Debating whether to pop into town to get a haircut, decided at the last minute that I'd go for it. Three hairdressers I tried were all busy so I came home thinking it was a wasted journey. Turned into the drive to find the TV arial blocking my path. That would have been one expensive mess!
My luck must be in, think I'll have a bet tomorrow.
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My dear boy, don't you book in advance?
The hairdressers I was using from before Covid started a booking system during lockdown and never went back. Then my favourite hairdresser moved and I went with her to a new, not particularly upmarket place where they use the same system, though they also take walk-ins.
I know how frequently I need a trim and book accordingly.
At least you avoided a mess on your drive.
Last edited by: James Loveless on Fri 3 Oct 25 at 17:23
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As related previously I entered lockdown well overdue a hair cut. Bought a trimmer from Amazon and haven't darkened a barber's door since.
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The nearest one to me is booking only, I avoid. Only go to places that do walk ins, usually a turkish barber now.
Is there any town in the uk that doesn't have several turkish barbers?
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>> As related previously I entered lockdown well overdue a hair cut. Bought a trimmer from
>> Amazon and haven't darkened a barber's door since.
Ditto
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>> As related previously I entered lockdown well overdue a hair cut. Bought a trimmer from
>> Amazon and haven't darkened a barber's door since.
>>
|Me too, I haven't been to a barber since Covid. But I've decided on a change of style while I still have a decent thatch on top.
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>> As related previously I entered lockdown well overdue a hair cut. Bought a trimmer from
>> Amazon and haven't darkened a barber's door since.
Similar, but SWMBO insisted I get it done professionally just before a wedding - £12, sheesh. It only used to be £8 before lockdown. I know hers costs around £40 every few weeks.
Had a rotator cuff repair done and now can't get my arm above my head, got another wedding coming up soon......................
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The wife, Kim Jong Ann, has done my barnet for well over 30 yrs with a beard trimmer. Free and you get to goose the hairdresser without police interest. Have the head shaved on the lowest setting and do my beard likewise. End up with a pile of white hair, enough for a nesting Albatross !
Ted
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>> Free and you get to goose the hairdresser without police interest.
Now we know where that uneven fringe comes from
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>> Had a rotator cuff repair done and now can't get my arm above my head,
I had that done to enable me to lift my arm up
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Oh, were you having trouble getting it up?
Oh, you meant your arm - I misunderstood for a min...:-)
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I regard haircuts as a distress purchase -, just about on a par with exhaust systems and light bulbs.
The beard trimmer does a pretty good job but swmbo seems to insist on pre-special event visits. averaging about twice a year.
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>> I regard haircuts as a distress purchase -, just about on a par with exhaust
>> systems and light bulbs.
>>
>> The beard trimmer does a pretty good job but swmbo seems to insist on pre-special
>> event visits. averaging about twice a year.
It's just vanity.
Blokes tend to go to whoever is capable of wielding a pair of scissors without inflicting too much damage, when negative comments about ones appearance become a torrent. Cost £8-12.
Ladies believe a nice hair do takes a decade off their age and makes them nicer people. Includes wash, conditioner, highlights, deneral fawning over etc. An opportunity to get other parts of the body serviced - eyelashes, nails etc. Cost £40-150.
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I pay a fiver at the Lady's abode. Has been the same price for 16 years.
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>> I pay a fiver at the Lady's abode. Has been the same price for 16
>> years.
Do you know how much she pays? Not just what she tells you!
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The whole business of hairdressers, nail bars etc reminds me of the monkeys at the zoo grooming each others hair. Then again I suppose that we are all just primates with pretensions.
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These are the jobs of the future. Coiffing each others' hair, making each others' coffee, drawing eyebrows and sticking false nails on each other. And "influencing" of course.
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I think nail bars have been and gone round our way, or are going... bubble tea on the up
I get your drift though :-)
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So it's a generational thing then
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I've posted elsewhere that, for a mid-size village, we have a relatively thriving High Street (where most of the commerce is).
We have (e & oe) all within easy walking distance:
Post Office/News
Library
Pharmacy
Co-Op supermarket
Two convenience stores
Greengrocer
Two butchers
Estate agent
Four decent cafés
Bakery
Bistro
Vape shop
Garage/Workshop
Three card/gift/confectionery/(model train!) shops
Florist
Soft Furnishings store
Five pubs
Seven Takeaways!
A craft centre
and
Five beauty salons/hairdressers etc.
Two barbers (one Turkish)
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>> I've posted elsewhere that, for a mid-size village, we have a relatively thriving High Street
>> (where most of the commerce is).
>>
>>
That seems a lot for a village, how many people live in your village?
