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Does gross stupidity come in threes?

Grumpy Old Lemons Like You
DiamondEcho
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Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#178842

Postby DiamondEcho » November 7th, 2018, 6:47 pm

It's been one of those days :shock:

I was enjoying a walk in Hyde Park and got the closest encounter I've ever had with a group of parakeets in a small tree, almost in touching distance. I have seen one that close previously but it was maybe 15-20 years ago. And here was a group of 6-8. A couple of visibly :shock: :o tourists were approaching so I said 'They are what you think but can't believe you are seeing, Indian ring-necked parakeets :D' We stood observing this bizaare scene, and I briefly recounted the two theories of where they originally came from :lol:

On my return to the park from some shopping, amongst the many street beggars I passed was one going the extra mile. He was kneeling, arms bent with fore-arms flat of the ground, hands in the 'prayer' position. His head was on or very close to the pavement. Positioned between the middle of his fore-arms was a cup for money. AND people were giving him more than most beggars seems to get! :shock: Seems there are still people who do not realise that :shock: no one needs to be homeless in London, and the council have actively campaigned to encourage people to not give them money; their 'Killing through kindness' campaign.

In the park near the lake was a push-chair, with a re-usable shopping back hanging on it, on top of that was a hand-bag, and from that on the outside appeared to be a purse: WTH!? :o The nearest person, a female, was 30-35 metres away looking away taking photos of the lake. I was headed that way anyway so I asked if it was hers: No! :shock: So what do you do? ... There were no other likely looking owners within ... say 60-70M. I stood there for a minute or two scanning the distance... I concluded that it was either a strange form of bait for a police sting operation or maybe the person had been taken ill, and taken away by ambulance ...and somehow without their pram, or...? But either way I couldn't think of how I might better the situation, so I continued walking back home. By now dusk had started and I could only vaguely make out the pram in the distance. I passed perhaps 8-10 other people until about 400M on I neared a woman strolling slowly holding the hand of a young toddler; so I asked her if it was hers: Yes! :o [I'm shaking my head recountiung this...]. I bit my lip... and calmy but clearly advised her that 1) 'I'm amazed it has not already been stolen!' and 2) I suggested she 'get back to it immediately, or it well be stolen'. She said 'Ok sure, thank-you'.
I continued on my way, and perhaps 50-60M further on I briefly turned to see what progress she had made. Almost none, she was still slowly ambling along, holding the child's hand, not a care in the world, and at that point it was yet darker, and I could no longer see the pram at all... Genuinely jaw-dropping stupidity IMHO.

Now just back home, in a big old house split into flats. I'd picked the day's mail up from the floor earlier, and sorted it into the named mail pigeon-holes in the hall; but here was another package. It is a plastic document holder formed in the design of a say a greetings card envelope. It's black with white polka-dots on it. The tip of the flap has a popper on it. There is no writing in or on the envelope. I've seen a polythene wrapped package before where the sender had used a lable that had come off and been stuck to the outside of our letter-box. Had that happened again? Nope, nothing, anywhere. Inside it was a set of 3 keys. A 'Yale' type key, a 'Chubb' type long-stemmed brass mortice lock key, and a pretty high-tech looking key that has the usual row of teeth like a Yale key', but additionally a row of indented dots milled into the side of the 'blade' of the key. It has a key-fob marked 'ASL, Locked out? Burgled? Freephone: 0800-298-8008'. :?: None of the keys match our communal front door key, so... what/why/who....

AleisterCrowley
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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#178867

Postby AleisterCrowley » November 7th, 2018, 9:05 pm

Parakeets. Noisy blighters. Swarms of 'em around Windsor. Glad to get away.

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#178868

Postby Itsallaguess » November 7th, 2018, 9:16 pm

Just another 141 to go then......

