 | Forum
Thread | Pros and cons of food aid
at 10:27 3 Jul 2020
Yesterday was depressing
From the start of lockdown my wife had been galvanized, finding food / supplies for members of her community without access to funds (Latin American, and lots of them).
We have driven all over South London collecting food / supplies and distributing it to the needy. The heavily pregnant woman in Thamesmead the household of 5 adults in Streatham who all found themselves without income at the same time and a rent in excess of £1k per week to fund.
There was the odd pishtaker, like the woman claiming poverty who's husband worked for one of the petrol giants on a comfortable six figure salary. People forget their Facebook posts, or don't seem to realise they can be used to verify circumstances.
For the last month or so, now things are more organised, we've supported a food aid outfit close to Kennington Station, I had posted before about it being disorganised, but that also got sorted. The people sourcing the Food did a bloody good job ensuring no-one was turned away empty handed.
The staple supply they provided was pre-prepared rice and lentils, in individual portion microwaveable containers. These could either be eaten like this or a few ingredients added; onion, garlic, bell peppers, meat etc.
Demand had been pretty steady with 200 plus people dropping in. Last week there were bits and pieces left over, I tried to move some thru here.
Yesterday less than 100 people turned up, and they'd prepared for 250. Hundreds of portions of rice and lentils left over, crates of it. As I said depressing.
My wife thinks her community are fed up with rice and lentils (quoting the bible and the story of manna)... I think that could be true of some, say those now working and are responsible enough to not want to take good away from those in need... If only they'd made us aware.
Given the level of food poverty on this planet I hate seeing good go to waste, and whilst it will be wasted, in my opinion, it is going to be taken to the biomass place down by The Den and converted to electricity.
Today's special? We have a dozen boxes of branded sage and onion stuffing.... |
| Forum
Thread | Sticker graffiti
at 22:02 30 Jun 2020
As I transition from furlough to garden leave, in addition to working with food aid groups I have been taking daily walks, minimum of an hour a day. As I do so I have become aware of sticker graffiti.
There's a few extinction rebellion stickers, but then one of their big wigs lived a few streets away from me, pro-vegan stickers, music groups, German football teams... But the ones that caught my eye particularly are a series of 4 or 5, which I really must take a picture of rather than rely on my memory...
One orders...
"Shoot the Royle (sic) family"
Now I know Ricky Tomlinson isn't everyone's cup of tea, but that seemed a bit strong for someone not liking the programme.
I can't remember the rest but I seem to recall one referring to reptile shape shifters, wondering if Pazzelle lived local to me... |
| Forum
Thread | selling a car on Gumtree
at 22:53 25 Jun 2020
Thought I'd test the water using Gumtree to sell my car... And within 24 hours have pulled the ad.
Received a series of unsolicited sales calls, not had one for years before this.
Two people indicated interest. One of whom had an M.O. That sounded very close to a scam I'd heard of. Didn't want to come and kick tyres, wanted bank details to make an upfront payment.
Can't be bothered with this, will bite the bullet and PX it. |
| Forum
Thread | May as well just open the pubs
at 23:29 18 Jun 2020
In my travels today passed many offering take away service... Most punters are then drinking on public green spaces within a few yards of the pubs, some of which have gardens... Where folks could drink as distanced as where they are drinking
e.g. Fat Walrus New Cross |
| Forum
Thread | Anyone in South London know of anyone in GENUINE need?
at 23:23 18 Jun 2020
My wife and I have working with Charities and Food Banks since the last week of March, early on it was quite patchy, but now...
The group my wife is working with are strict in making sure all food parcels are equal, then parcels are multiplied according to need.
Where they can't make up a complete parcel they give the food to passers by, then those who have been working there take away to distribute on.
They've been exceptionally successful sourcing food aid, to the extent that our fridge, kitchen table and one of the drawers in our freezer are packed with food aid, including some meals pre-prepared by The Ivy.
Pm if you know if someone in GENUINE need, happy to deliver as far West as border of Brixton / Balham / Clapham. South to Streatham or east to Woolwich. [Post edited 18 Jun 23:31]
|
| Forum
Thread | Catch up TV
at 21:27 17 Jun 2020
For the first time in a few weeks I have had a few hours to myself with the TV, and discovered I was behind on watching shows I'd recorded...