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>> That seems a lot for a village, how many people live in your village?
Had same thought.
Population here is pushing 4,000.
We've a Londis branded shop which, as mentioned above, has leapt forward massively in under new owner in last 2-3 years. He's added a POst Office after the previous host gave it up. Other than that we've:
Two hairdressers (one trad and female focussed other more of a barbers)
A farm/deli shop
A pet store - doesn't sell pets but loads of stuff for their needs
A tanning salon
A volunteer run cafe
GP Surgery and co-located pharmacy.
There are also three pub locations but it's a long time since all were active. Currently just one open.
When we moved here 35 years ago it it filled up until it was rammed by 22:00. Now it's empty an hour before that.
Of the other two one's owned by a pubco but they're struggling to find yet another person to lose their life savings on it. Other, in a really nice canal side location, is understood to be for sale.
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Can't really list what we have in the village. It's a suburb or a township really but everyone calls it a village.
Endless bars and fooderies.
3 co-ops
2Tescos.
3 opticians.
5 chemists.
Etc,Ect.
The trouble now is, the city council have ripped the heart out of the place due to the imposition of cycle lanes. Not painted but by installing a kerb a couple of feet out into the road. Bus stops have the cyclist going round the back so buses are pushed out to block the road when stopped. No vehicles can stop because of the kerbs and yellow lines, even blue badgers like me and delivery vans for the businesses. I don't bother now, like so many, with the result that shops are closing in numbers with no customers or passers by. Our shopping precinct ( horrible Americanism, but they call it that ) has been closed with it's attendant office block and will be pulled down for flats for 200 folk. But they're getting 12 parking spaces ! Wow ! Oh, and 4 shops as well, but I hazard a guess there won't be a greengrocer. butcher, newsagents or anything useful there...just bars for the 200 newbies. All us longtermers are so angry ! Plus very few cyclists stop and shop, just passing through ! Not that there are many anyway !
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>> That seems a lot for a village, how many people live in your village?
>>
Just over 5,000 at last census.
(It is growing rapidly however, due to housing development, but the facilities all pre-date that growth).
I also missed the Doctors, a Chiropractice, and an upmarket Restaurant off the list.
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Mon 6 Oct 25 at 16:27
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Where TF is that? What's the population of the surrounding environs?
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I've posted the population above.
The nearest "town" is about 3 miles away. (though it is variously described as a town or a village, it has a Town Council). A bit bigger than us, and it got the (medium-sized) Tesco and the (small) Asda, but otherwise it is less thriving and diverse.
The nearest 'big' town is just over 7 miles away, and the nearest city over 20.
Though the nature of the village has changed somewhat since we moved here 40 years ago, it's always had a real spirit and sense of community, which helps everything along.
(Though sadly, since I originally posted, the general store come model railway shop has closed - the couple who ran it were older than me, and here when we arrived - it's a retirement job).
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"think nail bars have been and gone"
Yep, can't get a pound of three inch galvanised anywhere.
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>> These are the jobs of the future. Coiffing each others' hair, making each others' coffee,
>> drawing eyebrows and sticking false nails on each other. And "influencing" of course.
Whatever happened to having your toes nibbled by fish?
Local story about a plumber charging £80/hour, labour only. £640/day, nearly £2K for three days' work! It seems it's about the going rate
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>> Local story about a plumber charging £80/hour, labour only. £640/day, nearly £2K for three days'
>> work! It seems it's about the going rate
I think it's £100ish/hour (plus VAT) for vehicle techs at main dealers round here. And they want an hour up front for investigation.
But how much of that £80 is profit?
On one occasion when there was perturbation in my Civil Service role one or two colleagues explored employment in Solicitor's practices. They found that they'd need chargeable hours somethin like 3* salary due to overheads etc.
Obviously a plumber's overheads don't include real estate in Legal London or the same staff back up but a van, tools, stock of parts and CPD etc will eat a chunk of £80.
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Also it's unlikely that a plumber (or any trade really) would be able to find work 5 days a week, wall to wall (i.e. not having to travel between small jobs). And often they have to go out to do, then write and issue quotes for work they don't get. And have holidays, pension provision etc etc.
I do moan myself at their rates but when you think of the bigger picture it's not always all it seems.
Solicitors on the other hand are probably funding the partners million pound bonuses as well as their own (usually half decent) salaries.
It is so easy to pick on different professions with half truths or limited knowledge. GPs for instance work for somewhere between £80 and £130k pa depending on whether they're in partnerships or salaried. They have the opportunity to work part time (pro rata) to maintain their pension etc and do lucrative private stuff on the other days. But I imagine they must have various overheads eating into that figure.
