The Minkey

Actually, as it was in response to my comment about child being in for a beating for keying a car, the word 'thumped' in this context needs to be replaced with 'beat with a big stick' - not quite the same as 'slap on the backside' or 'clip on the ear'.

Yes, the kid was bang out of order but using a big stick on a child is surely not an acceptable form of discipline. A smacking from either of that pair would have been more than enough to drive the point home, they weren't exactly puny - I dread to think of the damage potential if either of them had set about an adult with a length of wood, let alone an eight year old.

moral

cutter

Laundry

I had to move to get away from my last set of neighbours who just happened to be Ghanaian. One time their boy ran a key along someone's car and his sister danced up and down alongside him saying, 'ooh, you're going to get the big stick!'. Had I seen or heard him getting beaten with one, I would definitely have reported them. As it was, I frequently had to run a gauntlet of 30/40 people to go ask them to turn their music down but I was a lot younger then and in much better health. Unlike my current neighbours, I didn't hear much fun from their house apart from the whooping of adults over the music.

I didn't say anything because I have to live next door to them which isn't always easy regardless of the crude parenting style. It makes me feel cowardly but I'm not big or brave enough to go taking her on. On the other hand, she does clearly love her kids and I imagine she's parenting the way she was parented, possibly better for all I know. I don't for one minute think her childhood was an easy one.

My next door neighbour is very handy with her kids, I don't much enjoy living next to them for a few reasons, not least hearing her whack her boy round the head really hard one time and listening to him sobbing, 'my eye, Mum, my eye!'. I'm not against smacking per se as a tactic of last resort, but hitting a kid round the head is just wrong.

Booty

my

A condom at play keeps the doctor away.

wench

I gave the shed mouse the shock of its life when I got the mower out this morning. It's a beautiful day out there :-)

I'm overdue a meet up with the friend I had lunch with that day. Should you want to offer us a glass each of that merlot on the house, we'd be delighted for a chance to taste what it should have been like.

Rivoli

Thanks for responding Mark. I'd imagine your Merlot must usually be a lot better than that, it couldn't be so popular if it weren't. Unfortunately, the wine we were served wasn't right. Like I say, it tasted like it had come from a bottle which had been left lying open for too long. The manageress who was there the day we had lunch, came over and told us that it was a very popular wine, end of story. Not in those words exactly, but that was definitely the message. It left us with a bad impression, as I think it would anyone. I wouldn't have commented on this thread if it hadn't been a memorable visit, it was just a shame it was for the wrong reason.

Thief

James Nesbitt being James Nesbitt.. Definitely. Might watch again if there's nothing better on.

Wow - that's an enormous amount of fatballs, Jean. I feed the birds all through the year and get well rewarded when they turn up with all their youngsters. Apart from the flock of starling fledglings that were guided in by a couple of adults one year who stayed just long enough to show them where the food was before making a quick getaway. Mekon: I'm so jealous. Never seen a waxwing.

Keep an eye/ear out for any elderly frail neighbours you may know of as the kind of alarms they wear in case they have a fall don't work when the telephone lines are out.

cuckoo

Then again, some parents look really scary, as do their offspring - lol..!!

Affair

Quarrels

mendacity