Does anyone remember who Dominic Cummings is?
Within a few days of his rose garden moment something happened that created over a week of good days to bury had news...
Really enjoyed catching up on The Last Leg, this series has now finished, but that doesn't mean Boris should be doing a one man parody; £900,000 to respray a plane, whilst ditching student nurses and trying to sell chocolate biscuits?
|
| Forum
Thread | Step brother has had covid19, and didn't know it
at 09:12 16 Jun 2020
My step brother works in a hospital and was tested last week, his test came back as positive for anti-bodies indicating he'd had the virus.
Given he has at least two underlying medical conditions we are told makes mortality more likely this is quite amazing, so I asked him had he had any symptoms?
We have spoken regularly over last 3 months and he hadn't mentioned any...
He reeled off quite a few symptoms and reasons why he thought they were caused by other things... But when you lump them all together? I guess it's denial thru fear? Or maybe because he didn't get too ill to work...
Maybe he was a super spreader during this period? |
| Forum
Thread | Pointless question
at 17:20 15 Jun 2020
English words that follow format
s - - - k
Asking for trouble...? I mean it's real meaning is courage, but... |
| Forum
Thread | Just "attended" a funeral in Medellin
at 21:04 10 Jun 2020
Wife's cousin, suicide, body discovered by his 15 year old daughter, shocking stuff.
When they had my father in law's funeral, the family weren't allowed to film it for us, let alone broadcast it over the internet. The world has changed in the last four months... |
| Forum
Thread | Football deams
at 09:55 5 Jun 2020
How bad have we become that last night I had a football dream that didn't involve ITFC.
I was attending a game at Wembley between AFC Wimbledon and Fleetwood Town, who had just been taken over by The Sultan of Brunai. The Sultan paid for their entire allocation of tickets and gave them out free, he also paid for travel. Demand meant that Wembley sent him tickets from blocks that Wimbledon couldn't sell meaning Fleetwood had 60,000 and Wimbledon 25,000 in an 85,000 crowd.
Pimball Wizard and I were in attendance supporting Wimbledon and for some reason the Sultan was wearing a white military style uniform, like this...
I can't remember the score only that things became weird after that...
I went to the toilet at Wembley and the cubicle door deposited me in a 50th floor apartment where an ex-girlfriend appeared (looking exactly like she did when I last saw her, decades ago) but before things could get "interesting" I got a severe case of vertigo and had to be dragged to the lift by mini-Kiss (yes I watched Mall Cop 2 the other night).
Once on ground floor I was fine, and ground floor was a large bar in a marquee, like you get at events (like fanzone at PR but bigger) where I once again met up with Pimball Wizard, this time in the company of Johnny Boy and Johnhoz. We were watching TV on a large screen but when the match highlights came on some woman picked up the remote control and changed it to Coronation street.
We went outside and the Sultan passed us in a golden horse drawn carriage that had black cats climbing all over it.
That's all I can remember.
Long gone are the dreams of scoring a winning goal v Manure at Old Trafford in front of a stunned Stratford End, thankfully also long gone are the ones where I found myself naked in the North Stand (post 92 pre 2001 configuration)
Posting under football though link tenuous [Post edited 5 Jun 10:09]
|
| Forum
Thread | If god did karma
at 10:11 2 Jun 2020
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon_Man_(film)
For every mention of Jeff Gerber, substitute it with Donald Trump
Jeff Gerber lives in an average suburban neighborhood with his seemingly liberal housewife Althea, who tolerates her husband's character flaws out of love. Every morning when Jeff wakes up, he spends some time under a tanning machine, hits the speedbag, drinks a health drink, and races the bus to work on foot.
Jeff presents himself as happy-go-lucky and quite a joker, but others tend to see him as obnoxious and boorish. Althea, who watches the race riots every night on TV with great interest, chastises Jeff for not having sympathy for the problems of black Americans.
One morning, Jeff wakes up to find that his pigment has changed. He tries to fall back asleep, thinking that it is a dream, but to no avail. He tries taking a shower to wash the "black" off him, but finds it does not work, when Althea walks into the bathroom, and screams. He explains to her that the "Ne gro in the bathroom" is him.
