I'm unsure if it's area or what. My wife is from Shropshire and doesn't get it. I will continue what mu mum and dad did though, its a safe haven if needed. I didnt realise at the time what they where doing, I doubt they thought about it in all honesty, but it was well known you could rock up to the back door of our house and get your head down if needed. Something to eat, the fridge is there. Covers in the cupboard under the stairs Are you ok? As much as I love Cumbria, that , do you know I don't know how to describe it, that being part of something, that being oh fick it I don't know. I'd need someone better than me to explain.
Q My ma as the same as you've described and my wife is the same She does it and tbh I let the kids get on with it. It's not like there's and amount of them these days so it's mostly the same few and that. It's just a quiet thing where the kids know they are alight and nothing said. Mind you the one time the wife went down the local park and brought their kids she got a "thank you" card. Like.... wtf. Just gone to the blooming park.
Kids can't go anywhere without an armed guard any more. If you even talk to one that isn't yours you're a perv.
When I was growing up in Cumbria it was more like how you remember. Though I was on the west coast and aren't you around Carlisle way?
Being old, born in the 1950's, in Liverpool every house was an open house for us kids. I am from Toxteth so no one ever had any money, benefits were not what they are now. My Dad was in hospital for 3 years so times were hard, but the community was great. No drugs etc destroying communities in those days. Times change, but as my kids were growing up if we went anywhere with their friends I paid for all of them because that is how I was brought up. When their friends came to our house I expected them to treat it as their house and behave accordingly. My kids friends thought me and my wife were really great, but we just thought that is what you do.
I'm on the West Coast now, there's a definite difference with carlise, penrith etc. It's funny, I've lived in quite a few areas of England, you wouldn't think the attitudes would be so different given they can be a few miles down the road. Liverpool and Newcastle are very similar, you can't stop people talking to you. The level of openness is massive, when ever I go back to Liverpool, it takes me by suprise. Cumbria is a funny one, friendly enough, but they can't just talk to a stranger, to be accepted your great granddad needs to have been mates with there great grandad. Shrewsbury and Bristol if you said hello to the lad next to you at the bar, they stared at you like you had two heads. Stoke was good, Preston as well. Derby, I've never seen such an ugly town, your considered a freak if you've got 5 fingers on each hand rather than 6. God forbid they find out that your toes arnt webbed.
When I first moved to North Wales, literally everybody said hello to each other as they passed them in the street (unless it was crowded obviously). Nowadays, the younger generations don't seem to do it, they've got their attention focussed entirely on their phones it seems. I still find it odd if I pass someone on a quiet street and they resolutely refuse to make any sort of acknowledgement.
I live over the water in Neston and it's a ****ing inbred place ,always heard the jokes about its but it's true.Had to stand my ground when I first moved here over 18 years ago,most weeks would be challenged to a fight on way home from pub ,never backed down but never had one either but still only just about tolerated these days by the small gene pool dwellers.Even had a gobshite women tell me I wasn't allowed to sit on a bar stool coz I wasn't from Neston ffs ,needless to say her and her partner were put in their place. Place is lovely but most of the people are insular twats.
Mrs (nm) and youngest are fine, have been for a while. Just me that's still suffering; was seven weeks ago on Friday, not being able to play football is killing me . Hopefully I'll be alright in the New Year
Ok, I have a new weird mystery. I just glanced over at my fish tank in my office at work. There's a teeny tiny baby ramshorn snail on the glass. So just some backstory. The aquarium is ten years old. The last time anything was added to the aquarium besides fish food, was new fish over three years ago... So snail didn't hitch a ride in bag with fish or plants because it's too young. I've tried to think how it got there and have come up with four possible scenarios but none seem likely. 1) A coworker accidentally/or deliberately put it there. Baby snails can be size of pin pricks, so if someone stuck their own net in my tank snail could have accidentally transferred. Now why someone would be bringing a net to the office to stick in my aquarium is beyond me... 2) There was a dried egg on some equipment I brought from home years ago. (I did use my glass scraper to clean glass several weeks ago). I know ramshorn eggs can survive months dried up and still come back to life. This would have had to survive for 4 years dried as an egg. As far as I know the eggs can't live that long out of water. 3) I've had snails all along and never noticed them. This is unlikely because snails breed like crazy and they get to be about an inch in diameter when full sized. I'd see dead shells on ground if there were snails in my aquarium. No way I've had snails for 10 years and not noticed. 4) The last scenario I can envision. Snail came in with the tap water. Chlorine would kill a snail, but if egg was pumped in from water source, eggs could theoretically have survived hatching until it made it to my aquarium and I added chlorine remover. .. the gross part about that would mean there is snail eggs in the water I drink at work... So four scenarios. None of them seem likely, but as far as I can tell, those are the only four possible sources for the snail.
Could have been in the tank the entire time but the babies kept getting eaten. This one as somehow survived long enough for you to notice. Reality is, there will be more than one in the tank too Buy an assassin snail; they don't breed like other snails and they'll kill all the other snails.
