Do you also like to punch people in the face? I looove that!



In a woman.

I do I do I do love to punch people in the face! :jig:

Yay! Can you and I be awesome together?


(Not like a date or anything, like "friends" awesome.)

Sure thing! It's going to be legen...(wait for it)...dary!

I don't want to gouge out anyone's eyes.

Link SFW.
Excepting text which might make you feel ill.

The difference luck makes is whether you need to make unusually good choices to do well versus unusually bad choices to do poorly.

I was very lucky in many ways. Given the advantages that luck has provided me, I would have had to make unusually bad choices to end up destitute.

The reverse is true for many.

Well said that Monkey.

Hard effort = hard work. That doesn't always mean lots of money.
Smart choices might not always be available/ understandable.

My Grandad worked hard all his life. He worked until the mandated retirement age.
He expected the Government to take care of him.
That was the promise he had all his life.
And yes, they did. He was taken care of. He had a council bungalow, social care visits, a cleaner once a week and after he was put in hospital he had hospice care.

He was happy with what he had, and with what he received. He lived worry-free in his last few years, although that was mostly because Mum had great advice from people who knew the system in making sure he got what he was entitled to. And because we made damn well sure we stepped up as a family. Plenty of evidence all over these pages.

Grandad was lucky.

He lived through The Blitz.
Married his first love.
Raised two children even though his family (property owners) never managed to claim back what they lost in the War.
Moved back to Central London into Govt sponsored housing.
Took us (grand)kids in during the school holidays so the 'rents could keep working during the school holidays

Later was able to "swap" to council housing in Aylesbury to be close to Mum (Uncle Jim moved to Australia)
To do this he had to move in with us and leave Nanny behind. He had to share a house with his daughter's family and work as a hospital porter. Lucky Jim.

The man never had anything to spare.
He worked hard all his life.
He was functionally illiterate.

People who don't make it into the Times £100m list aren't failures. They didn TRY less than anyone else. Not everyone who works a low wage job is dolescum. I don't know of anyone in my family who chose an easy path, or did not work as hard as they could. But the world needs some people not to advance for wiping up blood in a hospital corrider to having a sandwich chain outside said hospital or writing an award winning play about it.

Doesn't it?

Okay, excellent distinction(s).



Sundae, I was just responding to a subject that was already on the table. I didn't intend to disrespect your grandfather. I actually don't think I mentioned what you're adressing, i.e. a value judgment conflating material possessions and human worth, but if I did it wasn't intentional. And I don't subscribe to that. One of my closest friends is a guy who makes just enough money to get by. We have beers together and agree on almost everything. He doesn't have alot, but he pays his own way and doesn't ask for anything from anybody.

Sundae...Flint just called your Grandad a pikey.

Get thee gone, devil woman.

Given you never met him I guessed that to be the case :D

I think I have a chip on my shoulder about family members that pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.

My Great-Grandmother used to load up the pram with the children and take them to Tower Bridge. She'd been advised that my Grandad's weak chest needed sea air. They couldn't afford to go to the seaside, and the Thames being a tidal river was the best she could do. And that was a bloody long walk as it was! No wonder Grandad supported the NHS.

Am I bovvered?

Is it though?

Look in my face.