The good morning, good night thread

[jsorensen]

Ed--there's something about smoking and coffee (of course the combination of the two is a worse health risk than doubling only one of the vices--the combination is lethal).  Coffee tastes better with a cigarette.  Nothing else does mind you, but coffee is also my alternative to the smoking--needs to be strong (caffeine or not is not the issue, just the strength of the flavor).  Unfortunately, a bit of the flavor now escapes me without the cigarette.  Don't know if it's psychological or chemical?  Don't care really.  In time I will appreciate the coffee again...although I will need to cut back on it as well...damn this health thing...guess I need to get hooked on cinnamon whirls (are they the same as a honey bun, or a sticky bun, or a sweet roll?--don't forget, I'm a Yank (actually prefer Southern but when speaking to y'all 'cross the water guess it's gotta be Yank...), well actually I'm Alaskan, but grew up in...damn it all--getting too convuluted....

[Ed]

I remember at various other times I tried to quit, trying all sorts of things to mimic the cut you get on the back of your throat when you inhale a drag from a cigarette. Even tried smoking herbal cigarettes -- they were awful. There's nothing that does the trick, and you don't get the sense of relief you get from tobacco, because you're not satisfying your craving for nicotine. The funny part is, the nicotine that's in your system only stays in your blood for about half an hour, so within a day of stopping smoking, there's no nicotine left in your system, and all you're left with is fighting the habit you've honed and developed over the years. I suppose the closest you can get to that cut is a hot drink at just the right temperature, and the buzz you get from the caffeine probably goes some way toward mimicking the nicotine rush. Good luck with it, JS

Caz -- I think there are a lot of bosses taking advantage of their employees during this recession. Many are still getting the same money for the work as they ever were, but screwing down their guys to claw in a bit more on top. They never had it so good. Sixty quid a day is not a living wage. I was talking to a sparks who got laid off a few weeks ago, and he was saying what a mug he had been to work all these months for next to nothing. Now he's on benefits, with two kids, he gets over £400 a week, plus he's allowed to earn up to about £100 on top of that before it affects his payments. His old boss offered him his job back the other day and he told him to shove it.

I hope you get a good run of work, for good money. Sometimes word of mouth can keep you going for months

Rook -- the lamb was delicious. Really tender and juicy. We're lucky in the UK, because we tend to get good lamb all year round. We've got a farm shop about a mile from us where they sell all their own beef, lamb and pork, and it costs about half the price we would pay in the butcher's. It's lovely meat, too.

[Rook]

Rook -- the lamb was delicious. Really tender and juicy. We're lucky in the UK, because we tend to get good lamb all year round. We've got a farm shop about a mile from us where they sell all their own beef, lamb and pork, and it costs about half the price we would pay in the butcher's. It's lovely meat, too.

Braggart. 

[Caz]

Thanks, Rook and Ed with the good luck on the work front.

[delboy]

Talking of music (okay, we weren't), I've been asked to do a bit of a solo gig at a wedding later in the year. Have provisionally agreed despite not having the full requirements yet. Hopefully it'll be a background music type thing (certainly I'm not intending singing). I'm not one for backing tracks or any of that electronic malarky so I now have several months in which to get my one-man-band chops together. There are a number of jazz songs, a few ragtime ones, and some laid-back bluesy stuff that I already know solo guitar / fingerstyle arrangements for. Now I need to do the same for some nice romantic stuff like My Girl, and Wonderful Tonight. Quite a challenge getting the lead and rhythm and bass lines all going (almost) simultaneously. I have the music for a beautiful arrangement of Banks Of The Ohio - but IIRC the narrator murdered his gal in that tune, so it probably isn't appropriate for a wedding. Anyway, if it goes well it might open up the door to a whole new set of potential gigs. Lord knows, I could do with that right now!