Itsallaguess

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#178947

Postby bungeejumper » November 8th, 2018, 10:17 am

Leaving a bunch of keys in the hallway for somebody else to pick up later isn't that unusual in some circles - we would have done it during my flat-sharing student days when there were always visitors/overnight girlfriends/assorted transient types passing across our carpets and sleeping on our sofas. What's bothersome in this case is presumably that the fancy security key was for something sensitive. I suppose it would have been more stupid to leave a label on them to show which door it belonged to?

Agree about the beggars, certainly, but druggie/seriously alky/aggressive types aren't generally welcome in homeless shelters, which is why they end up sleeping under the Thames bridges. Besides, some of them actually prefer to be out of the hostels - there are ex-squaddies with post-traumatic stress who can't hack the night shelters at all.

But there's also a chance that this guy might be a professional beggar. Some years ago, in leafy Bath, I came across a trio of likely types begging with a paper cup and a scruffy dog in the Sainsburys car park. I went off and did my shopping, and as I returned to my car, who should drive past me but the same quartet - in a nearly new car. :o

I reported it (and the car) to the Sainsburys manager - couldn't think what else to do, really. :| Nothing much surprises me any more...…

BJ

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#179417

Postby DiamondEcho » November 10th, 2018, 9:16 pm

An hour or two after writing that there was a knock at my door. 'Did you find my keys?' she asked. She said she'd asked her cleaner to leave the keys in that way on her way out - prsumably the end of her contract or similar? Bonkers. Unsurprisingly her flat, during her tenancy, is the only one that's been burgled in this building in the c20 years I've owned my home here.

Beggars. It's striking how many there are. I haven't seen this in other majoe cities I've travelled/lived in recent years. It's also striking that they're just left untroubled by the authororities. No wonder high street shops are closing down when they're home to beggars and junkies. Visiting their shops isn't fun any more.

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#179427

Postby kempiejon » November 10th, 2018, 10:28 pm

Itsallaguess wrote:Just another 141 to go then......

Itsallaguess


I missed that first time around, very good.

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#179441

Postby bungeejumper » November 11th, 2018, 9:15 am

DiamondEcho wrote:Beggars. It's striking how many there are. I haven't seen this in other majoe cities I've travelled/lived in recent years. It's also striking that they're just left untroubled by the authororities.

You haven't been to Barcelona, then?

(Mind you, it's not the beggars who'll nick your wallet, it's the pickpockets who you never see. I managed to thump one on the underground who already had his hand inside my pocket. Never seen anybody run away so fast down a crowded train carriage. :lol: )

BJ

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#179572

Postby DiamondEcho » November 11th, 2018, 9:15 pm

bungeejumper wrote:
DiamondEcho wrote:Beggars. It's striking how many there are. I haven't seen this in other majoe cities I've travelled/lived in recent years. It's also striking that they're just left untroubled by the authororities.

You haven't been to Barcelona, then? (Mind you, it's not the beggars who'll nick your wallet, it's the pickpockets who you never see. I managed to thump one on the underground who already had his hand inside my pocket. Never seen anybody run away so fast down a crowded train carriage. :lol: BJ


Not for c20 years, no. But Spain is often derided as Club-Med, chaotic and ill prepared to govern so I'm not sure it's a valid comparison. Also Spain is arguably more of a transit country [migrants are self-motivated to move on without force], whereas the UK is supposedly a desired destination, what with housing, 'benefits' and so on. Furthermore my local council are supposedly renowned for their ruthless efficiency. I have difficulty accepting that any of these beggars have genuine need to be on the street when if they were 'genuine' they'd have call on 'reasonable means of sustenance/lodging, food, and so on'. If that's the case, then why are they left on the streets so adding to their being blighted?. I must have walked past 20 such beggars in London this afternoon in what is supposedly pretty desirable west London, and it doesn't make for a pleasant high-street experience. Perhaps a contributor to why so many shops/etc on this well known street have shut, and the units are derelict?

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#179861

Postby BobbyD » November 12th, 2018, 11:15 pm

DiamondEcho wrote:I must have walked past 20 such beggars in London this afternoon in what is supposedly pretty desirable west London, and it doesn't make for a pleasant high-street experience.


