what the cats see.

And Ancestry?-A great hobby through which I met a long lost second cousin, our great grandfather had disowned her grandfather! Look for the free 14 day trials and spend a few days looking for nothing.

 

[Feltwell]

Would love to know what the cats see.

Lots of stuff at "just off the floor level" I guess.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0K9oh2aUXo

I'm having to wear a shirt & tie again this week, every day, AND get out of bed at an ungodly hour - most uncivilised this working for a living lark. I plan to give it up just as soon as my pension is worth something - there may be a fatal flaw in my plan........

Solution to the black sock problem - good old M&S sell black socks with coloured toes and heels which makes them very easy to match up. Although I have to say it's not really much of a problem now is it - if 1 sock is black and 1 is slightly faded black and a bit shorter, who is going to notice......

 

[jocelyn plummer]

The colouring of scoks should be echoed by pocket kerchief or cravat

I hope that is a typo Joce---

 

[Penners]

I don't know the etymology of 'wardrobe'

It's a corruption of the French garderobe - from garder: to keep, and robe: dress or gown.

Interestingly, in days of yore, the garderobe in a grand British building was the toilet/bog/loo. It was often jettied so as to project out from the building, so that the...ahem... 'jetsam' could drop straight into the moat. :x