At first, Jeff believes this to be the result of spending too much time under the tanning machine. He spends almost the entire day at home, afraid to go out of the house, only going out once to venture into the "colored part of town" in order to find a pharmacy to buy "the stuff they use in order to make themselves look white." His attempts to change his skin color fail.
The next day, he is persuaded to get up and go to work. Things start out well at first, until Jeff is accused of robbery while running alongside the bus to work. The policeman assumes that, since he is a black man, he must have stolen something. During his lunch break, he makes an appointment with his doctor who cannot explain Jeff's condition either. After several calls, the doctor suggests that Jeff might be more comfortable with a black doctor.
Returning home, he finds Althea afraid to answer the phone. He does not understand why until he receives a call from a man telling him to '"Move out, n****r". At work the next day, a secretary (who had previously ignored him) makes several advances toward him, finding him more attractive as a black man. Jeff's boss suggests that they could drum up extra business with a "Ne gro" salesman.
At home one evening, he finds the people who had made the threatening phone calls, who offer him $50,000 for his home. Jeff manages to raise the price to $100,000. Althea sends the children to live with a relative and later leaves her husband. Finally accepting the fact that he is black, Jeff resigns his regular job, buys an apartment building, and starts his own insurance company. The very last scene shows him practicing martial arts with a group of black menial workers, apparently having become one of the militants he used to put down. |
| Forum
Thread | Just a thought, however half baked
at 09:48 31 May 2020
Are US clothes shops allowed to open or are they still in lockdown?
If in lockdown does their insurance cover loss of business from covod?
I bet it covers loss of stock due to looting...
Maybe the looters are doing the shops a favour...
I did say half baked [Post edited 31 May 9:49]
|
| Forum
Thread | Redundancy confirmed
at 18:47 28 May 2020
I have had the email and follow up call to confirm redundancy wef 31st July, ultimately a covid accelerated one, but was expected as our parent company gradually moved us from arms length separate entity to wholly absorbed subsidiary.
My role was a specialised one dealing with a select group of high "touch", high profile clients*, presumably they have retained the clients, even if not much is going on for now... So possibility of redeployment.
*we provided over 1,300 services for the Donald when he last visited, were due to provide services for Euros this summer, Wimbledon etc.
The straw that broke the camels back appears to be the biggest client is not going to resume our contract until 2021, they were worth 40% of the company revenue.
So what now? How many millions of others will be joining me for the scramble for jobs?
When my father and uncle pass away the plan is to get a small holding near Medallin... But that is expected to be a few years yet, what to do inbetween?I
How do I become a YouTube influencer? |
| Forum
Thread | Wife's charity work really stressing her out
at 23:03 26 May 2020
Her church is supporting approx 300 people with regards to providing food and other items (toilet roll, soap etc), we do less and less actual delivery work as she's moved up to central coordinator for their 5 campuses.
About 8pm last night she received a message from someone with 3 kids who'd been evicted and needing urgent help.
Yes we know, it's not legal to do so right now... But telling someone they're acting illegally doesn't mean they'll listen or change their mind.
As it happens, we've been homeless and know the drill... Contact council out of hours emergency number and take it from there. For people with children they can usually find a place at short notice. I seem to recall it took them an hour or so to find somewhere for us.
But... The council out of hours number had auto answer then auto ended call. Even Shelter and Crises didn't seem to be able to help, sometime around midnight we found them somewhere for the night. Someone else now helping them...
Today's task... Locating the body of someone's brother. Organise a cremation, then have ashes despatched to Spain. It's not nice dealing with death is it, but at least when my mother died we were able to speak to people, organise etc.
We were sent a photo of a death certificate, and asked if we could organise a cremation for less than two grand the brother had been quoted, tried ringing the registry office of the relevant borough... No answer, even found a special number, which just looped back to the original switchboard. I gave up and emailed them, but not until after I'd read the death certificate... Looks like the guy had been cremated already on account of him dying of covid19... Just got to find his ashes now...I
Will be glad when this is all over. Don't mind delivering food, it's always received with smiles and thank yous, the other stuff no thanks. |
| | Pendejo
|
Site Scores| Forum Votes: | 1482 | | Comment Votes: | 253 | | Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 1735 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.