If you were begging for money do you think you would choose to beg in a nice affluent area or a run down shithole?

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#179874

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 13th, 2018, 12:17 am

BobbyD wrote:If you were begging for money do you think you would choose to beg in a nice affluent area or a run down shithole?

Surely it depends on footfall more than anything?

I have found that beggars target me a lot more if I'm looking scruffy than if I dress in a suit. I suspect the fact that a suited man is likely to be richer than a tramp or student is more than offset by the fact that he's also much more likely to be tightfisted.

On a similar note, when I've hitchhiked I've got far more lifts from 'characters' in battered old bangers than in more expensive cars. Again, my observation suggests a strong correlation between rich and tightfisted.

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#180532

Postby AF62 » November 15th, 2018, 1:18 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:I have found that beggars target me a lot more if I'm looking scruffy than if I dress in a suit. I suspect the fact that a suited man is likely to be richer than a tramp or student is more than offset by the fact that he's also much more likely to be tightfisted.


Undoubtedly, but these days I suspect it is also down to the beggars knowing that a suited man is not likely to be carrying any change to give them as they pay everything by card, and they are certainly not going to hand over a fiver or more.

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#180560

Postby AleisterCrowley » November 15th, 2018, 2:39 pm

BobbyD wrote:
DiamondEcho wrote:I must have walked past 20 such beggars in London this afternoon in what is supposedly pretty desirable west London, and it doesn't make for a pleasant high-street experience.


If you were begging for money do you think you would choose to beg in a nice affluent area or a run down shithole?


When I lived in Slough (sh1%hole..) there wasn't much street begging, just a few 'botherers' round the station exit.
Windsor, just down the road, has a real problem though. It seems to have become a begging destination much like Brighton was way back.

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#180570

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 15th, 2018, 2:59 pm

AF62 wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:I have found that beggars target me a lot more if I'm looking scruffy than if I dress in a suit. I suspect the fact that a suited man is likely to be richer than a tramp or student is more than offset by the fact that he's also much more likely to be tightfisted.


Undoubtedly, but these days I suspect it is also down to the beggars knowing that a suited man is not likely to be carrying any change to give them as they pay everything by card, and they are certainly not going to hand over a fiver or more.

Hmmm.

You've prompted a moment's thought there, and my own experience must go right back to the 1980s. The decade when I graduated and then did some time in a job that required a suit.

Because not since then have I worn a suit often enough to make any such observations! Nowadays the only suit I wear is the Dinner Suit, for formal occasions - mostly concerts.

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#180571

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 15th, 2018, 3:02 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:When I lived in Slough (sh1%hole..) there wasn't much street begging, just a few 'botherers' round the station exit.
Windsor, just down the road, has a real problem though. It seems to have become a begging destination much like Brighton was way back.

Footfall?

Not least tourist and leisure footfall. Perhaps Slough's footfall is more of a David Brent character, as well as being more limited than Windsor?

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#180575

Postby AF62 » November 15th, 2018, 3:14 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:
AF62 wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:I have found that beggars target me a lot more if I'm looking scruffy than if I dress in a suit. I suspect the fact that a suited man is likely to be richer than a tramp or student is more than offset by the fact that he's also much more likely to be tightfisted.


Undoubtedly, but these days I suspect it is also down to the beggars knowing that a suited man is not likely to be carrying any change to give them as they pay everything by card, and they are certainly not going to hand over a fiver or more.


Hmmm.

You've prompted a moment's thought there, and my own experience must go right back to the 1980s. The decade when I graduated and then did some time in a job that required a suit.

Because not since then have I worn a suit often enough to make any such observations! Nowadays the only suit I wear is the Dinner Suit, for formal occasions - mostly concerts.


In the centre of London these days it is quite rare to see anyone pay for anything using anything other than a card, no matter how low the value. Nobody is carrying coins.