Derek

[delph_ambi]

When I used to do wedding gigs, the stuff that went down best was old Beatles hits, plus a few romantic Rogers and Hammerstein type tunes, if you can bear to play them. However, we used to just play while people were eating, or having pre-dinner drinks. You may be 'the band' for the dancing afterwards, in which case, good luck!

[fnord33]

Now he's on benefits, with two kids, he gets over £400 a week, plus he's allowed to earn up to about £100 on top of that before it affects his payments.

Wow, where do I sign up? My wife makes about that designing medical software. 

[delboy]

Wow, where do I sign up?

My thoughts exactly Ffnord. For as long as I can remember politicians have been threatening to overhaul the UK benefits system, maybe I ought to apply for my little bit of it before it's too late!



Derek

[Ed]

I know a lot of people are opposed to the idea of giving away millions in benefits, but if you look at the stats for crime in the UK, the more that gets paid out in benefits, the lower the crime rate is. So it throws up a quandary -- do you pay people money for doing nothing while we all slog our guts out, in the certain knowledge that they're less likely to mug us or break into our houses while we're out at work, or do we slash the benefits and 'make the lazy buggers work' in the sure and certain knowledge that a bunch of them are likely not to work in any case, and will come after us to make up the shortfall in income?

Personally, I was astounded to find out we were entitled to claim family income support a few years ago. I earn a decent wage and don't need any handouts, but I thought what the hell -- if I'm entitled to it, I'll have it. They threw a ton of money at us. It didn't seem right, so we queried it. "Nope," they said, "that's right. The money's yours." Of course, it turned out they had got it wrong, but it took them a year to suss it out, by which time we owed them a pretty big refund If they chuck that much money at everybody, it's no wonder the deficit is so huge. It's not everybody who can afford to pay it back, after all.

Del -- good luck with that wedding do. Sounds like an enjoyable challenge

[starktheground]

A cinnamon whirl will make you happy. Being happy boosts your immune system. Therefore the cinnamon whirl is healthy. 

Wise words! 

[delph_ambi]

Sorry to muck up your theory, Ed, but if I didn't get paid benefits I'd simply starve, I wouldn't come round and mug you. I get benefits because I'm too disabled to go out to work (and to mug you). Most people in this country get benefits because there are vastly more unemployed people than there are job vacancies, despite what the Daily Mail etc would like you to think. Your argument about family income support is no argument at all as the figures were wrong. It happens. The people inputting the information are human. They make mistakes. And yes, there are a few lazy slobs around who should be looking for work and don't, but that's the price we as a society pay for making sure that the huge number who have absolutely no way of getting a job because there ARE no jobs for them, don't sink into the most abject poverty.

[Ed]

I wasn't aware I was making an argument for or against anything, TBH, Delph I'm actually in favour of benefits being at a level where people can afford a reasonable standard of living, and I agree the few career scroungers are the price we pay for having a social conscience.

It is a fact that during Labour's term in office they've come up with stuff from Family Income Support to the EMA that has helped a lot of families out of the poverty trap, and during that time the recorded crime rate has dropped. I'm not saying everybody who's on benefits is a criminal, but poverty is a breeding ground for criminality. I know because I've seen it all my life, up close and personal.

[delph_ambi]

Yes, absolutely. Poverty is definitely a breeding ground for criminality, and benefits that drag people out of poverty can only be a good thing.

So what excuse do all the multi-millionaire tax dodgers have and all those MPs fiddling their expenses. 

[Geoff_N]

Yep, agreed with both Ed and Delph's comments. There does seem to be a lot of very well-off criminals living off shore these days masquerading as donars of a certain party.

[Caz]

Most people in this country get benefits because there are vastly more unemployed people than there are job vacancies, despite what the Daily Mail etc would like you to think.

So why , over the last ten years, did the powers that be tell the public that levels of immigration had to be high to fill all the vacant jobs? Not the media, the government in power at the time. And for the record the one in power now is still doing the same thing. There's something wrong with this country and none of the politicians seem willing to fix it. Shame on them.