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>>GPs for instance work for somewhere between £80 and £130k pa depending on whether they're in partnerships or salaried.
Ho Ho Ho.
Last time I looked, average earnings for an English GP partner was £140k.
With the GP contract the amount of money made by a Practice is largely dependent upon the patient list (tweaked for age/disease prevalvnce/deprivation) and has nothing to do with the number of GPs.
So the best income is made by having as few GPs as possible, providing as half-assed care as possible, to as many patients as possible. Preferably with partners running multiple Practices in the same crappy manner.
Some of the worst Practice groups in the UK for patient satisfaction will have partners on well over £250k.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Tue 7 Oct 25 at 01:14
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>> On one occasion when there was perturbation in my Civil Service role one or two
>> colleagues explored employment in Solicitor's practices. They found that they'd need chargeable hours somethin like
>> 3* salary due to overheads etc.
When I started work about 50+ years ago as a trainee accountant, charge out rates for all staff were based on 3xsalary per day.
Many years later I worked for a bit of the public sector which did some work for commercial clients. They had no idea what they should be charging - I was initially recruited to bring some commercial sense to their pricing policy.
Charges by skilled trades seem high - but I don't begrudge those who work hard a decent living.
Assume an aspiration of £50k pa before tax.
Plumber etc needs van, tools, insurance(s), pension, consumables, training courses etc - cost is, say, £25k making a total of £75k. Then add VAT and the business "income" required is ~£95k.
Total days available pa 365 - 104 weekends- 35 holiday incl xmas, bank hols etc, 5 sick - 10 admin/no work/training leaves 211 working days.
Daily rate needed is £95k/211 = £450. Hourly rate of £80 is probably reasonable.
Last edited by: Terry on Tue 7 Oct 25 at 01:11
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>>
>> Whatever happened to having your toes nibbled by fish?
>>
>> Local story about a plumber charging £80/hour, labour only. £640/day, nearly £2K for three days'
>> work! It seems it's about the going rate
>>
When I first read this, I thought someone had had the local plumber round to nibble their toes :-O
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>> When I first read this, I thought someone had had the local plumber round to
>> nibble their toes :-O
>>
Last I heard of that was years ago and it was a former member of the royal family. I don't think that it was a plumber who was providing the service.
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Being retired I'm far too busy to book ahead !
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I forgot to mention the most thriving business in our village. Always jam packed with cars and people during business hours although only one customer dealt with at a time !
That is our 2 crematoria, five retorts...no waiting, and not far to go. The adjoining cemetery is the biggest municipal owned in western europe so no shortage of flower shops here either !
Ted
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I forgot to mention the most thriving business in our village.
Brookwood. Woking?
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>> I forgot to mention the most thriving business in our village.
>> Brookwood. Woking?
There is nothing thriving in Woking, and the only centre of meaningful activity in Brookwood, is the cemetary.
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Brookwood's not municipal. I've had a look round there, mainly because of it;s Necropolis railway, unused since the last war. Some fascinating mausoleums, especially rich Indian families. I live a mile fom Southern Cemetery in Chorlton cum Hardy. Manchester. Largely well kept by the council. and we have rellies in there.
Ted
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Good glazing company in Brookwood, they made me a lovely glass top for my aquarium, I live 1.8 miles away in St johns.
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“Necropolis railway, unused since the last war.”
It had two stations, one for C of E burials and one for nonconformists and every one else.
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The Manchester tram system, as well as running at the end of our garden, runs along one boundary of the cemetery. I did suggest, at the time of building, that a spur could be put in for funeral trams.
It was not taken up, I don't suppose the sight of a family waiting at a tram stop with Great Aunt Labia Seepage in a box was deemed acceptable !
Ted
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>> “Necropolis railway, unused since the last war.”
>> It had two stations, one for C of E burials and one for nonconformists and
>> every one else.
The entrance to the Necropolis railway Waterloo terminus is still extant in Westminster Bridge Road, Westminster Bridge house. The line to it was still there till the mid 80's. Outside the entrance to brookwood station (cemetary side) there is a section of track on display. One of the Platforms and Station buildiing is still extant in the cemetary.
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I think it's the Anglican station that survives, there were refreshment rooms, toilets., etc. There is a rather nice chapel next to txhe station, nicely restored ny a group of, I think, Anglican monks. We chatted to them and they showed us round it. A generous donation was left for them !
The london end had a chapel ardente and coffin lifts from street level. Trains usually consisted of two offin vans nd two mourners coaches hauled by an M7 4.4.0 tank locomotive.
There's a rather good book on the railway by The Oakwood Press on my desk now.
Ted
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Well, That Was Lucky - James Loveless