I carry an emergency £20, but that has not been used in the last year. Contactless and now NFC, has taken over from all 'cash' spending.

There have been mutterings about buskers and charity collectors using contactless payments - touch a card and donate £1, but I can't see those making there way as far as Big Issue sellers let alone beggars.

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#181251

Postby Rhyd6 » November 18th, 2018, 3:33 pm

Well today it sertainly came in ones. Our drive leads on to a very narrow lane with the occasional pull in passing space. OH wanted to get the hedge trimmed and some overhanging branches dealt with so I toddled down in Aggie to put up warning signs both ends, there are already road signs warning about no passing etc. OH had been working for about an hour so I though I'd pop down with a flask of coffee, I was halfway down the drive when I heard an almighty bang. I rushed to see what had happened and lo and behold some grade A idiot in a very large mobile home had been speeding down the lane and run into the tractor with hedging arm attached. The tractor had won. There was one irate yob yelling at OH and calling him for everything under the sun. He announced that he was calling the police and that we'd have to pay for extensive damage to his mobile home. I pointed out that there were warning signs at each end of the lane as well as signs pointing out that the road was not suitable for wide vehicles, his reaction was to say that there was nothing to say that there was a tractor in the road and that he'd only been travelling at 10mph!!!! "No problem" says OH "You call the police" as he casually reached up and removed the camera which he'd fixed to the tractor. "I always work on the assumption that there's idiots about who don't think warning signs apply to them so I always make sure I've got the camera to record any accidents" Film now downloaded into computer just in case idiot tries it on.

R6

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#181328

Postby didds » November 19th, 2018, 8:23 am

tractors are solid things obviously, but is there nothing you can claim off him for a further lesson? damage to the tractor or whatever ?

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#181334

Postby UncleEbenezer » November 19th, 2018, 9:19 am

If he'd been going fast enough to make a bang as described and do "extensive damage", isn't it a Good Thing that it was a tractor he hit? Alternatives on a country lane could've been pedestrians, cyclists, horses, farm animals, or wildlife, any of whose fates could've been nastier.

Mind you, parts of the tale make more sense if the driver had indeed stopped and the tractor continued moving to hit him 'cos the tractor driver was focussed on the vegetation. Some drivers of heavy machinery would do that. If it's a narrow space, I'll look to catch their eye before passing when out on foot or onna bike.

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#181352

Postby Rhyd6 » November 19th, 2018, 10:44 am

Locals are very careful when using this road because several years ago a young lady was killed when riding her horse. I blame the reliance on sat-navs, people are quite prepared to take the word of a computer before that of warning signs etc. The road was originally used by horse and cart, it lies between a railway embankment (now disused) and our fields. Why the council adopted it I'll never know. The tractor has had a few more scratches added but the motor home had a large cut/dent down one side when the chap came around the corner, and tried to get past by squeezing up against the embankment. He failed to realise that solid objects can't breathe in!

R6

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Re: Does gross stupidity come in threes?

#181359

Postby bungeejumper » November 19th, 2018, 11:20 am

Rhyd6 wrote:Locals are very careful when using this road because several years ago a young lady was killed when riding her horse. I blame the reliance on sat-navs, people are quite prepared to take the word of a computer before that of warning signs etc.

Ain't that the truth? Your satnav will tell you the exact shape of the twisting road ahead, so that you know just how fast you can take each corner before you go into it. What it can't tell you is that there's a tractor/gaggle of cyclists/nine foot wide timber truck coming at you from the opposite direction. :o

We get a lot of that on the lanes around these parts. Mainly business travellers who've been lulled into a false sense of security by their satnavs. Or perhaps I mean superiority? Either way, one of our local residents has upped the stakes. Come too fast round a corner near his house, and you're likely to find an enormous pig wandering around in the middle of the road. It's supposed to be penned up, but it keeps on getting loose. In the Yorkshire Dales I've seen similar with wandering bulls in the road.

BJ


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