Working-Addendum-28

People watch. Of your fellow passengers, bus but more interestingly out of the window. Especially if you are upstairs. You get a view of the world which you don't get otherwise. There is a little-known book by the French author Georges Perec, the translated title is "An attempt at exhausting a place in Paris". In it he describes what happens in and around Place St Sulpice over the course of three days - all the everyday, outwardly mundane things which happen. It's fascinating, and you can do the same on a bus journey. You might even write it all down, who knows, one day someone might publish it for you!

Bring back the stocks - a bit of public humiliation might work wonders.

Technically it could be...if you were about 1800 feet above sea level (BP of water is 98 degrees at that altitude at standard atmospheric pressure). But yeah!

A Zyliss tin opener. £25 well spent, you will never need another one. Yes, I know most cans have ring pulls now but you still need a good tin opener at times!

My dad showed me how to wire a UK 13A plug when I was about 12. Back then domestic appliances often did not include a pre-fitted plug!

If the car is not in gear you can probably push it with a few strong blokes to help. Or bounce it if it's in gear. Or tow it a few yards with a big 4x4 (it'll just drag it on the tyres).

It wasn't an entirely serious comment but as you say, it's true!

Bin man or undertaker. Rubbish will always be with us and everyone dies.

Silicone liners - bung 'em in the dishwasher after each use.

I'm increasingly annoyed that even the BBC cannot make its verbs and nouns agree - "The football team are going to have a hard time travelling today" - Wrong - the team IS going to have a hard time - team, singular noun, so it's IS (singular) not ARE (plural)

That's just bad English.

Dogs are not stupid - they know 'doggy people' from 'non-doggy people'. Tone of voice, body language, etc.

There's no easy answer to that - depends where you want your children to go (not all private schools are Eton/Harrow!). Depends how old you are when you have children and how much advance financial planning you do before they are of school age (or even before they arrive!). Depends on your level of fiscal responsibility - never borrowing more than you repay, etc etc etc. I went to school with a guy who, when he was in his early 20s, routinely borrowed substantial amounts of money to fund expensive holidays each year, then spent the rest of the year paying it back. His choice of course, but hardly a surprise when he struggled to get a foot on the property ladder.

I'm not sure if your reply is intended as praise or censure. Either way, yes I have always been hardworking. Is that supposed to be a bad thing?

Yes it was.

Yes they are funded by taxation. And they are free at the point of use, just like the NHS. We paid our taxes AND we funded our own children's private education. We didn't ask for or expect a tax rebate because we chose private education. And despite what you and others seem to assume about us, we were nothing special. If we could do it so could others. If they chose not to do so that's fine, but don't presume to have a go at us and others like us for our choices.

I must have been imagining that almost all of the parents of my children's schoolfriends were just ordinary working class and middle class folk then. They didn't live in huge houses or drive fancy cars or take ludicrously expensive holidays.

Well given that you know VERY little about me, my wife and our lifestyle, "this person" does know what a normal amount of money actually is. You have NO IDEA how much my wife and I chose to go without - and I'm certainly not going to debate it with you or anyone else.

I couldn't say, sorry - ours went to primary school over 20 years ago now!

Agree entirely. I'd wager that a lot of the nay-sayers here have never met anyone who sent their children to a private school. News flash - LOTS of ordinary people do it, they scrimp and save and go without to give their children a better chance. As opposed to the masses who want everything for free and, increasingly, seem to get it. And yes, our children both went to private schools. We made the choice and went without things, and we are quite ordinary middle-class people. Our money, our choice.

Well I'm a dog owner but she would not run into the sea if someone was throwing stones into it. The problem here is the dog owner expecting everyone else on the beach to conform to his expectations, which on a public beach is of course a complete nonsense. Like the dog owner I encountered a few months ago, whose dog stole my dog's squeaky ball and refused to let it go. Seems it was all my fault for having the temerity to assume that I had no need to ask him if it was OK to throw my dog's ball for her to chase on a public beach...apparently his dog was in the habit of stealing other dogs toys and had even swallowed some, requiring veterinary intervention. He was not best pleased when I suggested that he should either train his dog not to misbehave or to keep it muzzled or on a lead. Dog owners are the problem, not dogs per se.